Written by Branna Bell
Meet Alana AKA Lala. She runs a women owned grow in Oklahoma City. She’s got a big heart, loves to learn new things and loves the land and mother nature hard. When you go through a lot in life, from a young age, people seem to have lived several lives and have so much depth to them. I love talking to individuals that have lots of love in their eyes, they speak with passion, have lots of knowledge and skill and they care about their own growth.
To get to know Lala better, she shared her heart with me in how she was raised and what life was like in Chicago, NYC and California all the way to the land of Oklahoma. Her mother is from Chicago, which is where she was born and raised. This influenced her draw to diversity, good food and a blue collar lifestyle. Lala’s father is from Brooklyn and she moved with him to the New York City metropolitan area when she was 15. As she describes it, life was fast, and they were left as kids to roam the streets, taking the train into the heart of downtown and interesting eclectic neighborhoods. Lala said with that, of course, came trouble!
“I LOVE BOOKS!! Right now, I am reading Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. Cannabis grow life relates SO much to kitchen/chef life. The outcasts and the rejects who couldn’t or didn’t want to make it in the “normative” world in suits behind desks. As he puts it, “We probably got into the business in the first place because interacting with normal people in a normal work space was impossible or unattractive to us. Many of us don’t know how to behave in public — and don’t care to find out.” Anthony is such an incredible writer and relatable artist who I believe saw behind the curtain, so to say. His documentary actually made me cry”
City life was rough, and it felt like you always had to watch your back so you didn’t get jumped or get your bag snatched. This taught me to be aware and observant of my surroundings, which I believe is one way that helps me have such a great relationship with my plants. Always noticing their cues and adjusting my behavior to give into their optimal needs”. With inner city life there was affluence, but then there was the polar opposite. Alana says that a lot of her friends came from dysfunctional families. Drug use was rampant and they struggled with addiction. A lot of people didn’t make it, some did and watching their recovery journey was something you never get over. Cannabis, the healing and loving plant that she is, was always there. “It helped bring a lot of us interesting characters together, soothe our souls and it created a culture of people connecting over herb and the real life struggles that will always be in the foundation of who I am. ”
Lala mentioned that lately, she’s been trying to re-discover what it is she does for fun. I can personally relate to that sometimes too, with seasons and the ebbs and flow of life we go through. For the last 8 years of her life, if she wasn’t traveling, she was working on land based projects, homesteading, growing food for the community and trying to live a more regenerative, simple life. Her last project before coming to OKC, she managed a two acre homestead and an old Chicken Shack cannabis grow that she built from the foundation up in coastal California. I always love a hard working woman who identifies with and loves the land. Finding new herbs to connect with and preserving food with all different kinds of methods, was absolutely thrilling to her.
“My favorite herb changes every season when I get to build a new relationship with whatever herb makes it my way for that growing year. Lately, nettles have been near and dear to me. I brought seeds from a wild patch I would tend to out in California and never would have thought they. would do well here in Oklahoma. They usually grow near creeks and wet areas and they like their moisture. One seed I had haphazardly thrown into a bed took off last summer and now I have a beautiful patch I harvest regularly. Fresh for soups or dried for my daily herbal teas. Nettles are so important for us as they contain so many minerals, nutrients and polyphenols.”
“Learning to get more comfortable in the kitchen preparing meals from farm fresh ingredients with friends, along with the alchemy of cooking with people is something I find enchanting. I was working toward my life vision without the noisy drum and exhaustion of city life. Back to ze roots!” When they weren’t on the farm, they were swimming and floating rivers on her packraft or hiking mountains. Now, living and running a 120 light facility in a city with a small team is making Lala look at her life a little differently. She currently helps manage the Partner Farmer program at Commonwealth Urban Farms. They focus on community abundance: using gardening and the commonality of food as a means of connecting neighbors and enlivening the local community. They grow vegetables, micro greens and cut flowers for individuals and restaurants in the metro area. They also offer workshops and service /learning events on gardening, composting and urban farming. They are passionate about building a sustainable society, and believe that local food is a key part of what makes a community healthy and resilient.
Alana says that it’s a way for her to continue her passions, while now living and working in a city. But, then it’s easy to hit burnout! She expresses that farming 6-7 days a week and trying to keep up with the grow, cannabis legislation, the ever changing laws around her business, marketing, sales, etc. She had to ask herself, “Do I really want to take the small time I get away from the grow (sometimes it’s just a half of a day) to keep growing? All I do is grow and produce, and as much as I love it I am missing some free time for play, dancing, creating and just hanging around with friends!” Her inspiration most definitely comes from the plants and people she can connect with, about them. Lala’s main goal coming to OKC was to save money to secure a property where they can once again do it all in one space, share fun and responsibilities with friends and family on the land!
“I can truly embrace my divine feminine in the garden! Tending and nurturing plants, deciding to impromptu nap under the plum tree and devour fruits, laying around with
girlfriends blazing a doobie and sharing heartfelt stories about trauma and happiness,
tears emerging with all the feelings felt and embraced. I nourish my inner child with PLAY! Playing on the river, singing out loud, dancing with friends under a full moon, stretching, doing yoga, gathering with women and pulling tarot cards. Play is so important and I hope to have some more time soon!”
Banana Seat Botanicals is a woman owned grow here in Oklahoma and the way it came into fruition has been organic, while listening to her intuitive feelings and following the guidance. This vision came to fruition after she lost her second grow, mid-covid era. Her partner owned the land and had a different vision for the future of the property, while simultaneously a good friend got her excited about how inviting the Oklahoma medical scene was. One thing led to another and it all fell into place. Organic food and things organically falling into place are literally some of the best things for you.
“My journey into growing cannabis came from this innate desire to get back to the land. I was over the struggle of the concrete jungle, feeling like it cost money just to leave my apartment. Feeling unfulfilled by just another night out partying. Consumerism at its finest,is illustrated perfectly in cities, especially NYC. The lifestyle was not aligning with what was starting to feel important to me. Having a desire to get closer to our food systems and nature is what started my journey out west! (That and all the hippies having all the fun! I had to let my freak flag fly barefoot in the dirt. Ha!) I had to get closer to the farmers and get my hands in the soil to start healing some generational trauma. Once out west, the whole world of cannabis opened her sticky arms to me and held me close!! She was always there for me, of course she would guide my path. I dove deep into communal living, tending to land and cannabis was a perfect plant to provide me with the life I desired most!”
Her love for food, herbs and plants has guided her from one place to another, connecting the dots along the way. Lala mentions that although her family was poor, they were rich in the culture they kept with them, which brings a different perspective to your life and how you live it. Her mother is Greek and her father Italian, and although a lot more mixed in, she said they really identified with those heritages. With those cultures, came food! As Lala says, “Sunday sauce!” Her grandfather was always cooking for her when he was alive. He went to the grocery store daily for the “freshest” ingredients. With her grandpa influencing her life with good food, she just had that taste on her tongue and then she needed to find out where to get the REAL food.
Cannabis was her first herb love affair! Growing up with friends that also had dysfunctional families, cannabis brought them together and she really believes they used her as medicine to heal parts of them that they didn’t even know were healing at the time. As kids who stick together, Lala said they made rituals around consuming, along with guidelines and many tears shed, just processing all the feelings cannabis helped us feel. It’s always best to talk and process things, rather than compartmentalizing in your mind and creating a mess. To this day, she never thought she would have been guided to this path. “Cannabis literally led me here to OKC, led me to help tend to mama earth and my spirit along with it. She is really a miracle plant!
Scan the QR code for
more of Lala on The
Cannabis Hangout
Podcast.
