LOS ANGELES — Ball Family Farms (BFF) introduced Rare Breeds — an initiative built to scout, mentor, and launch the next wave of cannabis strain creators.
For decades, the underground has defined cannabis culture. Rare Breeds bridges the gap between the street and the storefront, offering legacy seed poppers and self-taught breeders the tools, mentorship, and platform to take their strains from garage grows to dispensary shelves.
“This is about giving real growers a lane,” says Chris Ball, Founder and CEO of Ball Family Farms. “For too long, the people who built this culture have been left out of the legal game. Rare Breeds is how we change that — by putting legacy talent front and center and creating real opportunities from the ground up.”
Rare Breeds will handpick standout strain creators — whether running a home grow or working a legal facility — and give them the chance to bring their strains to market, backed by the full support of the BFF team.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to contribute to the incredible work BFF is known for,” says Zak Alkatib, better known as Hoodbaby. “With Invader Zim, I’m showing what real craft cannabis can be—no gimmicks, just real terps and real genetics that hit exactly how they should.”
Hoodbaby is the blueprint for what Rare Breeds is all about. A self-taught pheno hunter running heat out of his home grow, Zak got connected to BFF through Oscar Figueroa, BFF’s Cultivation Facility Manager. After one smoke session with Chris Ball, it was clear Zak had the talent, the genetics, and the drive to inspire what Rare Breeds would become.
Now, as the program’s inaugural participant, Hoodbaby’s debut strain, Invader Zim, is creating buzz as the first official Rare Breeds release. With a lineage of Runtz x Zkittles x Animal Cookies S1, Invader Zim blends sweet candy terps with sharp citrus and smooth gas, delivering a full-body, unforgettable smoke. After a test run sold out in 24 hours, the official release drops this June.
Rare Breeds is about breaking down the barriers that keep legacy growers out of the legal market—offering end-to-end support, from cultivation and branding to retail strategy and sales. It’s about keeping the culture authentic. And it’s about growing in an authentic way.
