The Ford hatchback pulled up in downtown Long Beach on Friday morning and out climbed four nuns.

“Shit!” said Sister Kate, realising she had left an item in the car. The burst of profanity was the first clue that they were no ordinary nuns.

The second clue came when Sister Esme, dressed in a pastel blue and white habit, lit up a cannabis joint.

The nuns belong to the Sisters of the Valley, an order based in California whose avowed mission is to heal the world through plant-based medicine.

Already famous in the cannabis industry, they grow it at their one-acre farm in the San Joaquin Valley, where earlier this year they were the victims of a drive-by shooting.

The order has found new fans after a cameo in Leonardo DiCaprio’s latest film One Battle After Another, but the sisters are in an existential fight of their own.

They were in Long Beach celebrating a deal with a local dispensary chain that will, they hope, save their cannabis business from the fate that has greeted so many competitors in California’s tough legal market.

Although recreational cannabis has been legal in the Golden State since 2018, critics of its policies say tax and regulations are too burdensome, allowing the black market to flourish.

“We’re making the move into dispensaries for survival,” said Sister Kate, 66, as she took a drag on a joint.

Sister Kate founded the order a decade ago in Merced, a city in California’s agricultural heartland.

Born Christine Meeusen, she grew up Catholic in Wisconsin. After getting married and having three children, Sister Kate worked as a consultant in Amsterdam.

She was making good money before her marriage collapsed. Sister Kate alleges that her husband fleeced her. “My husband took all the money and left me penniless with three middle schoolers and so I had to start over in America,” Sister Kate said, from an office in Long Beach.

At her lowest point Sister Kate was suicidal, she said in the 2018 documentary Breaking Habits, which told the order’s story.

The transformation from corporate executive to nun was completed after she attended an Occupy protest in 2011 dressed in a habit. She became known as “Sister Occupy”.

The order has grown steadily since it was founded in 2015. Sister Kate is tight-lipped on the exact number of members but said there is a core leadership team of ten.

She is in Long Beach with some of them — Sister Camilla, Sister Karina and Sister Esme. They are all smoking cannabis while speaking to The Sunday Times.

Sisters of the Valley do not belong to the Catholic Church. Instead, they identify with the Beguines, a medieval Christian order who lived in semi-monastic communities and interacted with lay people.

Pope Clement V pronounced Beguines heretics in the 14th century.

Merced’s order takes six vows: service, obedience, living simply, activism, chastity and ecology. They are not celibate and members can, and do, have romantic partners.

The order’s religious views are also not traditional.

“Every sister believes that there’s a veil that separates the physical world from the spiritual world,” Sister Kate said. “And no one knows what goes on, on the other side of that veil.

“So we refuse to waste any time talking about invisible gods. We are women of the plant, we are women of the planet, we are women of the people.”

Yet even women of the people find themselves in trouble. Sister Kate said that in February they became entangled in a neighbour’s dispute with local vagrants.

Shortly after 7am on a Monday morning her house was sprayed with bullets.

If that episode sounds like a Hollywood movie the real thing soon followed.

The order inspired the fictional Sisters of the Brave Beaver in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, a comedy thriller starring DiCaprio and Sean Penn.

The movie, which follows the fortunes of a bungling revolutionary, is tipped as an Oscars favourite but the Sisters of the Valley almost missed out on their brief cameo.

During the pandemic — Sister Kate cannot remember if it was 2021 or 2022 — Anderson’s assistant got in touch and asked if she could bring a location scout to her farm.

Intrigued by the prospect of Hollywood on her doorstep, she said yes. The meeting did not go smoothly.

Sister Kate confused Anderson, one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of his generation, for the location scout. She was angered that he was out without a mask during Covid, and confessed, “I was so rude to him.”

“When he told me it wasn’t suitable I was like, ‘fine, goodbye’. Close the door, what a waste of an hour of my life,” she explained.

Then, in January 2024, Anderson’s team got back in touch. Their farm might not have been suitable for the movie but the sisters were. The director asked four of them to appear in the film.

One Battle After Another’s convent scenes were filmed at La Purisima Mission in Lompoc, Santa Barbara County. The sisters said they were consulted about making it look as much like their farm as possible, down to the furniture and posters on the wall. The sisters loved being involved.

“We were treated so sweet and respectfully,” Sister Kate said.

• Tiny medicinal cannabis group Ananda inspired by $7bn trailblazer

The sisters hope their fame will help their latest business venture.

At their farm in Merced they grow hemp, a strain of cannabis that has very low levels of THC, the drug’s psychoactive component. It still contains CBD, which advocates praise for its medicinal properties.

It will not get users stoned. The sisters sell their products on their website to customers around the world — including in the UK.

But their business is facing the same obstacles that have pushed many towards insolvency in California, namely high taxes and fees as well as a tangle of regulations.

Sister Kate said at its pre-pandemic peak the business was generating revenue of $1.2 million. In 2024 that dropped to $350,000.

“We have been struggling to stay in business,” she said.

The Ford hatchback pulled up in downtown Long Beach on Friday morning and out climbed four nuns.

“Shit!” said Sister Kate, realising she had left an item in the car. The burst of profanity was the first clue that they were no ordinary nuns.

The second clue came when Sister Esme, dressed in a pastel blue and white habit, lit up a cannabis joint.

The nuns belong to the Sisters of the Valley, an order based in California whose avowed mission is to heal the world through plant-based medicine.

Already famous in the cannabis industry, they grow it at their one-acre farm in the San Joaquin Valley, where earlier this year they were the victims of a drive-by shooting.

The order has found new fans after a cameo in Leonardo DiCaprio’s latest film One Battle After Another, but the sisters are in an existential fight of their own.

They were in Long Beach celebrating a deal with a local dispensary chain that will, they hope, save their cannabis business from the fate that has greeted so many competitors in California’s tough legal market.

Although recreational cannabis has been legal in the Golden State since 2018, critics of its policies say tax and regulations are too burdensome, allowing the black market to flourish.

“We’re making the move into dispensaries for survival,” said Sister Kate, 66, as she took a drag on a joint.

Sister Kate founded the order a decade ago in Merced, a city in California’s agricultural heartland.

Born Christine Meeusen, she grew up Catholic in Wisconsin. After getting married and having three children, Sister Kate worked as a consultant in Amsterdam.

She was making good money before her marriage collapsed. Sister Kate alleges that her husband fleeced her. “My husband took all the money and left me penniless with three middle schoolers and so I had to start over in America,” Sister Kate said, from an office in Long Beach.

At her lowest point Sister Kate was suicidal, she said in the 2018 documentary Breaking Habits, which told the order’s story.

The transformation from corporate executive to nun was completed after she attended an Occupy protest in 2011 dressed in a habit. She became known as “Sister Occupy”.

The order has grown steadily since it was founded in 2015. Sister Kate is tight-lipped on the exact number of members but said there is a core leadership team of ten.

She is in Long Beach with some of them — Sister Camilla, Sister Karina and Sister Esme. They are all smoking cannabis while speaking to The Sunday Times.

Sisters of the Valley do not belong to the Catholic Church. Instead, they identify with the Beguines, a medieval Christian order who lived in semi-monastic communities and interacted with lay people.

Pope Clement V pronounced Beguines heretics in the 14th century.

Merced’s order takes six vows: service, obedience, living simply, activism, chastity and ecology. They are not celibate and members can, and do, have romantic partners.

The order’s religious views are also not traditional.

“Every sister believes that there’s a veil that separates the physical world from the spiritual world,” Sister Kate said. “And no one knows what goes on, on the other side of that veil.

“So we refuse to waste any time talking about invisible gods. We are women of the plant, we are women of the planet, we are women of the people.”

Yet even women of the people find themselves in trouble. Sister Kate said that in February they became entangled in a neighbour’s dispute with local vagrants.

Shortly after 7am on a Monday morning her house was sprayed with bullets.

If that episode sounds like a Hollywood movie the real thing soon followed.

The order inspired the fictional Sisters of the Brave Beaver in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, a comedy thriller starring DiCaprio and Sean Penn.

The movie, which follows the fortunes of a bungling revolutionary, is tipped as an Oscars favourite but the Sisters of the Valley almost missed out on their brief cameo.

During the pandemic — Sister Kate cannot remember if it was 2021 or 2022 — Anderson’s assistant got in touch and asked if she could bring a location scout to her farm.

Intrigued by the prospect of Hollywood on her doorstep, she said yes. The meeting did not go smoothly.

Sister Kate confused Anderson, one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of his generation, for the location scout. She was angered that he was out without a mask during Covid, and confessed, “I was so rude to him.”

“When he told me it wasn’t suitable I was like, ‘fine, goodbye’. Close the door, what a waste of an hour of my life,” she explained.

Then, in January 2024, Anderson’s team got back in touch. Their farm might not have been suitable for the movie but the sisters were. The director asked four of them to appear in the film.

One Battle After Another’s convent scenes were filmed at La Purisima Mission in Lompoc, Santa Barbara County. The sisters said they were consulted about making it look as much like their farm as possible, down to the furniture and posters on the wall. The sisters loved being involved.

“We were treated so sweet and respectfully,” Sister Kate said.

• Tiny medicinal cannabis group Ananda inspired by $7bn trailblazer

The sisters hope their fame will help their latest business venture.

At their farm in Merced they grow hemp, a strain of cannabis that has very low levels of THC, the drug’s psychoactive component. It still contains CBD, which advocates praise for its medicinal properties.

It will not get users stoned. The sisters sell their products on their website to customers around the world — including in the UK.

But their business is facing the same obstacles that have pushed many towards insolvency in California, namely high taxes and fees as well as a tangle of regulations.

Sister Kate said at its pre-pandemic peak the business was generating revenue of $1.2 million. In 2024 that dropped to $350,000.

“We have been struggling to stay in business,” she said.