Tag Archives: agriculture

Marijuana grow approved in SK

The state Liquor Control Board approved a license Tuesday for a small recreational marijuana grow off Mile Hill Drive.

The producer, Northern Lights Wholesale Nursery, will be located on Garfield Avenue, south of Manchester.

Northern Lights is licensed as a tier 1 producer, meaning it can grow up to 2,000 square feet of plant canopy.

Northern Lights is the seventh recreational marijuana producer, and eleventh recreational marijuana business licensed in Kitsap County.

Expand the embedded map or click here to see all the locations.

Recreational marijuana grow approved in NK

Recreational marijuana businesses are banned in Poulsbo, but one will soon open outside city limits.

The state Liquor Control Board issued a license Friday for marijuana producer and processor Ethos Extracts, located at 22277 Stottlemeyer Road, near Bond Road.

Ethos Extracts is the first recreational pot business approved in North Kitsap. The state approved a grow on Bainbridge Island earlier this month.

The addition of Ethos Extracts bring’s the county of legalized marijuana businesses in Kitsap to 10, including four retailers and six producers.

There are still no retail shops north of Bremerton.

State approves Bainbridge pot grow

A Bainbridge Island marijuana producer and processor got the green light Tuesday from the state Liquor Control Board.

The planned business, called Way Kool, is the first recreational marijuana operation approved for the island. It will be located in a small industrial park at 8040 Day Road, just west of Highway 305.

This was not the same applicant who’d applied to place a marijuana retail outlet near Manzanita Park, sparking debate over whether the proposed business would violate a moratorium on opening pot businesses within 1,000 feet of public gathering places.

Way Kool is planned for a property outside just outside the 1,000 foot buffer. The city did not object to Way Kool’s application to the Liquor Control Board, according to a city spokeswoman. Way Kool’s business license application is under review.

Graphic: Recreational marijuana sales in 2014

The state’s legalized pot industry began to bear fruit in 2014.

The newly-licensed recreational marijuana businesses grossed $65.4 million by the end of the year, generating more than $16 million in excise taxes.

Here’s a graphical look at how Kitsap’s recreational marijuana industry faired during its first few months in existence:

Corrected statewide marijuana sales numbers. Earlier numbers listed included 2015.

Farmers keeping wary eye on avian flu cases

Blackjack Farms

While public health agencies respond to the escalating human flu season, agriculture officials are tracking cases of avian influenza in the Northwest.

The H5N2 strain of bird flu was reported in British Columbia late last year, and since has been identified in four Washington counties. The virus can be deadly for birds but does not pose a threat to human health.

H5N2 was recently confirmed in Clallam County. Agriculture officials euthanized 118 infected ducks, chickens and geese at a Port Angeles farm Sunday, according to the Peninsula Daily News.  A quarantine was established around the property.

turkeys2_9797083_ver1.0_640_480While H5N2 has not been reported in Kitsap County, local farmers are taking basic precautions to protect their flocks, said Stuart Boyle, a Silverdale grower and president of the Western Washington Poultry Farmers Cooperative.

The bird flu cases are cause for concern, but not panic, Boyle said. H5N2 seems to have moved very slowly, he said. Growers should “just be conscious of what’s going on.”

H5N2 is carried by wild waterfowl and spread through bird feces. Officials recommend farmers try to keep their poultry away from wild birds.

Boyle said growers should also learn the symptoms H5N2 and be quick to report deaths or illnesses that appear consistent with the virus. The hotline for avian influenza reports is 1-800-606-3056.

Boyle said he’s been asking visitors to his farm about their travel history, and determining whether they’ve been in areas where wild waterfowl gather. Basically, he wants to make sure visitors don’t inadvertently track poop from wild birds onto his property.

You can find much more detailed avian flu information on the state’s Avian Health Program website.

Kitsap marijuana revenue near $700k

Recreational marijuana businesses in Kitsap County generated $688,394 in revenue by the end of October, paying $172,099 in state excise tax, according to Liquor Control Board records.

Those figures included two producer/processor businesses and two retail stores that have recorded sales so far. One more store and and another producer processor are just coming online in the county.

Retail sales ($363,803) overtook wholesale marijuana sales ($324,591) by the end of October.

Follow business reporter Tad Sooter on Twitter at @tsooter. Contact him at tad.sooter@kitsapsun.com or leave a comment below.

Kitsap marijuana sales off to modest start

Crockpot6_7542034_ver1.0_640_480The marijuana industry in Kitsap is just getting started.

That fact was underscored this week by recreational marijuana revenue numbers released by the Liquor Control Board.

Marijuana01_6661026_ver1.0_640_480There were three marijuana businesses up-and-running in the county long enough to report sales to the state. Those three businesses combined for $392,398 in sales from July through the start of October.

Two producer/processors, Nine Point Growth Industries of Bremerton and Green Apple of Silverdale, accounted for $234,346 of that total. Crockpot, a retail outlet in Port Orchard, reported $158,052 for August, September and October.

The state collected $98,101 in excise tax from those three businesses.

Sales should pick up as the so-far sporadic marijuana supply becomes more robust. Two new marijuana stores also opened this month, and a third marijuana producer/processor recently came online.

HWY420PotShop02_8751235_ver1.0_640_480-1Early marijuana sales were a mixed bag across the state. The Associated Press reported the state’s top two retailers were both in the Vancouver area (conveniently close to Portland). One of those shops reported $1.7 million in sales.

According to the AP, the state hopes releasing the numbers will  provide more financial transparency and prevent money laundering in the industry. It allows a bank or credit union to check for discrepancies between the revenue marijuana businesses’ report to the state and the money funneled through their bank accounts.

Financial institutions remain leery of working with marijuana businesses, despite having received conditional approval from the federal government. Many of the federal conditions involve monitoring marijuana business activity for signs of fraud.

Along with revenue numbers, the liquor board also released a list of warnings and fines it has issued to marijuana businesses so far. No Kitsap marijuana companies were listed.

Follow Kitsap Sun business reporter Tad Sooter on Twitter at @tsooter. Contact him at tad.sooter@kitsapsun.com or leave a comment below.

Second pot grower approved for Bremerton area

Marijuana09_6661027_ver1.0_640_480

Nine Points Growth Industries has company in the West Hills.

The state Liquor Control Board approved a license Wednesday for a recreational marijuana growing and processing company called Secret Gardens of Washington. The business is moving into in a warehouse on Ida Street, near Auto Center Boulevard, just outside city limits.

Owner Bill Delaney said Secret Gardens should be up-and-running in the next few weeks, depending on county permitting. He expects to use about 7,000-square-feet of growing space. The business will also process marijuana extracts.

Delaney, who lives in Everett but plans to move to Kitsap shortly, secured the lease in West Hills at the beginning of the year. He said he hoped to be operating much earlier, but ran into delays in the approval process.

“It’s been a long road since Jan. 1,” he said.

The arrival of Secret Gardens brings the number of approved marijuana producers in Kitsap to three (see map). Nine Point Growth Industries is just down the road on Third Avenue. Green Apple, an indoor/outdoor grow, is located off Clear Creek Road in Silverdale.

The county’s first recreational marijuana retailer, Crockpot, launched last month.

 

Island Food Circle aims to make finding local food easy

food.circle.logoFarmers markets are the most consistent purveyors of locally grown food, and they’re flourishing in Kitsap.

Local produce is also cropping up in restaurants and grocery stores. A new initiative on Bainbridge Island aims to make local food as easy to find on weekdays as it is on Saturday mornings.

Island Food Circle, a project of Sound Food, has created an online guide to local food sellers on and around Bainbridge. The list is broken down by category (veggies, meat, dairy, etc.) each with a list of sources.

Food Circle is also distributing window decals to the sellers so shoppers spot them on the street.

The initial group of 18 stores, farm stands and restaurants were nominated by island farmers. The membership list will be renewed regularly.

“It’s the farmers saying these are people who are buying local on a consistent basis,” project coordinator Carolyn Goodwin said.

The Food Circle maintains another list of local food producers it makes available to store managers and chefs.

Some types of foods, like dairy, are hard to find on Bainbridge, or even in the county, Goodwin said. For those, the Food Circle expands to include regional producers.

Goodwin said Food Circles could be organized in other communities using the same model.

“There could be a Kitsap Food Circle,” she said. “I think that would be great.”

For more on the Food Circle, see www.soundfood.org.

 

Tracking new marijuana businesses in Kitsap

blog.potIt’s not happening fast, but the state is gradually approving marijuana businesses.

A second Kitsap marijuana grow called Green Apple was given the OK for a Clear Creek Road location this week. You can read about that here.

A dozen licenses had been approved statewide as of Tuesday. The pace of approvals should pick up soon. A lottery will be held next week to help decide who receives retail pot shop licenses.

I’ll be tracking and mapping approved locations in Kitsap as they come in. We’re compiling these blog posts and all our marijuana news on a new Kitsap Sun page devoted to I-502 implementation. It’s worth bookmarking if you’re curious about the local impacts of legal pot.