This is one of my favorite annual rituals. Drive all night to get to Indians Valley east of the Santa Lucia crest and the mountains above Big Sur. Set up camp next to the creek just off the tail – stumbling clumsily in the dark. Lay a tarp down in a rocky nook just south of the campgrounds. Get cozy in my bag. Go to sleep under a blazing sky full of stars. Wake up utterly transformed; surrounded by green grass and wildflowers, rocky outcroppings and mountains. Wild country as far as the eye can see. It’s how I know I’m home. Most of our Field Lab products are one-offs. They’re the place I can play. It’s my way of staying connected to the heart of what we do. While I’m grateful to make large batches of soap and essential oils; my heart still races when I think about distilling absolute essence of that day, that place, that trail.
Our Topanga Canyon Field Lab is a rotating project for us. It’s inspired by the phenomenal coastal bloom of California’s coastal mountains. These plants, and their wonderful sticky gooeyness, exist for me on an almost spiritual level. They keep calling me back, year after year. Each time I breathe this place in, I just want to share it with the whole world. Hummingbird Sage, Woolly Blue Curls, Sticky Monkey Flower, Mugwort, Sagebrush. These plants are so complex. They hunker down for eight months of the year, then burst to life when the rains swing by in winter. They go nuts– shooting up towards that psychedelic, deep blue, crisp astral sky. The air fills with delicious, intoxicating, floral, icky sticky nectar. It smells like love to me. Topanga Canyon is our attempt to bottle up that ephemeral moment of transcendence and heart. Wildharvested sustainably, as always. Every step done by us, as always. Blended and bottled to bring you here, my favorite dense, dank canyons of Southern California’s coast.
Purchase Topanga Canyon Field Lab.