Bite Me The Show About Edibles
Helping cooks make great cannabis edibles at home.
Create your own tasty, healthy cannabis edibles and take control of your high life! Bite Me is a weekly show that helps home cooks make fun, safe and effective cannabis edibles. Listen as host Margaret walks you through an marijuana infused recipe that she has tested in her home kitchen or interviews with expert guests. New episodes every Thursday.
Bite Me The Show About Edibles
North Bloom Is Normalizing Cannabis with Angelique Zerillo
What happens when you combine a passion for food, wellness, and cannabis education? You get a refreshing conversation that's changing how we think about edibles and wellness.
Certified Ganjier Angelique Zerillo, editor-in-chief of North Bloom Magazine, takes us on a journey through the evolving landscape of cannabis consumption with a special focus on women over 35. Her approach isn't about getting high, it's about finding balance in a cortisol-driven world through mindful cannabis use.
What stands out most is Angelique's mission to "make cannabis less weird," especially for women navigating careers, relationships, and parenting while confronting outdated stigmas. Through North Bloom Magazine, she's creating visibility for female consumers and supporting craft cannabis producers who bring quality and intention to their products.
Visit the website for full show notes, free dosing calculator, recipes and more.
Hello, friends, what happens when you take a love of food, a passion for culture and a deep knowledge of cannabis and toss them all into one bowl? You get Bite Me, the podcast that explores the intersection of food, culture and cannabis and helps cooks make great edibles at home. I'm your host, Margaret, a certified gangier, a TCI certified cannabis educator, and I believe your kitchen is the best dispensary you'll ever have. Together, we'll explore the stories, the signs and the sheer joy of making safe, effective and unforgettable edibles at home. So preheat your oven and get ready for a great episode.
Speaker 1:And today, friends, I'm so glad that you're here because you are going to be tuning in for a very special episode. I'm joined today by Angelique, who is the editor-in-chief of North Bloom Magazine, a cannabis wellness print magazine based in Minnesota. Angelique is a fellow certified gangier with a passion for bringing cannabis education to the mainstream, helping to break the stigma that surrounds the plant. And with that, friends, please enjoy this conversation with Angelique. All right, and we're live, and I'm very excited to be here today with Angelique Cirillo of North Bloom Magazine. And before we get into today's conversation, Angelique, I was just hoping you could introduce yourself and share about some of your cannabis journey.
Speaker 2:I'd be happy to Thank you for having me on Bite Me, margaret. It's so great to meet you. Finally, my name is Angelique Cirillo. I am a fellow certified ganjie. Like yourself, I'm a writer and researcher by trade, and what I've been doing for the past 20 years leading up to this beautiful adventure in the cannabis sector is working in product design and development with my husband, who's an industrial designer, and we post up in Chicago, illinois, and that's where we've been for about 25 years now, raising a family and working. But now I'm leading the ship of Bloom Multimedia with a print magazine called the North Bloom Magazine, facing the Minnesota cannabis market that is ready to rock and roll here soon. So I'm excited to talk to you about what we're building, supporting the sectors. Maybe a gap here around education with the general public.
Speaker 1:So thanks for having me today.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, absolutely. I love to support people who are promoting education in this space, especially in mainstream cannabis spaces, because I think it's so incredibly necessary. So you've made some real pivots in your life to transition into the cannabis space, which I'm sure has had quite a few challenges. But I'm curious, because you also mentioned just now that you are a certified concierge, as I am. When did you get your certification?
Speaker 2:certified, or gangier, as I am. When did you get your certification? It's been. We are in the year 2025. It's been two years now and I probably onboarded with that journey late 2021.
Speaker 2:So I took like a full year and a half, you know, through all the requirements of our program to slow boat it a little bit. But also, you know, was facing the sector and doing a considerable amount of research and self-learning and self-study for about that six months full year prior to that. So I'd say I've been all in facing cannabis for about four or five years now. So which can we? Is it fair to say that there's a dog years conversion, like every year is definitely like a seven year, seven, seven year somatic experience.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I think that. I think that's reasonable. I'll allow that. Yeah, so I got my certification in 2021. I did it all at the same time because two trips down to California probably wasn't in the budget, but it was definitely a worthwhile experience. And, of course, as ganges were trained to evaluate cannabis quality through all the senses and how do you apply that same sensory expertise when you're evaluating edibles in particular?
Speaker 2:Well, I think for me because I like to zoom out.
Speaker 2:You know our skill set is so specific and it's around this plant, but there's a lot of parallels here, right, and I'm a big, I'm a pretty holistic person integrative healthcare, natural foods, all of that. So I like to zoom out a little bit when I look at that lens, you know, because I'm not just looking at the components of the plant and an edible and all of the metrics that we grade and qualify quality right around flour. I'm also looking at, like manufacturing and ingredients and, you know, nutritional content and things like that. You know we have some beautiful products in this industry, but we also have a lot of garbage, and if it's not something that I'd want to put in myself normally, you know the fact that it has the plant in it doesn't make that an exception for me, right? So, like some of these consumer package good standards, cpg standards that you know are the metrics that I, as a shopper, when I'm making my decisions with my dollars, is also kind of how I look at this industry, you know, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's where I'm at with that. Yeah, I like that you touched in on, like the ingredients, how it's manufactured, nutrition, that kind of thing, because those are all things that you would probably apply to making choices when you're at your dispensary or at the grocery store. So it just seems a little less obvious, I suppose, how you would evaluate edibles versus flour, which seems a little more I mean, more people are evaluating flour, I would imagine. But are there anything that you think consumers should look for beyond THC and CBD content?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. Well, let's talk's talk about like set and setting and like reason for consumption, right, that you and I both know like we have a spectrum here. We have a spectrum of formulations, we have a spectrum of extraction methods, right, and different concentrates, and, you know, is it solventless, is it not? Are we looking at isolates, isolates, kind of built back up into like a product that is perfectly useful and beautiful and very effective, but I kind of call them our Franken builds, right, because they're following a pharmaceutical model and not representing sort of the whole plant and it's what I like to call like Mother Nature's blueprint, right, because she has those ratios right, bringing this back into like baking and edibles like that are pretty standard for efficacy. But let's talk about dosing and onset, because I think those are big key things. You know like what's your target, what's your need, when do you need it to happen and how long do you want or need it to last? Those are huge things, those are huge variables that I think that when you're, you know, kind of a naive or a novice consumer and you're going in and I have option A or I have option B here with this bud tender, what is the difference? When am I going to feel it? How long is it going to last? I would say that you know me coming back to the plant, right, because I obviously I consumed younger, not super young, because I was a college athlete. So that was I was very mindful of. We'll call it like the hand slap, like if you get caught as an athlete you probably lose your seat on a roster. You might also lose your financial aid here in the in the in the United States. So I was very careful. But you know, as a young teenager 20 something always was piggybacking my consumption probably with alcohol consumption, so never truly understood the efficacy of the plant and the plant alone in my body. That's a huge thing I think to talk to consumers about is really isolating. You know sort of scientific method style, like don't throw all the, it's not a kitchen sink. Kind of style, like you can't throw it all in together and then really know what's working or what's not working.
Speaker 2:But in terms of edibles, like I onboarded as an adult once my state of Illinois was adult rec legal and I was kind of walking through some, some health concerns and scares and my husband suggested he's like should we try? You know edibles Like, do you want to try to slow boat back into this world with me? Because he's a fan of the plant and a consumer. And I said, all right, let's do it. And I found a one-to-one ratio THC to CBD.
Speaker 2:It was a mint, so a hard mint, so very portable, very easy. You know, it's sort of like your Altoid equivalent, right, keep it in your purse, keep it in your car, you have it with you when you're out and about Five milligram max. So if you are a consumer, that's a pretty low dose, fairly quick onset. I'd say we could feel it within 45 minutes to an hour. I'm seeing a lot of new formulations out where it's rapid onset, where, based on what we call it method of consumption or route of administration, right Through more medical terms, like if it's a true edible, if it's going through first pass metabolism, where it's having to go through your digestive system before your liver is really activating it and your body can utilize it, versus is that a sublingual it's going in through mucus membranes you might be able to get that feeling in effect within like five to 15 minutes.
Speaker 2:You know that's, that's great. These are things that these are questions that consumers really need to ask and hopefully odors bud tenders know these answers about, like what's the formulation and what's the onset Cause. That's pretty critical, not only for young consumers but especially for our older population, like geriatric population, understanding how to use edibles, which I think that's the biggest growing demographic right. I can't tell you the number of people that I have heard saying my mom and dad are taking agami at night, almost every single night. They're putting their scotch aside, their nightcap and they're having agami to end the day.
Speaker 1:Well, so much of the news around alcohol consumption, it feels like in the last few years have been pretty negative. So I think people are definitely looking for alternatives, and I worked in the dispensary myself a few years ago and the people had a lot of questions about edibles because most people had had a bad experience with them at some point or knew somebody that did. And at the same time a lot of seniors were coming in to explore the possibility of edibles and topicals and cannabis, generally speaking, for improving their well-being. So I think having that education is super important, and it's sometimes intimidating to walk into a dispensary too, especially as an older person who may not have consumed cannabis in many decades.
Speaker 1:So yeah having people that are like knowledgeable is really important, but you've spoken a bit yourself about low dose THC for anxiety, pain and re and renal fatigue. Can you walk us through your approach to micro dosing with cannabis and edibles, because I think for people who are new to the cannabis space, microdosing is such a perfect way to start and why do you think this method is particularly powerful for women over 35?
Speaker 2:Well, first I do want to clarify and qualify that in terms of my preferred method of consumption. I am a true flower consumer, but that is really only appropriate when I'm in my own home, like for legal reasons. It's not terribly portable. You know, in the United States we go state to state. If I tilt to my East, I'm in Indiana. That is a non-legal state, right, if I tilt to my West, I'm in Iowa also a non-legal state. So you need to be mindful of that. So it's like, once again, you know where are you at? What do you have on your roster for that day on your calendar? You know I'm sitting in my office right now. I generally keep edibles here for myself for low dose, so that looks like anything from. You know, because I am a consumer, my tolerance is slightly higher than someone who's novice. So you know I'm onboarding and ramping probably anywhere from a 2.5 milligram to a 10 milligram. Generally that's a ratio THC to CBD. My preferred mother cannabinoid molecule is CBG and that's because of its anxiolytic properties and that's because of its anxiolytic properties. That's just my favorite to share.
Speaker 2:Personally, my family had a kind of an acute incident. One of our sons was critically injured last summer and hospitalized for more than a month. Consumer was basically. You know, talk about an unplanned tea break, an unplanned tolerance break. I you know, when you get a 911 call as a parent saying come to the emergency room, and then you realize that that's going to be your home, living on a cot and out of a backpack for the next four to six weeks, you're like, okay, I need to have a plan B here for my consumption, because my consumption is not only for my mental health but also for my physical health. Like I said, I'm a former athlete, so I do have chronic pain and I will tell you that. I mean, do we give a brand shout out? Should I try to get you a sponsor in this episode?
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 2:Let's give, because I have them in my office. I'm like let's give wild a shout out right now because, number one, I love their packaging. Great education, um, and just fun, or or an origami kind of fold. Uh, great flavors. Natural ingredients, um, pear flavored, but there's CBG, hybrid THC and it's a I take a higher dose gummy. This is not something I'd recommend for a new consumer, but, you know, this tastes like a fine or refined candy, like something you as a, as a culinary expert, would like be something that you'd be perfecting and pushing out.
Speaker 2:These saved my world, honestly. These allowed me to deescalate some of the intense stress that I was under, like wondering if my kid was going to make it through some emergency surgeries, allowing me to get like a couple hours of half, you know, one eye closed, sleep. These are remarkable tools that we didn't have accessible to us. You know, not that many years ago. Legally right. So time and place and use right.
Speaker 2:You know I definitely don't recommend consuming while you're doing anything like driving or in charge of children or things like that.
Speaker 2:You know, like we need to follow rules and protocols here, but for me, like if I'm in meetings all day long, I'm not going to be taking smoke breaks, right, but I end the day with a joint with my husband because, honestly, there's ceremony around that. That's how we share space, and I will say I've joked with girlfriends that I said this has probably saved thousands of dollars in counseling, because this is when we consume the plant. Our guards are down, we are allowed to be our true selves, the difficult and challenging things in our worlds we're able to hash out and talk through and find some resolution in a very de-escalated state, right. So, and that that's true for microdosing during, you know, back-to-back work calls, like a day like I have today, to recording a podcast to you know, you name it. What's the pain point in your world and how can you, as I've been saying lately, like take the sharp corners off everything, a little bit Like there's very low psychoactivity. It's just about tuning and honing your nervous system, right, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that answer. I also do love ratios when it comes to THC, CBD and when I do smoke, that's usually what I do as well.
Speaker 1:I typically use a vaporizer, but I love to mix some CBD in with my THC because I just find it takes those edges off, and I have tried wild as well. I've had the opportunity to try them in California and in Canada and I do like the California version better than what we get here. But that's just the way it is. But I am curious you mentioned the term anxiolytic and that's not something I'm familiar with and perhaps some of our listeners aren't as well. Can you just define?
Speaker 2:that term for me. So anxiolytic is like the medical term for anxiety, right? So something that is an anxiolytic is something that you would take to help alleviate anxiety symptoms. Right, okay.
Speaker 1:No. Thanks for clarifying that, and I think a lot of people can appreciate anti-anxiety properties of cannabis. And no matter what you're going through, it seems like we're living through a really weird timeline right now so having something that you can reach for that's anti-anxiety is so helpful in today's stressful world. Now In North Bloom's tagline, which I love, is flower knowledge for novices, picked by professionals. If someone has never tried a cannabis product or edibles, what's your step-by-step guide to their first experience and what are some of the biggest mistakes you see newcomers making?
Speaker 2:what's our motto here? Start low and go slow, like that is that is that? Is that that should just be emblazoned over every single dispensary point of sale system? I think, because, like you said, choices are overwhelming, guidance is sometimes missing. Training is not quite there. We're not, we don't. You know, we don't have universal standards here in terms of you know, state by state in the United States and, honestly, internationally as well.
Speaker 2:So you know, like you said, a product made in Canada under the same label is not the same as the same product packaged and labeled in California. And that's because I mean this is actually probably an educational moment for us to help with your listeners as well that you know these are licensing deals, right. That brands that are established in one geographic location then partner up in another location, and so you know they're following standard operating procedures, or, as we call them ad nauseum here in the industry, sops, right, but the reality is that it's all based on the quality of inputs, right? Is that product A going to be the same as product B in the second location? Not always. They are still following the same recipe. But, like, you and I both know that we both could cook the same thing in your home and my home and they might be a little different, right, because primarily, we're sourcing different ingredients. So, and that's true about the plant, and that's even true about isolates, um, uh, other things, other tips and tricks that I would offer um, consumers pain points. You know, like you said, if you have a bad experience, understand that's an isolated experience right, that might be due to you set setting, it might be due to the product, it might be due to an outside factor, like, like, give the plant another chance is what I'd like to say.
Speaker 2:Right, with some of those parameters under control and being mindful about them. You know even little things about, like, have we ate today? Are we hydrated before we consume? Are we rested, not rested? All of those factors, all of those lifestyle factors that you know we as patients, sometimes ignore when we're talking to our clinicians. Like you know, we want a simple binary solution for problem or symptom A, but depending day to day, hour to hour, we are constantly in flux as humans, right? So, from a metabolic and biological level to a mental state, right, in terms of even going into consumption, and I still think that's applicable for edibles as well. You know, I really do, I really, really do. So, like you said, you know my girlfriend who's like I'm not trying that again. I had a terrible brownie experience in like 1997. You know I'm like well, things have changed. And I had a terrible brownie experience in like 1997. You know I'm like well, things have, things have changed. And that was that was a homemade brownie made with canna butter. That who knows what that dosing was right.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, and it's interesting that people are sometimes, when they have a negative experience, are reluctant to try it again, even though if it was alcohol like most of us, when we were kids had some kind of negative experience with alcohol, but it didn't stop us from trying it again. But also because it's so ingrained in our culture. All the things that we understand about alcohol, like how to consume it, setting, all these things are just sort of ingrained in our culture and a negative experience usually doesn't scare somebody away from it. But because there's more limited understanding around cannabis, that negative experience from 1997 still makes somebody hesitate to trying something new, even though everything has to cannabis more generally as well. But how have you seen the market evolve since you've been in the cannabis space, and are there any innovations that excite you or trends that concern you?
Speaker 2:I think I want to bring up the state that I'm really supporting with my current build here with Bloom North. Bloom Magazine is Minnesota no-transcript and then looking let's maybe talk about that beverage format Like this is growing like gangbusters because, as we mentioned earlier in our chat, you know, like my children's generation not drinkers, that is not how they map out their free time with their friends. Completely, you know, it's not about going from one bar to the next every weekend. So that NA movement, that non-alcoholic movement we're seeing that grow not just with their generation but also with ours, right, you know, like, as we are aging middle age, specifically in that female demographic that we're trying to target in the magazine, 35 and up, alcohol is beautiful, alcohol is fun. You know the culinary aspects, the ceremonial aspects of it, but the drinking it for I call it drinking it to become tilted from your current state of consciousness or drinking it to alleviate the pain points in your world, not great solutions, right, you know, generally doesn't solve your problems and honestly, we pay for it the next day. You know we're literally killing cells when we consume. We don't get that from consuming the plant and that's a beautiful byproduct. And so the social acceptability of like swapping out a can of alcohol for a can of a hemp derived beverage. In Minnesota that has taken on like wildflower and I'm so excited to see that. In the same regard, I think that you and I both can, you know, like what I would love to see. I need to see regulatory changes here from the federal level on down, because I need to see more research about, you know, like, going through first pass metabolism and the effect on our livers of consuming the plant only through edible formats. Right, what does this look like? Thank you.
Speaker 2:The beauty of the can swap, you know, a hemp-derived beverage for alcohol and that being a little more socially acceptable than consuming the plant in other formats. You know, there is some discreteness around edibles in and of itself. Like, when I travel, I'm always packing edibles with me, hemp derived edibles. That's sort of my secret weapon, right, especially if I'm going to a unregulated state. But I'd like to see. I'd like to see some regulatory changes, especially here in the United States, because I need to see more research around this plant and especially to see what it looks like for consumers to be consuming through edible formats over a long period of time.
Speaker 2:Right, but for now I say it's the gentlest, easiest way to consume the plant and if you're having, if you have any trepidation around, you know making that swap. I don't think people are going to give you a hard time if you have a can of something else in your hand, right, you know. So that's really the trend that I'm seeing right now. That's what I'm excited about. That's what I'm excited about supporting in terms of, like, gently trying to persuade consumers to swap out something that really truly is harmful to them for something that is not.
Speaker 2:I think that's probably at the top of my list, because I know that it's a hard sell If you're not a flower consumer and you have, you know, for all of the different metric reasons. But specifically, combustion is a problem for you, understood fine, you know that is absolutely a personal choice, but let's continue to explore these other formats. I say I'm also really excited about mucous membrane, sublingual, like homeopathic kind of style, melts, things of that nature. I've seen a couple innovative brands come out. There's specifically a brand out of California that I really love, and I love that they also are now hemp derived so that they can ship across the United States. My son, in fact, is using one of them, and one of them is actually a CBG only and so non-psychoactive. You know, this is something that you can use day and night and still get some of those beneficial properties of the plant.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, without, without taking bong rips in between meetings you know, without taking bong rips in between meetings, Right, which is not always very convenient depending on where you are. But I'm very curious because I've heard about the fact that you can buy cannabis beverages in bars in Minnesota, and has that worked out well?
Speaker 2:It has. It really, really has. There is specifically an event location in Minneapolis that is very friendly and open to the industry because they do a lot of formulations for hemp-derived brands and so they have industry nights every Wednesday night. Where I am, where I post up in Illinois you know this is not, this is not standard practice. Yet you know like there are more private owner bars that are stocking hemp direct beverages, more non-alcoholic options. It's not like a universal thing. Though you can't go into every place and expect there to be a hemp option In Minnesota, it's almost universal now, which is beautiful, and you will see them in your major grocery retailers, like even high end, which was very exciting for us as Bloom because we in this past year we haven't even celebrated our one year anniversary yet in formation of an LLC that's coming up in mid-October, but we're working on our fifth print edition right now because we're quarterly and we partnered with a circulation partner who got us into a high-end grocery chain.
Speaker 2:So we literally are at the front of a grocery store, you know, as people are coming and growing to grab a free copy of Bloom and you know, in the cool cases you will see hemp derived right next to your beer and wine shill right. So this is where we're at, and it's kind of a beautiful thing to see it coexisting peacefully and really there not being any issues around it, right? You know, new things are weird for people until people see them enough, and then it's not new anymore and it's not weird and it's very acceptable, and then we have progress.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I love that. I wish we had that here in Canada, but we don't have consumption lounges or anything yet, even though it's been like, you know, six plus years. So maybe one day, because it would be so nice to be able to go out for a drink with my friends and be able to buy a cannabis drink instead of an alcoholic drink, because I often pay for it. Even if I have one drink, somehow, I'm just like paying for it the next day. It's little things. It gets worse as I get older and I'm sure that's a story that many people in my demographic can relate to. But now, with North Blue Magazine, you're working to elevate cannabis culture and build community. How do edibles specifically help break down stigma compared to other consumption methods?
Speaker 2:Well, I think, as I was saying before, you know, there are still some dare generation we call it here war on drugs kind of generation that you know an edible format. But let's even like back that up to say, like food is love, right, food is something that's communal, food is something that we share, food is cultural. So if you look at sweets and savories and things that we usually, you know, use for celebratory reasons candy, right, you know. That's why I think that we see so many edible formats coming out in sort of the fun, youthful, slightly more juvenile, even though we're not supposed to market and package and like appeal to youth and underage for consumption, but like we are appealing to our inner child. I think a a little bit those of us who are in seats of making decisions about adding things to the marketplace of offerings. So, yeah, I think I how do I want to say this? I think that, yeah, so there's a way to set the table here right and to do that in sort of a charcuterie board way of like we can build it out where there's a little bit of something for everyone. The plant can show up in multiple formats. I think that edibles are very useful for a lot of people, because I just think it's a low barrier of entry. Right tree, right Beverages, edibles we know how to eat, we know how to drink.
Speaker 2:Not everybody knows how to roll a joint. Not everybody knows how to interact with a plant, not everybody knows even what part of the plant we're supposed to consume, right, so there's a lot of education. You don't need a lot of education to open up a can to drink something. You don't need a lot of education to open up a package and take a gummy, so long as you follow the instructions, so long as there's clear labeling about. The single serving is actually like one quarter of this bar, not the whole bar, because I think that that's where we were getting a lot of, you know, a little bit of a bad rap in terms of the industry, because new and novice consumers are not paying attention to the details.
Speaker 2:Not all of us read the instruction manual when we take something out of the box. Right, we are a little we're a little caveman about it. You know we're plugging things in, we're hitting all the buttons, we're just trying to get things to work. So I think that there's a little bit of a slowing down here. So when I say start low and go slow. Some of this is also about like educating yourself and taking that pause in that moment to understand what your options are and like what you're supposed to do one, two and three in order to have the best experience possible with this thing, this new fun toy that you have, whether it's an edible or a drink or whatever right.
Speaker 1:I really like the Shakurdu board analogy. I can really get behind that. So because it is nice to have it is nice to have options, yeah. Yeah. Now North Blue Magazine focuses on women over 35 and cannabis wellness. As I understand it, Are there unique challenges that women in this demographic face when it comes to cannabis.
Speaker 2:Well, I think, if we talk about all the hats that we wear as women right, whether it's business, whether it's relationships, whether it's social the big one too, too, for me, is parenting and parenthood and being a mother. I think there's a lot of stigma around that in terms of wanting to maybe interact with a plant incorporated into your world, and what are people going to say? What are people going to do? Is this legal? Is this not legal? Are there going to be repercussions or consequences for me? Am I going to have child and family services showing up if they find out that I'm consuming? When is it acceptable for me to consume? When is it not acceptable?
Speaker 2:There's a lot of ask, your girlfriend whisper in the ear, kind of guidance that we're trying to be mindful of as we're having these conversations, and I think, ultimately, my goal with this magazine is to make things less weird, especially for women in terms of consumption. So this is a ask, a question, get feedback, but also really see a visible presence of other women using the plant, having a high knowledge around the plant, giving guidance around the plant. So in the magazine I have a fellow CG writing about how to incorporate it through edibles.
Speaker 2:So we always have, you know, as a lifestyle magazine. We always have a recipe in the back incorporating the plant in some beautiful May, generally seasonally aligned, right, because, like I said, I'm very you know, this is my world natural foods, local, sustainable. You know, however, we can incorporate that in the magazine in a sensible way, that I'm trying to do that as well. I we have another fellow cg writing a column on parenting and plant consumption, to make it less weird, right, and to talk about it in gentle ways, and I think that some of the beautiful takeaways. So that's Elizabeth Sage and she's also based in Minnesota and, interesting fact she is, we'll call her. She's the. She's the matchmaker between my partner with Bloom and myself. So she, my partner, is Lynn Walkler. She's a board certified nurse practitioner.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, so very mindful of the fact of how we curate our content is, you know, through a highly credentialed list of subject matter experts. A lot of certified ganges are participating. A lot of clinicians that are training cannabis are participating. A lot of certified ganges are participating. A lot of clinicians that are training cannabis are participating. A lot of plant scientists and I'm mindful of the fact, too, that not everyone has a credential after their name, but they do have a high knowledge set. And so we're inviting voices from legacy and the unregulated space to come in as well, because I think the more diverse voices that we have between our folds, the more robust our conversation is, the more robust the education is and, honestly, we get to destigmatize a little bit too, with a general public who might still have, like I said, some, some war on drug ideas about you know what black market, what legacy, what unregulated still means it really isn't all that right. So you and I know that, um, I'm trying to, I'm trying to help the general public understand that as well.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I think through that female lens, though specifically, it's like it's, it's, it's those, it's those, it's, it's that parenting hat too. That's that I am just very mindful of because I have the luxury of having older children, so I really entered this space where I didn't have to worry about this. My kids were adults, almost. I think my youngest was maybe in high school finishing when I started in this industry, but that's not the case for all of our colleagues here, right? You know, I know that someone's, I know that specifically someone in my world has gotten a knock on their door from DCFS. So that's unnerving, unnerving, right. Yeah, it's unnerving to know that we have, we have legal, we have legality, but we don't have supports through statutes, right.
Speaker 1:So right, yeah, and I love that you mentioned about just showing other women consuming in a safe place, because I do feel like I, I tend to forget sometimes that there's so, so much stigma that exists because, like you, my kids are older and I don't really have to worry about that stuff now they don't really consume cannabis very often themselves, but I'm pretty much in the cannabis community, so it's easy for me to forget that there's still a ton of stigma out there, and I grew up in that DARE era, so I know the war on drugs and all the propaganda that was fed to us for so long, and some of that is so hard it's just just doesn't want to die.
Speaker 1:So I'm really happy to see that you are promoting this kind of example, and it is scary to think that somebody could call and you end up with somebody knocking on your door even though it's perfectly legal where you are. So I think that's it's really important to be talking about these things, and especially around cannabis wellness, because it's sort of a subject matter that I think makes it more approachable and therefore less something less, not something to worry about. I guess I'm not phrasing it in a very good way, but hopefully people understand what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I get exactly what you're saying. I, I, my word lately is weird. Like it's less weird, let's make it less weird.
Speaker 1:Okay, yes, yes, I should have just said that.
Speaker 2:Weird, weird, weird, weird doesn't have quite the negative connotation of stigma, right, or you know like to use your word, propaganda, but that's really what we were fed. You know I had DARE education embedded in my grammar school, like they literally came in and did that. You know, like a fifth, sixth grade, you know, kind of at the same timeframe, where they'd separate the males and females to do like sexual education. It's like, also, let's bring in the DARE education.
Speaker 2:It's's hard, it's part of our programming, right, and so that's that takes a. That takes like like it, almost like evolutionary years of of of washing that out and then rebuilding or flooding in the new information and allowing yourself to sort and separate and and really parse out what, what is true now for 2025 and also what is true for you, right, because it's all very personal, it's it's it's it's all personal choice. But my point is that the choice should be there, right, and the choice is not universally there for everyone. So, um, until we, until we get to that point legally, like then, then I will feel like I can exhale a little bit, because I feel like there's a lot of work to do and good work. I've been calling this like let's make some good trouble around this because we can have good conversations and robust conversations, but also let's continue to push it a little bit, because I no longer accept the word no, how's that Excellent.
Speaker 1:No, I love that. I love that. I think we could all do a little bit better with that as well. And you also touched on something a second ago about some of the legacy people that were involved with your magazine, because you're mentioning some certified ganges, some of whom I recognize the names of and I follow them online and they do amazing work. And you sent me some magazines. They are fantastic. I really enjoyed reading them. But North Bloom does emphasize protecting legacy growers and promoting craft cannabis. How important is this in terms of these players operating in a legal market?
Speaker 2:Well, I think that right now we're seeing, you know, in terms of how our licensure is divided up state by state there is a big push to support social equity applicants and so, especially at this time, if we just want to look at the state of Minnesota that we're trying to support with the launch of this first print publication, we are at this tipping point right when I've been saying this lately like everybody won their Willy Wonka ticket, right. But you know we have this disconnect of like they don't have all the supports that they need in place for those runways to get open and operational with a key and the lights on Right and for sales to begin. So there's a big disconnect here in terms of the matchmaking and the networking and the supporting and and the education for business owners as well too. You know we need more investors here. We need more cash for business owners as well too. You know we need more investors here. We need more cash. There needs to be more money facing this industry to help.
Speaker 2:Specifically, I would say what I want to, what I want to support, is the small businesses.
Speaker 2:You know we've had a first mover advantage across the United States with a lot of the MSOs, the multi state operators and they come into markets and it's really hard to compete with that when you're a single shingle on Main Street, right?
Speaker 2:So I think that's a little bit. What we represent at Bloom, too, is like the collection of voices in order for it to be a chorus, and the chorus is facing the public instead of it just facing industry, because we need the public to come here with their dollars. You know that's the long and the short of it for this to grow and for this to be a sustainable, especially for the small players. So, to draw those parallels between cannabis and other industries and you know I need to this has been a dense year, friend, in terms of like startup culture for me especially specifically, but you know I really want to do a lot more messaging around small business supports and getting people to pay attention to the little guys and gals who are working really hard to offer quality and differentiated offerings in their places. In our last print publication, the one that just dropped in August here, did I send you the one with the blue cover with the firefly on it? Did?
Speaker 1:you get that.
Speaker 2:Yes, okay, so our lead in article there for the listening section was someone who I consider a friend. Now See, this is interesting too. Right as we grow the magazine, I'm meeting all these small licensees. They call them micro licenses in Minnesota, so those are legally allowed to be vertically integrated and vertically operated. So from cultivation to retail, they get to do everything which is really unique, really, really unique, but also really challenging if you don't know how to do every single one of those steps in a build right. So you need to partner, you need to source out, you need to figure things out. I use a lot of language around sports to define what we're doing at Bloom. So I'm like team Bloom this and team Bloom that, and I feel like this is part of my team.
Speaker 2:Now, this expansion of these humans and I'd love to give Kenneth Littleton a shout out here. He's building a brand called Canon Gems and his story was really beautiful because he is your and I hate to use this term in a negative sense but the poster child, but he's a beautiful example of what a social equity applicant can look like child, but he's a beautiful example of what a social equity applicant can look like, what a human who has done time for the plant, can show up in this space in terms of what he wants to offer, what he wants to build, who he is now as a professional and a grown man, and how he wants to differentiate his offerings. And he said the inception just to share with with some of your listeners is you know, his mother was a consumer and he found in her jewelry box one day one of the buds that she was saving, and so it was probably a special cultivar, right, or a special special strain, or genetics, as we say right, that she was saving for a special occasion, much like we would save, like a nice bottle of champagne or, you know, an aged bottle of hard liquor, right, she was saving it for a special occasion and he thought that was beautiful. So his alignment was like I want to develop a whole line of genetics that sort of celebrates and draws that analogy between gemstones and the plant, so that we can start to educate consumers on the fact that, you know, just like consumer packaged goods, we have tiers of offerings here and there is just like, if you want to do a call out for alcohol, which I kind of hate doing because I think there's too many analogies between our industry and alcohol, and I think that we need to walk away from that a little bit, because alcohol and the plant are not the same, especially in terms of how our bodies use them or don't use them. Well, but we can use it the CPG analogy right there's a place for Budweiser and then there's a place for IPAs and microbrews and, interestingly enough, even though that price point is higher, that sector has grown gangbusters in the last 25 years, has it not?
Speaker 2:So I'd like to see that. I would really like to see that happen in our industry. I want to see cultivators, and a lot of these cultivators are coming from legacy. I want to see the equivalent of a cultivator that's getting headhunted from grow to grow like a celebrity chef. Would Do you know what I mean? That would be my ideal future. Yeah, headhunted from grow to grow like a celebrity chef would do you know what I mean? Like that's?
Speaker 1:that would be my ideal future?
Speaker 2:um, yeah, because there's skill and there's talent there, right so?
Speaker 1:yeah, I think that's beautiful too, because I think the small players and the craft cannabis folks definitely need that boost, because they are competing against huge corporations with endless budgets to advertise and promote and market their product.
Speaker 1:I know there's rules and regulations around what they can and can't do, but when you have that kind of money, you can also sometimes skirt around that legislation as well, because you can lawyer up when you need to or whatever. And like this example you gave of CannaGem, somebody who's really, you know, done so much for the plant by spending time in prison, like you mentioned, and now is producing something that he can be super proud of and putting that out to the market. And, like you said, craft beer in Ontario here has also exploded, but there's still always going to be people who want the Coors Light or the Budweiser or whatever. So there is space for everybody. But I feel like those micro cultivators really need the boost and I'd love to see that. So, which is interesting, because my next question for you is how do you see the future of cannabis and edibles playing out in medical cannabis, but also just in the mainstream cannabis market?
Speaker 2:Well, man, if we could, if we can get some rescheduling going in here in the United States, I think that, realistically, that's probably the next step. Instead of descheduling, take X pharmaceutical. Why don't you try to take this gentle, first step, very low side effect option called cannabis, edible, abc insert brand, whatever formulation for this symptom or this problem Like that's. That's what I would love to see, that's what I'm hoping I see on the medical side and honestly, on the medical side, what I'd like to see, too, is just a better expansion of offerings, because I think what we've seen in the United States, specifically medical programs that ramped up and that were launched first, had offerings for patients, but as the adult rec spaces come in legally, those offerings are diminished and that really leaves medical patients without choices and without options. So in a bifurcated system like this, where medical patients aren't necessarily going to adult rec to make their medicine purchases right For various reasons, one of them being taxation on top of the purchase price, I'd like to, I'd really like to encourage everyone here to really keep patients in mind, like that's why we have an industry it's the patients that help move the needle legislatedly.
Speaker 2:So like keep patients in mind and keep patients needs in mind and let's make sure that that our supply chain has options for them to. As we add all the fun stuff. For those of us facing the adult rec space with our dollars who probably are also using it for medical reasons, we're just not getting the label and the slip from the state.
Speaker 1:Right, that's a really good reminder too, because I can't think of a single place, I mean and there might be some, but that started with a recreational market. I'm pretty sure usually the launch pad is they start with a medical market and then they go to recreational after that. So that's a really good reminder Because, yeah, I think almost all cannabis is medicinal in some way anyway. So whether you're using it for specific ailment or not, that stress relief is pretty important too, so I can get behind that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cortisol. We're a generation that runs on cortisol.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, and whatever way you can find to lower that cortisol is going to be a healthier thing for you. Now, as someone who's been building a bridge between cannabis culture and mainstream wellness, how do you hope the North Bloom's legacy will be in terms of people, of how people think about and consume cannabis, and what's your vision for where cannabis might be in terms of people, of how people think about and consume cannabis, and what's your vision for where cannabis might be in 10 years?
Speaker 2:well, oh, I, I'm gonna. I'm gonna bring a super hyper local chicago reference in here. Um, second city is here. Stand-upup comedy and one of the foundational, fundamental things about improv and being on stage. It's like you don't take the comment from your neighbor on stage, your fellow performer, as a start or a stop point. It's a yes and right.
Speaker 2:So I see cannabis in the larger health and wellness conversation as a yes and not an either or a yes and and I'd like to think about this because we're in constant motion, right, individuals, society, industries. Let's think about this as a wheel. Cannabis is an essential spoke on that wheel. If not, the tire is not true, it's wobbly as hell, but that's how I'm trying to frame this conversation. Bloom, too, cannabis is an essential spoke and it's how we're kind of starting and launching and curating this conversation. I plan on expanding this conversation in terms of, you know, through those other health and wellness lenses. You know, because right now, in terms of us being a free quarterly, you know I'm facing industry for like, advertising and sponsorship support, but I would like to open this up to CPG and other natural products too. I think that my only hard and fast and true line is I probably won't partner with alcohol formulators, distributors, anybody. In terms of advertising support, this is a yes. And in terms of like, if this is beneficial to us, especially if it comes from Mother Nature and we haven't kind of screwed that up and like dumbing it down and breaking it down into pieces and then trying to build it back up into something that we think is smarter than her. Yeah, it's yes. And Cannabis and 10 years, I hope that you know.
Speaker 2:We will flip open a magazine like Bloom. We're looking to expand to and into other formats so that might look like broadcast, that might look like radio. We'll have to see. Like I just told you that I'm like, not no longer accepting the word no, so like, and this has been a big week with the fcc in in the united states because we just had a comedian get pulled off late night television. So, um, I want to be able to move this conversation forward. Like we said, let's make it less weird, let's widen it up. This is a yes and thing. I want you to be able to flip open a blue magazine. Or let's use a Martha and Snoop example. Right, you open a Martha Stewart living. We're talking about cannabis. We're open up an Oprah magazine. We're talking about cannabis. It's very relevant. Let's normalize it, let's talk about it, let's make it less weird.
Speaker 1:That's where I love that. That's such a that's such a great answer, and I wish you all the success in that. I think you're already doing a fantastic job, so this might be a good time to ask you where can people find North Bloom magazine?
Speaker 2:Thank you, margaret. So right now we are. We are hyperlocal, so we're within the state of Minnesota. We will be expanding to subscriptions. So you can reach out to us. If you're like chomping at the bit and you want us to mail you one right now, we can do that. But you can find us at wwwthenorthbloomcom, and you can also find us on socials, specifically meta platforms, so Instagram, at at the North bloom as well, and on LinkedIn. If you're in industry, you can find us at the North bloom magazine or bloom multimedia or me as well. Reach out, I'm open book and I'm willing to have a conversation with anybody that is facing in this direction of like lifting up an industry through kind of holding the hands with consumers right now and helping them level up in terms of their knowledge sets.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, thank you for that. I'll be sure to include all of those places to find you in the show notes, because I myself found you, I believe, first on Instagram myself, so definitely people should check you out. Now for my last question today, because I want to be mindful of your time, angelique. What would surprise people about you today? Cause I want to be mindful of your time, angelique what would surprise people about you.
Speaker 2:You know, you sent me the notes for our call and I I showed it to my husband and he he had a. He had a laundry list of hilarious things to share. Um, I think I want to circle back to the fact that I'm a team player. You know, I'm not someone building something here for myself. This is not a me situation, this is a we situation, a we weed situation. Right? So, like I said, I'm an open book. I'm an open book and I would. I'm, I love people and I love to hear stories and I think that there's a way to use that to build a lot of bridges here. So, yeah, not me, it's a we.
Speaker 1:I love that. I like the analogy rising tides lift all ships. That's how I like to operate, but that is wonderful, angelique. I think you're doing great work out in the world and people should check out North Blue Magazine. And with that I just want to thank you for your time today. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you, margaret. Thanks for having me on Bite Me. This was a pleasure and it's honestly I'm elated to meet you because you know, certified Ganges were scattered across the globe, so until we can all get together and share space, this was this, will have to do, this was this was this was a great stopgap. So thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Friends, I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. I will include the show notes of when to Find Angelique and North Bloom Magazine in the show notes, as usual. Please share this episode with someone as curious about cannabis as you are and join the Bite Me Cannabis Club at joinbitemecom. To continue the conversation and until next time, my friends, I'm your host, margaret Stay high.
