Written By: Dillon Cate
Maine Craft Cannabis
Hello and welcome! Thanks for being here and giving the community the opportunity to get to know you better. Please introduce yourself.
Hi! We’re Mike and Emily, the owners of Maine Craft Cannabis. We started MCC in 2018 with the goal of producing the highest quality and most medicinally viable cannabis products
possible, while also making it less intimidating.
Mike & Emily with their Green Babies
What is your history with Cannabis?
While Mike has been a lover of cannabis since his teens, I (Emily) didn’t start consuming it until my early 30s. Prior to that, I always found even just a one or two hits to be too overwhelming for my system (hello paranoia!!!), but when I started to have regular access to edibles I was able to microdose and ease in in a way that finally felt good for my body, and that was a complete game changer.
This is why I’m so passionate about providing patient support that cuts through the confusion about cannabis medicine… there’s a lot going on and a lot of misinformation out there, and it was clear to me that the “adults” in the room needed some help figuring out how to get good results.
Just look at the color on this La Kush Cake Live Rosin braid.
Washed and Pressed By: Hiker Trash Gardens @HikerTrash_Garden
What is your current growing setup and why were you drawn to that?
We grow in very large containers that hold “living soil”, which is a soil that has an active
ecosystem in it, just like it does in nature. It’s common to grow cannabis in soil if you’re
growing outside, but it’s much less common when growing inside because of the logistics of
bringing large amounts of soil indoors. The biggest difference between what we’re doing and
conventional cannabis cultivation (hydroponics) is that we don’t have direct control over what
nutrients the plants uptake and when, and you can’t easily correct for mistakes along the way.
With living soil cultivation, the game is really to nurture and replenish your soil and its
ecosystem to make sure that it has enough of everything the plants will need. It’s like setting up a little plant buffet, which allows them to uptake anything they need, whenever they need it. When we started MCC we decided to grow in soil because it made intuitive sense to us that
growing cannabis in a diverse, rich active ecosystem could produce a more delicious, and more medicinally viable product than feeding the plants with bottled nutrients.
Macro Shot Of Sunset Sherb
Photo Credits: Chris Lee @Gonzo_Photo_
This growing style was also attractive to us because we’re innovators to the core, and we wanted to challenge ourselves to do something different than the industry standard. We were told often when getting started that growing in soil was not a viable idea for a commercial grow, due to the challenges with consistency from run to run. Of course that made us want to do it even more, so from that point forward growing an incredibly consistency organic product became our goal.
Even with all of the engineering experience Maine Craft Cannabis continues to hand water instead of automating the process. This allows them to inspect each plant on a consistent basis for health & just as important give them some love & attention!
How do you think having a background in engineering has impacted the way you approach cannabis?
It’s counterintuitive, but there is so much skill transfer in cannabis cultivation/processing that we find it hard to believe that anybody does this job WITHOUT an engineering background! Engineering is a platform for problem solving and creative expression, both of which come into play in a big way in organic cannabis cultivation. We use engineering every single day to find ways to improve our workflow and to optimize the final product.
One of our employees said to us recently after a failed attempt at creating a new drainage system for our rolling beds “it’s a good thing you guys have a positive relationship with failure”. That pretty much sums it up…running this business has been one long string of engineering projects, many of which were dead ends but ultimately lead us to solutions that did work.
Here you can see the big living soil beds Maine Craft Cannabis grows in. Just look at that smile! That's someone who
is happy and putting all their love and good energy into growing medicine for you.
Favorite thing about Cannabis?
The best thing about cannabis is its versatility! It can be used to support patients in so many different and nuanced ways, ranging from strictly recreational use, to curing cancer. Of course, this versatility is also what causes confusion, but with good quality information and the right intentionality, the ways in which this plant can support us humans are almost endless.
Maine Craft Cannabis meticulously hand trims all their flower to ensure preservation of the extremely delicate trichomes.
The importance of this step cannot be overstated.
Where can patients find your products?
We’re in about 12 stores in southern Maine! We keep an updated list on our website here:
Maine Craft Cannabis has the key to consistent quality Cannabis. They put the hard work in
cutting zero corners and do everything thoughtfully and with good intentions.
Come meet Mike & Emily of Maine Craft Cannabis and get an opportunity shop directly from the "Pharma" at The Maine Cannabis Fair happening on September 28th at Stonehedge in Gray, Maine.
Tickets:
More Information:
Links:
Maine Craft Cannabis Website:
Maine Craft Cannabis Instagram:
Dillon Cate Instagram:
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