FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – For the last nine years, the Sisters of the Valley have been making CBD products that they claim help treat everything from chronic pain to panic attacks.
Even though these nuns aren’t tied to any religion, their mission is to help people.
“We say we are a new age order of nuns, we aren’t affiliated with any traditional religion. We live together, work together, pray together, make jobs,” said Sister Kate, who is the founder of Sisters of the Valley.
While some may think these nuns are smoking weed all day, which they do partake in, what they do require is much more work and dedication.
“Because we are related to the cannabis plant, people think we are all about stoner culture and getting stoned or that we know Snoop Dogg first hand, but it’s not about that,” said Sister Kate.
At any given time, there will be four to six nuns living on the one-acre property taking on different roles.
Together they grow and cultivate cannabis to use in several of their CBD products which they sell online.
“The medicines we work with have no psychotropics in them. They are all just functional CBD hemp, and the mushrooms we work with are functional mushrooms,” said Sister Kate.
Their top seller is a tropical salve that was made to help treat achy joints but now has several different uses.
The Sisters of the Valley also make and sell oils and gel caps used to treat pain, and recently started selling mushroom coffee which works to help mood stabilization and brain clarity.
Sister Hala became involved in 2019. She now helps make medicine and handles customer service.
“Right now is harvest season so we’ve all been busy doing that and a variety of things, trimming, medicine, shipping,” said Sister Hala.
For many of the Sisters, it’s not just about what they do, it’s who they do it with.
“It’s incredible, being with a group of like-minded women who are trying to help make positive change in the world,” said Sister Hala.
Some sisters like Sister Camilla come from other countries to learn from Sister Kate.
“I wanted to start a business in Mexico of cannabis, but I wanted to learn more and I wanted a mentor to teach me the right way,” said Sister Camilla.
Sister Camilla now runs “Las Hermanas de Valle” and is one of several Sisters of the Valley that are now all over the world, including New Zealand, Sweden and Humboldt, aiming to bring the healing power of cannabis to as many people as they can.
To become a Sister, the process takes about two years during which both parties get to know one another before a decision is made.
Each sister then receives a name from a famous reformer in history, which pays tribute to the roots of activism upon which the Sisters of the Valley were founded.
“Part of what we do is activism, part of our culture is teaching our young sisters to hold their politicians accountable for what they do and don’t do, so this whole culture is multi-threaded and I can’t imagine doing anything else, anything else would feel flat now,” said Sister Kate.
Sisters of the Valley was birthed out of the Occupy movement, during which the founder, Sister Kate declared herself a nun as an act of protest.
For the next four years, she would spend most of her time protesting what she calls the injustices of America across the Central Valley.
“As I was on that mission, I started to grow flowers in an organic way and at the end of that, the natural result was organizing that into a sisterhood,” said Sister Kate.
Today she hopes to help as many people as she can through what she calls the healing power of cannabis.
