Frenchy Cannoli, Ardent Evangelist for Hashish, Dies at 64

Frenchy Cannoli, a renowned hashish evangelist who spent 18 years arsenic a nomad learning to marque the cause from the resin of the cannabis works successful agrarian parts of Asia, Africa and Mexico, died connected July 18 successful San Francisco. He was 64.

The origin was complications during surgery, said his wife, Kimberly Hooks, who is affectionately known arsenic Madame Cannoli successful her husband’s world.

Mr. Cannoli — a nom de ganja for the mode that helium rolled resin similar the Italian pastry — blended a existent believer’s emotion of the cause with a connoisseur’s chemoreceptor for prime and an enthusiast’s zeal for the hashish that comes from cannabis grown successful Northern California.

“I’ve been making hash each my life,” helium said, successful his heavy French accent, during a code to the Concentration cannabis conference successful 2019. “It’s not a large woody — it’s my life.”

His hashish earned him respect successful cannabis circles, arsenic did his workshops, “Lost Art of the Hashishin,” which taught artisanal producers and location gardeners successful the United States, Canada, Spain and the Netherlands however to harvest the resin glands of the cannabis plants, known arsenic trichomes. He wrote wide and near down 2 unfinished books, 1 a past of cannabis concentrates and the different a hash-making manual.

Mr. Cannoli, who lived successful Richmond, Calif., was besides helping cannabis producers from Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties — known arsenic the Emerald Triangle — get legally protected geographic designations from the State of California for their products the mode that the Champagne, Napa Valley and Bordeaux regions did agelong agone successful the vino industry.

And helium is the taxable of a documentary series, “Frenchy Dreams of Hashish,” that has yet to beryllium released.

“I’d been smoking marijuana since I was 14 and met Frenchy erstwhile I was 33 and learned much astir the works successful those 2 years than successful the 15 I’d been smoking,” the director, Jake Remington, said by phone. “I conscionable remember, maine and Frenchy, the camera rolling, going from workplace to farm, smoking associated aft joint.”

At 17, Didier tried hashish for the archetypal clip and was rapidly transformed. It brought him joyousness and a consciousness of well-being that helium had ne'er experienced earlier (and continued to for the remainder of his life).

On his 18th day helium near France with a fewer 100 dollars to commencement what would go an 18-year pilgrimage to fume the champion hashish helium could find and to larn however to cultivate it from those who knew the champion accepted techniques.

Now a hash rambler, Mr. Cannoli sought retired cannabis masters successful Morocco, Mexico, Thailand, Nepal (where helium met Ms. Hooks, successful a edifice successful 1980), Pakistan and India. He spent 8 cannabis-growing seasons successful the Parvati Valley successful bluish India, surviving successful a cave oregon a lean-to.

“Collecting unrecorded resin from chaotic cannabis plants with my bare hands successful distant valleys astatine the ft of the Himalayas has been by acold the astir engaging and bonzer acquisition of my life,” he told Forbes successful 2019.

His wanderings gave him a heavy appreciation for cannabis farmers and their “terroir” — a French connection borrowed from winemaking that he described successful Skunk magazine successful 2019 arsenic “the delicate symbiosis betwixt the land, the works kingdom, and the humans who nurture and heighten the characteristics of the land.”

When Mr. Cannoli’s hashish journeys ended successful the aboriginal 1990s, helium and Ms. Hooks had already had a daughter, Océane, and were surviving successful Japan. He sold leather handbags and Japanese antiques, and worked arsenic a translator of idiosyncratic manuals and different publications. He and Ms. Hooks moved to Walnut Creek, Calif., successful 1996 and joined a twelvemonth later. He continued selling handbags for a portion and managed a edifice successful Berkeley.

In 2005, helium began to wade into the cannabis industry. Nine years earlier, the usage of marijuana for aesculapian reasons had begun successful the state, and helium started attending events wherever cannabis vendors and aficionados got together. After sharing his hash astatine those gatherings he eventually began selling it to aesculapian dispensaries.

Along the way, Mr. Cannoli’s sanction was bestowed connected him by Subcool, a cannabis grower.

In 2015, Mr. Cannoli started his workshops, which thousands of radical person attended.

He is survived by his woman and daughter.

The hashish that Mr. Cannoli made nether his sanction was memorable astatine archetypal scent.

Leo Stone, a boutique cannabis effect breeder successful Garberville, Calif., recalled however Mr. Cannoli “bumrushed” him successful their archetypal brushwood successful 2012. Mr. Stone had conscionable won an manufacture award, the Emerald Cup, for 1 of his strains of cannabis, erstwhile Mr. Cannoli held an unfastened jar of his hashish to his face.

“It was similar being punched successful the olfactory sense,” Mr. Stone said by phone. “I ne'er smelled hash that amazing. His hash was paradigm shifting.”