What are you two doing together? I wondered, submerging my flat, wooden sample spoon into a frosty pond of sky blue sweetness.
Marijuana and ice cream: two of my favorite wellness products. I often consume them in sequence – the order being very obvious – but I never predicted they’d join forces. It reminded me of when you’re a kid and you see both of your grandmas in the same place and it startles you because you didn’t know those two worlds could ever exist together.
I tried cannabis-infused ice cream for the first time at the Taste of Texas Hemp Cup. The product, Blue Buzzberry Buzz Cream by the Dallas-based Buzz Brands, comes in single-serving cups, each with 10mg of THC. It was delightfully refreshing and I’m assuming it got me high, though I can’t specifically single it out.
That’s because the vendors at the Hemp Cup, which took place Oct. 19 at the Far Out Lounge, were so generous with samples. It was like coming to Costco on a weekend and getting full off all the free bites – except the samples were things like rosin dabs, gummies, and prerolls.
As a first-time attendee of the TTHC, I was impressed with the shopping, which felt like a cannabis farmers market. Along with what you’d expect, local buds and artisanal glass pipes, you could buy cannabis Kool-Aid powder, shrooms, tattoos, and even a fancy version of brick weed, produced by a members-only dispensary in San Antonio called Reggie & Dro. In that field of pop-up tents, I saw something heartening: young people from all over Texas running independent businesses – branding, signage, and all – that represent a vibrant, semi-underground economy.
Marijuana and ice cream: two of my favorite wellness products.
“We’ve built a good community where we’re able to support each other,” says an Austin-based retailer known as “Moony,” who operates an infused beverage brand called ToTheMoonWeGo and also stages private cannabis events. Moony says there are enough retail opportunities through markets in Austin and San Antonio for entrepreneurs to grow their concepts. “We’re here to reeducate the public and end the fuckin’ stigma. Yeah I smoke, but what we do takes a lot of effort and organization.”
Saturday’s Hemp Cup, organized by Austin’s Grow House Media, also brought in speakers from the cannabis world to share their various areas of expertise. One of the most fascinating characters among them was Patrick King, aka “The Soil King,” one of America’s preeminent experts on living soils, which are blends of organic materials to grow plants in.
The bombastic King is so meticulous in his soil recipes that he recently returned a large order of manure after his testing revealed that the horses who’d pooped it had been treated with antibiotics. When someone in the crowd asked him what kind of blood meal he uses in his living soil blends, King explained why he avoids material produced in slaughterhouses: He believes that the terror a livestock animal endures in the moments leading up to its death taints the blood.
That resonated with me. I’ve often worried that modern people are consuming the hematological byproducts of fear and misery through our diets. When I ran into the Soil King later, I asked him what scientific study he’d gleaned that from. He smiled at me and shrugged: “Come on man. It just makes sense.”
Another speaker dishing far-out ideas was renowned glassblower Jerome Baker, who was jailed in the same 2003 federal paraphernalia rap that landed fellow bong retailer Tommy Chong in prison. Baker reminded listeners that, while hemp is now federally legal, paraphernalia still is not … then he invited everyone to come to the glassblowing area and watch him do an illegal act that he’s previously been arrested for.
“A pipe to me isn’t just an object,” he mused. “It’s a sacrament. It’s a tool to get spiritual. In America, we live in this traditionless society where we’re lost and this pipe has taken the place of ceremony to some people. When they have that ceremony, they become free in thought and inspired. So, for me as a glassblower, it’s an honor.”
As the sun set on the fourth annual Hemp Cup, organizers Liz Grow and Patrick Pope took the stage to deliver the night’s awards, which were determined by human judges (for qualitative categories) and testing partner SC Labs (for quantitative categories).
Errganix, a mom-and-pop organic hemp farm from Austin, took home the top honors for Best Flower and Best Presentation with their Errgantula strain. “It feels great to win,” said born-and-raised Austinite Eric Goodman (note: not the Eric Goodman who covers Austin FC for the Chronicle). “Like all the hard work has paid off because we put a lot of work into growing cannabis properly, and that’s not as easy as people think.”
Meanwhile, in the intriguing category of Rarest Terpene Profile (terpenes, by the way, are the oily compounds in the cannabis plant that influence a strain’s smell and effect), 4K Pharm, from Giddings, won with a Lemon Haze variety.
“The nose knows,” rejoiced 4K’s Taylor Kirk as he accepted an award shaped like a rolling tray. “You guys have to know your farmers, you have to know what quality is, and stay local. We got it here!”
Austin’s Original Head Shop Is Closing
After 56 years, Oat Willie’s will no longer head “Onward, through the fog!” The venerable head shop is closing its last-standing location at 1931 E. Oltorf on Saturday. Opened in 1968 in a storefront that housed another seminal counterculture shop called the Underground City Hall, Oat Willie’s was Austin’s first shop to cater to “heads,” selling incense, candles, pipes, papers, beaded curtains, black light posters, and underground comics. Their namesake logo – a long-nosed man in boxer shorts and a leatherhead helmet, holding a torch, and riding a bowl of oatmeal – had been the creation of Gilbert Shelton of Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers fame. Over the years, the countercultural hub expanded to multiple locations, but the historic 29th Street location closed in 2022 and the Burnet Road outpost followed last year. Through Saturday, heads can catch a 40% discount on pipes and bongs, 20% off THC products and papers, and 50% off books.
This article appears in November 1 • 2024.