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David Dzielak submitted his application for a cannabis cultivation license just 17 hours after the portal opened on March 15. He still remembers his application number: 41.

This is his first time growing cannabis as one of New York state’s inaugural recipients of the Adult-Use Conditional Cultivator licenses, which enabled hemp farmers to apply to grow cannabis.

“It is, in a weird way, it’s very rewarding to grow it,” said Dzielak, the owner and sole proprietor of 4 Erratic Farm south of Syracuse. “It’s an anxiety attack, don’t get me wrong.”

Cannabis cultivation is a retirement project for Dzielak, who spent 42 years working in Mississippi, holding various positions at the University of Mississippi and serving as the state’s Medicaid director. A native of Onondaga Hill, he said he always planned to move back to the area.

“I never really thought I’d end up with a farm though, a small farm, but I did and it’s been great,” he said.

Dzielak’s farm — which met his requirements of having a view of Skaneateles Lake, a place for his Green Egg smoker and a fireplace — sits on 63 acres he initially planned to grow hay on. But when New York state began the adult legalization process for cannabis, he decided that growing hemp, which he did for two years before cannabis cultivation was legalized, would be easier, and gave it a shot.

Despite the size of his farm, Dzielak said New York state is restricting cultivators to growing an acre of cannabis under the new licenses. He said he’s only growing three-quarters of an acre of his Blueberry Muffin and Hella Jelly strains of marijuana as that’s all he can manage by himself.

But not all of New York state’s first cannabis farms are as small as Dzielak’s.

Tap Root Fields of Skaneateles has around a dozen employees cultivating hemp and other unique produce like shishito peppers and purple bumblebee tomatoes, in addition to cannabis, said Lee Buttolph, Tap Root’s chief operating officer.

While Tap Root also began by growing hemp, which it received a license to grow in 2019, the new license enabled the farm to also grow cannabis this season, Buttolph said. Tap Root already harvested its autoflower plants, which grow faster than typical cannabis, this August.

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“I think we always knew from the beginning that recreational cannabis was going to open up in New York,” Buttolph said. “The biggest issue was just when. And I think it happened a little faster than we expected, but we’re happy about that.”

In contrast to Dzielak’s farm, Tap Root uses 32 tillable acres for all its crops.

The farm also uses techniques that improve the health of the crops and the land, Buttolph said. Tap Root’s cannabis can’t be called organic, like the farm’s other crops, because the federal government regulates that certification and still criminalizes the plant.

Additionally, Buttolph said the state required the farm to have a mentorship program for potential equity applicants, including people who have historically been impacted by cannabis laws, for cultivation licenses. The requirement is part of New York state’s efforts to ensure equity throughout the legalization process.

“It is not a checking-the-box program for us,” he said. “The state has given us almost zero guidance on how to run this program, and so we just jumped in.”

Buttolph said mentees from a local Black-owned cannabis company, Cultavision, have been at Tap Root as the two groups work together to harvest the crop and discuss marketing and budgeting.

“We found a whole lot of synergy amongst the two groups that we felt like it could really be good because we feel like definitely we can learn a lot of them as a mentee,” said J. Jordan, the chief executive officer of Cultavision. “But also on our business acumen, we can probably give them some help too … So it’s been a very good win-win situation for the both of us so far.”

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Jordan said his company is looking to apply for its own license. But the biggest lesson he’s learned so far from the mentorship program was “don’t put all your eggs in the timing basket,” in reference to the constantly changing landscape of New York state’s legalization process.

Both 4 Erratic and Tap Root are waiting for New York state to grant licenses for dispensaries to sell their products across the state.

Buttolph thinks that the eventual growth of the cannabis industry could contribute to a revitalized economy in central New York.

“All of a sudden, there’s going to be a bunch of money being spread around the state to all these small businesses that are going to need to hire more,” he said. “They’re gonna buy new houses, they’re gonna buy cars, they’re gonna buy boats. You’re gonna see this crazy explosion here.”

Published on October 6, 2022 at 1:26 am

Contact Danny: ddamron@syr.edu | @dannyamron_