One of the most important things you can do as a business owner is to know yourself. Once you know exactly who you are and what you bring to the table, you can identify your customers and build your brand.
After more than two decades of cultivating, Mendoja Farms Owner Justin Wilson knows exactly who he is and what he’s setting out to do. He’s a heat-seeking hash smoker with a platinum palate, and he’s hunting for washers.
Wilson cultivates mixed light, light dep, and full-term Cannabis at his properties outside of Covelo, and his aim is true. He wants at least 80% of his crop to go toward producing top-tier, terp-laden hash.
“I get such positive reviews back from hash, it’s hard for me to go anywhere else right now,” he said.
Hash made from his flower fills some of the highest-end jars by some of the most sought-after makers on the market. It’s been a journey to get here.
At Home on the Flatland
Wilson has been honing his craft since the days when he had to hide his plants in the hills. Now that he can do it out in the open, it almost feels too easy.
“When I first moved my grow down here, I was like, ‘Oh my god, growing weed on flat land? No hills? That’s cheating,” Wilson said.
Now that he has licensed grows down on the flatland, he’s been building a farm that feels like a home, right down to the visual flourishes that feed his artistic side. He has multiple murals by world-renowned psychedelic artist (and Leaf Magazines collaborator) Chris Dyer.
Finally at home, he takes the time he used to spend hiding from the law and focuses on finding the best possible strains to turn into delicious dabs.
Hunting the winners
It’s not easy finding the right phenos. What looks good on the plant, or in the jar, might not show out in the wash.
Ask any California hashheads who know, and they’ll say Wilson has the magic sauce.
“Thirty years of smoking weed is part of it,” he says, referring to his ability to pick winners. The 42-year-old started his career at 14, helping out as a trimmer on a friend’s parents’ property on the Mendocino/Humboldt border.
“I’ll never grow anything unless it passes my initial pheno hunt test,” Wilson said.
Right now, Wilson and his tight-knit crew have 300 strains in their nursery and 50 different strains flowering. They grow everything using 100% organic inputs, and every plant is still watered by hand, the old-school way. They also harvest at night to preserve the terps.
“The plants like it more, the triches don’t get all greasy,” Wilson said. “The heads explode in the heat; they stay intact in the cooler air.”
Bringing the Heat to Market
Wilson’s current favorites from his lineup are OGZ, Tractor Fuel, Lemoncane x Tractor Fuel, Z, Sour Cindy from Maui, and a heater called Pleazure from fellow Mendocino cultivators Woodwide Highcraft. (Author’s note: Woodwide’s Pleazure was California Leaf Magazine’s Strain of the Month in March 2023.)
We noted some juicy, mouthwatering terps emanating from Mendoja’s Pink Drink, the Sugar Loaf and the Yellow Zushi on a recent visit to the farm.
Keep an eye out, and you’ll see the fruit of his top-shelf collaborative partnerships with respected California hash makers. He currently has collabs out with Trilogy and Have Hash headed for dispensary shelves, as well as some other drops planned for 2025.
If you have a really keen eye, you might even see some of his finished flower on the shelf. Snag it if you can get it.
