The Big Buddha has been writing articles for Weed world for several years, as well as providing pictures of the Cheese.  In the meantime, during the last two years he has also had the opportunity to work on his genetics in the Mediterranean area.

The Big Buddha first acquired a Cheese cutting back in early 2002 and started a little side work on crossing Cheese with an excellent true landrace Afghani male, that was given to him by an old friend who had spent time in the region.  Selected female Afghanis were really big yielding plants, with really tight internodes, (as well as a rich, lovely deep fruity bouquet), the male had the same smell and had excellent tight branching.  The first cross made was late in 2002.  There were some varied results but through selection the best male was backcrossed with the original Cheese.  Further to this, with a move to a more suitable location further backcrossing was carried out which helped to add to the hybrid vigour of the strain.

Once some seeds had been produced and handed to colleagues in the industry who congratulated The Big Buddha on his work he began full commercial seed production, with an emphasis on testing viability

Cheese originated in 1988-89 as one unique female phenotype out of packet of Sensi Seeds Skunk No. 1 grown somewhere in the Chiltern Hills.  This one plant produced impressively large buds and had a very distinctive cheesy odour.  It was quickly cloned and named Cheese.

Around 1995 a Cheese clone was passed on to Exodus, an alternative community living in Haz Hall on the edges of Luton.  Exodus organised free parties, championed the legalisation of cannabis, grew cannabis themselves and protected each other from the law.  They also started CANABIS (Campaign Against Narcotic Abuse Because of Ignorance in Society).  Because of all the people that passed through the Exodus community many clones were handed out to visitors and the strain continued to grow in notoriety. 

For many years Cheese has passed around an underground network of growers in the UK, helped by Exodus and others, until one clone came into the hands of the Big Buddha.

The Big Buddha realised its importance and set about crossing the clone with a suitable father.  This he found in a traditional landrace, pure-bred Afghani that a friend had brought back from Afghanistan during travels in that area.

The result is a strain that takes 8 – 10 weeks to flower and is consistently a much better yielder than the original Cheese, and flavour and taste is well preserved.  Appealing fruity fresh smell, uplifting effect, highly pungent hence its name!