Walker Patton from Woody Nelson recently sat down with Tyeson Carmody from Kootenay Cultivar to tell us his about his journey and what it’s like to grow cannabis in the Kootenays. A transcript of this interview has been adapted below. Some responses have been altered slightly for clarity or length.
W: You can’t talk about the history of cannabis in BC without talking about the Kootenays. What was it like to grow up around the plant in a place like this?
T: I grew up in the Wild Horse Valley, which is a little offshoot from Ymir. My dad grew before me, so I was always around the plant. One of my early memories was when his garden got busted by the RCMP. A helicopter full of cops was hovering above and then went for a landing in the in the field near our property. My mom was hustling me and my sister off to a neighbor’s. I was probably about four and my sister was a newborn. We were running through this field and trying to stay low. My dad and his buddies were ripping the plants out of the ground and just stuffing them in a van. They took a back route that joined farther up the wild horse road.
That was one of my earliest memories of plant. I was too young to really know what was going on, but I did understand that it was scary. My parents explained that there was nothing wrong with the plant, but we had to hide them from people. I understood that they have a lot of power, but you also had to really respect them. That was an early experience that really shaped the way I viewed the plant.
I didn't always consume it the way that I do now. It's a powerful plant when you're first starting to the experiment with it, and it deserves respect. It can shake you a little bit if you abuse it.
W: Your knowledge of living soil organics is legendary. Could you set the record straight on what really went into pioneering LSO here in the Kootenays? And what’s it like to know that people think so highly of you?
T: It's a really weird feeling, but I'm grateful that a lot of people are now seeing LSO for being something special.
When I first got into it, I just wanted a change because I'd been growing outdoor for a long time. Only one strain, growing large amounts of it, and that got boring. It was only about one thing: production.
I went down to California in 2016, to the Emerald Cup. I smoked some sour tangy by an organic grower named Brian that was really incredible. Really beautiful flower and the nose on it was popping. I was really inspired. So, I looked into organic growing methods and went down that rabbit hole for a couple years. I visited the States and went to some conferences with Elaine Ingham, who is kind of the soil food web guru. I also went to a course with Chris Trump. He's a Korean natural farming educator. Not that I would use a lot of KNF techniques, but they’re all organic cultivation. They’re all essentially using the same mechanisms: the biology breaks down the mineral into a form that's available for the plant to uptake.
The other part that was important was mineral balancing, which is probably the hardest part of understanding LSO well. Isaac, my cultivation partner at Kootenay Cultivar took a course through Bryant Mason on mineral balancing. With all the things we've learned together, it's quite effective. Isaac really deserves a lot of the credit because he's extremely talented at it and we work as a team.
W: I appreciate you sharing the love. Your journey from legacy to legal wasn't always smooth sailing. What were the biggest hurdles and how did you overcome them to become the brand you are today?
T: It's such a challenge. We had a tough start. Some internal stuff was difficult to deal with and the market is extremely challenging. There's a steep learning curve to legal cannabis from the legacy market, like even just understanding how pricing works. And we have limited resources.
We had to learn some hard lessons and have been able to make some adjustments. We're operating as a facility and as an operation more efficiently now, but we're also understanding the business a lot better. The international market has really helped everything.
We’re in a much better spot right now and happy to be a part of it.
W: Was there one obstacle that really stood out?
T: No, it was a lot of little things. Or maybe a whole bunch of big challenges. It’s been the hardest thing I've ever done, for sure.
W: What are some of your newer genetics that you’ve been really happy with?
T: I'm really happy with the OJ Zainbow. That was like an incredible find for us. When we found that strain, I was hoping it was gonna have some lasting appeal. The Meringue Kush is one that we overlooked at first but we're really liking how it grows. Really excited for Fugu as well.
W: You mentioned the international market. Could you talk about the role it played in Kootenay Cultivar’s success?
T: The international market helped us move supply. There's such a cost involved in legal production that when you're sitting on supply that’s hard to sell, it’s scary. The bills stack up quickly.
We invested in this business ourselves, so to get it to a spot where you feel confident that you have your payroll covered for the next couple of periods is pretty nice.
W: How much does it help that international buyers are paying top dollar and you don’t have to worry about excise tax?
T: It's huge. I've been doing this since I was 17 and it’s so cool to be selling weed around the world in places that are just starting to experience the cannabis. To be a part of that is really fun. And we're super grateful to be in a position that we can.
W: The international market is really starting to heat up. Planning any trips?
T: I'm really looking forward to doing a couple of international trips. I want to go to Spannabis. That's been on my radar for years. I'd really like to go and see what the European market’s into and meet some of the people. The other event I would really like to do is Mary Jane in Berlin. I think that's in June.
W: What's next for Kootenay Cultivar?
T: That’s a question for the team. For me... I love rosin
We have a nice piece of property at Kootenay Cultivar with a lot of sun exposure. With the expanded cap for micros, one of my thoughts was for some light dep greenhouses. I love growing the plant under the sun. It expresses itself so much differently.
If we could expand with a couple light dep greenhouses, LSO, and send it all to rosin. That would be a dream for me. I’d love to do that when it makes sense.
Also wanted to do a collab with High Fidelity so I’ve been talked to them as well.
W: You've lived through the unregulated era and are now making your way in the regulated world. From your perspective, what are some of the pros and cons of each?
T: I was 17 when I first started growing, the price of a pound was over 3k, but there was a lot of risk. As I have gotten older my tolerance for risk has changed and I wouldn’t want to go back to the outlaw era. My favourite part of the new regulated era are all of the great people I get to work with now. Circles used to be very small but now I connect and work with great people from around the world that all share a passion for this amazing plant.
W: We appreciate y’all. So much of life, at least for me, is finding things that are worth working through. It's just about what you’re putting that towards. Building this industry that we're building, innovating, and creating the foundation for, to me, that's worth it.
T: There’re a lot of people that have relied on this industry for a really long time. It feels good to be able to keep a lot of those people employed. A lot of them used to help me and came over from the legacy world. It's great to be able to find some success and to keep working with them. So supporting the community that has always supported me is definitely a motivation.
W: Your new cultivars, OJ Zainbow and Meringue Kush, are generating a lot of buzz. How did you decide on these two?
T: The OJ Zainbow is a plant we selected from genetic called Zainbow Mentz from Crane City. I didn't quite expect as much of an orange citrus from it, but we noticed it right away, even when the plants were in veg. We kept our eye on it and when we when we finally harvested, we were super happy. It always burns really, really clean.
It's this amazing grapefruit, orange citrus flavor that stood out more than the nose. That's not normal for me. Usually, the nose is a little bit more pronounced, but on the OJ Zainbow, it’s the other way around.
My wife doesn't love citrus terps but the OJ Zainbow stains the grinder and she'll taste the citrus terps for like the next three joints. She's always like, “oh, you're rolling OJ Zainbow in there.” You may wanna use a dedicated grinder for this one. It’s a great flavor if you like citrus terps.
The Meringue Kush was something that we originally passed on. It was an Animal Mints and a TK Triangle Kush from Seed Junkie and kept the few we thought had some potential. As we kept growing it, it just seemed like it was getting gassier. We kept on and eventually had this gassy plant with nice sweetness to it. It's a fun plant to grow.
The other thing about the Meringue is the burn. It always has really nice clean ash. In our selections right now, that probably shares the most important spot with flavor.
W: How, in your opinion, does the LSO make it better?
T: There’re a lot of pros and cons with LSO. Because we have coco and LSO to compare, I do run trials quite often. I've noticed is that the mouth feel of the LSO is thicker. The smoke feels thicker and the terpene contents possibly a little bit thicker as well. That's maybe partly why it feels different in my mouth. The flavors are usually more pronounced, and I find the effects are a little bit longer lasting.
I have been able to get a higher THC content out of the coco. Especially as we're starting to get better at our irrigation strategies and able to cause some precision stress that can raise cannabinoid levels. With the LSO, you don't really have the opportunity to provide irrigation stress. That might be the reason why the THC numbers are slightly lower, but the terpene numbers usually slightly higher.
W: What do you want Kootenay Cultivar to be known for?
T: Passion for the plant and for the culture.
W: You're recognized as one of the best. Would you like to give some shoutouts to those you’ve been able to learn from?
T: There are tons of people along the way that were a part of my journey. Both my mom and dad letting me grow weed in their chicken coop when I was 17. I had hurt my knee snowboarding and I wasn't gonna be able to do my regular job, so them giving me the opportunity really sparked my love for the plant. You became obsessive in a way, just wanting to learn more about growing and how to do it better. It’s like my buddy Kevin Jodrey says: “you're not obsessed, you're possessed.” Sometimes feels like you're working for the plant now.
In the contemporary world there's a fellow - Michael Kraidy, He's been a really great mentor to Isaac and myself. He's an agronomist that lives down in Peru and works on pig farms down there. But he loves weed and he's really into helping people. He's always been great. If you have a question for him, he'll chat your ear off about it. He has some strong opinions, but he's been a great mentor to us.
W: Do you have any advice that you would give to a young aspiring grower?
T: Be observant, the plant is very expressive and will tell you a lot once you learn its body language.
ABOUT TYESON CARMODY
Born and raised in Ymir BC by hippy outlaws that instilled an admiration and respect for cannabis at an early age. When I’m not in the grow room I’m in my veggie garden with my lovely wife Maya or cooking up fine meals in our kitchen together.
