Jim Belushi is on purpose, making people happy from the farm!

When Jim Belushi was in High School, he followed in his brother John Belushi’s footsteps, choosing acting, stating that the outcome was making people happy. Growing cannabis, he said, has the same outcome.”Moving into cannabis, I’m still on purpose,” he said during an interview with The Inside Reel. “Cannabis makes you feel good. It enhances the taste of food and the touch of your lover’s skin. It makes you feel good – it makes you feel enlightened, lighter – it’s gentle, it’s generous, it’s kind. Not just the high, but the medicine helps with Alzheimer’s, sleeplessness, seizures, hopelessness, and pain – and now they’re talking about the cannabinoids helping with COVID. Cannabis medicine is so good people take it for the side effects!”Belushi’s Farm is located in Southern Oregon, a longtime region for growing the plant, just above Northern California and the Emerald Triangle (Mendocino, Humboldt, Trinity counties), the longtime capital of cannabis in the U.S.The backstory of how he came to farm cannabis is a sentimental one.

He and his family had been visiting friends in the region for more than a decade when he purchased 13 acres in 2015 on what used to be an Elks Lodge picnic grounds. Before a neighboring close friend passed away, she asked Belushi to purchase her land and farm, adding 80 acres to his parcel.He writes on his website, “Becca and Charlie had a beautiful, sweet little compound with a stoically aged old barn that housed a 1948 John Deere tractor, old farming implements, and an old gas pump that now resides in a museum. They raised cattle while farming alfalfa and hay.”After Charlie passed, she cared for her uncles on the farm until they died, one by one. Belushi said it broke his heart when Becca became ill.”She wanted me to have the property, and with a smile in my heart, I purchased the land and renamed the old road Becca’s Way,” he shared. “I love the farm like I love Becca. In the winter, a neighbor down the road brings 40 to 45 pregnant cows to the property and delivers their sweet calves on this sacred land. The thrilling sight is only part of the spiritual events this property provides. I am incredibly grateful to Becca for passing this beautiful, charming, and spiritual land on my family and me.”

Called to the Land

The cannabis industry is filled with people called to the plant for one reason or another: healing, happiness, spirituality, or a general sense of well-being. Belushi already had his place firmly established in acting, producing, and directing in the entertainment industry, and he did not need to become a farmer. He became a cannabis farmer for the love of the farming life, not the promise of funds made.”If anyone tells me again that I can make money farming cannabis, I’m going to punch them in the face,” he laughed, puffing on his signature cigar as we walked the farm. “But I love this life. Just look at this place – who wouldn’t be happy here?”In 2021 Belushi said he broke even, which was a happy milestone. For his 2022 season, they upped the number of cultivars grown substantially, from less than a dozen to 42 different varieties, many of them Southern Oregon mainstays, with some old favorites. Cherry Pie was one of the original mainstays on the farm and has long been a favorite of Belushi’s, but it proved to be unstable as a flower for the market.

Turning it into live rosin, they added it to a preroll with a Black Diamond flower.They affectionately named the preroll Rocket 88, after the song penned by Jackie Brenston, recorded by Ike Turner in 1957, now sung by Dan Aykroyd with the Blues Brothers. Jim now shares the stage next to his longtime friend, Aykroyd, where his brother John used to be.The rosin gives the preroll a combined 36.99 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) count. But, more importantly, with the Cherry Pie rosin added, the flavor is stellar.Belushi’s signature cultivar, Captain Jack, bred from Gulzar Afghanica by longtime Mendocino County farmer Jack Murtha, aka Captain Jack, also proved unstable after 40 years of nurturing its mother plant.It’s also known as The smell of SNL, referring to the same cultivar enjoyed backstage by a brother, John Belushi, and cast from the 1970s comedy show Saturday Night Live.”Our first crop flew off the shelves,” Belushi said. “But now we are working backward in stabilizing the landrace.”Just as in food farming, it fails to happen. But, unlike our food farmers in America, there are no subsidies from the Federal Government for cannabis farmers when a crop doesn’t produce as expected, as in mainstream farming. Farming the world’s most beloved illicit plant adds to the liability and cost.In addition, it’s no secret that cannabis is the world’s  most regulated and taxed industry, making growing cannabis an act of bravery in this new emerging  regulated market.

Keeping it Local

If the beautifully restored outbuildings on Belushi’s Farm could talk, oh, the stories they’d tell. It means the world to a small farming community when someone can step in and help save historic buildings, such as Belushi did.The locals who work the farm are not lost to this point. The barn alone is a masterful tribute to past times, but the outbuildings that still hold rusty treasures from decades of farming are priceless. One shed, in particular, is still full of farming antiquities, untouched and preserved forever – or as long as Belushi has a say in it. Some of the fruit trees on the farm were planted decades ago and still produce. This writer enjoyed a hand-picked apple from the tree on the drive back down the tree-lined, sun-dappled, equally historic road to the highway, lovingly named Becca’s Way.

This historical backdrop has set the stage for Belushi’s reality show, Growing Belushi, wherein he shares the struggles of running a farm with family and friends  pitching in.

Magic in the Terroir

The North Coast of the United States is known for its flavorful cannabis is found in the rich, loamy soil, conditioned for centuries beneath the centuries-old mulch of its trees, the water flowing from its many rivers, and the sun overhead. Belushi recognises this uniqueness, focusing on the flavorful terpenes, where the fragrance and medicine are found. The plant has a strong aroma of various terpenes because we have a nose. Humans have a symbiotic relationship with fragrant, beneficial plants because we need them. Over the decade, cannabis farmers have upped the levels of THC as if that were the sole commodity demanded. But, many, like Belushi, have come to realize it’s not the highest high that does the most good when partaking, but the fullest terpene and cannabinoid profile that gets the most marks at the competition.The long-running Emerald Cup in Northern California has been known for its judge’s choosing, not the highest THC counts, but the most flavorful and fullest terpene profile. Like the average consumer, the judges choose the best with their noses, not their heads high.To Belushi’s Farm’s website, “Choosing cannabis is a lot like selecting wine – you buy a bottle of great wine, and it’s 14 percent alcohol – but it is the terpenes that provide the taste and smell, creating a beautiful bouquet for the senses and a pleasant high.”

Growing Belushi

The title of the farm’s reality show, Growing Belushi (Discovery), is two-fold. Growing cannabis is a given, but Belushi’s growth, family, and team add another layer of intrigue.After just wrapping filming up its third episode (release date pending as of this writing), Belushi said the show had been a great experience, a lot of fun, and a lot of hard work – much like farming itself.Other cannabis reality shows have mainly focused on the criminality of the plant, the covert operations up in the hill, or finding the most sensational moments within a show meant to educate. For as long as cannabis is listed on the U.S. Department of Health Services’ Schedule 1, denoting no medicinal value, educating moments on the medicinal plant is rare, with this fact not being lost on Belushi.”Ever since I started farming cannabis, people have shared stories of healing with me,” he explained. “I wish there was some way we could tell these stories without sounding preachy or boring – or sounding too good to be true, which is what most people respond with when I tell them what I’ve heard.”When celebrities step up and share what they know about the farming of, and medicating with, cannabis, things change.

Belushi putting eyes on his farm, telling the serious and often hilarious sides of farming the plant, makes a difference to many, further normalizing the conversation.Many celebrities have put their name on packaging cannabis products, which all matters and propels the subject forward. Education takes the negative stigma of this beneficial plant away. Belushi is living, and loving life on the farm makes all the difference in the world. Walking the talk, working the fields, giving back to the land and the community served – that’s what farming is all about – nurturing, feeding, healing – with a bit of humor thrown in for good measure.

Written and Published By Sharon Letts in Weed World Magazine Issue 161

Images By: Tyler Maddox