Grower Stories #153: David Vaneaton

Our talk with David Vaneaton from Happy Flower Company about their hemp products

David Vaneaton from Happy Flower Company sits with the AskGrowers team to chat about the brand’s products. Happy Flower Company creates very high-quality hemp that is grown sustainably using various earth-friendly techniques. David also talks about how their flower uses a variety of cannabinoids and terpenes that are often missing from competing products, as well as naming the company’s best-selling product.

A few sentences about our guest:

I am a happily married guy with 2 children and 2 stepchildren. My wife is The Stoner Mom (www.thestonermom.com) and I work primarily with her on the site. I also am a marketing director and work extensively in the hemp and cannabis industry, helping people promote their brands and services.

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Tia: Happy Flower Company is a family-owned business. How did you come up with an idea to open up a family cannabis brand?

David: We started thestonermom.com seven years ago and have always been advocates for cannabis and the beneficial properties around it. Hemp was a natural progression and the dream has always been to start an indoor grow creating high-quality, cannabinoid and terpene-rich hemp flower.

Originally, we wanted to have a strain named after my wife. Of course, that would have been a huge undertaking to become licensed to grow commercial cannabis. When hemp became federally legal, I registered with the department of agriculture and began our grow. My wife and nephew both help run the business with the goal to create small-batch hemp genetics on par with cannabis strains. We want to create the Durban Poison of hemp genetics.

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Tia: What are the things you’re proud of when it comes to your brand story/products?

David: I feel a lot of other hemp-based brands out there don’t have any type of story or message. Since my wife and I have design/branding backgrounds, we worked hard to create a consistent look and feel for our brand. We think it’s beautiful and cohesive. Our main saying is “Hemp for Happy People” and what we strive to do daily is create a product that makes you happy and looks truly amazing in its presentation.

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Tia: How do you think your brand differs from others in the industry?

David: We are obsessive when it comes to testing and creating the highest quality product. We use Black Dog LED lights in our grow and only grow in small batches to ensure that the quality is there. The terpene profiles and cannabinoid content is always on a higher level than other brands I have seen in the industry. We also listen to our customers and have a very high rate of return customers. Customer service is paramount to us

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Tia: What things should the person pay attention to when choosing the brand/product?

David: Quality. We go to great lengths to make sure our product is the best out there. We show our customers this by terpene testing as well as potency testing. Our flower doesn’t just contain CBD and CBDa - we have a wide array of cannabinoids including CBG, CBC, CBN, THCa, and more.

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Tia: Are you planning to go public with your brand?

David: I don’t believe so. We really like having a hand in the grow and if you grow too big, I think you tend to lose that. I hand-trim every piece of flower that comes out of our facility and we like the care and attention we bring to the product. If we get too big, I think we would lose that.

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Tia: Tell us how you make your products? Do you have any specific approaches?  What’s your best-selling product now?

David: Without giving away the secret sauce, I would say our main feature is the lighting. I work closely with the owners of Black Dog LED and I truly believe their spectrum is all the best things the sun has to offer put into a grow light. For instance, their spectrum contains higher levels of UV. NO other grow lighting solution has this. Some say they do, but when you actually look, it’s just not there. UV promotes healthier plants and brings out more terpenes and minor cannabinoids. It also makes them more disease-resistant and produces a product that looks and smells like cannabis.

I would say our best seller is Betty Jane. She is dense and smells amazing! I have not seen or smelled anything like her out there.

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Tia: Are pre-rolls still popular as they were during the pandemic? Did it impact your business?

David: Pre-rolls are always hit or miss. Kevin Smith recently used our pre-rolls on his podcast which of course boosted sales. We also don’t use trim in our pre-rolls and only use our flower. I think if you are a pre-roll lover, you’ll like what we have.

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Tia: What are the 3 main trends in growing / (production/marketing) cannabis in 2021 for you now?

David: For us, it’s small-batch. We are actually about to release limited runs of hemp flower that are slow-cured and grown with incredible attention to detail. Think of whisky aged in barrels and numbered. We are going to start this very soon. The latest small-batch just finished curing and will be released on our site later this month.

I also think you will start to see more indoor growers. Indoor growing gives us the ability to have many more harvests per year and we can control the climate. I don’t have to deal with bugs or hail or any other number of nature-induced calamities in my grow. Plus, I make a better product.

Lastly, I think minor cannabinoids are really going to be sought after. We are proud of our cannabinoid-rich flower and our customers read the labs to make sure they get the right amount of whatever terpenes they are after. Lately, we are seeing people really gravitate to the flower we sell containing CBC. I think we will see this trend continue in the marketplace.

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Tia: When do you think federal legalization will come?

David: For cannabis? Not any time soon. I mean, even though great strides have been made, and where we live in Colorado we see the benefit from the taxes that help improve our schools, federal legalization means regulation. I think there is a lot to figure out there like how to test, what standards have to be in place and a whole host of other things. I think maybe within the next decade we may see that happen.

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Tia: What do you do to maintain sustainability in the company? How do you utilize the wastes? How much electricity do you spend on a daily basis? / Do you use IoT to reduce the spendings on sustainability? / Packaging issues / soil/ water etc?

David: We try to use materials that are earth-friendly. Our hemp comes in glass jars and our pre-roll packaging is made from paper. Originally when we started, we had a lot of non-biodegradable bags and those plastic tubes for pre-rolls. It was horrible. We quickly found a resource for packaging that was much more earth-friendly. We would love to use completely biodegradable packaging, but it is just too expensive at this time. For now, we stick to glass jars and biodegradable pre-roll packs.

Since we use LED lighting, we have a smaller footprint than traditional HID lighting. Plus, there is no mercury that could get into your grow as you see from metal halide lighting solutions. Our LEDs are very efficient and put off much less heat, which means less cooling. We also grow in fabric reusable pots and grow in coco coir which is biodegradable. I actually dump the used coco in our veggie garden after every grow.

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Tia: What are your predictions on the cannabis industry for the next 5 years? (in your state)

David: Well, I live in Colorado so it is legal here. I say within the next 5 years we will start to see more variety in the dispensaries. I see the consumer purchasing cannabinoid and specific terpene strains when they shop. No more Indica and Sativa.

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Tia: Back in the old times, cannabis united diverse people.  Do you preserve these old traditions? If yes, what do you do about that?

David: Our slogan for Happy Flower Company is Hemp for Happy People. Our hemp flower is for everyone.

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BLITZ:

These quick-fire questions will help with article SEO. Can you quickly answer this list of questions? These are the most googled questions, so don’t be shocked with those below :)

> Will weed be legal federally?

Eventually.

> Does weed help with cramps?

I don’t know.

> Does weed help with pain?

For some people.

> Can weed help headaches?

I don’t know.

> Does weed help with depression?

I don’t know.

> Do weed leaves have THC?

Yes.

> Does weed get old?

Yes.

> Should edibles have high THC %?

I don’t know.

> Can edibles cause allergies?

I don’t know.

> Can weed cause seizures?

I don’t know.

> Indica or Sativa? Why?

For me, hybrid. Sativas make me jittery and Indicas make me too tired.

> Why should weed be legal?

So we can actually do research and find out if the cannabinoids ACTUALLY do what some people claim.

>> Here’s the list of strains that are considered to be the top ones, do you agree with that?

Can you also share with our readers the specifics of each of them and maybe there are better ones on the market, people should know of?

• • pineapple express strain
  • fruity pebbles strain
  • green crack strain
  • slurricane strain
  • trainwreck strain
  • blue dream strain
  • cherry pie strain

I actually don’t believe in strains so much as I do cannabinoid content. I look for percentages of THC and CBD when picking strains. Out of these though, I have grown most of these and like good old Blue Dream.

You can follow Happy Flower Company at:

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Thank you so much, Happy Flower Company team, for taking the time to do the interview. To learn more about them, head on over to their website.