Carriage House Hemp Farm owner Mark Wright reaches for one of his many CBG hemp plants to display the bud at the Carriage House Hemp Farm in Oxford, Iowa on Sunday, September 19, 2021. (Savannah Blake / The Gazette)
Carriage House Hemp Farm owner Mark Wright looks at one of his CBG hemp plants at Carriage House Hemp Farm in Oxford, Iowa on Sunday, September 19, 2021. (Savannah Blake / The Gazette)
Carissa Wright, left, briefs Katie Ziskovsky, right, about the CBG hemp plants at Carriage House Hemp Farm in Oxford, Iowa on Sunday, September 19, 2021. (Savannah Blake / The Gazette)
A hemp plant stands on Carriage House Hemp Farm in Oxford, Iowa on Sunday, September 19, 2021. This hemp is CBG, which is less likely to have THC in the plant. Owner Mark Wright says his hemp farm is one of the few CBG hemp farms in the state. (Savannah Blake / The Gazette)
A hemp plant is seen in detail at Carriage House Hemp Farm in Oxford, Iowa on Tuesday, September 21, 2021. This hemp is a CBG dominant strain that is less likely to contain THC in the plant. Owner Mark Wright says his hemp farm is one of the few CBG hemp farms in the state. (Elijah Decious / The Gazette)
OXFORD – This harvest season, pumpkins and apples aren’t the only fall items you can pick yourself in Johnson County.
Now, in rural Oxford, you can pick hemp yourself – at least for a couple of weekends – on one of the hemp farms in Iowa. On September 18-19, hundreds of visitors flocked to the Carriage House Hemp Farm, where cannabis farmer Mark Wright helped them cut the right flower buds and take them home. Another self-dialing weekend is planned for this Saturday and Sunday.
“People stop here all the time and ask questions,” said Wright, the owner of the farm. So why not let them choose, he wondered.
In addition to being one of the few hemp farms to grow cannabigerol (CBG) strains instead of cannabidiol (CBD), Carriage House is one of the first hemp farms in Iowa to open the lush green plants to the public for personal harvest.
When you go
What: Choose your own cannabis weekend
Where: Carriage House Hemp Farm, 2433 Cemetery Rd. NW, Oxford
When: Saturday and Sunday, September 25th and 26th from 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Costs: $ 10 an ounce
Details: (319) 330-0436 and Carriage House Hemp Farm Facebook page
“This is the only farm I’ve known about,” said Robin Pruisner, state entomologist and Iowa Hemp Administrator with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. “Because it’s such a new crop (for Iowa), people ponder all the ways this works. I haven’t seen anyone do it yet. “
As part of her job, Pruisner travels across the state to farms like Wright to test THC levels – a requirement for hemp farmers before hemp can be harvested or sold. THC, short for tetrahydrocannabinol, is the psychoactive compound in cannabis that creates a high.
For Iowa, the hemp content must be below 0.3 percent THC. If a crop gets “too hot” it is considered marijuana and must be destroyed. Wright’s field hemp had a THC level of 0.096 percent this month.
“That was one of the reasons we chose CBG. I don’t think a lot of people do that, ”Wright said. “(CBD) probably gets too hot with THC.”
Pruisner said that in 2020 about 20 percent of hemp crops had to be destroyed because of excessive THC levels. This year, none of the 10 tests failed, but the harvest season is only just beginning.
“You have learned some valuable lessons,” said Pruisner. Farmers in particular have learned the importance of testing throughout the season to know when to harvest.
CBG also favors a higher price tag with its unique properties, Wright said. Although less than a quarter of visitors bought hemp flowers to take home last weekend, he said many of them left with questions answered – education that hemp farmers hope will seep through the community.
Wright said he was surprised at the turnout and types of people who were most curious about the product on the first self-voting weekend.
“What surprised me are those who I thought would be the hardest to sell, people like me – maybe older, skeptical,” he said. “Many are really excited.”
GBG hemp is used for oil, butter, alcohol, vinegar and more
Cannabigerol is described as the “mother of all cannabinoids” by CBG farmer Megan Booher, Wright’s daughter who grows hemp and sells CBG fortified products from nearby Four Winds Farm in Homestead. By binding directly to the body’s endocannabinoid system, CBG offers unique, fast-acting benefits over CBD, which is by far the dominant choice among growers in Iowa.
Flowers purchased from Carriage House for $ 10 an ounce can be dried and infused in oil, butter, alcohol, vinegar, or water with helpful instructions from the farm. Trimmed buds from CBG can sell for up to $ 75 an ounce, Wright said.
Most of the flowers harvested from his small field where the retired director of Oxford Public Works grew vegetables are sent to a company in Wisconsin to be converted into CBG oil.
Although Boohers Farm is more focused on selling the products directly to consumers online and through farmers markets – soap, massage oil, lotion, body ointment, and face cream – she is excited to see the potential growth with the model her father is selecting himself is testing.
“Something happened in 2019 that is still haunting the market. If you look at the nation, the 2019 harvest was estimated to be 550% larger than that of 2018, ”she explained. “However, processing capacity and consumer demand have not increased to the same extent.”
For hemp, this led to a large oversupply between supply and demand, which the market is still adjusting to. The number of state-issued licenses for hemp cultivation has fallen from 85 in 2020 to 50 this year, said Pruisner.
“What is important is that they have to economically convert it into consumer goods that people will keep buying,” she said, calling Boohers Farm “a real template” to produce a quality plant and market it within Iowa legal limits.
CBG promotes “relaxing”, “calming” benefits
Although the state doesn’t track whether hemp farmers grow for CBD or CBG, the Iowa hemp administrator said she believed CBD was much more popular. Although CBG is gaining traction, it remains a minority in the market.
For Booher, it was the uniquely positive aspects of CBG that made her fall in love with it. Although hemp producers cannot market or advertise any medical or pain relieving benefits of using CBG, packaging can label products as “soothing” or “soothing”.
“CBG works at the molecular level to restore balance and wellbeing to the user,” she said. “We let people try it at farmers’ markets and they come back an hour later (to buy).”
Wright had a good experience trying after feeling uncomfortable.
“It doesn’t make you buzz, it calms you down,” he said.
And with a product that can be used without showing up on a drug test, Booher believes CBG could help make hemp and cannabis more mainstream in Iowa.
“Now that we have an industry in the state, people learn a little more every time they visit us,” she said. “I think it helps reduce that stigma.”
Mark Wright’s eldest daughter Megan Booher owns Four Winds Farm and is showcasing her CBG products at Carriage House Hemp Farm in Oxford, Iowa on Sunday, September 19, 2021. (Savannah Blake / The Gazette)
A hemp plant stands on Carriage House Hemp Farm in Oxford, Iowa on Sunday, September 19, 2021. This hemp is CBG, which is less likely to have THC in the plant. Owner Mark Wright says his hemp farm is one of the few CBG hemp farms in the state. (Savannah Blake / The Gazette)
Comments: (319) 398-8340; elijah.decious@thegazette.com
source https://www.bisayanews.com/2021/09/24/iowa-carriage-house-hemp-farm-offers-pick-your-own-hemp/
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