Sparking up a partnership between Iration — one of Santa Barbara’s most popular homegrown bands, they were originally formed in Isla Vista almost 20 years ago and have since racked up more than a billion streams — and Autumn Brands — a Carpinteria-based, family-owned cannabis brand that specializes in pesticide-free farming — seems like a natural collaboration. The vibe at last week’s official launch party was certainly celebratory.
We started out with a farm tour from Autumn Brands’ Chief Operating Officer and partner Johnny Brand, the head grower. A sixth-generation farmer, Brand grew up on the family farm in Carpinteria (which previously specialized in tulips and other cut flowers) and has helped lead the charge to make the farm 100 percent pesticide-free, an effort which began in 2018, a few years after the conversion of the greenhouses to growing cannabis. The “Autumn” in Autumn Brands, co-owner Autumn Shelton, is also a Carpinteria native and is the Chief Financial Officer and partner along with Johnny’s other family members Hans (his father and Chief Executive Officer) and Hanna (his sister and Chief Sales Officer).
The tour itself (my first farm visit for this crop) was fascinating, especially in contrast to the many winery tours I’ve done over the years. A lot of those, if not most, are focused on the stories behind the soil, whereas this particular tour was much more focused on the science of how to grow a pure and consistent product. The basic idea is to establish a natural balance and allow aphids to survive (but not enough to kill the crop), which bring in native California ladybugs, who then lay eggs and eat the aphids, thus creating a beautifully sustainable system of cultivation without sprays or other pesticides.
On tour day, they shared both the Autumn Brands Nursery and Greenhouse with a small group that seemed to be a mix of friends, people in the cannabis industry, and few select media.
After the tour, we walked over to Hans and Esther Brand’s welcoming backyard for the launch party. It started with a happy hour that included beer, wine, light bites, and professional budtenders rolling joints with the three new flower strains now available in dispensaries across California, as well as a plethora of other weed samples to imbibe in.
As Iration lead singer Micah Pueschel soon explained, each of the band’s hand-chosen Autumn Brands strains has a special significance to them and all are named after songs from their classic hits and new album Daytrippin. These include: “Lemon Time Bomb,” a hybrid strain called Frozen Lemons bred by Capulator; “Summer Nights,” an indica strain called GovernMint Oasis, bred by Purple City Genetics; and “Daytrippin,” a sativa strain called Moroccan Peaches, also bred by Purple City Genetics.
Not coincidentally, this event was also a preview before the band embarks on their Daytrippin in Paradise Tour across the U.S. beginning in July, and including a September 8 stop at the Santa Barbara Bowl. They gave us a fun preview of that show, playing each of the songs that inspired the partnership, as well as a few others, including the hugely popular “Time Bomb,” which has been on the perpetual playlist at KjEE for the last decade.
In addition to the three collaboration products with Iration, Autumn Brands also has a new line of wellness products called Now Melt that includes bath crystals, body butter, “passion primer intimate serum,” and gummies all made from 100 percent spray-free cannabis oil and clean ingredients. For more information, see autumnbrands.com.
