Growing up I always enjoyed consuming cannabis, so when presented with the opportunity to see how the sausage was made I jumped at the chance. In the early to mid-2,000’s heroin and prescription pills flooded our area. We all lost someone to it, but as our friend circle grew smaller, there was always one thing that remained to help keep our heads held high. Cannabis. Some said gateway drug; we thought anti-drug. The idea of getting a paycheck to help grow this flower that we all loved but had to hide all our lives felt unreal and very exciting.

I started in cannabis at an entry level position. In the trim room at a large grow in Denver. After a short time, I worked my way up to cultivation, which is where I really wanted to be, eventually becoming manager. After parting ways with that company, I went to run a small hemp farm in the mountains. That is where I learned and fell in love with organic cultivation practices. In 2021 a recruiter found me this position at FRX. During my initial interview, the subject of what dispensary I liked most in Colorado came up. I told him Verde Natural, hands down. I shopped around many dispos over my 8 years there, but they had the tastiest flower around in my opinion. It turns out some of the original people that started FRX came from there, bringing their knowledge of living soil grown flower with them to the east coast. After flying out to tour the facility in PA, I quickly realized it was the perfect fit for me. What better than coming back to my home state to help run a facility that brings that same smooth, organic flavor I chased out west to the people of Pennsylvania?

Operational excellence to me means all my employees have everything they need to do their job efficiently. All tools be it equipment operating correctly, proper staffing, down to having the right size gloves or scrubs you like wearing each day. I’ve been in these people’s shoes in the past, and all those little things you don’t have but want 40 hours a week will piss you off. I don’t by any means accomplish this 100% of the time, but I try. Do your best to take care of the people and the rest should fall into place.

Overseeing operations involves many things daily. The standard days would be neurotically checking our demand plan to see what strains patients seem to enjoy at the moment, telling my director of cultivation to grow more or less of a certain strain then changing my mind the next week (he loves this), checking test results, sales, ordering packaging consumables or equipment, updating our harvest sheet, checking in with my top team members department needs, checking emails, walking cultivation to smell some dank new phenotypes or current harvests coming down, quality checks on flower being cured, scheduling repairs, checking emails again.

Tough question. I’d say some of the biggest challenges in these operations in my experience are what isn’t on the daily checklist I word vomited above. When I was younger, buying expensive bags of “headies” as we called it was easy to complain about if you were not satisfied with the quality. Growing said weed that meets my standards at a large scale, turns out, not so easy. Every little detail along the way from clone to harvest to final packaging makes a difference. Temp/Humidity too high or too low in prop/veg/flower/hang/cure room? This all matters. Cannabis is a resilient plant, but these little things along the way can make a big difference in the final product our patients walk out of the dispo with. Every single department matters as much as the next to keep things flowing. So, to finally answer your question, the biggest challenge in cannabis operations is usually HVAC.

Having a great team. I am on site everyday to check in with each department but having the smart and passionate people I’m lucky to have makes coordination a breeze. The people leading each department here have been with FRX PA since the beginning. Unless something catches fire, they are all locked in and have their respective areas on autopilot.

Efficiency and sustainability are central to every operational decision we make in our organic living-soil cultivation facility. Because our entire production model is built on biological balance and long-term soil health. Designing workflows to minimize waste, whether that’s wasted labor hours, water or nutrients. Sustainability guides our decisions on inputs. We source organic amendments responsibly and re-amend our soil instead of discarding it. Ultimately, at FRX, efficiency and sustainability work together to ensure consistent yields and premium product quality.

As I said before, every little detail matters along the way. A problem may seem insignificant in the moment but if left unattended it is not today’s problem, it’s 2-3 months from now’s problem when you are looking at poor quality medicine. It all starts with cultivation, if the harvest is not quality, the concentrate, RSO, or cartridge will not be either.

As with any other facility in PA we get every single product tested twice. First at harvest, then after final packaging to ensure the patient is getting medicine that is safe to consume. We are also proud to be Certified KIND. This is an organic certification company from Oregon that we stay in close communication with. They regularly review our inputs to make sure everything is OMRI listed and aligned with their standards. Besides that, quality control on site gives the final say. Even if something passes testing, the team or I will put eyes on it before being packaged. If we are not happy with how something came out, it does not go out.

We are always listening to patient and dispensary feedback. After all, we would not be here if it weren’t for them. I am in contact with our sales and marketing team. They are the boots on the ground when it comes to this and will let me know what products patients are enjoying at the moment and what strains they want to see brought back into rotation. We always do our best to cater to what our patients or dispensary partners want.

I think people would be surprised to learn how involved it is. It is much harder work than people realize. The amount of coordination with every department at a high level, while running as lean as possible in an uncertain and fluctuating new industry leads to many challenges. I know I thought it was going to be easier. Then you find yourself covered in dirt and soaked in sweat thinking “what have I gotten myself into?”

I think my proudest accomplishment would be just trying to be a reasonable and understanding leader to my team. I’m not sure if I’ve even accomplished that, but I’ve had many aggressive micro-managers over the years, and I do my best to not be that for them.

We are all holding our breath for adult use here in PA. This will be a huge market when that finally comes to fruition, and every grower will face the challenges of expanding quickly to meet the demands of the PA population.

Some things we are excited about now are the extensive pheno hunts we have been on to bring new medicine to the patients of PA. We will always keep the fan favorites around, but it is very exciting to find something new after many months of testing. Also, the implementation of solventless needs to happen here, and my end goal is to make sure it does.

FRX’s mission always has and always will be to bring clean, organic medicine to the people of Pennsylvania. Being the only organic cultivator in the state, we take pride in that mission.

One question I get asked frequently is “how do I get into the industry?”. The answer is simple; you just have to apply. You can find entry level positions across the industry everywhere now at either the dispensary or a grower/processor. I started from the bottom, and it was the best learning experience I could have ever asked for. Takes a long time to get into a position like mine, but you have to start somewhere and hands on experience is the best.