Progress Report: 10.29.21

Grasshopper Family,

Another incredible week!

We have turned the corner. We blew by the halfway mark of harvesting the outdoor plants and are in the home stretch, with three or four more outdoor days remaining. Mother Nature will work with us on answering that question.

The days have been long. Saturday and Sunday are just like the other five days.

But...this is harvest.

With the light at the end of the tunnel, we are starting to transition things and prepare for our sales cycle and winterizing the property. Exciting!

Adam is crushing our sales discussions and Matt is working on the master plan to get this property, supplies/equipment, and people ready for the freezing temperatures and snow.

So, what are the changes you might expect to see at this phase?

Totes. Lots and lots and lots and lots of totes. After testing the conveyor again, we moved them to storage. Check out the pictures of totes that are stacked in different rooms. One of them looks like it is straight out of a Harry Potter movie. Caroline came up with that awesome observation. I totally agree.

These toes are FULL. And we are still going.

Check out the picture of the trellis netting that was used in one of the rooms in Building 2. What this means is we are DONE drying in that room in Building 2! This is one of the exciting milestones of our company moving to the next phase.

We have another example of life happening for us. We weighed a plant we cut down and it happened to be 4.20 pounds. This, of course, came after 420 totes at Sam's Club and getting licensed on 4/20. Awesome!

We had our first frost! First things first. This was NOT a frost that endangered the plants. Instead, it ended up providing us with some gorgeous pictures. Frost would only become an issue under 27 degrees Fahrenheit and we will be well done before the temps go that low!

We are also at a point in which we will start working with partners for any flower we deem to not be premium. It is very important that we only allow premium flower to sell under the Grasshopper Farms name. This is where some organizations make a huge mistake. They start making exceptions. We are not doing that. Instead, we are working with three different businesses who want to use our non-premium product in one of three ways. And all three will generate revenue. Even the big bag of leaves!

Let's also remember the top two things we have a responsibility for in this industry - education and working together. We are crushing both. And working with these businesses as long term partners is the way it should be.

We had more industry visitors this week. These were folks who have been in the industry a long time. They all had the same things to share - Grasshopper Farms does not look like a year one organization and we are executing at an incredible level. I will never tire of this feedback. Our team is amazing.

But, you already know this. I just wanted to share what we continue to hear from other people who are veterans in the industry.

As we draw close to the end of harvest, I want to remind everyone of the risk conversations we were having last year and earlier this year. We are almost on the other side and have overcome (or avoided) most of the risks. We have almost all of the flower inside drying or in totes. Some will pass for premium and sell under Grasshopper Farms. Some will not be premium and sell under a preferred partner. Some will go directly to a processor to make extract products and edibles. All will generate revenue. One retailer already offered us a dedicated display case!

Of our migrant partners, there is a family - father, mother, and son. They started making atole and other hot drinks for anyone who wanted to warm up. They also offer some snacks and even make a ton of tamales for everyone today! They only had one insulated thermos, so we got them four more to ensure they could make enough for everyone.

We have such an amazing family in our year round employees and our seasonal migrant team. We are truly blessed in this sense.

I marveled this week at the fantastic job our team has done - building an incredible farm, nurturing amazing plants, harvesting wonderful flower, and doing it in a way that took care of each other every step of the way....supporting each other (and this amazing company) to success.

We are on track.

We still aren't driving Porsches.

We do have a ton of full totes. We also have plenty of gloves and shoe covers.

And the team is starting to get some well deserved downtime. Very well deserved.

We are Grasshopper Farms.