Trusted. Tested. Tribal. Three words inked on Ascension Craft Cannabis' package highlight what the start-up wants its customers to remember about its brand.
The Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe's business arm, Noo-Kayet Investments (NKI), runs Ascension Craft Cannabis , a cannabis cultivation facility that grows and sells a variety of strains to retail marijuana stores around the Kitsap Peninsula, just one of a handful of tribal-owned growing operations in the state. Operations started last fall. And so far, the business has performed well, according to Frank Fauls, Ascension’s Operations Manager.
"So far, we've exceeded expectations on how much we would harvest with our first harvest and also how many stores would be receptive to our product," Fauls told the Kitsap Sun.
The first harvest matured this spring and was sent to NKI-operated High Point Cannabis in April to sell. As of July 3, the number of locations selling Ascension's products has increased from one to eleven and will likely reach 20 by August 1, Fauls said.
The business is now growing 20 strains, including six medical-grade strains: Black Lime Reserve, Shoreline 91, Stay Pufft, Piccolo, Purple Berry, and Chem D x Airhorn. The facility has over 200 seed variants in its inventory.
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Science-backed agriculture grows clean, sustainable products
Ascension is located in a 6,500-square-foot building next to the reservation. Inside the facility is equipment that automatically assesses and adjusts the temperature of the cannabis grow room and the humidity of the organic soils in the plant boxes.
Fauls and a team of five employees grow, harvest, dry, and cure the plants in the building. The operations manager has 10 years of experience growing cannabis commercially, including his business in Shelton, he said. He was also a consultant for other operations and a recognized expert in the field of cannabis cultivation, according to the tribe.
To Fauls, running Ascension is not just about growing cannabis, but the contribution of advanced agriculture that empowers the indigenous people to grow clean and sustainable plants, Fauls said.
"How I try to look at this is, what have indigenous people lost already from their culture," Fauls said, referring to the tradition of farming and a relationship with Earth. "How can we, as a cultivation facility, try to ensure that future generations can have as close to what their ancestors have, rather than what may be more commercially viable in the short term."
The facility used tissue culture to grow clean cannabis, meaning a part of the plant is cut down and transferred to an artificial environment to continue to grow. Through this method, the negatives, for example, hops latent viroid which can infect cannabis and cause significant reductions in yield, can be removed from the plant, Fauls explained.
"The goal has to be clean product. And the best you can start with is a tissue culture of generation zero. You can eliminate the hops latent viroid. We're taking it back to its origin," Fauls said.
There are businesses that are using the way Ascension cultivates cannabis to grow herbs and vegetables quickly, Fauls said.
The company is still in the early stage of its operation, therefore Ascension sets prices of its products in the middle range and spends time and efforts to provide high quality, medical-certified and clean green certified products as it creates its niche in the market, Fauls said.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Port Gamble S'Klallam business side launches green-certified cannabis operation
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