Displaying episodes by topic: grower

One sunny evening in the summer of 2020, Kirk and Trevor had a meeting on Kirk's driveway. Even though all indoor meetings were taboo, they met someone bursting with excitement. Eric Greening's face lit up as he described the cannabis growing facility he envisioned building north east of Dauphin.  Four years, a pandemic, spiraling inflation and all the other unknown unknowns of building a facility and starting a business are now behind the persistent Mr. Greening. As proud Dauphinites, we are excited to say Greencraft Cannabis is now selling product! And.... after much pestering, we got a peek inside! Come with us on an audio tour of the facility. There is a cannabis "tree" whose trunk Trevor can't wrap his hand around, a sunset room with alien-looking golden light, the secrets of how you control tiny invaders when you can't use any pesticides, and so much more!

Imagine being so good at your job that everyone knows you, but not by your face nor by your name. Jorge Cervantes (an alias) put on a disguise in 1983 and started sharing his plant knowledge with all people. In these forty years he has published more than 50 gardening books; many of which focus on growing that Schedule One drug we call cannabis. This is why he lived in the closest. During the DEA’s “War on Drug” years, many of Cervante’s friends were arrested while he kept on teaching. In 2010, George F. Van Patten dropped the pseudonym and disguise to travel the world openly exploring the cannabis plant. In this episode, we learn his back story and Jorge shares his preference with growing cannabis outside; in soil. He has also recently published a free online resource called the Cannabis Encyclopedia.

We've got another amazing group of attendees from CannMed 23!

One evening they said dinner was on Lanai Beach. In Manitoba, if you are at a conference and someone says dinner is on Lanai Beach, then Lanai Beach is the name of a room. But in Florida, they actually meant dinner was on a beach. That sounds like a lovely idea, unless it is over 30 C and there is no shade. Thankfully, I brought a ball cap for my bald head and I met Dr. Joe Thompson also looking for some shade beside a pole. Dr. Thompson trained as a pediatrician, but now is the President & CEO of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement. They have a program where they are going to analyze the data of people who got medical cannabis in Arkansas and see what happened to Health Outcomes. You want to hear about how that study will be done.

Dr. Leah Johnson Pharm D is a pharmacist and we met her in the Poster Hallway. Her Poster was about palliative care patients in California. Her group believes that if patients have access to cannabinoid medicine during palliative care, that will promote a better quality of life for the patients. Dr. Leah helps patients with their cannabis therapy and is a Cannabis Speaker and Educator across the US. She is on the Executive of the Pharmacist Cannabis Coalition of California (PCCC).

I met Akeem during the opening reception of CannMed 23. I didn't know anyone at the conference yet, so thankfully, he came up to me, read my name tag and introduced himself. Soon we discovered we were both from Canada, and we laughed over the fact the sliders were taken away too quickly. He told me he was nervous about a main stage talk he was giving. Now I understand why. He was giving a very technical, science heavy talk to a room full of cannabis doctors and researchers. But he killed it during his talk. He even handled challenges from the audience. I got to collect some audio from Akeem right after his talk. He’s from Mississauga. He’s a huge basketball fan. He has a nephew who Uncle Akeem really wants to become the next Lebron James. But for our story, Akeem is a Canadian lawyer turned hemp farmer turned CEO of the BioTech company Canurta Inc. His talk was about cannaflavins and their potential to treat glioblastoma, a common and aggressive form of brain cancer.

Bruce Mackler was involved with Prairie Plant Systems in Flin Flon when all “legal” Canadian Government Cannabis was grown in a mine in 2000. That became Cannimed in Saskatoon. And that got bought out by Aurora. Former lawyer that fought cases against the FDA. Former immunologist. His company, Ethicann, is developing a sublingual tablet for Multiple Sclerosis as a competitor to Stativex.

At the beginning of the Pandemic, we met Eric Greening. He wanted to start a craft cannabis operation just outside our hometown of Dauphin. We check in with Eric and see how pandemic construction has been going, and as a preview for our eventual facility tour! Trevor and Kirk also discuss what Trevor is and is not allowed to tell patients about cannabis as a pharmacist. Our My Cannabis story is HiND. They make special jars for your cannabis and other fashion items.

By legalizing recreational use of cannabis in 2018, Canada became the world’s largest cannabis friendly country. The Cannabis Act allows provinces to individualized their approach to legalizing the various components of this federal legislation. The Manitoba government rejected the component allowing citizens to grow four plants at home making our province the only non-homegrown jurisdiction. Jesse Lavoie is challenging the Manitoba government’s position suggesting their decisions were made using an outdated understanding of the plant’s threat to homes, children, and those who want to grow. Trevor and Kirk compare the Manitoba government’s current move to make alcohol more available to citizens while at the same time fighting Jesse’s petition to allow homegrown cannabis cultivation. In their discussions, Trevor and Kirk point out the contradictions in Premier Pallister’s approach to Harm Reduction.

Friend of the show Sue Letwin uses cannabis to treat her Lyme Disease.  She cooks with cannabis.  She teaches people to cook with cannabis.  She is really getting into cannabis education, in general.  But she had never grown her own.  She was really curious about the plant and wanted to know everything about it.  So she tried.  And along the way she found help, encouragement and mentors.  One of those mentors is Chase.  Have you ever thought about growing your own?  Come listen to Sue's journey and Chase's advice and we can all learn together.

Is it the future? Kirk and Trevor delve into the craft cannabis market, again. In this episode, they gather a unique panel of Cannabis enthusiasts, willing to share their views on growing small batches of their best. A British Columbia computer geek turned owner, an Alberta legacy grower gone legit, and a Manitoba seed archivist waiting on a license for his genetics, each speak to what makes their cannabis strains and techniques important to creating a craft cannabis market place. The panel agrees the best fertilizer is the shadow of the gardener and any licenced producer can grow good weed. But, what is their collective agreement, what is the definitive determination of craft cannabis? It may depend on how they treat their flowers at harvest, or possibly the hang-to-dry or lay-to-dry technique. How long do they leave their flower to cure? What if the flower is traveling in plastic to market? Defining craft cannabis may actually mean buying straight from the farmer but, this is not possible yet. Have a listen to how these growers define craft while creating niche markets for their small businesses.

“David Crosby, I read your chart man” is how Kirk starts his long-awaited chat with one of pop-culture’s most notorious Cannabis influencers. In 50-years, David Crosby has had a very public relationship with cannabis, addictions, incarceration, and relationships, which he willingly discusses. With thoughtful understanding that these past behaviours are well reported elsewhere, Kirk digs into current events asking his guest to speak to his new relationship with legal and medicinal cannabis. They discuss his involvement with NORML, his “Mighty Croz” branding, focusing mostly on his medical uses of cannabis; they even exchange their wives’ cookie recipe and how cannabis has become a very calculated element of David Crosby’s day-to-day creative life-style.

Kirk goes for a snowmobile ride and ends up in Gilbert Plains.  He drops in on Hemp Sense and Lyall Bates graciously gives him an interview.  Learn how Hemp Sense technology is on the cutting edge of getting CBD's out of industrial hemp.  And this isn't from a well controlled green house.  This is industrial hemp from an open field.  And it is harder than you'd think.  If you don't immediately get the hemp buds off the field and start drying and curing them in a couple hours, all the CBD is destroyed by composting.  Hemp Derived CBD is all the rage.  Come listen to an expert on how to get it off the field.

Canada is a country that celebrates Cannabis; we can actually win awards. In this episode Kirk and Trevor talk to Lift & Co about the 2019 Canadian Cannabis awards. Lift & Co serves as the trusted authority on cannabis and empowers the cannabis industry to make better-informed decisions through superior information and data. We discuss how giving out award helps build a better cannabis market place. And, it is not too late for listeners to participate by voting for your favorite Cannabis product.  You have until Oct 25/19.  https://canadiancannabisawards.com/ Or there is always next year.  Maybe tell Lift & Co who your favorite cannabis podcast is.......Can you believe there is no category for that yet?  And a quick shout out to our friends at the Manitoba Podcast Festival.

Listen as Trevor and Kirk walk through the displays at Hempfest Canada Saskatoon's expo. We hear from a Lawyer, Insurance Broker, Master Grower, and a Horticulturist. Can you refuse a roadside alcohol test? Are you are likely to fail a road-side sobriety test while sober? Should you consider home insurance for your homegrown? A Master Grower and Horticulturist speak to growing different cultivars; plus add information to the Sativa versus Indica debate.

What's the difference between hemp and marijuana?  What's up with all these "hemp derived CBD's"?  Kirk and Trevor talk to hemp pioneer Martin Moravcik, and hemp farmers Don Dewar and Chris Federowich.  Martin has been a hemp promoter since the early 1990's.  Chris and Don grow hemp on a large scale today and Chris is the Vice-Chair of Parkland Industrial Hemp Growers.  Hemp can provide fiber for textiles, food and maybe medicine.  There is a lot of interest in getting CBD's from hemp, but it isn't as easy as you would think to scale up to a farm sized plot of hemp.  Clare McBride, also a farmer, works at the office of the Parkland Industrial Hemp Growers.  She updates us on the latest hemp regulations including what types of plants Health Canada will allow. Kirk likes to say he goes for bike rides south of Dauphin just to smell the hemp fields.  Come jump on your bike for a warm summer evening ride. You are passing acres and acres of tall green plants as Kirk and Trevor chat in your ear.

Did you have that friend of a friend who grew their own in a basement? Kirk goes back to the future. An ACMPR (Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations) legal grower, Paul, shows Kirk how he grows his own medicine! Paul is very environmentally conscious with his worm compost soil, no solvent resins and deep knowledge and respect for the cannabis plant. Plus he is an archivist of different medical strains. Come down the stairs... and learn with Trevor and Kirk.  

What is the name of the trophy Governor General of Canada of 1892 had named after him?  Need a hint?  The winners of the trophy in 1971-72 had their names misspelled on the trophy as the “Boston Bruins.”   What does that trophy have to do with Dauphin and the fact recreational Cannabis will be legal October 17/18?  Find out, plus learn all sorts of interesting details about legalization from the CEO of Delta-9 John Arbuthnot.  Come for the mystery.  Stay for the Cannabis legalization education!  My Cannabis story is a young woman with pain from cancer treatment... with a happy ending!