Page 4 of Hope After Loss

“Oh, I didn’t think about that.”

“I have an idea,” I say.

I walk into my office and fish the pair of dry-mud-covered rain boots out of the closet.

“Here, try these.” I set the boots down on the floor beside her. “I know they’ll be big, but I bet you’ll fare better in them.”

She kicks off her heels and slides her feet into the boots. Then, she stands and shuffles around in a circle.

“I believe they’ll work,” she says.

“Cool. Let’s go see the farm. After you,” I say as I open the door for her.

She descends the steps carefully. I pull the door shut behind us and catch up with her.

“This land is beautiful,” she says as we walk the path down to the barn that houses the manager’s and foreman’s offices.

“It is. The whole thing used to be a potato farm back in the day. When I was little, the lady who owned it would pay me and my brothers to cut the grass around her house. It used to sit on that hill just past the parking lot.”

“So, now, you only grow hemp?” she asks.

“That’s right.”

“What made you want to get into that particular crop?”

“Believe it or not, I got interested in cannabis farming while in college.”

“Shocking,” she teases.

“Yeah, I was a chemistry major. I got my bachelor’s degree in agricultural chemistry.”

“So, you’re an agricultural chemist. Interesting.”

“I know. Hard to believe.”

She laughs. “Tell me what you do with the hemp crops. I’m assuming they aren’t for recreational consumption.”

“No, not in Tennessee anyway. We’re a one hundred percent organic farm and producers of CBD oils and gummies.”

“And what is CDB oil exactly?” she asks.

“It’s the compound found in the resinous flower of the hemp plant. It has wonderful natural medicinal benefits.”

“Such as …” she prompts me to continue.

“Well, it reduces inflammation and pain in the body. It lessens anxiety, helps regulate sleep, and eases digestion issues,” I explain.

“Wow, that’s amazing.”

“I agree.”

“Do you bottle the oils yourself?”

I shake my head. “No. We grow the crops, harvest them, and hand-cut every single plant, branch by branch. The cuttings are then stored in a temperature- and humidity-controlled drying shed on the property. We cure in fifteen-gallon oak barrels. Then, we extract the compounds using cold-pressed organic coconut oil, and the product is triple-filtered before we ship it off to a plant in Asheville, North Carolina, which creates the tinctures and gummies. The products are pharmacy-formulated and subjected to rigorous quality-control testing to make sure they are compliant with all industry standards and regulations. The plant handles the bottling and labeling and ships the finished products back to us.”

“Is that cost-efficient?” she asks.

“Not exactly, but it’s been the best option for the first few years of operation. Once we are up and running and turning a good profit for a while, I plan to open Balsam Gold up for investors and move manufacturing here to Balsam Ridge.”