Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley attracts visitors from around the world for its award-winning wine and food, but one local inn celebrates a surprising side of the valley. Mine + Farm leans into the area’s cannabis history, giving guests a place to smoke joints rolled with pot grown in the property’s marijuana garden.
The cannabis-centered hospitality is a unique way to celebrate Northern California, and the Guerneville inn just received international recognition for it. Mine + Farm was recently recognized by Time magazine as one of the world’s 100 greatest places of 2024, a collection of what the magazine calls “extraordinary destinations to explore.”
Bryce Skolfield, a managing partner at the inn, told SFGATE that he was “extremely humbled” to be recognized on a list that includes an underground art reef in Portugal and a resort deep in Iceland’s wilderness.
“To be recognized by Time magazine for such a wonderful thing is an honor, honestly, and we’re still kind of inhaling it,” Skolfield told SFGATE. “I think it’s really exciting that Time magazine was willing to highlight someone like us who is doing work with cannabis, and I don’t think that would work even just a few years ago.”
Palm Springs’ new Agua Caliente Cultural Plaza also made the list, but Mine + Farm was the only lodging location in California featured.
The nine-room inn has a special cannabis garden on the property, where guests can walk between rows of flowering marijuana with strains like OG Kush and LA Pop Rocks. The cannabis grown on the property then supplies the inn’s “share bar,” where guests can choose pre-rolled joints made with six different strains. Skolfield said the inn has a special outdoor area designated for smoking the joints on the property.
Skolfield said that most of his guests come for the inn’s tranquil setting near the redwoods, not the pot, but almost everyone enjoys seeing cannabis plants up close.
“We find that a lot of our guests, even if they’ve been lifelong users, have not spent time with the actual cannabis plants. So we really encourage our guests to go up and see them,” Skolfield said.
Mine + Farm hosts cannabis-infused dinners, where marijuana becomes an ingredient on the menu.
Mine + Farm hosts cannabis-infused dinners, where marijuana becomes an ingredient on the menu.
The inn conducts tours of the garden on Sundays, when it helps educate guests about the botany and history of cannabis. It also hosts special culinary dinners, where guests can enjoy food that is infused with cannabis. It’s planning a special cannabis wellness retreat Oct. 11-13, which is slated to include cannabis dinners and be timed with the farm’s cannabis harvest.
California law doesn’t make it easy to mix marijuana with lodging. Skolfield said the inn is careful to always explain that it is only “sharing” the cannabis and not giving it away for free or including it as an amenity; otherwise, it could run afoul of the current regulations. “We don’t use the word ‘free,’ because then it implies there’s a value,” Skolfield said.
But legalese aside, guests clearly enjoy the inn’s homegrown supply. Skolfield said the inn has “shared” approximately 5,000 joints to date at the property.
H/T: www.sfgate.com
