The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously April 2 to approve a temporary moratorium on the cultivation of industrial hemp. “The cannabis industry feels very strongly about it,” Humboldt County Agricultural Commission Jeff Dolf told the Journal back in late February, as the county and state were mulling their options. “They are very, very […]
Agriculture
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Fairs Cancel Poultry Shows Amid Newcastle Disease Fears
Up until last month, the northern reaches of California seemed to have evaded the clutches of a devastating Virulent Newcastle disease outbreak in poultry that has resulted in state-imposed quarantine zones and the euthanization of more than 1 million birds in just under a year. Then came confirmation March 15 that a “backyard chicken” taken […]
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Humboldt Supervisors Consider New Cannabis Ordinance
So much has transpired since Humboldt County passed its groundbreaking Commercial Medical Marijuana Land Use Ordinance — passage of state medical cannabis regulations, statewide recreational legalization and the creation of a new regulatory framework for both industries — that it can be easy to forget it happened just two years ago. “It’s like from 1932 […]
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Grazing
A sketch from the comedy show Portlandia mocks a food-aware couple at a farm-to-table restaurant who demand specifics about their chicken. Unsatisfied with the animal’s name and history, the couple asks the waiter to hold the order until they’ve visited the local farm that raised the animal. Far-fetched joke? In Humboldt County, the source of […]
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Garden Tours with Homeland Security
The head of the University of California, who served for four years as President Obama’s secretary of Homeland Security, spent some time this week exploring Humboldt County. Her itinerary included visits with the United Indian Health Services, a float to the oyster beds on Humboldt Bay and a tour of Arcata Community Forest. The visit […]
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Moooovers and Shakers
There once was a little girl who dreamed of being a princess. A dairy princess. One day this little girl was in her work clothes, cooking giant meals with her mother for the dairymen, throwing feed to the chickens, grooming her 4-H beast, or bucking hay, feeding calves and laying down clean straw in the […]
Posted inEat + Drink
A Real Slice of Humboldt
It takes a very specific kind of curiosity to be out on Humboldt Bay at 8 in the morning just to see oyster beds, and on June 11 that curiosity was on full display when nearly 40 people boarded the Madaket for the first of a series of tours being put on by the University […]
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“Congress, Tear Down These Dams,” Says SF Chron
On Monday, the Associated Press published a story outlining the results of a U.S. Geological Survey study, which examined the likely effects of removing four dams on the Klamath River. The upshot? It’s a good idea. As AP reporter Jeff Barnard explains, federal scientists believe the $1 billion dam-removal project would restore the ecosystem, improve […]
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The New Woven Roots Video For “Chicken Coop” Features a Girl in a Chicken Coop
Check it out, mon! The new video from Arcata reggae bros Woven Roots is all about representin’ da Humboldt values: sustainable agriculture, a locavore diet and respect for women. Respek! How do we know they respek da ladies? Because the video says so in a warning right up front. It says “No Women … were […]
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Cannery Dreams in Weitchpec
A Yurok family plans to build a cannery in Weitchpec, near the confluence of the Klamath and Trinity rivers, and has been accepting pledges at Kickstarter to get the venture going. Tom and Morneen Willson, who own Spey-gee Point Resort and Guide Services, co-founded The Source Food Company late last year with Billee Willson, who […]
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Tokens, Produce and Glorious Facial Hair
North Coast Journal contributor Josephine Johnson attended the Arcata Farmers’ Market Saturday and shot the following video, in which a representative of the North Coast Growers Association explains Blue Tokens and The Bucky Walters pluck, strum and pick to the crowd’s delight. Arcata Farmers Market from Josephine Johnson on Vimeo.
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McK’ville Gets Their Goats
Oh, yes, the town “where horses have the right of way” has a fond and willing eye for the goats, as well. That is, there do not yet appear to be any of those n-o-o-o-o-o-ot-t-t-t-t—h-e-r-e!!! bleatings issuing from the grassy flats of McKinleyville’s Dow’s Prairie, where local-cheese-company-gone-global Cypress Grove Chevre has announced it will put […]