Sister Kate calls herself an “Accidental nun.” At age 16, she tried cannabis for the first time inside a friend’s car during a cold Wisconsin winter.
Years later, after her first marriage had come and gone, after she moved to Atlanta to work for General Electric, Kate tried weed again This time was different, she wrote on her blog: “I learned that weed goes better with wine, that weed is calming, that weed left me with no side effects. I gave up the powder and partying, but kept the weed and the wine, in moderation, like medicine.” Cannabis became the beginning and end of Kate’s prescription list.
Thirty years later, she sells her favorite kind of medicine under the brand “Sisters of the Valley,” an Etsy business devoted to medicinal products infused with cannabidiol, one of two main extracts from marijuana plants.
Although the venture is just a year old, all of the sisters’ offerings – from tonics to salves – have sold out already, and Kate has recently become one of the loudest voices opposing California’s Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act. The decision has prompted Kate to start a Change.org petition.
A video shows Kate in a uniform closely resembling a Catholic nun’s habit and condemning the Central Valley legislators, whom she says have “Their heads up their butt” and who have reacted to the regulations pushed by Gov. Jerry Brown by prohibiting medical marijuana cultivation in their jurisdictions.
The catch to all this, of course, is that Kate and her apprentice, Sister Darcy, aren’t really nuns – even if they look the part.
Kate, a vegan and former resident of Amsterdam who wrote a book of sex tips for men, explained to the Daily Beast that she grew up attending and that she remains attached to the religion’s nurturing undertones after having long eschewed its doctrines.
“Our culture of sisterhood isn’t just about the cannabis plant,” Kate told Vice.
“We spend no time on bended knee, but when we make our medicine, it’s a prayerful environment. It’s a prayerful time,” Kate told ABC. Their uniforms ensure that prayer is never far from their customers’ minds.
The Sisters of the Valley’s social media accounts are filled with photos of Kate and Darcy dressed in their nun habits while tending to their marijuana plants, refilling their medicine cabinets and meeting fans.
In an interview with the Daily Beast, Kate said her nun persona was born after she wore a habit to an Occupy protest. Their Etsy page has an average rating of a perfect five stars across 129 reviews, with numerous customers thanking Kate and Darcy for curing them of their aches and pains.
As for Kate, she has pledged to go “Valley town to valley town” preaching the powers of cannabis until California lawmakers acknowledge that marijuana is “Mother Nature’s most effective medicinal plant.” Her operation continues to grow. Despite the moratorium in Merced, Kate refuses to voluntarily stop selling.
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