Our Process
Growing hemp is a labor of love. We have been associated with farming our entire lives and feel connected to the land growing such an amazing plant. Every year we start our seeds in a temperature, moisture controlled grow room to give our plants the best outcome and protect them from the harsh and unpredictable Kansas spring weather.
After the seeds sprout and grow into seedlings they are watered and given nutrients regularly under grow lights. They live in the grow house for about a month and are prepared to be transplanted outdoors. About 5 days before transplant they are "hardened" outside so that they can adjust to their new environment before going into the ground.
We then transplant the seedlings into our scrupulously maintained field that has been lying dormant with its strategically placed cover crop to provide nutrients back into the soil. We enlist the help from family and local youth that are interested in agriculture to help with the laborious task of transplanting the plants into the ground.
As the plants grow, we inspect each plant for disease and viability daily. They are irrigated with nutrients as needed throughout the growing year. We also inspect each plant and determine the sex. Hemp plants can either be male or female. We want all female plants, since the CBD is grown in the flower of the plant. We use feminized seeds that produce almost 100% females. However, every once in a while you can get a male in your crop and that is why it’s important that we inspect each plant individually and pull any male that we find. Male plants have pollen sacs that when released will pollinate all the females and turn their flower into seeds. We don't want pollination to happen when growing for CBD because it will greatly reduce how much flower the plant will produce.
Hemp must be compliant with the state regulations with a THC content <0.3%. The State of Kansas tests our plants to make sure we have these very low levels of THC. We also provide our Certificate of Analysis reports here, that are tested by a third party lab to ensure we are within the state and federal limits. The plants are harvested by hand and hung to dry until ready for processing.
Each plant is then brought down and the leaves and flower are hand shucked into super sacks so that they can be taken to our processor. The hand shucking of plants has become a family, friend, and community event that offers different perspectives and a lot of lively conversation.
After the harvest is completed we take our bounty to a state of the art processing facility at, Kancanna, who uses CO2 extraction to extract the plant's CBD. Kancanna offers white glove processing services to make our products. We also have collaborated extensively with Glacier Pak to formulate our lotion and chili apricot topicals. We pride ourselves on our high end products and packaging. We have created a product that you will be proud to display on your countertops.
Product professional photography were taken by Sarah Bentham. Please visit her website at http://sarahbentham.com/ to view more of her beautiful portfolio.