Every day for about 10 to 15 minutes, life at Ridgeline Farms distills into picaresque perfection. As the sun dips over the not-so-distant coastal hills beyond Garberville, life slows, and long draws from one of Jason Gellman’s hand-rolled joints reach cavernous depths in your chest, wrapping you in a blanket of calm.
Gellman doesn’t miss many sunsets on his farm. He’s sculpted the landscape to complement the evening ritual, with sun-warmed stone benches looking out over his tiered, full-term garden, extending the gaze to the farm’s namesake ridgeline on the horizon. It’s the farm’s logo, come to life.
“I often describe my farm as a piece of artwork,” Gellman said. “Growing up around a family of craftsmen, there are a lot of artists in my family. And I didn’t have any of that art. I’m a horrible artist and a terrible carpenter, and I didn’t know what my craft was. But building my farm, and creating my strains — this is my art. This is my craft.”
The multi-generational farmer has hustled his entire life, learning his trade and perfecting the craft he plans to hand down to the next generation.
His story is the story of the SoHum community.
A son of Humboldt
Gellman’s father belonged to the generation that started in non-Cannabis careers and later made the shift to weed. He was a carpenter and leather worker who grew weed on the side. Gellman learned all of those skills, but weed was the one that stuck.
“My generation, we were the ones that were always surrounded by it. I like to say we’re Generation Weed,” Gellman said. “As early as six years old, I clearly remember picking leaves on plants and having plants drying in my bedroom as a kid, because we lived in such a little house. From day one, I’ve been surrounded by the plant.”
From those early days, Gellman knew who he was. At 15 years old, he moved out of their small, remote house deep in the woods and started living with other members of the SoHum Cannabis community, moving from grow to grow, and family to family.
“They all would just take you in, and they were like, ‘I’ll teach you a little more about the plant and farming,’” Gellman said. “Growing up in Southern Humboldt, where every friend’s family was growing Cannabis, it was instilled in me to be a farmer. What you watch your elders do is what you do.”
During those years, he learned to love the community, as they showed him love and support, teaching him their ways as if he were a son of Humboldt.
“This community has given me so much love and support that I am forever indebted to them,” Gellman said. “I love where I come from, I love where I’ve lived, I love where I’ve raised my kids and my family. … I want the world to know that this is where some of the best farmers in the world came from. This is where some of the best genetics came from.”
All the right moves
Other farmers talk about Gellman and Ridgeline the way you might talk about an award-winning pheno that someone else grew. There’s respect and reverence for someone who has made the right decisions, kept the right cuts and had fate break in his favor more than once. The greatest boon of all is undoubtedly his long-standing relationship with Cookies.
“Being a smaller farm that doesn’t have as much reach, you have to pick and choose who you work with,” Gellman said. “I’ve gotten to know some of the Cookies leadership and Berner really well. We have a partnership where they’re getting my genetics out to the world, and I wouldn’t have that reach without them. … Talk to any young Cannabis smoker; if they know Cannabis, they will know one name: Cookies.”
If you’ve been to a Cookies store in California, there’s a good chance you’ve come across Gellar’s stellar genetics, including prior California Leaf Magazine Strains of the Month, Ridgeline Runtz and Lantz.
Two of the most impressive new releases to come out of the 2024 Fall harvest will be going toward the Cookies menu: Blueberry Caviar and Blackberry Caviar. Both are phenos of Gellman’s own Lantz genetics crossed with Grape Gas, and both are absolutely gorgeous, with rich colors and even richer terpene profiles.
“I’ve been surrounding myself with the right people, making the right decisions, and staying true to who I am,” Gellman said, taking a moment to reflect on his own successes and what they mean when cast against the current Cannabis landscape. “This market is crushing people. It’s crushing families, it’s crushing communities, it’s crushing whole towns and it’s crushing investors. It’s not discriminating. There are only a few people who are actually going to survive this. A lot of people feel they should get the spotlight. They ask, ‘Why not me?’ And I totally agree.”
Ridgeline’s horizon
The way Gellman sees it, genetics are the key to Ridgeline’s future and the future of his multigenerational Cannabis family. He’s been creating new crosses in a pollination project together with his father, as well as his son — three generations of Gellmans.
“It’s almost like a ceremony,” he said. “It’s something sacred to create these strains, and from that, see what these strains become.”
Walking through the rows of hoop houses and traversing his tiered full-term garden, Gellman’s energy is palpable and contagious. He wants you to smell this one, give that one a squeeze, and check out the color on this one over here.
He estimates that he’ll release seven commercial cultivars this season, including the Blueberry Blackberry Caviars. One of the upcoming winners is a cross between Gush Mintz and Lantz that creates dense, formidable flowers. “That one’s the Throbber,” he says with a smile.
After we make the requisite jokes about the Throbber’s name, Gellman goes through the rest of the list of phenos he’s most excited about: RidgeLion (Cheetah Piss x Lantz), Runtz x Lantz, Ridgeline Rebel (Rebel OG Chem x Lantz), and a collaboration with another of SoHum’s favorite sons, John Casali from Huckleberry Hill, called Ridgeline Rose (Whitethorn Rose x Lantz).
Like so many farmers, these flowers represent his entire life’s work. Cannabis is the ocean, and he’s a ship captain with the sea in his blood and salt in his bones.
“I’ve gone slow and steady and stayed in business,” Gellman said. “I honed my craft. I don’t know anything else to do. This is what I do. I grow weed, and I take pride in it. I’m honored to represent my community the best I can.”
