Why the Llama?
Sometimes people ask us: Why the East Fork llama logo? And all the other llama stuff?
And the answer: it’s a homage to the majestic creatures who roamed the farm directly before us.
Our friend Heather and her late husband Neil started the East Fork Ranch in 1982 as a llama breeding facility and habitat.
Llamas had a trendy period in the 1990s due to their unique wool and distinctive aesthetic differences across breeds – as well as their charismatic personalities and ability to serve as therapy animals.
Over the course of the decades, the original East Fork Ranch became renowned in the llama world, producing stars such as five-time show champion Encore. Folks in the Oregon llama community have told us, "Heather, Neil, and East Fork did a tremendous amount for the llama world."
When we purchased the ranch from Heather in 2015, we also became stewards of the remaining elderly llama residents: Sierra, Chantrelle and Corrina Corrina.
We decided to honor the legacy of these marvelous spirits by adopting the llama as our emblem. Thus the East Fork llama logo was born.
The final resident llama, Sierra, passed on in the early winter of 2018 – but we like to think that the gentle but powerful spirits of the llama herd live on watching over the farm.
As we passed the farm’s seven year anniversary this year, and the one year anniversary of Hemp Bar, we’re looking back with tenderness and pride on all that’s unfolded under the llama banner – including the many challenges we’ve overcome.
It took big dreams and even bigger determination for Aaron and Nathan Howard to start building their vision of a CBD-rich cannabis breeding campus and farm. From the beginning, our small and mighty teams have surmounted obstacle after obstacle.
We’ve battled extremes of all the elements: Earth, Water, Fire and Wind. For example…
EARTH. The first year, it was just the Howard brothers who labored to improve the land’s ecosystem, planted out and brought in the first harvest, and marketed and distributed the finished crop – while also working at their day jobs.
It wasn’t just the plants that needed tending; the soil needed fortification, the farm buildings needed a lot of work, and the water and utility infrastructures required upgrades. A large pile of rocks began to grow in an unused corner of the property – a living symbol of the work put in, as each was removed by hand from the fields.
After a bit of hard-earned initial success, the brothers were able to slowly add more pairs of hands to the team. Bit by bit, the soil became more balanced and vibrant. The rock pile rose into a formidable pyramid.
In early 2017, East Fork took a big leap forward with the successful recruitment of CEO Mason Walker. Later that year, East Fork continued to innovate with the creation of the CBD Certified free cannabis science workshop, which eventually grew into the Cannabis Class educational program.
However, in the fall of 2017 calamity struck. WATER!
Right in the middle of harvest season, the farm experienced an extended downpour that felt more like a monsoon cycle. Water bucketed down and pooled in the fields. Mud filled our lives. Still, the East Fork team managed to bring in the harvest – such as it was.
More recently, the final two elements combined formidably to bring danger to our very door: WIND and FIRE.
On September 8, 2020, our small town of Takilma was emergency evacuated as the Slater Fire roared into our county. This destructive wildfire ultimately reached to within a mile of our farm and surrounded us to the south, east, west, and northwest – but community-fortified fire lines and exhaustive firefighting saved most of the inner valley.
Along with the elements, East Fork has survived numerous other challenges over the past seven years, including COVID-19, a volatile cannabis market with wholesale price collapses, industry-wide consolidation, and an insane federal tax burden due to IRS Code 280E.
Over the past seven years, we've poured our time, resources, energy, and hearts into our mission: expanding the genetic diversity of the cannabis plant and making effective, clean, regeneratively sungrown CBD-rich therapeutics available and accessible to help better people’s lives.
While plenty has changed, the core remains the same: our commitment to environmental responsibility, science-based education, and social justice.
And we continue to honor and pay tribute to the llama.
