Progress Report: 2.11.22
Grasshopper Family,
Happy Friday!
Sometimes I wonder how it is already Friday. Again. Yes, time is flying by.
We had more snow at the farm this week. The meteorologists said this was the last of the big snow for the season. We will see!
Are you familiar with the story of what happened when the five minute mile was broken? And then the four minute mile? Breaking a four minute mile was once thought to be impossible. Then a gentleman by the name of Roger Bannister ran a mile in under four minutes in 1954. And now...over 1,400 runners have broken the four minute mile since then. The same happened with the five minute mile...once upon a time.
How does this relate to Grasshopper Farms? I'm glad you asked. The team has been doing quality control and packaging for weeks. The average weight of quality control cleared flower was between 60 lbs and 75 lbs. Then Clint and Andrew threw out a challenge to the team. And they broke 100 lbs. And now the team is hovering around 100 lbs a day with a full crew.
Sometimes we just have to break through a "limit" to gain the understanding and confidence that it was not a true limit.
Like with Grasshopper Farms... there are a lot of people who are really surprised by what we have been able to accomplish. We push into work that is hard. We seek to do the undoable. And we have the team to do it.
As quality control and packaging continue, Shawn and Lukas have been getting our new round of mother plants established in preparation for the next step - 8,000 clones. We will then select the ~5,000 clones that will head outside and we will continue the grow inside as well. Speaking of the indoor grow, we just moved to "clean room shoes" for our team. This is going to help us stop using disposable booties.
Creating and refining processes. Take a look at the pictures of the cardboard barrels. These barrels need to be rolled five times to ensure the product is protected and has the right moisture levels. You might notice how the team tracks this very important detail. This is part of what makes this team so special. Efficiency, but not over architecture.
We are also moving forward with testing different pre-roll disciplines. Check out these pictures of Caroline making a pre-roll with premium tobacco leaves! Lots of testing will allow us to deploy pre-rolls that are consistent with the quality of all that is Grasshopper Farms.
All while the farm continues, Adam has been out visiting provisioning centers all over the state with support from Kayla. Adam and Kayla start and end their days talking about sales. They run through the daily routing, customer information, and what resources Adam is going to use. He has done a GREAT job with first impressions and representing Grasshopper Farms with quality and consistency. The cheap outdoor product and recalled product are starting to dwindle. I anticipate sales to change sometime in March or April, which is consistent with previous years.
We are deep into our 2022 plan and budget. With some final adjustments still being made, I believe we are in a very good position to have an excellent season. Chiefly, we have time on our side this round. Last year we were chasing the clock while we waited for inspections and approvals. This year we are leading the clock.
And Jason has been crushing the renovation of The Lodge! Those of you who have seen it will not believe what he has done! Awesome work.
These are amazing days, my friends. The positive feedback keeps coming in. We are headed towards our 2022 grow season. Life is incredible!
I hope you all have a fantastic Super Bowl weekend!
