Grow Your Own Book Launch Party at Holocene Wednesday, September 27

In 2015 and 2016 I got to write two books and edit one. It was a wild (and very busy) ride that allowed me to have one book launch party in July -- True Portland: The Unofficial Guide for Creative People, another launch party in August -- Hello! My Name is Tasty and a third launch party in September -- next week's Grow Your Own: Understanding, Cultivating, and Enjoying Cannabis!

We have put together one of the most ambitious and awesome book launch parties for Grow Your Own and I really, really hope that you can come. The party is next Wednesday, September 27th at Holocene from 6-10pm and it is free, open-to-the-public and 21+. There will be no cannabis on site as per OLCC rules but there will be all kinds of cannabis experts, growers, appreciators ++ on hand for an evening of green appreciation and education and last but not least CELEBRATION!

My fine fellow DJ Jimbo will be spinning music all-night long, I'll be emceeing on the upper stage throughout the night, the super smart and on-the-scene Ravens from Raven Grass -- coauthors of Grow Your Own -- will be tabling, talking and whooping it up in general and the fine folks of Tin House Books who brought this book to life will be the hosts with the most.

Did I mention that Bill Murray will be in the photobooth? Yep. You'll see what I mean. Did I mention that there will be a giant blow-up of the book's cover and rad Tin House interns snapping instant photos of party attendees with it? Yep. There will also be a special Grow Your Own cocktail of the night that I helped conjure up, all sorts of treats to try, herbs to sniff (as a part of the cannabis terpenes informational display), cannabis crafts to make (thanks to Make & Mary), and much, much more.

Below I'm including descriptions of all of the talks that will be taking place throughout the night on the upper stage by rad, super smart women in cannabis from throughout the Pacific Northwest. Curious about sex and cannabis, particularly how it affects women? We've got you covered. Have a question regarding growing or consuming cannabis that you've been wanting to ask? Stop by the 9:30pm Q&A with Nichole Graf and Lena Davidson.

I'm also including a linked list of all of the awesome businesses and organizations tabling at the event's Cannabis Community Fair in the main dance area of Holocene.

Please mark your calendars and help us to spread the word! This is the fist event of its kind in Portland -- a noncommercial, free, learn from the experts, cannabis education and appreciation event. Portland is lucky to get it and I'm lucky to be a part. I'm particularly excited about all of the women in cannabis talks and the terpene station. Thank you Holocene, thank you Tin House, thank you Ravens and thank YOU for reading this and coming out for our Grow Your Own launch party spectacular next Wednesday night!

XOXO

CANNABIS COMMUNITY FAIR TABLERS

Botanica Hilary Brown will be on hand to demo the Magic Shell recipe from Grow Your Own and talk through her recommendations for flavor pairings with cannabis, based on her experience as a world renown chocolatier. Plus, get ready to sample all of Botanica’s delicious (non-cannabis infused) treats!

Broccoli Magazine Get a sneak peek of this new to-launch women-in-cannabis quarterly from Anja Charbonneau the creator of Kinfolk. Van der Pop Check out samples of all of Van der Pop's beautiful offerings with April Pride.

Phylos Bioscience Get hands-on experience with the Phylos Galaxy model and learn how to track the strains you purchase from your favorite growers.

Hands-on Terpene Station from Pearl Extracts ++ A hands-on terpene station sponsored by Pearl Extracts and led by Grow Your Own author Micah Sherman — Learn about these aromatic cannabis compounds by interacting with them in person. Gain confidence in selecting strains based on terpene profiles, which can help you predict how different strains will interact with your body much more accurately than the old standbys of indica vs. sativa and THC potency.

Hana Medicinals Learn from Amy Risch all about the health and healing side of cannabis particularly its use in combating chronic pain in topicals.

WOMEN IN CANNABIS SPEAKERS

7:00PM — ANDI BIXEL, Creator of Drip Ice CreamCannabis as Medicine for Our Culture Let’s talk about the ways that normalizing cannabis can make big waves for our culture. Andi will explore the importance of properly introducing the plant to newbies and how we can play with and understand our experience of cannabis.

7:30PM — CAROLYN WHITE, Marketing Manager of Phylos BioscienceStaying True: Building a Values-Based Brand in the Cannabis Industry Carolyn will talk about the Phylos Bioscience model, science, and dreams for the industry. Get ready for a deep dive into the Phylos Galaxy and learn about the organization’s ambitious goal of mapping the cannabis genome.

8:00PM — MARY J POPPINS, Founder & CEO of Sativa Science ClubThe Importance of Education and Advocacy in the Cannabis Industry Mary will discuss the need for foundational science education for all those involved in the cannabis industry—professionals and consumers alike. She’ll also dive into why she founded Sativa Science Club and how to empower cannabis users through education.

8:30PM — EMMA CHASEN, Director of Education at Farma & Cannabis Educator at Sativa Science ClubCounter Culture: Re-framing Your Relationship with Cannabis in a Dispensary Environment The wonderful world of legal cannabis can be overwhelming to the novice consumer. That's why we have budtenders to guide our dispensary experiences. But what happens when the budtenders are ill informed? How can we as consumers ask the right questions? Emma Chasen, recently named Portland’s Best Budtender of 2016, will share helpful tips to make sure you get the most out of your dispensary experience.

9:00 PM — APRIL PRIDE, Founder of Van der PopHot Box: Women's Sexual Health in the Age of Legal Cannabis April, founder of cannabis lifestyle brand Van der Pop, will share all she's learned on how cannabis inspires sexual freedom in relationships and sexual satisfaction while alone. With only one approved medication dedicated to women’s sexual health (as compared to 26 for men), cannabis promises to close the gap.

9:30PM — NICHOLE GRAF, co-author of Grow Your Own and Creative Director of Raven Grass & LENA DAVIDSON, Director of Community Outreach at Botanica SeattleAsk Us Anything (About Cannabis) Join Nichole and Lena for a frank conversation about cannabis as a movement, our power as professionals and consumers, and the importance of Growing Your Own now more than ever. They’ll also be answering the questions you’ve dropped in the “Ask Us Anything” box over the course of the night.

See you next Wednesday at Holocene! #growyourownbook

True Portland 2017 Book Launch Party

Wow. What a party. Thank you so much to everyone who came out for our Hawthorne Books + Media Surf/Bridge Lab + Reverent Nat's Hard CiderTrue Portland: The Unofficial Guide for Creative People book launch party last Thursday night. 500+ people came out and raised their glasses (filled with Nat's delicious Magnificent 7 made with seven Japanese apple varieties from Kiyokawa Family Orchards, Culmination Brewing's dry-hopped yuzu sour +++) with us including Teruo Kurosaki and his Japan posse, all of whom crossed the great Pacific from Tokyo to Portland for the party.

Sure, we got some great coverage for the party including this and this but mostly I think we can attribute the awesome attendance to the combined sparkling, lovely, wild and creative greatness of everyone who participated including our super talented food/drink/wares vendors (all in the photos and linked up below), Reverend Nat's Hard Cider's Mr. Nat West and event coordinator Carolyn Winkler +++, the 400+ wise ones and businesses featured in the book and, of course, Hawthorne Books' Rhonda Hughes and moi. I have been lucky to be an editor and publicity director at Hawthorne Books since 2009.

My boyfriend DJ Jimbo played so many sweet summery tunes for us including one of my favorites (and Lola's of Umi Organic) Strawberry Letter 23 written by Shuggie Otis and largely popularized by this The Brothers Johnson rendition of it. Hawthorne Books interns Stephen Hyde and Melina Hughes were hosts with the most at the Hawthorne Books table. (I stacked the books like a mountain pre-party and by the end the mountain was just about gone!) And the Travel Portland folks (hugely supportive of all editions of True Portland) came out and brought a lot of fun including their sasquatch-like Dude-head Japan mascot. You'll see.

I managed to snap a bunch of photos throughout the night and many of them are below. You can also check the hashtag #trueportland on social media to see more. Oh, and, if you want to get a copy of the book head to your favorite independent bookseller and purchase it. Some businesses that we love who are carrying it include Powell's Books, Broadway Books, Monograph Bookwerks and Tender Loving Empire. It's easy to find now that it has launched. Thank you again to all of you and to Portland for celebrating True Portland with us. One of my favorite parties yet in all of my 40 years. So fun.

Mount Fuji-sized stack of True Portland!

Katsu Tanaka and Oleya of Kiriko Made. Their fabrics are incredibly beautiful. Can’t wait to get some.

Here are links to all of the lovely vendors who took place in our party's Japan marketplace: Biwa/Noraneko/Parasol, Marukin Ramen, Yume Confections, Jorinji Miso, Kiriko Made, Wanpaku Natto, Seisuke Knife, Obon PDX and Umi Organic.

Partyyyyyy! Really fun to have it in the heart of the cidery amongst all of the fermentation tanks.

Seisuke Knife. Check out their shop. So many beautifully crafted Japanese knives. They regularly host Japanese bladesmith’s at their Northeast Portland shop.

Chef Mayumi Hijikata of Marukin Ramen serving up their DELICIOUS cold ramen. So lovely on such a hot summer day/night.

Rev. Nat’s event coordinator superstar Carolyn Winkler with Randy Kiyokawa of Kiyokawa Family Orchards in Parkdale. Seven Japanese varieties of his apples comprise Nat’s super tasty Magnificent 7 hard cider along with sake yeast that was poured at the event and is available in Japan.

The lovely Gena Renaud of Yume Confections. Her wagashi are so beautiful you almost don’t want to eat them. You can get them at the Portland Japanese Garden’s Umami Cafe and watch her make them on the Portland Bizarre Foods episode +++

Not a great photo of Gena’s gorgeous entirely edible “koi aquariums” http://www.yumeconfections.com/

Party lovelies! Left to right: Sarah Hart, Dory Athey, Rhonda Hughes, Alisha Gorder.

We were all so lucky to get to sip on the rare (most of it has shipped to Japan) Rev. Nat Magnificent 7 cider. Link to it is above. Sooooo yummy and special.

The hugely talented and dedicated folks at Stumptown Printers (featured in the book) made us these (out of the goodness of their hearts) beautiful commemorative cards for the event. Everyone who bought a book got one of these — three color, entirely analog, 100% recycled paper board, 2-color offset litho using hand-cut rubylith and 1-color letterpress linotype.

My fine fellow DJ Jimbo made the night so fun with all of his great vinyl. He mixed in several rad Japanese songs that our friend Takeshi gave him just for the party.

Yuri Migaki (left) and Lola Milholland of Jorinji Miso and Umi Organic. They partnered up (no photos of Earnest sadly!) and served up really tasty noodle + miso dishes.

Jorinji’s classic and delicious hiyashi chuka made with their miso, Lola’s Umi Organic ramen noodles and summer veggies.

And Lola’s super tasty Umi Organic ramen noodles with Jorinji’s Goma Miso Sauce and crisp fresh veg. So good.

Jeff Hammerly of Travel Portland putting on their Japan mascot dudehead. I love Travel Portland.

Jeff Hammerly all Duded up.

My friend Heidi Nestler of Wanpaku Natto and…

Heidi’s super yummy natto. I don’t love natto but I do love hers. It’s much milder and more balanced in flavor than most. I went back for seconds.

Hawthorne Books interns Stephen Hyde and Melina Hughes slinging books. Cheers to these two and True Portland!

Partyyyyy!

Gabe Rosen and Ian of Biwa/Noraneko/Parasol. Their onigiri was awesome!

Me and Etsuyo Okajima — my Tokyo friend and one of the editors of the Japanese editions of True Portland. Happy.

Etsuyo and Joy Church — executive director of The Portland Kitchen. If you don’t know of the great work that TPK does with underserved youth and the culinary arts check them out.

The Rev. Nat Beers Made By Walking CIDER that launched that night. Wood shavings in the tea bag for flavor.

My dear friends George Winborn of Metro and Michelle Gilmore of SMART.

Fumiko Hozumi and Jason Duffany of Obon PDX. I had never had their food before and it was so yummy! Will definitely be checking them out and you should too — obonpdx.com.

The cidery’s awesome taplist for the party. My favorite cidery on the planet.

Sarah Hart, Rhonda Hughes, me and Dory Athey. Good times were had.

I got my chance with the Travel Portland Japan mascot Dudehead.

And the closing shot goes to the True Portland super talented book designer Shinpei Onishi. Traveling all the way from Tokyo to Portland will do this to you ;).

Thank you again to everyone who came out and celebrated the first English edition of True Portland with us. So fun. XOXOXOXOXO