by Veronica Castillo
Small Batch Farm in Oklahoma Highlight: Wild Hare Farms
“We made the decision to grow outdoors under the sun, organically, in living soil and we’ve been striving for maximum sustainability ever since”
Alex, a biologist by trade with a background in corporate oil and gas; and Paige, a photographer, natural minded mama of 3 boys, and 5th generation farmer are the dynamic duo at Wild Hare Farms.
Wild Hare Farms is a small batch, organic, cannabis farm in Purcell, Oklahoma. Small batch farms, also known as craft cannabis farms, are farms that grow plants with mindfulness and close attention paid to each plant.
Alex and Paige are the planners, growers, trimmers, bookkeepers, marketers, and distributors (with a little help from the community during Croptober).Having launched with the freedom to so do under Oklahoma’s 788, they dove right into an industry they believe in: “it’s just us two here working our asses off every single day to make this dream a reality”.
Wild Hare Farms sits on 70 acres in a rural area of Oklahoma, south of Norman. This land has been in Paige’s family for 60 years. On the land, visitors will find an old rusty windmill turning with the wind, buffalo wallows visible in the fields, and the back of the farm fully terraced.
If you know me, then you know I love sun grown cannabis. I fell in love with it while spending time in Oregon. For me, the connection between plant and sun is so important. Indoor is pretty as heck, right? But I can’t help but love the buds that are kissed by the natural sun. Alex and Paige state: “we believe in working with science and nature to consciously cultivate plant medicine that gives back to the earth rather than taking from it”.
Speaking on multiple levels to my vegan heart, I was happy to interview the “scientist and the hippie who fell in love and made a canna business baby”, as Paige puts it. Check out the full interview below.
Please tell me about the start of Wild Hare Farms- was the journey a hard mission?
“It definitely wasn’t easy! We saw the legalization of cannabis on the horizon thanks to 788 and knew it was a huge opportunity to get into a brand-new industry that we both believe in. Neither of us has ever been the kind to let opportunity pass us by so we dove into figuring out what it would take to make this happen. We looked to other legalized states to give us an idea of what a mature market could look like in our state. That’s when the benefits of growing sustainably became pretty apparent to us.”
Tell me about the ladies on the farm being kissed by the sun?
“Ahhh there’s just something about watching a cannabis plant go from seed to 10+ feet tall in 7 months! The sun grown movement is a shift towards sustainability and giving back to nature. The cool thing about sun grown cannabis is it has to adapt to a wide range of stressors like bugs, weather swings, the intensity of the sun, etc., and the result is a terpene profile that is second to none.
We’ve had up to 17 different terpenes in our strains which is a testament to a life lived outdoors. IPM (integrated pest management) needs to be on point and when done right, sun grown flower is absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, there are a lot of misconceptions about sun grown cannabis in Oklahoma.
Some dispensaries won’t even buy outdoor because they think it’s of lesser quality. It’s our mission to grow some of the very best Oklahoma sun grown flower and help educate patients on why it’s important to buy organic, sustainably grown cannabis.
The good news is that we’re not alone and there are some other really great Oklahoma outdoor growers producing amazing plant medicine and spreading the word on sustainability.”
You all are an organic farm- what kind of nutrients do you all use for plant health?
“Our plants are grown in 100 gallon living soil fabric pots. Side note: we’re excited about adding some 200-gallon pots next year! The soil in each pot was handmade and mixed by us last year, using locally sourced compost, pumice, coco coir, and various other organic inputs.
We’ve also added fungus, bacteria, and worms to create a truly living soil. We feed those organisms in the soil and in return they feed the plants. The plant communicates with the bacteria and fungus telling them what it needs. In exchange for that service, the plant essentially feeds the microorganisms.
That way, the plant gets what it needs when it needs it. How cool is that?! Our favorite amendments right now are alfalfa meal, neem seed meal, and malted barley. Alfalfa meal has a great N-P-K ratio as well as triacontanol which promotes vigorous plant growth. Neem seed meal also has a great N-P-K and micronutrient balance and is very pest preventative.
So, we foliar spray it before flower as well! Malted barley is full of enzymes that assist the soil microbes in the breakdown of amendments.”
Talk to me about essential oil baths in 80-degree weather. How does this benefit the plant?
“In the Oklahoma summers, you’ve got to plan your IPM around the weather. If it’s too hot, foliar sprays can scorch your plant. As far as the essential oils go, we use a mixture of organic garlic and clove oils for their pest resistant terpenes.
Another part of our IPM is foliar sprays with organic food grade enzymes. Growing outdoors requires consistent preventative measures to keep the bugs and mold away but once you have that down, you can grow some amazing flower!”
Tell me about sprouted seed tea- bubblin tea. What’s that for and about?
“We love making tea for our ladies! We use organic corn and alfalfa seeds for our seed sprouted teas because both contain chemicals that are extremely beneficial to plant growth. This replaces the need to go to the grow store and buy an overpriced bottle of synthetic enzymes.
It’s so easy to make yourself, organic, and better for the environment. The bubbling happens when we make compost tea! We aerate our compost tea for 24-36 hours to produce a bacterial bloom. Watering with compost tea can increase the beneficial bacterial load in your plant’s rhizosphere which promotes overall plant health. We’re really looking forward to trying some homemade KNF (Korean Natural Farming) inputs next year such as fermented fruit and plant juices.”
You all trimmed for 12 hours one day, during a storm, with electricity going in and out. What got you all through that?
“We knew there would likely be times where the electricity would go out and we knew we didn’t want to be scrambling in the moment to find a solution. We bought a generator earlier in the year and it paid for itself in one day during the ice storm!
Every minute, hour, and day is important during harvest and we couldn’t afford to lose a day of trimming because of no electricity. That was only one of many 12+ hour work days this year that we were forced to overcome a difficult obstacle.
Flexibility, resilience, a lot of sweat and tears, and sheer determination to make this dream work has gotten us through everything so far!”
You all aren’t just a cannabis farm; you all grow vegetables too! That speaks to my soul being a vegan cannabis head and all. Are you all huge in plant health and lifestyles?
“Yes, we are actually! Alex handed this question over to me (Paige) because I’m a bit of a health fanatic, ha! For real though, I just care SO much about the health of my family, myself, and the planet that it’s hard for me to look the other way when it comes to nutrition and sustainability.
We eat mostly plant based and grow as much of our own food as we can on our little homestead. You’ll also find us doing yoga and meditation multiple times a week to help keep our body and mind in healthy working order to handle all the physical and mental requirements it takes to keep this farm running.”
Small batch farm today, does this change in let’s say, 5 years?
“We’re looking forward to growing each year but plan to do so in a way that we never lose the craft and sustainability we’re working so hard to achieve. Right now, we’re really enjoying the personal relationship we have with each and every plant we grow and the learning experience that provides. We have big dreams for the future of our farm and strive to be influential in the push toward sustainability in the cannabis community.”
So where can you find Wild Hare Farms flower in Oklahoma? Check out their Instagram page that gets updated with each flower drop!
