The OG Plant reaches cannabis harvest season

Bright and early, Dave Sullivan hauls a trailer of pumpkins to the Eugene Saturday Market to set up Sweet Leaf Organic’s produce booth. Before lunch, he rushes over to the sister farm, The OG Plant, where over a hundred cannabis plants are in the thick of harvest season. He gives the farm’s dusty Saint Bernard a few firm pats before returning to the seat of his tractor.

“It's go time!” Sullivan, lead grower and owner, said. “We cover our greenhouse with a tarp in early summer to trick the girls into thinking it’s fall. We start harvesting in June and stretch it out into late fall. We’re working hard right now because we’re in that window where time really is money.”

According to Sullivan, about 95% of Oregon-licensed cannabis farms with indoor or greenhouse operations use chemicals to grow their flower. Although this can be an easy solution to relieve some of the associated nuances to farming this crop, including pest mitigation and flower size, The OG Plant values natural, chemical-free growing strategies that consider ecosystem and soil health.

Sullivan, an alumnus with fond memories of the University of Oregon’s Urban Farm, splits his time between Sweet Leaf Organics and The Plant. The Urban Farm creates an environment to allow pollinators to thrive in a city. Sullivan uses this experience in his own farms, where ladybugs assist in the pollination of cannabis plants.

Each of The OG Plant’s four greenhouses contains five long rows of maturing female plants, flaunting fall-colored fan leaves in lime green, vibrant orange and wine-purple hues. Sullivan’s resin-tainted jeweler’s magnifier reveals the microscopic trichomes appearing as white hairs in the early stages of growth before mushrooming into round-headed spikes. According to Sullivan, the varying color and transparency of the trichomes contribute to the flowers THC count, and most growers aim for 70-90% of the hairs to reach a milky amber for higher results.

“The saturation of Oregon’s cannabis industry creates more nuances for the smaller scale farms,” Sullivan said. “The market is profited by many wealthy out-of-state, and typically white, men.”

To keep up with the booming market, The OG Plant values collaboration with other local companies as a marketing tactic that saves money and builds community in the process. One product in collaboration with a former bee-keeper who was inspired by honeycomb shapes to create a brand identity where the palm-sized product stacks together like a hive. Inside each honeycomb is a rich aroma of the flower that was converted into a concentrated THC oil, resembling honey or royal jelly.

Sullivan and most of his crew are Oregon locals who remember the pre-recreational days when operations were under different regulations with more tedious processing and paperwork. Since recreational use was legalized in October 2015, growers have been able to solidify their growing tactics while cultivating meaningful connections to local community partnerships. The stigma around the plant exists well past legalization, but Sullivan says he is witnessing an evolving progressive narrative, at least within the emerald Willamette Valley.

“The media and the War on Drugs made people afraid of pot, but once you show them a flower, it’s not as scary,” Sullivan said.

Although The OG Plant isn’t offering its cannabis harvest at the Saturday Market, the same hands are working hard to bring farm-to-plate realities to the urban market-goers. Cannabis connoisseurs and consumption considerates can find products by The OG Plant in select cannabis retailers.