When did it all begin for the ‘Cheese Strain’?
The legendary strain that is ‘Cheese’ has an interesting history, and it all happened here, in the UK.
Back in the 1980’s a group of ravers and cannabis fans calling themselves The Exodus Collective discovered they had an exceptional individual plant when they grew out some Skunk #1 seeds.
The Exodus Collective lived in a squatted Manor House just outside Luton where they were in the habit of growing plenty of weed. HAZ Manor as it was called was a hub for the free party scene along with an enthusiastic involvement in the campaign for the legalisation of pot.
It was the Exodus Collective sound system, on the back of an ex-army Bedford truck, which led the legalisation marches through Brixton to Brockwell Park in South London in the early noughties.
Word of this Exodus strain spread through the cannabis community reaching the ears, and lungs, of Milo, a talented grower and breeder from Birmingham.
A Cheese unleashed
At this time the seed market was in its infancy and many growers exchanged cuttings, rather than growing from seed.
It was 2002 when Milo, via contacts at the legendary UK based publication Red Eye Express obtained a cheese cutting.
He crossed the female Cheese clone with a high-yielding Afghani male already in his collection. The Afghani itself came from a large shipment that entered the UK during the 1980’s. Milo had acquired a number of these seeds and grew out and selected a particularly vigorous male.
Milo crossed the Afghan male with the Exodus cutting, stabilising and perfecting the strain, before going on to produce the first Cheese seeds.
In 2005 Big Buddha Seeds launched with Cheese as their only strain. In the process they became the first to bring Cheese to the UK seed market. They quickly followed up with another killer strain – Blue Cheese.
A year later Big Buddha’s Cheese strain scooped the Best Indica prize at the 19th High Times Cannabis Cup. As if that wasn’t enough they also took 3rd place in the best Sativa award with Blue Cheese. A feat made all the more remarkable by the fact that this was a time when the Cannabis Cup was dominated by Dutch companies.
Cheese is now ubiquitous, appearing in most seed companies catalogue and has been crossed with just about every other strain out there.
Cheese, along with strains like White Widow, Blueberry, AK47 and Amnesia has entered the Pantheon of legendary cannabis strains, and deservedly so.
The post The History of… Cheese Cannabis Seeds appeared first on Freedom Seeds.
