Hello and welcome! Thanks for being here and giving everyone the opportunity to get to know you better!
Hello! My name is Nick from Single Malt Melts based out of Oxford County!
How did you get started with Cannabis?
I got started with Cannabis when I was just a teenager, as a regular consumer. I quickly realized I need to learn how to grow. A little later on in life I was involved in some small time outdoor grows and slowly got involved in the legacy market. Fast forward to 2017 when I started cultivating solely for myself on a more serious level.
I quickly got into hash making within my first couple indoor crops and have been freezing fresh frozen from both indoors and outdoors since. I have only missed one season since embarking on this journey!
What is your current grow set up?
Currently I primarily grow using Light Deprivation and full term outdoors. Our light deps (nickname for light deprivation) is a greenhouse that has a blackout system that allows us to "pull tarps" over the greenhouse. This process blocks out all outside light, which then allows us to initiate flowering cycles 2-3 times in 1 outdoor season, vs just 1 full term cycle. This gives us a benefit of growing alot more hash in the same time period.
When growing hash we are not concerned about the biomass of the plant but just the trichome production. We just outfitted our primary greenhouse with some HPS lighting to allow us to supplement light on cloudy days, and extending out vegetative days for more growth. We also have a small indoor space in which we are always doing pheno hunts, constantly looking for next year's prize strains!
You run a single source hash garden. For those that don't know what that is can you explain it? What are some advantages it has as opposed to non single source gardens.
Running a single source hash garden is being the jack of all trades, and trying to master all of them. On my farm I take most of our plants from a seed, and take it through the entire grow and wash process. From pheno hunting, to growing out a mother plant from the selected pheno, then cloning the mother, and growing the clones through flower into maturity. Additionally, we harvest the plants and freeze all the bio mass from the plants while it is still fresh.
This process is called, "whole plant fresh frozen." Our goal is to harvest a plant and have it in our freezers at 0 degrees or less within 30mins of being on the stalk. Once our material is frozen I then begin my ice water extraction process, using filtered water and filtered ice in a chilling vessel only. I do not add ice to my washing vessels as it agitates the material too much. From here we will separate the specific microns of hash, and store in a freezer until it's time to press.
What makes this more difficult then a non single source garden is that I need all the resources for every step of the process in one location, while simultaneously keeping track of multiple different aspects of the trade. We do the jobs of 2-3 teams within one farm, but that allows us to have 100% control from the time that seed is popped, until our patients are taking an award winning dab. It is not an easy feat, but it is oh so rewarding.
What drew you to growing in organic soil vs bottled nutrients?
I have tried all sorts of growing practices from bottled salts, powders, bottled organics and living soil. Living soil is by far the most sustainable, eco friendly, and cost effective practice I have used. At the end of the day the living soil terpene profiles always stand out the most, and produce the most consistent hash with the highest yields.
What is your current Hash / Rosin set up?
I currently wash using a modified 20 gallon machine, with either air dried or freeze dried depending on the desired end result. We press on a Low Temp 4x7 press. We are experimenting with alot of new age tech coming to the market, like the freeze dry monitor system, and we are excited how these upgrades will effect our products for the better.
You also offer hash processing services to other caregivers and patients.
Absolutely, we offer toll processing for anyone in Maine who has a valid caregivers license or med card, including frozen transportation services so you don't have to worry about the transportion of your precious to-be hash!
What is your favorite thing about Cannabis?
My favorite thing about Cannabis is the culture and community behind it. Some of my closest friendships have come out of this community over the years! Sharing a passion for cannabis with the people around you is what takes this community to higher levels!
What are some strains you currently offer?
We currently have but not limited to;
Rehearsal Dinner (Chemd x Grape crasher)
StrawGreasy Willy (Monkey berries x Wilson)
ChemDough
UK cheese
Serious Six
Putang
And our strains are always rotating to keep fresh terps available!
Any new strains patients can look forward to?
Dulce de Uva (Grape cream cake)
Guava Tangie
Strawnana
Strawgauva
Sandy Beaches
Banana Pie
Favorite personal strains / terp profiles?
I personally like anything with a very strong nose, cheeses, chems, sours. As well as very defined fruit strains, primarily grape and orange/tangie profiles
Some breeders who you feel are currently doing an awesome job?
Crystal rose seed Co is absolutely crushing it. I pop a couple packs a year from him at least and have never been disappointed along the way.
You recently have started offering Single Source Live Rosin Cartridges. These aren't your average cartridges, can you explain what make these cartridges such high quality?
We have recently released our new Single source live rosin disposable pens. These are not ordinary pens you may go grab off a shelf just anywhere. These are the first pens that have been designed by a hash maker for the use of hash. They are brand new hardware to the market and we are the first to bring them to the public for both patients to purchase, as well as we are offering hardware to other caregivers to fill with their own product. Some features our pens have are that they don't have internal metal that touches your oil, and they have an optional pre heat feature, as well as USB-C charger. They have no coil or atomizer but instead use a ceramic heating plate, resulting in consistent flavor and a powerful hit throughout the entire fill, with no burnt taste at the end. We personally only fill our pens with the highest quality rosin we offer, our 73-159u, and these pens will leave you with a dab like experience all around.
I wanted to just take a second and say congratulations for not only taking home 1st place in the Rosin category at the Croptober fest but also 2nd place! What were the two strains that ended up placing?
Thank you very much! It took a long dedicated season to bring home those wins!
Rehearsal Dinner took first place and StrawGreasy Willy took second! Both sungrown cold cured 73-159u rosin. We also just took 2nd place at the Sweet Sweet Nectar event in Jan 2024 with our light deps grown Rehearsal Dinner.
Will you be attending any events / sessions in the future?
You can plan to see us popping up at some events in 2024 for sure!!
Things to look forward to in 2024 and beyond?
We are hoping to add another light dep house to the farm this summer in place of some of our full terms. This will help to allow us an extra harvest or two per year from that canopy space.
Where can patients find your products? Do you currently offer direct to patient sales?
Our products are currently offered by JBK Cannabis delivery service in Oxford and Sugar Leaf Co in New Portland. With new dispensaries coming soon. We just opened for direct to patient sales as well!
Closing Thoughts / Feel Free To Add Anything Else
Thank you very much to everyone for supporting the Maine cannabis industry and reading this far! And thank you very much Ilovemeweed for having us! Come say high, tell us you saw this interview and receive a free gift!
Thanks for stopping in
- Single Malt Melts
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