Ayelet Salingar | Interview
Ayelet Salingar | The former Israeli turned California cannabis grower
Age: 29
Location: Northern California
What do you do for work?
I grow weed!
For fun?
I like to do Pilates, go to trance & techno parties in the community, and hang out by the river on really nice days.
What does a perfect river day look like for you?
A perfect day at the river will start around 12-1pm with an ice coffee, a rolled joint (probably 2), and some fruits and snacks ready to go. I usually go to the same spot, but this area is so full of water and there are trillions of options to explore. I go by myself or with friends and we’ll spend the hottest hours there, chilling in the shade and cooling off in the water. By 4:30-5 I’ll go back home to work in the garden again.
Currently listening to:
Actually right now, after spending some time in Mexico, I’m listening more to the sounds of the ocean, and sounds around town. I’m more tuned in to the sounds of my surroundings.
Joints, Blunts, Edibles, Glass, Wax? What’s your preferred way to consume Cannabis?
My favorite way to consume weed, probably until the day I die, is smoking it in a joint.
100% of the time I smoke them clean, only flowers. If I’m smoking hash, I mix it with this tobacco-free herbal mix with damiana, and passion flower, rose, watermint, licorice root, catnip, chamomile and sage. Oh catnip, that’s funny I didn’t know there was catnip in this.
I used to roll king size but now I’m rolling 1 ¼ and I usually won’t smoke the whole thing at once. One joint can take me through the day.
So you roll your own?
Yeah, I roll my own joints, and they’re nice and pretty. I’m very picky with my joints and the way they are rolled.
When did you start rolling?
It took some time to learn, but I’ve pretty much always rolled my own, because I wanted to learn, so I just started that way. And around the same time we were rolling tobacco too. So It was just natural.
Do you have any local 420 customs or personal rituals?
The yearly 4/20. I enjoy this day, and I will pay more attention to my smoking. Kind of like a “celebrate my smoking” kind of day. And in the afternoon if I hit 4:20 I’m usually like “ay, it’s time for a joint”.
I think I gained a lot of my smoking habits when I lived in Skagway, AK. I started smoking joints without tobacco there with my friends, so I feel like my smoking habits are actually more influenced by the American weed culture. Like my friend Robert was insistent on passing to the left, and smoking at 4:20.
Do you have a favorite strain?
I like the cakes. Usually, the uplifting sativas make me more social and better when I have to talk to other people. I used to have a strain called Birthday Cake. That was one of my favorites to smoke during the day. I can’t find it anymore though.
You’re a grower in Northern California, you’ve probably tried a lot of crazy weed things, what’s the strongest high you’ve experienced?
It was flower, kief and wax rolled into a blunt wrap with a glass tip and it came in a little glass tube sealed with red wax, I think it was called Wild Woods. I think that would be the most high and intense, but fun. It made me feel really good. Usually, those crazy combinations don’t make me feel good.
Favorite codeword for being high?
Haha, I don’t live in a place where you need any codewords for that because that’s the life we’re living. And everyone is pretty high here all day long.
Best/strangest stoned food combo?
One of my worst, but memorable combinations was being stoned and wanting snacks one day in Skagway. My friend Matthew and I were craving chips and salsa, but all we had was this Israeli pasta sauce jar. We ended up eating a whole bag of chips with that pasta sauce. It was terrible.
Probably my best, is a chocolate banana. You take a banana and then you dip it in melted chocolate and stick it in the freezer, it’s like ice cream!
Are you craving anything right now?
Probably ice cream because I’m on my moon right now, and I’m stoned and I know I bought some last night. It’s Biscoff lotus cookie flavor. I feel like Ice cream is a craving that will never go away.
Favorite cotton mouth remedy?
If it’s an emergency situation, I’ll grab a glass of water, but usually it’s a cup of tea or something cold like organic apple juice.
Favorite Stoner Movie?
Pineapple Express is a sentimental movie for me. I used to watch it all the time with my friends and I know all the words to it. And I like the Big Lebowski of course. White Russians all around.
Favorite cannabis accessory?
Yeah, I like my joint keeper. It’s a sealed plastic tube, so you can keep it nice and clean, and then when you’re done if you don’t want to make a mess you can put it back in the tube, and it goes out. This one is specifically from Israel. It has some cool art on it.
Any funny stories trying to buy weed in the past?
I did some shady drives with my friends to some shady places in the north of Israel to get our hands on a few nugs for a ridiculous price.
What’d you buy?
Grams of weed. Or hash, hash was very cheap back then compared to the flowers. This was about 10 years ago, the flowers used to have seeds, and not the best. They would only tell you if it was indica or sativa and they probably just made that part up. It would get us funny stoned though and that’s what we’d want as kids.
Share one of your fondest High memories.
I don’t know if it’s talking to you and all the talk about Skagway, but all the memories that are coming up are from Alaska.
It was before I took my plane from Juneau, and I was leaving Alaska. I pre rolled a bunch of joints to take with me because I was spending the night with my friends in Juneau before flying out the next day. Right before we were going to get on the flight. My friend Becky (who doesn’t even smoke) said, “Don’t you have one more joint in your bag still?” So I stood outside the Juneau airport and smoked the whole thing. She did come outside with me and keep me company though. Then I got paranoid right as we went through security, they even did a powder check on my hands. But once we were in the air. It was amazing. I was so stoned when the plane took off, I felt like I was a kid on a roller coaster! It was like that fun fear. Then, you’re flying and you see beautiful Alaska under you.
Dead or Alive: Your Ultimate Smoke Sesh Guest List:
I feel like I have to say the obvious…Snoop Dogg. I think I’d like to get stoned with one of the geniuses like Einstein or Newton. One of the hardcore brains of the old time. Before there was fake news and science was about everything. Just to know how they used to know, you know? Maybe with some native shamans too, like the old old geniuses. And some badass women, like my grandmas. Just because it would be really cool to sit with them now that I’m a woman.
