OREGON LEAF
THE STRAINS & GENETICS ISSUE
INTERVIEW by SIMONE FISCHER | PORTRAIT by @BERMANPHOTOS
When did you start growing? Matt: I started officially growing for medical patients in 2007 with 36 plants, and expanded the following year to 96 plants, the biggest garden in Takilma and the greater area for that matter, at the time. My dad, Matthew Chalon Miller, went to prison for 18 months in 1999 for growing Cannabis. That was in impressionable experience for myself as the eldest of eight that drove to Coos Bay every other Sunday to see him. He died from a heart attack in 2015, while doing his pack-test for wild land firefighting. Rhea: We are both second-generation growers, learning mostly from our fathers. And what’s super cool is since the industry has become legal, we’ve been able to teach them a thing or two!
I understand your late father was around for the legendary creation of Jager. How did Jager come to be? Rhea: Jager was born in 2009 in Takilma, Oregon. Takilma is a small, hippy community outside of Cave Junction, known since the 70s for some of the highest grade Cannabis in the nation. Matt: I got Hindu Kush seeds from the Farmacy in California. I was getting into cross-pollination and exploring genetics at the time, while trying to find a strain that would set me aside from everybody else. But most of all, the high and the terpene profile I was chasing was gas and purps terps, like Purple Urkle. Sour Diesel was my favorite strain of all time and I wanted something semi-sour like that too. I needed a strain that would stand out in a competitive market. I popped 30 different strains, with five up-to 30 seeds of each strain. Once I began, I was really surprised with how much irregularity there was in the phenos once the seeds popped. I planted all of my Hindu Kush seeds I had in the pack. I liked the variance because it’s like a mystery that never stops giving. It’s a true hunt to find the perfect pheno. It’s a real adrenaline rush! It’s like gold-panning with plants. I wanted to see what the best was for myself. I was, and still am, very passionate about discovering the best phenos in strains. After I cracked all of my Hindu seeds, I crossed the specific pheno that I felt was the one back onto itself, which gave us the Jager.
Was there any push back from the Cannabis community or the company Jägermeister?
Getting a whiff of some Jager
Millerville Farms
MATT MILLER S I G N AT U R E S T R A I N : J A G E R
Soon after the strain’s birth, Jager quickly became a staple crop among full-season (outdoor) southern Oregon growers. Jager prefers natural sun, plus she has a hearty resistance against molds and mildews to boot. The Jager pheno-expressions are cloaked in deep purple hues, with a sour but earthy-anise aroma. Naturally, Jager became popular among Oregon growers, even prior to the start of rec sales. Jager creator Matt Miller and CEO Rhea Miller of OLCC-licensed Millerville Farms break down one of the finest strains to emerge out of Oregon.
42/jan. 2018 FACEBOOK.COM/NWLEAF
Matt: I’ve been drinking Jägermeister for some time, and I was passionate about drinking my Jäger. I was doing a lot of Jäger bombs back when we were in cross-pollination during the creation of the strain. My brother and I were wrestling on the porch, and things got heated. Once we calmed down after the fight, we decided to roll one up to keep the peace. We all picked our own smoke, and I rolled up what was to be the strain we dubbed Jägermeister. I told my brother, “It’s like Jäger in a bottle, and Jäger in a spliff!” and that’s how we named it. It was all medical back then, so this was before legalization and branding. We called it Jägermeister in the early medical days, but a dispensary in southern Oregon got a cease-and-desist from the Jägermeister company. We personally have never been contacted by the company—ever. But to protect ourselves, we changed the strain name from “Jägermeister” to “Jager” to prevent legal action. Rhea: Back in the medical days, there was pushback from the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP) community because we named Cannabis after an alcohol. But the complaints were pretty minor. To this day, especially after going legal, we don’t hear as much, if any, opposition anymore.
Why do you think people conflate your strain Jager with the strain Purple Hindu Kush? Can you set the record straight on the subject? Rhea: Purple Hindu Kush and Jager are not the same thing. I’m not sure why people think it’s the same genetic. Both Jager and Purple Hindu Kush come from the same origins, but they are completely different phenos. Think of it like this: similar to Girl Scout Cookies Forum cut versus Girl Scout Cookies Thin Mint. Both strains are from cookie genetics, but they’re two totally different phenotypic expressions. It’s like siblings. They have the same parents, but are two totally different people. The two probably get mixed up because they are from the same lineage, but they are different genetics. Jager is a specific, stabilized phenotype not to be confused with Purple Hindu Kush.