Growing at the Highest Caliber Humanly Possible: The Art of Small Batch
An assortment of small batch flower jars and merchandise / Courtesy Appalachian Organics.
No, that is not a typo. Rare, designer cannabis products have been popping up more and more in the last couple of years. If you haven’t yet come across one of these super heady black miron jars in the wild, that’s because they’re very hard to find and typically only available in, dare I say, small batches.
The first time one of my friends, who is about as heady as they come, told me he willingly paid $1,500 for an ounce of flower my jaw hit the floor. I could not fathom a world in which somebody with access to all the cheap and/or free weed he could smoke straight from multiple different farmers would choose to do that. The ounce was from a brand/person called Norcal Nemo and all I know about him is his weed comes highly recommended from many different industry staples whose opinions on quality I tend to trust. It is also worth noting here that my friend bought that ounce a few years ago and I assumed the price might be less by now, but one of his distributors on the east coast actually quoted me $1,600-$1,800 and even as high as $2K for a competitor brand. I got in touch with Nemo, who turned me down for a full interview but he did choose to share his thoughts on what he considers to be small batch flower:
“In my personal opinion, I believe small batch cannabis is just as much an art as a science, slightly leaning towards the art side. If I were to really narrow it down to what matters most to me the grow room would be no larger than a 14-light room, 100% organic through every step of the process and only hand watering,” Nemo said. “At the end of the day, we’re talking about growing at the highest caliber humanly possible. There should be absolutely no corners cut within any step of the process, even if that means spending more time, money, or physical energy to do so.”
That seemed like a pretty good general definition to me, but “not cutting corners” is something every cannabis grower from here to Hanoi tends to pride themself on. It has to actually mean something for the consumer to be willing to pay such a high price point and the custy premium only gets you so far.
In order to gain a better understanding of the microprocesses that must surely go into preparing such a high-value product, I spoke to “No Till Hank Hill,” a small batch grower from Nevada who first showed up on my radar in 2022 when I saw the late Jesse the Chef post a jar on his Instagram story. No Till Hank Hill told me he runs only two lights of production and five lights total, which to me feels like more or less the “floor price,” if you will, to be considered more than a grow tent grommet. Any less than that feels like a hobby grower to me but the branding and the way the product is presented to the consumer also play a huge role here, which No Till Hank Hill was kind enough to expand on for me.
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