So You Want To Be A Hemp Farmer?

I had a casual conversation with my friend Tony Smith around December of 2018 and brought up the idea of a hemp farm, growing industrial hemp for CBD related products. I had a personal success story using CBD for a shoulder impingement that had plagued me for several months.  Despite many rounds of acupuncture, chiropractic visits and physical therapy, I couldn’t shake it. NASID’s gave me a little relief but are terribly hard on your stomach and liver when taken over a long period of time.  I was determined not to do that to myself, so I sought a more realistic, holistic approach.  I was ready to try anything. I won a CBD Product in a  contest and 7 days after I started taking a full spectrum CBD based tincture, I could see positive results where everything else had failed.

When we ultimately decided to go hemp farming it was the first week of May 2019 and our goal was to bring to market the best organic CBD products your money can buy. We had a ton of work to do in very little time if we wanted to turn raw dirt and unmanaged fields into a working farm in preparation for the fall harvest. Certainly we were somewhat deranged, because the heat of the summer was staring us down and day by day we began to see and feel exactly what we were up against.

The Rock Farm

Our soil was loaded with rocks. Tons of rocks everywhere. We picked, shoveled, raked and moved rocks by hand and heavy equipment. Day after day, unendingly we carried buckets of rocks. It seemed like those days would never end. As much as we hated it, we knew that the very rocks that had been on our farm for hundreds of years were also a great source of minerals for our crops that were yet to come.

Hot Days & Sore Backs

We worked in the heat, that was so hot that you could not stay hydrated. At times ‘real feel temperatures’ were in the 100-110 degree range, especially on the pads where the greenhouses were being built.  We lost weight.  My partner Tony Smith and I both immediately lost around 20 pounds. We sweated off the good life and were being transformed into farmers.  Our knuckles were busted and every muscle was sore. We were challenged in ways that were unimaginable compared to our previous lives. I joked that we were in training, ‘to get into farm tough shape’…but in my mind, I was thinking ‘what the hell have we done?’  Maybe this is not such a good idea!

Greenhouse 101:  Giant Erector Sets

Tony has a general contractor license, so it only made sense for him to be in charge of the greenhouse building team.  As I have come to learn, building greenhouses is an art form. It ain’t easy, especially in 100 degree heat. If I could ever give anyone advice on building a green house it would be this: Don’t Do It!

We’re talking 42 X 120 ft greenhouses, of which we have 3 for a total of 15120 sq. ft. I oversee the field and plant health department, so I didn’t have to spend a lot of time on the greenhouse pad. Trust me when I say, I’m grateful for that. I don’t think I could have done what those guys did, in the heat that they did it in, day after day. Tony never gave up and was tenacious about getting them completed on schedule, so we could get our raised beds ready for planting.  It was then I realized what a tough nut Tony is and how blessed I am to have him as a partner.  

A Good Night’s Sleep

One positive attribute was good sleep returned to us…that is when you weren’t waking up in the middle of the night from cramps due to dehydration. Sleep for me is a fleeting thing…rarely do I sleep throughout the night.  After about a month on the farm, I began to sleep soundly, which is a good thing because I hate getting up early. Grew up as a swimmer.  Hated early morning practices.  Swore I’d never get up early again.  Guess what?  I became a farmer. Once again what was I thinking?? Tony is up every morning early. Me, in bed by 9am, up around 6am is the best I can do.

Arrowheads, Spearheads and Meteorites

As we turned the soil in preparation for planting, we began to find some very interesting rocks and artifacts. One of our farm family members Rodney, loves to hunt for arrowheads.  He has a keen eye and finds them effortlessly. More than once he has spotted artifacts from the seat of the tractor.  We’ve also found magnetized fragments of meteorites that are scattered throughout our lower field. 

But the most interesting artifacts are those that have been found from people who worked the land hundreds of years before us.  American Indians, most likely the Waxhaw had settled our land before us. It was a great feeling to know a little more about Our Charmed Farm…that perhaps we were in a good place, where others had lived, hunted, farmed, raised families and prospered.  Though the work was harder than anything we had ever done before, we felt better about our decision to go Hemp Farming. We felt as though our little farm was indeed charmed by previous generations and that we were drawn to this place, in this time for a reason.

Thanks for taking the time to read our story and learn more about where The Mother’s best organic CBD products come from!  Our farm to you!  

-Greg Daughtry