Raw Garden is the Santa Barbara County live resin brand that Central Coast Agriculture runs out of the Santa Ynez Valley, with co-founder Thomas Martin as CEO. It breeds and sun-grows its own cannabis, then extracts it in house into Refined Live Resin cartridges, all-in-ones, dabbable concentrates and infused joints.
The scoreboard backs it up. Headset ranked Raw Garden No. 1 in California concentrates and No. 2 in California vapor pens for August 2026.
Two basement lights to a Santa Ynez farm
Martin's route in started small. High There reported in January 2026 that he began growing in 2008, after the financial crisis pushed him out of car financing. Two HID lights in his basement turned into more than 40.
His brother-in-law, Khalid Al-Naser, ran sales and steered the company toward concentrates. The operation moved to Santa Barbara County and brought in its first harvest there in 2015, the founding year Raw Garden uses in its own releases. The team describes itself as "multi-generational farmers, nerdy scientists, and heady enthusiasts."
The leadership chart has shifted. Forbes identified John De Friel as CEO and co-founder in December 2020, with Martin as COO. By January 2025, the company's releases named Martin as CEO.
A 25-million-seed breeding program
Raw Garden says it owns every step "from seed to oil." It breeds its own seeds and grows more than 100 varieties in Santa Ynez soil. In December 2020, De Friel told Forbes the seed bank held more than 25 million seeds across 85 acres of land.
The numbers from that interview run deep. Raw Garden had released 827 unique strains to consumers, 300 of them in 2020 alone, and De Friel said a cultivar takes five to seven years on average to perfect. Martin told High There in 2026 that selection turns on flowering time and flower structure.
The farm page lays out the method. Plants grow under sunlight in berry-style tunnels that shield them from pests and weather. Beneficial insects replace pesticides, cover crops and field rotation protect the soil, and drip irrigation feeds water straight to the roots.
Refined Live Resin and the rosin all-in-one
Harvest moves fast. Raw Garden uses quick-cool harvesting and what its FAQ calls a "proprietary cryogenic hydrocarbon extract process." Sub-zero temperatures pull the terpenes and cannabinoids and leave behind more of the fats and waxes. High There dates the company's shift to a cannabis-derived vape oil, rather than distillate, to 2018.
The menu splits three ways: vapes, concentrates and infused pre-rolls. Refined Live Resin, which the FAQ calls the purest concentrate the company makes, fills its 510 cartridges and the Sprout disposables. Live Resin and Live Sauce cover the dab side. The newest format on the homepage is a Solventless Live Rosin All-In-One.
Infused joints arrive in March 2026
Pre-rolls got the full treatment on March 26, 2026. Raw Garden launched Refined Live Resin Infused Joints in 1g singles and 0.5g five-packs, made from whole flower and infused with its own oil. Every batch gets a published certificate of analysis.
The launch lineup ran ten cultivars. Green Mango, Purple Lemonade, Daily Driver and Lemon Chem came in as sativas. Rainbow Roll, Pink Slip, Orange Cadi and Certified Runtz were hybrid five-packs only, and Double Double and Kosher Cake rounded out the indicas. The joints launched in California only.
The category took off from there. Headset measured Raw Garden's pre-roll sales up 115.1% year over year in August 2026, with the brand at No. 17 in California pre-rolls.
Clean Green, ECCO and a 300-contaminant panel
Raw Garden has held Clean Green certification since inception, 10 years as of January 2025. The company says it tests for more than 300 pesticides and contaminants, against the 66 California requires.
Martin also co-founded the Environmental & Consumer Compliance Organization, a California nonprofit introduced on December 16, 2024. His fellow founders were Ford Smith of Ultranative, Trent Overholt of Noble Pacific and Elliot Lewis of Catalyst Cannabis. ECCO buys two SKUs a month from each certified brand in person at California retailers and tests them for more than 100 contaminants.
Martin said at the launch that programs like ECCO help "clean operators who care about quality and cleanliness stand out in a very crowded market." On March 25, 2025, ECCO certified its first cohort of nine brands: Raw Garden, Noble Pacific, Jetty Extracts, Coastal Sun, LEEF, Conception Nurseries, Bloom, Soma Rosa Farms and Howie Roll Howie.
California Love joins the farm
Raw Garden went shopping in October 2025. On October 21, it announced the acquisition of California Love, a Grover Beach cannabis brand founded in 2015 and sold in more than 130 California retailers. Terms were not disclosed, and California Love moved onto Raw Garden's testing protocols.
Martin framed the deal as a way to "expand the clean cannabis movement." Mickey Esdale, vice president of manufacturing, said the certifications "aren't just a badge."
New Jersey and Headset's August 2026 numbers
The first move east was New Jersey. "We are thrilled to officially announce that we are in the Garden State!" the brand's New Jersey page reads, with a Live Resin Terpene Cartridge and a Live Resin Terpene All-In-One on the menu. The page was updated on July 27, 2026.
Headset tracked Raw Garden in 653 licensed dispensaries across California, New Jersey and Maryland in August 2026, 596 of them in California, with 820 SKUs. Vapor pens made up 72.4% of sales, concentrates 20.1% and pre-rolls 7.5%. Brand sales rose 9.0% year over year, and it ranked No. 25 in New Jersey vapor pens.
The top sellers were all 1g Refined Live Resin cartridges: Blue Dream, Blueberry Cookies and God's Breath. The High Rise Co traced the rise in how a Santa Barbara farm became a California concentrate leader, published July 5, 2026.
For adults 21 and over.