For L.A. Weekly’s second trip to the famed Emerald Triangle this harvest season we traveled to the Terp Hogz farm just days before they prepared to chop down some of the most coveted flower in the game.
That hype covers making hash with the flower or just enjoying some of the craziest terps in the world in a joint.
When you hear about the Terp Hogz, most of the time you understandably start thinking about the famous Z terps they put on the map. But it’s important to remember they’d already been in the exotic cannabis market a decade prior. Whether it was the crazy Purples of the mid-2000s, or the Hindu Kush scene that took off not long after, the Terp Hogz were there. More so than many in the hills of the Emerald Triangle given their connections to the music industry through it all.
Fieldz (L) and Tony Mendo (R) get a rotation in while they talk old school terps.
The Terp Hogz trio of Tony Mendo, Green R Fieldz, and Jondo laughed as they told the tales of the old school terps sitting not far from their garden.
“What I think happened with Hindu was it took many forms,” Mendo told L.A. Weekly. “Similar to our strain right now where people have renamed it and called it different things. But there were Bubbas that weren’t quite Hindus. There were Masters that weren’t quite Hindu. There were all kinds of things that were every which way you could think of around Hindu but it wasn’t the very one that we had.”
As the gassy Kush scene continued to take off, Fieldz added that Hindu Kush wasn’t really that.
“When people asked about Purple Kush, they were talking about the Hindu Kush,” Fieldz said.
The Terp Hogz inspect some Passion Lemon Zmoothie(L) and Original Z(R).
Mendo argued the modern era wouldn’t have let that strain get lost. He’s personally been a lot more serious about preservation over the years since The Original Z first dropped
“It’s way more serious about keeping phenos now,” Mendo said. “I hate that fucking Hindu was a fucking martyr in that, because Hindu is one of the most influential strains, guaranteed. It’s the only thing that I would probably put Z down right now for, if I fucking had it.”
Fieldz agreed with Mendo that a cut of Hindu Kush would quickly find a spot in his garden as well.
But the Terp Hogz would see a lot of heat over the years. Obviously the Z hype, but even now they continue to chase the next one. Among the newest is the Melon Brainz. But even as it’s starting to hit shelves across California, there is more work to be done.
Melon Brainz
“I have a Melon Brainz F2 in seed form too,” Fieldz said. “That’s what we’re trying to do. I don’t even want to pop them just because we don’t have an indoor situation to have them and I don’t want to hunt them outdoors anymore. That’s what we’re doing in the bay is getting our whole 30-light pheno hunt together.”
Fieldz explained that once he had the room to pop the F2s he’d be able to select some winner males and really get crazy with it. He noted they’ve already produced some indoor flower, but the pheno hunts will allow them to work on custom strains for reputable brands they’re down to work with.
A stunning bud of Papya covered in pink hairs.
“We want to have some genetics from us and create a whole platform to document the strain pheno selection process and authenticity to give to white label brands, essentially,” Fieldz said. “Because you can get strains from us it almost gives you credibility.”
As Fieldz finished explaining the upcoming plans, Mendo approached us with a box full of pollen. He grabbed a few Zkittlez plants that were prime for pollination and told me to start shaking the males he’d prepped for the occasion over a pack of Zkittlez plants.
From there, Mendo demanded we do a terp test. Since much of the crop was days away from harvest, you couple squeeze the buds to get your fingers covered with plants resins that essentially give you a preview of the final flavor. First, we walked over to the Passion Lemon Zmoothie where Mendo ordered me to squeeze the nugs and not smell my fingers.
I could not resist the temptation. But I’m glad I did smell because when I grabbed the Z buds later I could really appreciate the blend. It was magical.
“There you go,” Mendo said, watching me smell the terps. “Dude, there’s a lime note when you pull Z all the way. There’s a lime note in it people can’t understand. And then that lemon, mixed to that lime. If you can hit the true note of that Z like it’s a crazy combo. So that cross we just made could be something real crazy.”