NEESES — Ross and Andy Fogle exude excitement and enthusiasm as visitors descend upon Carolina Fresh Farms.
The men have a lot to share with the small tour group about the pioneering efforts ongoing at the Savannah Highway farm in hemp growth, processing and cannabidiol (CBD) extraction.
It is the only farm operation in the entire T&D Region to be completely vertically integrated in the hemp-processing industry and resembles a cross between a farm and a laboratory.
“It’s a niche market,” Nature’s Highway Vice President of Farming Ross Fogle said. But it is a niche market that he is confident has a bright future. “It is going to make it. I know it is.”
“There are too many benefits from hemp from epilepsy, seizures, pain,” he said. “The list goes on and on. I have helped too many people with my product. I have no question we are going to do good. It is just going to take time.”
About four years ago, Ross and Andy began talking with a friend, John Jameson, who was co-founder of North Carolina-based Carolina CannaTech.
“We found out about the permit (making it legal to grow the crop) and we got together and started talking,” Ross said. “They said we will sell it if you grow it. It kind of made sense.”
Carolina CannaTech announced in December 2020 it would build a new privately funded cannabis oil-extraction facility. The 2,400-square-foot cannabidiol facility is on a 50-acre parcel of the farm.
The facility uses extraction and evaporating methods and equipment to turn their farm-grown hemp into crude oil and eventually to a distillate, or full-spectrum CBD, which is used in Nature’s Highway’s products. Nature’s Highway is the company’s own CBD product brand.
The April tour was held to showcase the crop’s planting season when the hemp plant clones in the greenhouse are cut and planted in four acres of fields around the extraction facility.
The process
The company purchases the four to 5-month-old “mother” hemp plants in North Carolina and then places them in the greenhouse to clone. The plants are grown under controlled conditions.
The plants are the Baox variety and will be used for all finished CBD oil products in the current year. The company is also testing new varieties of plants this year called Goliath and Hurricane. These varieties will remain in the greenhouse.
“We have supplemental light to help them grow,” Ross Fogle explained. “You need about 12 to 13 hours of light. In the winter, we get about 10.”
The greenhouse also has cooling fans and ventilation, as well as misting mechanisms.
Ross said the entire cloning process has been a learning experience for him.
“It is probably one of the hardest things I have ever done,” he said. “It took me three years to try to get it right.”
“When you cut that plan, you don’t have any roots,” he said. “You are actually stressing it. You stick it in the dirt and try to grow roots. Once you start seeing that first root shoot out of the bottom, you are good. You are trying to keep that plant not too wet or too dry. “
Nature’s Highway managing director Dan Sturdevant stressed that the entire growth and cloning process is organic.
“There are no chemicals at any point in the process,” he said. “Our soil-management techniques, even in here for pest management, we use other bugs as a natural deterrent.”
In late April or early May, the company cuts some stock from the mother plants and within a nine-day period transplants and grows them in a 4-acre field.
“We modified a combine head and instead of using pesticides or weed control, we go through the rows every week and it kicks dirt over the root bulbs so it kills all the weeds naturally and it creates a healthier plant,” Sturdevant said.
The plants grow and are tested regularly for CBD and THC content through late September. They are harvested at a time when they are within state and federal guidelines.
Hemp’s THC concentration cannot exceed .3% on a dried-weight basis. Anything above that is considered marijuana and is illegal in the state.
While CBD is a component of hemp, by itself it does not cause a “high.” CBD has been touted for a wide variety of health issues.
The hemp biomass is then dried and filtered.
Carolina CannaTech worked in partnership with New River Distilling Company of Boone, North Carolina, to design and build the facility’s equipment and systems.
Carolina CannaTech sells its product either as CBD crude oil (for other extracting/production companies) or primarily as distillate for final goods such as tinctures, gummies, and topical lotions and salves.
The company’s customer base is primarily the Carolinas.
source https://www.bisayanews.com/2022/01/30/progress-april-2021-neeses-farmers-are-pioneers-in-hemp-processing-national-news/
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