By James Loud
The solventless revolution is here, uniting regenerative farming and full spectrum flavor into one truth: the future grows from the soil up.
I was invited to Edun in Parachute, Colorado, to tour their facility and share what I do. As someone who works in plant genetics, I’m used to a completely different kind of environment, one defined by sterility and control. My research and development facility in the Bay Area operates as a closed loop system designed to minimize contamination. Our plants come from Tissue Culture and every process is measured, every variable controlled. We avoid soil and insects even beneficial ones to minimize potential contamination. In my world, sterility equals success. But not all contamination is bad.
About three and a half hours west of Denver, on the way to Grand Junction, lies the small town of Parachute, a place many Colorado natives don’t even know exists. The town reminds me of something out of a film about the Rocky Mountains, with quiet streets, a few local food spots, and the kind of wide sky that slows everything down. It’s the kind of place where people still wave from their trucks and the air smells faintly of pine and earth. Parachute feels worlds away from resort towns like Vail or Aspen. It’s raw, grounded, and real, the perfect setting for a farm that is redefining what clean cannabis can truly mean.
Our visit began with dinner and a tasting hosted by Jimmy and Michelle Brinkerhoff, the husband-and-wife team behind Edun Farms, where Jimmy serves as Co-Founder and CEO and Michelle as Co-Founder and COO. The meal was more than hospitality; it was an introduction to their philosophy. Most ingredients on the table were sourced from the Brinkerhoff family farm—a property their family has lovingly tended for generations. The herbs were bright, the vegetables earthy and sweet, and everything was paired with their solventless creations: rosin infused joints, rosin gummies, and rosin cartridges pressed from living soil flower. Between bites and draws, we talked about soil microbes, sunlight, and the connection between cultivation and human wellness.
The next morning, the air carried that crisp Colorado chill but quickly warmed into a perfect fall day. The drive from town to the farm was close, everything in town was close. When we arrived, I had heard about some of the guys going to the farm to shoot ducks the day before, it caught my attention and sounded interesting. Edun’s prized ducks wander freely through the property, weaving between greenhouse beds, irrigation, and trellis. They’re more than mascots; they’re workers, part of the living system that keeps the farm in balance. They control populations of rolypolys and other small pests while naturally fertilizing the soil beds. They leave behind freshly laid eggs that the team collects later to enjoy. It’s a self-contained cycle of care, the kind of regenerative loop that defines Edun’s entire operation. The guys the day before weren’t shooting them in the literal sense but taking photos of them with their cameras so that Patrick Kane McGregor, a well known artist, could paint murals of them on the farm.
Inside the mixed light greenhouses, sunlight spilled across rows of thriving plants. Supplemental Gavita high pressure sodium lighting fills in when daylight wanes, allowing Edun to fine tune the photoperiod and maintain vigorous growth throughout the year. The air was humid and sweet, heavy with terpene rich fragrance. The soil looked alive, dark and dense with the texture of good compost. Jimmy and Michelle explained how they use Korean Natural Farming, or KNF, to build microbial diversity from the ground up. They collect indigenous microorganisms from the areas nearby, ferment their own plant nutrients, and apply those natural solutions to feed both plant and soil. Every ingredient is made on site: amino acids, lactic acid bacteria, fermented fruit and plant extracts, all brewed on site. It’s part science and part art, rooted in the belief that the better quality living organisms in the soil, the more expressive the plant will be.
What makes Edun’s work stand out is how seamlessly they merge that biology with the technology of solventless extraction. In a world where most vape oils are stripped, refined, and rebuilt, Edun’s full spectrum rosin captures the plant exactly as it grew. No solvents, no additives, just pressure, heat, and patience. Their rosin cartridges have become the top sellers in Colorado because they carry a true expression of the flower. Each pull reflects the full chemical fingerprint of the cultivar, from the limonene sparkle of citrus notes to the deep, earthy hum of myrcene. The oil isn’t clear; it’s golden and viscous, full of character, like honey that still remembers the flowers it came from. The effect makes their craft products stand out with what I would describe as a cleaner high with less of a crash than what you can find in dispensaries in legal states.
The production rooms at Edun feel more like a culinary studio than a lab. The freshly harvested flowers are frozen almost immediately, locking in volatile compounds. Then, in controlled cold rooms, the team stirs the material in ice water to separate the trichome heads before pressing them into rosin. You can sense the reverence the team has for the plant.
Their product line goes far beyond carts. Edun produces affordable live rosin RSO, rosin gummies, and infused prerolls for the Colorado market, each crafted with the same precision and integrity as their flagship rosin. The goal is simple but rare in this industry: to make clean, solventless cannabis accessible to everyone, not just connoisseurs. The gummies have the same brightness and balance as their oil, and the RSO carries the full bodied relief of a whole plant extract. Every product tells the same story, it all starts in the soil.
Walking through the facility, you get the sense that everyone here believes in that story. There’s an energy in the way they work, a quiet pride. The people processing their flower talk about cultivars like they’re old friends, the extraction team speaks about resin flow like musicians describing tone. This isn’t just a job for them; it’s a culture built around care.
During our tour, Jimmy spoke about the benefits of KNF farming. “There’s a bigger upfront cost but, you’re not spending money on synthetic inputs like most modern facilities, we’re aligned with a natural way of cultivation that allows the plants to uptake what they need, when they need and it gives you better expressions.” He said “what you put in, you get out, terpenes and cannabinoids are how plants communicate with the world.”
This philosophy stands in sharp contrast to the wider regulated flower market, where aesthetics often trump substance. In dispensaries across the country, the prettiest buds built around hype can fetch the highest prices, regardless of how they smoke. It’s a culture obsessed with frost and color, not chemistry or effect. Edun challenges that mindset. Their focus isn’t on what looks perfect under LED lights but on what feels right when consumed. When you mill the flower, press it, or vaporize it, visual perfection vanishes. What remains is experience, and that’s where Edun shines.
In the broader context of vape culture, Edun represents a shift back toward authenticity. For years, distillate based vapes dominated the market, clear, potent, and soulless. They offered convenience, not connection. But full spectrum rosin has changed the game. It gives consumers a true reflection of the cultivar, the smell of the greenhouse, the complexity of its terpenes, and the fingerprint of the grower’s care. As more people discover the difference, it’s clear that solventless is not a trend. It’s the future.
Edun’s approach to this future is what sets them apart. Their business model ensures complete transparency from soil to oil. Nothing is outsourced, nothing is hidden. Each product tells the story of where it came from, how it was grown, and who made it. It’s a kind of integrity that feels rare in an industry still finding its identity.
The future of cannabis doesn’t have to be sterile. In genetics, my work depends on clean environments and absolute control. Our nurseries are designed to eliminate risk, using sterile media, filtered air, and containment protocols that leave no room for error. That precision is vital for stabilizing cultivars and preserving lineages. But on the other end of the spectrum, farms like Edun show that sterility isn’t the only path to purity. Regenerative soil cultivation offers something a closed loop lab never can, a living chemistry shaped by sun, soil, and microbial dialogue. Plants grown this way often express more flavor, more effect, and something intangible that feels closer to the natural rhythm of the plant itself.
Using the sun, soil, and natural inputs isn’t just about sustainability. It’s about creating cannabis that resonates on a deeper level. It reduces costs, simplifies production, and yields a product that feels better not only because of what’s in it but because of how it was grown. When cultivation becomes stewardship instead of control, something ineffable enters the equation. Call it balance, call it intent, whatever it is, you can feel it.
As I left Parachute, I kept thinking about Edun’s place in the future of cannabis. Their model represents a return to values the industry often forgets: patience, biology, and respect for the plant. It’s proof that progress doesn’t always mean more technology or tighter control. Sometimes it means letting nature lead again. Edun is setting a new standard for what clean cannabis can be, not just pure, but purposeful.
And perhaps that’s where the true future lies: in collaboration. A company like Edun and a genetics company like mine may seem to exist on opposite ends of the spectrum, one rooted in natural farming principals, the other in sterility, but together they illustrate what’s possible when science and nature meet in harmony. Each form holds its own purity, and together they define what progress really means. The industry’s next chapter won’t be written by those who work alone, but by those who bridge philosophies. When we collaborate across that spectrum, the plant wins, and so do the consumers.
