Hi JessE,
I've never had any contact with you and have no axe to grind with anyone. I just think its important that you understand how many UK growers have an intimate knowledge of Cheese and therefore can spot a true cheese and a fake very quickly. I have been wined and dined on the real cheese for the past 8+years (unfortunately!) and know the difference between genuine and fake. In fact I've had cheese that many times that I now avoid it wherever possible as I'm utterly bored by it. That sentiment applies to a lot of others in the UK who are literally cheesed out.
This is a great thread discussing an important topic. However I think a distinction needs to be made between Cheese the plant and Cheese the phenomonen, where one is a much loved variety for some and the other is an opportunity to hype a different strain to make money based on a name.
Keep it green,
TGM.
Yeah, I know a few people who have literally paid all the bills and made a living out of Cheese for a decade, before that picture Jesse loves to use as 'evidence' was ever posted.
Let's get the timeline right here, when exactly did 'cheesey' post that Kachina pic? 2002 I think.
Let me see, when was the first time I smoked Cheese... I'm a northerner and Cheese was a southerner thing, but it was before I first signed up to a grow forum in 2004.
hazyfontazy had the cheese cut before me and grew little else for many years, I first got it in 2004 so hazy had it before that, I reckon hazy must have had it before 'cheesey' ever shot that pic.
Brightside had the Cheese cut in the late 90s, I know other people who managed to squeeze one out of Exodus in the late 90s as well.
So, a rough timeline:
1988 - Cheese first grown from seed
1995 - Cheese passed to Exodus
2002 - 'cheesey' posts pic of Kachina online
2004 - Big Buddha gets hold of the Exodus Cheese cutting
2005 - Big Buddha releases Cheese seeds
2005 - onwards a ton of bullshit and myth about Cheese starts, before this there was none, just one cut that everyone wanted because it brought the top price on the market in bud form and a lot of people (including at least three people in this thread) made a good living off it.
2010 - some utter fuckwit called Jesse takes the fictions about Cheese to a whole new level and manages to piss off the entire UK grow community in the process.
There's a lot more names and facts and places and times I could mention but not in public, the UK grow community is fairly small and we all know each other pretty much, if we were all sat in a room somewhere private together we could, of course name names and times and places and really lock down with total certainty what happened but when we are online, in public with dangerous fuckwits like Jesse around we have to be more circumspect.
Where's Shanti, hazyfontazy gave him a fat Cheese bud at the Telford Expo in 2007, I was stood next to him when he handed it over, I'll never forget hazy waving his carrier bag under shanti's nose so the pungent cheese odour invaded his nostrils. Big Buddha was there that day, he had a stall at the Expo. I can't remember exactly but I think hazy gave Howard some Cheese that day too, I seem to recall us intercepting Howard as he crossed the hall and a choice Cheese bud being palmed. That part of the country is rife with Cheese, I know of at least 6 people who live within 20 miles of there who were growing Cheese at the time, I expect the pockets of Howard's jacket were full of cheesy buds by the end of that day. We even went outside with Shanti, Gerrit and a few others to smoke some Cheese while Howard was talking to the audience inside. In short, there are many people here who know the Cheese well...
Anyways, seems we're all on the same track with Cheese, that it's just a skunk #1 that had an unusual smell/taste profile and became associated with the Exodus Collective then was shared around by Brightside, shanti thought it was very similar to Garlic Bud, it's still very popular and very widely held but more and more the commercial bods aren't growing it because it takes longer, doesn't yield as much and is trickier to grow than the Blue Cheese that is all the rage now. Still wet barely smokeable 45 day 1.3g for 20 quid bags of Blue Cheese are sadly very common on the street in the UK and is what a lot of people are smoking these days if they don't have a connection to a smaller grower who cares about quality.