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The Cannabis Voyage continues...

Harold Jarboe

Tennessee homegrown

发布日期: 2023年11月16日

Dateline 11-15-23

The delightful Fall weather rages on here in Middle Tennessee and threatens to continue until Thanksgiving. Which the paranoid side of me is thoroughly convinced we are indeed going a truly vicious WInter. The period between Halloween and our Black Friday sale, things have slowed enough at Tennessee homegrown that Lee and Stacey Crabtree actually got to take off the weekend and have a much needed retreat. Yesterday I got all our orders mailed and I got all of Nashville orders delivered and so far today, there only one store to be serviced, so yours truly can ease into his second cup of coffee and nibble on a little Cacao fortified with Tennessee homegrown Cannabis extract. This international combo of psychoactive compounds has jump started me just enough to start writing this morning’s remembrance.

You see 10 years ago The Old Hemp Farmer began his start into legal Cannabis by answering a want ad from a Start-up Recreational Cannabis company in Washington State. Since I was in Tennessee and Columbia River Cannabis was in Washington State, it was curious why they were interested in my skills. It seems at that time most of the experienced Cannabis farmers were making a lot of money in Gray Market Medical Marijuana and had no desire to have “Look over my shoulders” so they began seeking out of state people that had any experience or said they did. Within a few weeks, my very adventurous wife and I were in Bridgeport, Washington, where very quickly we discovered that the fantasy of working in Cannabis was a Hell of lot better than the reality of working Legal Cannabis. The several months I worked with Columbia River Cannabis was boot camp and it dispelled any romantic notions about working in Commercial Cannabis, The Old Hemp Farmer quickly learned that there is a huge difference between growing a 100 plants in 100 square feet of a basement and farming 2,000 plants Outdoors on a half acre of land that was formerly an orchard. It also made me realize how important was having an understanding and brave wife with a day job. Because Cannabis start-ups usually don’t pay at first and CRC was no exception. Because during the initial period of CRC there was disagreement about the direction of the company and one investor yanked his funds, which meant everything was put on hold for a couple months until more founds were found. This was another lesson learned that an ego based disagreement between business partners can scuttle a Cannabis Company quicker than about anything else. But this pause also gave us time to go through all of the permitting, EPA, State and County officials all had to sign off on the permits to farm and build a Cannabis facility. Learning how to navigate the various state departments was huge because something was beginning to brew in Tennessee.

You see during this same time CRC was on hold, Tennessee had sort of legalized Hemp Agriculture and that the folks at the Tennessee Department of Agriculture were going to oversee a Hemp Pilot Program. The main thing I learned in the Washington Sate Cannabis program that your inspector and case worker can make things easier or make your journey painfully slow. So before any decision were made I sat down with those wonderful folks at the TDA asked a simple question, “can I grow Hemp for CBD?” and the man across the table uttered a phrase that changed L’Tanya and The Old Hemp Farmer’s direction in life, “Son, I don’t care what you do as long you don’t go over .3% Delta 9.” After seeing the cost and hurdles of Recreational Cannabis such as 280e, compliance and management squabbles, we made the decision to change directions and develop a Hemp Derived Cannabinoid company in Tennessee. When I resigned my position at CRC those folks thought we’d lost our minds “Why would you want to grow Hemp?” so did most our of friends and relatives. But that decision enabled us to meet Lee and Stacey Crabtree and start Tennessee homegrown, a Cannabis company that has been way more successful than L’Tanya and I could have ever imagined, when were sitting in cold trailer in Bridgeport, Washington. A decade later L’Tanya and I have no idea where our Cannabis voyage will lead to but so far the scenery has been interesting to say the least. Anyway as always, Hemp Dawgs and Hemp Puppies keep one eye on the weather and the other eye on the market.