Home Baked

This book is a gem! Even though I lived in the Bay Area for a few years and have many personal ties there, the author managed to reveal (and bring to life!) stories from San Francisco history that I'd never heard before. The narrative centers on the author's mother, Meridy Volz, who sold weed brownies to fascinating folks in the SF counterculture during a time ('70s and '80s) when the city was experiencing massive cultural shifts, growing pains, and—eventually—the AIDS epidemic. Like the best memoirs, this one tells a compelling personal story and captures a cultural moment at the same time. Volz's prose is also a real winner: both informing and entertaining. If you're interested in the way cannabis helped shape one of the world's most interesting cities, this book is definitely for you!

Volz popcorns between a vivid San Francisco history and the personal experience of her mother Meridy's novelty cannibusiness, Sticky Fingers Brownies. Meridy, an artist (and compassionately fierce woman), chances the fate of her business by tossing her I Ching coins, leaving me page-turning to keep up with her adventure while quickly forgetting this is non-fiction! I was hooked to the "high risk, high reward" as her business expanded during the early war on drugs and how her romantic tribulations unfolded. I have read other marijuana histories/memoirs which made it easy to follow along, especially with regard to certain locations and laws.This story is rich with alternative lifestyles, love, loss, psychics, art, drugs, wild characters, family, friendship and a beautiful dedication to San Francisco in the 70s & 80s.The mother-daughter Volz duo is a brownie for the soul!

More than a memoir, Home Baked, is a time capsule, a love letter, a coming of age story and an epitaph. Not only does it investigate the edibles industry from it's infancy it reminds us that outlaws are sometimes heroes without capes. I will be recommending this book to every generation, from grandparents to the university bound, for it has universal appeal, yet I have no more time to devote to this review, because as soon as the book left my hand, I had a recipe I needed to make and there is a steaming treat waiting to bookend this marvelous read. Bon Appéiti.

I just finished reading this wonderful book! Having lived in San Francisco through the years it describes made it all the more fun, not to mention finding myself quoted in various parts of the story. I tried to limit myself to a couple of chapters a day because I didn't want it to end. Thanks for taking me on such a delicious ride back through those wild and crazy years, Alia!We still haven't met, but I feel like I've always known her and her mom. (I probably met her dad sometime at the baths.)

I admit that I did not expect to love this book but every once in a while you uncover a gem! Alia’s Home Baked is an endearing story of her hippy family in San Fransisco in the 70’s. Her mother bucks societal norms and follows her insightful beliefs in the healing potential of marijuana.You will uncover rich history in this book while following the story of a charismatic trail blazer!!