Nevada County cannabis award winners cite legacy farmers, climate, and community for success at State Fair

Cannabis farmers from Nevada County return to the 2025 California State Fair to participate in the 4th annual Cannabis Experience and awards competition.

This is the second year that onsite sales and consumption of award-winning cannabis products will be permitted for fairgoers 21 years or older with a valid government identification.

An estimated 100,000 people visited the Cannabis Experience in 2024, also called the Cannabis Oasis.

This year the Oasis will be at a new, central location making it more convenient for visitors who want to meet the farmers, learn more about the industry, and sample cannabis products such as a special edition slushies, coffee, and iced tea featuring terpene toppers.

The 2025 competition received over 600 entries, which was an approximate 20 percent increase over last year.

There were 141 medal winners from across the state announced in late June; however, the special Golden Bear Awards are expected to be announced live on July 12 at 4:20 p.m. during a ceremony at the Oasis location.

What’s special about Nevada County?

Gary Greyshock from Greenshock Farms, located in South Nevada County earned two gold medals and two silver medals this year in the “sungrown” category, as opposed to the indoor or mixed light categories.

Greenshock Farms was awarded a gold medal in the ocimene subcategory for their Passion Orange Guava strain; a gold medal in the caryophylene category for their Double Lantern strain; a silver medal for their Green Lantern in the caryophlene category; and two silver medals with their Purple X-18 Hash Plant in the myrcene and CBDa categories.

Nevada County has the ideal climate, elevation, and soil for the cultivation of sungrown cannabis.

Greyshock says that Nevada County is a special place because of the many knowledgeable legacy farmers here who have created high caliber sungrown flower for decades.

“They’ve been farming in these communities for a long time,” Greyshock said.

Relatively small farms from Nevada County are winning awards over huge producers in southern California, according to Greyshock.

Many people refer to what is called the “emerald triangle” which is Mendocino, Trinity, and Humboldt Counties, but Nevada County holds its own in the sungrown category.

Sungrown cannabis is different from cannabis grown indoors, according to Greyshock, not to mention that it is more sustainable.

“This stuff grown indoors is just not sustainable,” Greyshock said. “It’s taxing our energy grid… Indoor cannabis grows use more electricity than all agriculture combined across the country.”

The many elements that go into cannabis flower are unique to Nevada County, and people are “buying something natural from the community itself” rather than gigantic indoor facilities with massive power consumption.

Cannabis from Greenshock Farms is not for sale at any of the dispensaries in Nevada County.

Eliza and Joao Pires, owners of Sanctuary Farms, were awarded a bronze medal in the outdoor category for their product called Blunicorn, Pinene sub-category.

Sanctuary Farms has a nursery and one cultivation in Nevada County in Bridgeport in Penn Valley, and another site in Ukiah in Mendocino County.

Sanctuary grows their cannabis plants in “natural soil,” which means they don’t use pots, or boxes above ground.

“We just till right into the soil,” Eliza Pires said.

At Sanctuary Farms the living soil is fed microbes and the terpene content in the cannabis flower is fed by the microbes and combined with the sunshine, the product tends to have a higher terpene profile than cannabis grown indoors, according to Pires.

The benefit of having their own nursery at Sanctuary Farms is they are able to hold strains that are unique, according to Pires.

“A lot of farmers are locked into what the licensed nurseries are carrying,” Pires said.

All the farmers are sourcing from the same handful of nurseries with a limited amount of strains.

“Since we hold our own nursery, we’re able to not only keep our strains … but we’re also able to create our own strains. And so that leads to that more unique flower, just because we’re able to kind of pick and choose what we want, what’s doing well in our area, what the market is asking for,” Pires said.

Certain years are prone to certain conditions with weather and other factors, so the soil can be fed to grow healthy and thriving plants.

Cannabis from Sanctuary Farms is available for purchase at DenCob Farms located in Smartsville, which is a farm with retail sales just like a dispensary.

As a farmer, Pires said she is looking forward to speaking with customers at the state fair to share their story and why their cannabis stands apart from others.

“The way that the licensed market is set up, we don’t have that interaction with them — almost never,” Pires said. “I’m planning on being there as many days as I can.”

Various forms of cannabis to meet various needs

Another winner from Nevada County is Emerald Bay Extracts, owned by Casey and Thomas Angeley in Nevada City.

Emerald Bay Extracts was awarded a silver medal for their Blue Dream 25 mg RSO tablets and a bronze medal for their Glitter Bomb 100 mg RSO tablets.

“Having a business in Nevada County, it’s been wonderful,” Casey Angeley said. “It’s a community that really has rallied around cannabis, which had been traditionally illegal.”

Emerald Bay Extracts serves the medical population, which sets them apart from other businesses who focus on recreational cannabis, according to Casey Angeley.

“We’ve been able to serve a lot of community, both through our products we sell at the retailers and our compassion program, in which we do a lot of donated products as well,” Angeley said.

The strain-specific tablets produced at Emerald Bay Extracts “unlock the healing potential of cannabis,” according to Angeley’s website.

Some people with chronic pain, insomnia, anxiety, inflammation, PTSD, and epilepsy find particular cannabis tablets to help with symptoms or boost their mood.

Patients receiving chemotherapy can often find relief from pain, nausea, and vomiting, according to Angeley.

Part of what the Cannabis Experience at the state fair is about is educating people, some who may not want to smoke, but can learn about the benefits of cannabis in other forms such as in a tablet, edible, topical, oils, beverage, or tinctures which are a liquid.

Products made at Emerald Bay Extracts are sourced from Nevada County licensed farms first, according to Angeley.

“My partner and I developed our own equipment and had it manufactured,” Angeley said. “We dissolve the cannabinoids in alcohol, and then we go through something that’s similar to distillation, like a still… you’re left out that sticky, concentrated cannabis oil.”

Lab assessment to select medal winners

This year flower submissions to the fair were tested through SC Labs for scientific quality assessment, and awards were based on a more scientific choice rather than a judge’s personal preference.

“It’s all based on science and numbers, and it is educating a marketplace and the consumer about these different components that are in the plant, made with the terpenes and the cannabinoids, and how these things kind of interact and go together,” Greyshock said.

There are five different categories of the five main terpenes that are found in cannabis, and that would be osimene, myrcene, terpinolene, and limonene.

“Now science is really showing us what effects are felt when you consume or smoke the flower, and how they interact with the different cannabinoids, particularly THC,” Greyshock said. “In order to basically drive your high.”

It is the first time that the fair has awarded submissions this way, but of course the Golden Bear Award is still given based on “budist’s panels” of industry- leading cannabis critics who evaluate entries using a standardized 100-point rating system.

The Cannabis Oasis will run for the duration of the California State Fair from July 11 through July 27 at Cal Expo in Sacramento. The hours of the Cannabis Oasis are Monday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Friday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

All cannabis sales conclude before 9 p.m.