Tag Archives: grow

Half Hill Farm partners with former tobacco farm to grow hemp

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Half Hill Farm is now partnered with a former tobacco grower to produce premium indoor grown hemp flower. The new 5,000 square feet indoor grow space at Boze Farms in Carthage, TN should be fully operational later this year.

The indoor grow will provide bulk wholesale flower to stores and manufacturers including Half Hill Farm’s Wellness Emporium retail stores across the state. The new climate controlled facility will also supply their new CO2 extraction lab in Woodbury to ensure in-house quality controls from start to finished product.

“We know retailers and consumers have a lot of options on the market,” said Half Hill Farm owner Vince Oropesa. “That’s why we’re focused on providing a premium value with quality growing and processing that can scale to meet demand.”

Many hemp farmers and processors in Tennessee rely on solvent extraction that can process mass quantities of hemp at a time using ethanol or butane. Half Hill Farm’s new extraction and testing lab will use higher quality supercritical CO2 extraction. The slower process uses a few pounds of hemp at a time and will help ensure only the best hemp is extracted producing a better quality product option for consumers and manufacturers.

“We know we can’t CO2 extract everything,” said owner Scot Smotherman who heads up the partnership. “But there’s no shortage of good quality ethanol extraction service options for larger volume grows.”

Half Hill Farm was the first USDA certified organic farm in Tennessee to grow industrial hemp. We are now a licensed hemp grower, processor and permitted food manufacturer producing quality CO2 extracted CBD hemp oil blends in 500mg, 1000mg, and 2500mg formulas and a 1000mg full spectrum CBD hemp topical salve.

More than 2,900 grower licenses were issued to Tennessee farms by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture this year. For perspective, neighboring Kentucky is the nation’s third largest grower of hemp, and they issued 1,000 grower licenses this year.

The year round indoor grow and the ability to scale into several hundred thousand square feet elsewhere on the farm was a critical component in Half Hill Farm partnering with Boze Farm.

“Farming has taken a real beating over the past few years, “ said Joe Darren Boze. “We’re hoping hemp helps turns it around.”

Jimmy Joe Boze, Joe’s father, started growing hemp when his tobacco contract was suddenly pulled. He still proudly makes pre-rolls from last year’s harvest and humbly says he did it to see how it will go. While he’s hopeful, and sees how it helps people, he’s wary and still describes this year as ‘poking around to see what works.’

“This ain’t my first rodeo,” Jimmy Joe added with a wink and hint of good old farmer’s been-there-done-that attitude. “Let’s see what the boys can do with it.”

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Getting the most from your Shiitake mushroom log

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Shiitake mushroom logs in the woods at half Hill Farm

Last night looks like the last of forecasted freezing temperatures for early Spring here in Middle Tennessee. If you have one of our Shiitake mushroom logs marked SP15 (Spring 2015) or earlier, now is the time to prep your log for an early Spring flush.

Shocking logs: Get a five gallon bucket and fill it with rain water or water from a nearby creek and then soak your log for 24 hours. Place the log in a wooded area with roughly 80% shade. You can place it under a bush near your house’s North side if you do not have woods. If you have more than one log, use a larger tub like the one pictured above. The water should not be chlorinated tap water and should be very cold. This hard soak and cold temperature followed by the gradual warming of outdoor Spring temps will “shock” the mycelium into “pinning,” the beginning stages of mushrooms.

Pinning: Each pin that forms pushes through the bark as you see pictured above and will develop into the beginnings of a mushroom within 2-3 days followed by a rapidly growing mushroom over a five day period. Depending on the weather throughout Spring, you could experience 2-3 natural cycles of mushrooms with roughly two week resting periods between each flush.

Harvest: Once you start to see the mushrooms unfurl their outer edge (typically tucked under the mushroom cap), it is time to pick mushrooms. At this point, the mushroom is in the early phase of releasing its spore. Simply cut them off at the log, brush off any debris and either eat them fresh, store them in the fridge for up to two weeks, or dry them to use for months to come.

How to purchase: Each Shiitake mushroom log from Half Hill Farm produces up to 90% of the log’s dry weight in mushrooms over a 3-5 year period. You can purchase your own inoculated logs from 15 lbs. one foot logs up to 50+ lbs. four feet logs at our farm here in Woodbury, TN. Just give us a call and let us know you’re coming!