Germany: An Unexpected Place to Realize I’m a Hippie

Over the last few years, I’ve become more and more of a hippie. I guess I’ve always kind of known, in a way. (When I was six, I went vegetarian for a year without anyone suggesting I do so. Perhaps, like so much else, it’s nature, not nurture.) But lately, these tendencies, shall we call them, have become stronger. I’ve gone from being your typical vegetarian with an interest in organic food production to a farm-hopping nomadic vegetarian meditator with interests in things like consciousness raising and chakras.

Yet, somehow, I was still surprised when, after visiting the TeeGeschwendner headquarters outside Cologne, I found myself visiting an organic farm in central Germany to research marijuana.

You see, although I’m becoming more and more of a hippie, I am not now (nor have I ever been) a pot smoker. So going to a farm to learn about the healing powers of one of the most loved and hated plants in the world? Unexpected. For sure.

But beyond the surface level, it makes perfect sense for me to end up here. I came to learn about how non-THC hemp is made into marijuana “tea” — herbal infusions made of either the leaves or the flowers of the hemp plant. I got to interview a producer of marijuana tea about how he grows, harvests and dries his pot leaves and flowers into tea. I got to visit fields of a plant that, like tea, many consider to be an entheogen — a substance that generates the divine within. And, last night, I got to try marijuana tea in both its leaf and flower forms. (I know what you’re wondering. No, it doesn’t get you high. And yes, it actually does taste pretty good.)

A little later today, I will continue my journey to learn about other herbal infusions in other European countries. But for now, I am happy to chill out on an organic farm in Germany with great people, amazing tea (my own stash) and some good herb (of the drinking variety, that is).