Flu season has come and gone and with it went COVID-19, and now spring has sprung and there’s uncertainty in the air. Stores are opening and people are starting to trickle back to work. But while the worst of it might be over, we’re not free of its effects yet. The prospect of wearing a facemask while getting a haircut or being ‘socially-requested’ to stand or sit at least six feet away from one another at our favourite restaurant is indicative of an unsettling new normal. Somewhere in the back of our minds, we know the shrill winds accompanying the end of summer and the start of the normal flu season will likely cause a repeat. While the summer promises to be long and hot we know that it’s only a temporary reprieve between periods of quarantine.
In the past, we shrug the little things. We take them for granted. Things like movie-nights at the theatre, and getting our hair cut, or going out for breakfast with our friends and family. A month ago, the prospect of going physically to a dispensary to get some weed to help pass the time in a different headspace carried a heavy weight. Was it worth it to go out and risk infection? Now that the curve has flattened and the weight is almost gone—go. We should enjoy ourselves while we can and since cannabis was one of those markets deemed essential, there’s lots of it to go around.
Let’s consider Speakeasy Cannabis Club (EASY.C). We haven’t heard much from them in the past little while after getting their outdoor grow license in April, but now they’ve created over 90,000 clones and started planting outdoors. They’re ready for the post-COVID season to kick off.
The company reports that they have received more rain this spring than normal, but temperatures have been above average and the plants have responded well to the transition from indoor to outdoor life and are growing well. The summer growth season promises more to come.
They’re growing in Rock Creek, a town in the southern interior of British Columbia. It’s only claim to fame is as the effective base-town for the Mount Baldy ski area during the winter, which means it’s been basically a ghost town this year and likely remains that way right now. So having cannabis in the area is likely a boon that pays dividends all year round for its citizens. The climate combined with the company’s genetics will likely spell a bumper crop this year, and they’ve got crews working seven days a week with planting expected to continue through most of June.
“This has been a dream come true, many years in the making. A lifetime of farming has taught me that very few things go exactly according to plan and this year is no exception. We find ourselves ahead of schedule at this point, not something I’m accustomed to,” said Marc Geen, founder of Speakeasy Cannabis Club.
The company projects approximately 70,000 kilograms in their total harvest, including 22,000 kilograms of flower and 48,000 kilograms of biomass. When their licenses are upgraded sufficiently, they intend to sell flower as a finished product ready for smoking, made into prerolls and used in extractions for concentrates. Their bulk biomass will be extracted on site and made into distillate to be sold in both bulk and as in-house value-added products.
Everyone has faced some challenges this year. It’ll be no different when the summer is gone. The disease has made everything more difficult, and the company is fairly fortunate that they’ve managed to dodge the COVID-19 bullet and the eventual slowdown that losing members of their team would cause. So no. There’s been no significant effect on their operation, and they’re expecting to hit all of their benchmarks on schedule.
“The stage is set for Speakeasy to enter the market this fall in a big way, and it’s time for us to show what we can do. Our indoor harvests have been 25 per cent higher than internal projections and of excellent quality. We expect similar results from our outdoor harvest this fall. The pressure is on us and we welcome the challenge,” Geen said.
—Joseph Morton
