Grow
LADY OF HASHISH
Tue, Mar 25, 2003 12:00 am
Interview by Dan Skye
Mila has been on the cutting edge of hash-making technology for a decade, and the Pollinator Company, based in Amsterdam, has become the premier outlet for prospective hash-makers worldwide.
HT.COM BONUS: Check out all the hash from this year's Cannabis Cup in the HIGH TIMES photo gallery.
HT: The Pollinator Company has been running strong since 1994. What led you to start a business?
Mila: Survival and wanting to give people an opportunity to make their own hash, as I loved it so much.
What is your personal background?
Middle class. My parents traveled quite a bit. I never finished high school; I had my first daughter instead. In the ’60s, I ran the Tea House in Amsterdam, which gave people a place to relax who were uninterested in the local tourism scene. But complaints from the landlord and police about exotic-looking people forced me to close. I hitchhiked to India with Miloes, my oldest daughter. We stayed for three beautiful blissful years, living like sadhus in the temples half the time. Returning in ’71, I got married and realized I wanted to bring up my children in India. In fact, Lali, my youngest daughter, was born there in 1974, away from TV sets and everything that they stand for. So we all lived there. I also have two sons, born in 1972 and 1977—Merl and Chimed.
When did you first get involved with the cannabis industry?
Through smoking in 1964. I learned how to make hash while living in the Himalayas between 1968 and 1980. I found that the techniques for making hashish were distinct to each area. After returning to Amsterdam in 1988, I found that most cannabis users smoked marijuana, and there was very little good hashish available, so we set about trying to make our own.
The big breakthrough for you was the Pollinator. How did that come about?
All household equipment inspired me. Working around the house as a mum does, I used dryers, buckets, mixers, washing machines, and so forth. It seemed to me that the technology used in a washing machine could remove resin glands from leaf material easily. In 1992, we built our own hash machine. It didn't get the name Pollinator until 1994, when we started to produce them. When I invented it, it was the first modern machine designed for the production of hashish.
How does it work?
It’s a dry method of resin-gland separation, which contains a removable drum that is opened for the insertion of the leaf material. Several horizontal rods inside aid the tumbling effect. You close the drum and place it back inside the Pollinator. Then you turn on the switch—it runs on electricity. Low temperature and humidity are crucial when using it, because they enhance the yield and the quality. The main concern is extracting the resin glands from the plants efficiently and cleanly.
What makes smoking resin a superior smoking experience?
Resin is a much purer THC product. One does not have to smoke what amounts to ninety-five percent plant matter. So the high is just very clear.
You also pioneered the Ice-O-Lator process. What’s that?
The Ice-O-Lator is a quick and efficient method of making hashish, and involves using water, ice, and filter bags. The Ice-O-Lator is so very pure, I feel certain it will find its place in medicinal cannabis.
What makes your product worthwhile?
They make something wonderful out of what people throw away. Hashish is my favorite drug of choice—my preventative medicine actually. Being the first industrial way to collect pollen is immensely important for the industry. Up until the Pollinator, only thousand-year-old techniques had ever been used. It was a huge step forward. In our ads we used to say, “Trash to Stash.” Now it has become to the title of a book.
Some people are claiming that they are the inventor or originator of the Ice-O-Lator hash-making bags. Is that true?
I cannot imagine who [laughing]—certainly not our friend Mark from Bubble Bags. The only people who were ahead of me were Sam the Skunkman and the inventor of the Extractor, a big expensive machine, but the first to use a screen and water and ice.
If competitors come up with their own ideas and techniques, I can fully respect their creativity, but I do get tired of people who just copy my ideas and then make a big show as if they invented it.
What other products do you sell?
Everything to do with making hash. Books, seeds, and hemp products. Mushroom grow kits, paraphernalia. We also run the Hemp Hotel, where we show all the other uses of the wonderful hemp plant. After all, there are enough coffeeshops. In summer we have a plant in each room by the window. Lali manages the Hemp Hotel and Chimed works in the Pollinator Company. He wrote a very instructive book, The Altered Consciousness Cookbook, which we sold and so helped pay for his philosophy studies in university. I’m very happy with all my children and proud of them.
How do Dutch cannabis business owners view the American scene where penalties for marijuana use are harsh?
It’s so tragic. I wonder how that ever came about. The sad thing is that US policy is catching on over here, and more and more the laws are changing for the worse.
The Pollinator Company, Cornelis Trootstraat 37, 1072 JB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; phone, (011) 31-20-470-8889; pollinator.nl
Mila has been on the cutting edge of hash-making technology for a decade, and the Pollinator Company, based in Amsterdam, has become the premier outlet for prospective hash-makers worldwide.
HT.COM BONUS: Check out all the hash from this year's Cannabis Cup in the HIGH TIMES photo gallery.
HT: The Pollinator Company has been running strong since 1994. What led you to start a business?
Mila: Survival and wanting to give people an opportunity to make their own hash, as I loved it so much.
What is your personal background?
Middle class. My parents traveled quite a bit. I never finished high school; I had my first daughter instead. In the ’60s, I ran the Tea House in Amsterdam, which gave people a place to relax who were uninterested in the local tourism scene. But complaints from the landlord and police about exotic-looking people forced me to close. I hitchhiked to India with Miloes, my oldest daughter. We stayed for three beautiful blissful years, living like sadhus in the temples half the time. Returning in ’71, I got married and realized I wanted to bring up my children in India. In fact, Lali, my youngest daughter, was born there in 1974, away from TV sets and everything that they stand for. So we all lived there. I also have two sons, born in 1972 and 1977—Merl and Chimed.
When did you first get involved with the cannabis industry?
Through smoking in 1964. I learned how to make hash while living in the Himalayas between 1968 and 1980. I found that the techniques for making hashish were distinct to each area. After returning to Amsterdam in 1988, I found that most cannabis users smoked marijuana, and there was very little good hashish available, so we set about trying to make our own.
The big breakthrough for you was the Pollinator. How did that come about?
All household equipment inspired me. Working around the house as a mum does, I used dryers, buckets, mixers, washing machines, and so forth. It seemed to me that the technology used in a washing machine could remove resin glands from leaf material easily. In 1992, we built our own hash machine. It didn't get the name Pollinator until 1994, when we started to produce them. When I invented it, it was the first modern machine designed for the production of hashish.
How does it work?
It’s a dry method of resin-gland separation, which contains a removable drum that is opened for the insertion of the leaf material. Several horizontal rods inside aid the tumbling effect. You close the drum and place it back inside the Pollinator. Then you turn on the switch—it runs on electricity. Low temperature and humidity are crucial when using it, because they enhance the yield and the quality. The main concern is extracting the resin glands from the plants efficiently and cleanly.
What makes smoking resin a superior smoking experience?
Resin is a much purer THC product. One does not have to smoke what amounts to ninety-five percent plant matter. So the high is just very clear.
You also pioneered the Ice-O-Lator process. What’s that?
The Ice-O-Lator is a quick and efficient method of making hashish, and involves using water, ice, and filter bags. The Ice-O-Lator is so very pure, I feel certain it will find its place in medicinal cannabis.
What makes your product worthwhile?
They make something wonderful out of what people throw away. Hashish is my favorite drug of choice—my preventative medicine actually. Being the first industrial way to collect pollen is immensely important for the industry. Up until the Pollinator, only thousand-year-old techniques had ever been used. It was a huge step forward. In our ads we used to say, “Trash to Stash.” Now it has become to the title of a book.
Some people are claiming that they are the inventor or originator of the Ice-O-Lator hash-making bags. Is that true?
I cannot imagine who [laughing]—certainly not our friend Mark from Bubble Bags. The only people who were ahead of me were Sam the Skunkman and the inventor of the Extractor, a big expensive machine, but the first to use a screen and water and ice.
If competitors come up with their own ideas and techniques, I can fully respect their creativity, but I do get tired of people who just copy my ideas and then make a big show as if they invented it.
What other products do you sell?
Everything to do with making hash. Books, seeds, and hemp products. Mushroom grow kits, paraphernalia. We also run the Hemp Hotel, where we show all the other uses of the wonderful hemp plant. After all, there are enough coffeeshops. In summer we have a plant in each room by the window. Lali manages the Hemp Hotel and Chimed works in the Pollinator Company. He wrote a very instructive book, The Altered Consciousness Cookbook, which we sold and so helped pay for his philosophy studies in university. I’m very happy with all my children and proud of them.
How do Dutch cannabis business owners view the American scene where penalties for marijuana use are harsh?
It’s so tragic. I wonder how that ever came about. The sad thing is that US policy is catching on over here, and more and more the laws are changing for the worse.
The Pollinator Company, Cornelis Trootstraat 37, 1072 JB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; phone, (011) 31-20-470-8889; pollinator.nl