March 2023 - 11A

SEED TO LABEL
Hempstock Pharms hosts a large community harvest party every year
along with trimming parties to involve its customers and supporters.
Photo: Hempstock Pharms.
Illinois) to see what strains might grow well
in the region, instead of relying on more
established vendors of hemp feminized seed
from Oregon and California.
McCaskill tested a bunch of strains the
first couple years, but now because of cost
factors and testing becoming stricter and
more complicated, she says they've dialed
back to doing one strain a year.
" We basically rotate and try a different
strain every year so that we can add a
new lineup to our smokable flower line,
and then also play around and see what
other cannabinoid combinations we can
get, " McCaskill says. " When we send our
" They were being quoted current market prices of
hemp biomass, which have been diving constantly
since 2019. "
Banking laws are also not aligned with ag laws,
making banking and credit card processing very
difficult. Therefore, McCaskill advises not to get into
hemp under your same farm, but instead create a
separate business with a separate purpose.
" If you're going to go for hemp, if you're going to go
for cannabinoid hemp, CBD hemp, buyer beware, " she
says. " Let it be a calling, let it be a passion. Those are
the guys I think will be around in the long run. "
Creating Hempstock Pharms
This calling has led to the success of the
consistently expanding Hempstock Pharms. McCaskill,
who calls herself a marketer and not a farmer by trade,
grows hemp from seed organically on 4 acres and has
crafted more than 55 products for sale.
" For Hempstock Pharms, the reason we did seed to
label was I felt like I didn't know how to find and secure
a CBD contract, and I didn't have the property for it, "
McCaskill says. " Also, CBD should be local just like food
is local; I'm a big believer that food is medicine and local
food is better food for your body.
" If you're buying from a national brand then the CBD
that you're getting is consolidated nationally, maybe
even globally. And so you really have no idea where
your CBD is coming from. "
Hempstock Pharms has been a part of University of
Illinois studies on different cannabis strains across the
state to figure out which strains grow better in which
regions. These studies have shown differences in
cannabinoid profiles depending on soil and water.
" Marijuana is just like wine, " McCaskill says. " I could
grow the exact same strain as the guy that's growing
down the street, and we're going to have different
cannabinoid profiles from our plant. "
For this reason, she recommends consumers find
different local hemp farmers and keep trying products
until they find one that works.
When Hempstock Pharms began in 2019, McCaskill
went to Wisconsin (close to her location in northern
biomass in, we just check the cannabinoid profile and
make sure it's relatively close to the profiles that we've
had in previous years for addition to some of our key
products. "
She also has a bank of special cannabinoids that are
specific to some products, enough for another five or
six years of demand.
A Part of the Community
Hempstock Pharms is an agricultural-zoned property
only a mile and a half from the town center and, with
that, McCaskill has made community involvement
paramount to the business' success.
Aside from starting seedlings in hoop houses, all
growing occurs outdoors, meaning one harvest per
year that takes harvesting by hand to a different level.
" We do an annual community harvest; we do not pay
people to harvest our hemp, " McCaskill says. " We feel
community harvest is incredibly important to give that
experience to our local community, and it's a huge, fun,
big party once a year. "
Hempstock Pharms also does community trim
parties throughout the winter. McCaskill and her team
throw on some pots of soup and provide drinks and
snacks, and customers come out and help trim and
process the product.
This customer-centric philosophy is one of the
most important ways small-scale hemp farms
can set themselves apart from larger operations,
according to McCaskill.
" We feel that every customer that we add, we want
to have met them personally, have talked to them, have
heard their story and have made recommendations
that are custom to the problems that they're trying to
solve, " she says. " The feedback that I get from most
people is that when they go to the medical marijuana
or to recreational marijuana dispensaries, they feel it's
like a methadone clinic. "
Looking Forward
Although Hempstock Pharms has an online presence,
it's intentionally more as a convenience for current
customers than to capture any new business.
2023 GUIDE TO HEMP PRODUCTION | 11A
March 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March 2023
