Our Hemp HQ is open at Backbone Farm for visitors on Fridays from 10-4pm. Come on by and see what’s happening with hemp in our region, let us help you find your new favorite tincture blend, smokable hemp flower or topical. Take a stroll through our hemp patch in the growing season (June through late September)
Visitors get a 15% discount on in store purchases!
We accept cash, check or card.
We are looking forward to visiting with you, come on out!
PLEASE NOTE: no public restroom available*, farm dogs may greet you , there my be mud, rain, snow, sleet, or exceedingly beautiful weather.
2021 Organic CBD
Like most endeavors, our hemp operation was a culmination of events, people, and forces seen and unseen that pulled Backbone Hemp LLC into creation. First and foremost, credit must be given to the cannabis sativa plant herself, for creating such mystique and possessing so many intriguing traits. Perhaps that fact that she was a forbidden fruit for so long played a small part. Every small farm today surely has a spot for hemp, as they did in the times of our foremothers and fathers. And just because my spellcheck doesn’t recognize the word foremother, does not mean that women did not have a relationship with hemp cannabis. They most certainly did (and do today) know the plant, and her offerings. Women is Cannabis can be the topic for another day- I’ll try to stick to this story.
As small farmers interested in sustainability, and humans interested in sustainable living and cannabis, we were familiar with the struggles to make an honest lady of the hemp plant. I had it on the back burner to support the cause for the legalization of hemp, but I admit, I was patiently waiting for someone else to charge. I owe many humble thank- yous to a whole pile of people that have tirelessly worked to make that change. I was aware of the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill that opened up the federal legal cultivation of hemp, although less so of the 2014 version that allowed certain states such as Kentucky and Oregon to begin growing. The catalyst event that brought growing hemp to the forefront of my consciousness was attending the 2019 PASA Conferencehttp://Pasa Sustainable Agriculture: Home pasafarming.org in February.
CHECK OUT OUR E–COMMERCE CBD HEMP PRODUCTS STORE!
I sat in (floor or standing room only) on a panel discussion on 2018 hemp farming in PA with farmer Ben Davies (Wild Fox Farm Berks county, PA) Sarah Pickle from the PA Dep’t of Ag, Tom Coulton, Floyd Landis of Tour de France fame and others. I knew before I hauled myself off the floor after the 1.5 hour session that I would go home and file with the Maryland Dep’t of Agriculture for a 2019 Hemp Pilot Program permit.
Securing an Industrial Hemp Pilot Program permit involved a few things- an application, a FBI background check (fun! fingerprinting!), a reasonable but not overly burdensome fee of $250 and a research partner with whom we would design a research project of some kind so we could contribute data. Since it had been over 85 years since this crop had been grown, there was and still is a great need to gather much information. This partner must be an institute of higher learning. Just a few phone calls landed me right where I needed to be, back to my alma mater, Frostburg State University. One very kind and understanding biology professor by the name of Dr. David Puthoff was eager to help us by working together on a project and signing an application.
We decided to keep our trial simple, and evaluate varieties of CBD hemp, and monitor pest and disease pressure both in a high tunnel setting, and outdoor in a field. Tracking the success or failure of growing hemp in our climate, and understanding the reasons for such failure or success would be a place to start. Dr. Puthoff also wanted to keep DNA samples to analyze at a later date.
Permit secured, seeds were ordered, garden plans were made, and the parade of daydreams began. We were on our way to growing our own medicine for ourselves and our community. We might just be aiding in the reintroduction of an additional field crop to add to farmers’ rotations, a carbon sequestering beast capable of providing added income and sustainable products. I would be standing in a field of cannabis on my own farm. Soon. And it would be legal.
Then something really wonderful happened. Someone at Frostburg State suggested that we may be eligible to raise funds to finance our Pilot Program through the Frostburg Foundation’s GiveCampus. https://www.givecampus.com/schools/FrostburgStateUniversity
This crowdfunding site is a way for university related projects to get funded through the help of family, friends, supporters and interested strangers. Through the help of a very skilled and supportive staff member,who I began to think of as my Fairy Godmother, our campaign to raise several thousand dollars to cover the costs of our Pilot Program was approved, and by the end of our campaign, FULLY FUNDED! WOW! We are so very grateful to all those trusting folks who contributed to our dream.
The 2019 Inaugural Hemp Growing Season came to a successful close with the official THC test (passed!) and harvest. A giddy harvest with sticky fingers, happy friends chipping in, long work sessions on top of regular farming hours and the trial of new skills. Success, not failure. Successful enough to report our data, and begin plans for our 2020 season. Just enough success to want to start a new company.
We would not be where we are today- planning for a 2024 season, with a full line of products created from our 2023 crop on the market, without all the help along the way. I thanks family, friends, Farm supporters, farming cohorts, community leaders and members, advocates in the cannabis community, my dogs and kids for landing me here. Getting ready for my sixth season as a Hemp Farmer. This Party has Started.
