![](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/heroesofthefarmGS-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
In the foothills
\nof Mt. Hood, Oregon\u2019s tallest mountain and most active volcano, lies an
\nunexpected ganja gold mine. Surrounded by towering fir trees and cascading
\nstreams, I arrive on an early autumn evening at the \u201cHeroes Compound\u201d to meet
\nthe esteemed cannabis breeder and cultivator, Patrick Pooler. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis place was a
\nmassive trash pile when I first started working on it in 2010,\u201d Pooler recalls.
\n\u201cThe people before us had been scrapping cars and cooking meth. You can imagine
\nthe mess they left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the meticulously manicured grounds around me, it\u2019s hard to imagine the wasteland this 107-acre parcel once was. Pooler says their cleanup efforts are what gained him and his crew their namesake, Heroes of the Farm<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was actually Wandering around We continue the According to Pooler, transforming the hillside property into a world-class production and breeding facility involved removing metric tons of trash, terracing multiple acres of land and securing a three-year, million-dollar power upgrade. Every step, he says, was another massive hurdle to overcome. But this property\u2019s progress adds up to only a small piece of the Heroes\u2019 journey.<\/p>\n Pooler says his He gained initial attention as a breeder, creating a slew of notable strains such as Conspiracy Kush, Marionberry Kush and Galactic Jack and working for a few years with the established breeders behind TGA Genetics<\/a>. <\/p>\n In 2017, he The company now In an \u201cI\u2019ve always just Even with a \u201cWe are probably Pooler says the \u201cFirst and foremost Pooler added that \u201cI was selling discounted pounds to a few dispensaries, but then had complaints from customers,\u201d Pooler says. \u201cThe dispensaries had turned around and sold the flower at the top shelf price and the customers thought we were ripping them off. It\u2019s just not worth it, we have a reputation to uphold.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2018, just \u201cI owed everyone Pooler says the He then took aim \u201cI started With a steady Like the heroes of yore, he has emerged from the belly of the whale, walked through the ring of fire, reached that personal pinnacle your English teacher called apotheosis \u2014 or whatever metaphor floats your boat \u2014 and emerged ready for the future of the Heroes of Farm.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, would you work on a cannabis farm?<\/p>\n The post The Heroes\u2019 Journey<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
In the foothills of Mt. Hood, Oregon\u2019s tallest mountain and most active volcano, lies an unexpected ganja gold mine. Surrounded by towering fir trees and cascading streams, I arrive on an early autumn evening at the \u201cHeroes Compound\u201d to meet the esteemed cannabis breeder and cultivator, Patrick Pooler. \u201cThis placeContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":41535,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,5,85,12916,1750,185],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41534"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41534"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41536,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41534\/revisions\/41536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\none of the previous owners that gave us the name,\u201d Pooler says. \u201cIt\u2019s what she
\ncalled us after she saw all the work we put into this place. The name just
\nstuck.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nthe property is an enchanting expedition. We pass clusters of automated
\nlight-deprivation greenhouses, nine in total, and into a multi-room, fully
\nflowering indoor operation. The sparkling clean facility holds a perfectly
\npacked canopy of glittering colas under a hundred or so lights. <\/p>\n
\ntour to visit mother rooms and breeding chambers, where we pass vats of
\nbubbling compost teas, high-tech potting machines and soil steamers. A colorful
\nsunset transforms the expansive skyline to our west and the sun\u2019s last rays
\nfade on the perpetually snow-capped summit of Mt. Hood protruding to the east.
\nIt feels like a dream world.<\/p>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/heroesofthefarmGS.jpg\")
Crossing the Threshold <\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nroots in the industry go back 14 years to a small closet grow at his home in
\nPortland. From there, he escalated rapidly from small-scale medicinal cannabis
\nprovider to a lauded industry leader, with a passion for the plant and his
\ncommunity as his only guide.<\/p>\n
\njumped headfirst into Oregon\u2019s recreational market, launching the Heroes brand
\nto the public. His newer strain creations like Gorilla Snacks, Guinness, 8541
\nand Headdog instantly created a buzz among cannabis consumers and critics
\nacross the state, with fiercely potent, terpene-rich flowers boasting
\nunbeatable bag appeal.<\/p>\n
\nconsists of around 34 full-time staff members at multiple production facilities
\nacross the state, along with a licensed extraction lab, kitchen, dispensary and
\na wholesale distribution center.<\/p>\n
\never-changing and challenging regulated cannabis market, Pooler admits he may
\nhave moved forward a little too quickly. His carefree cash-rich days of the
\npast are replaced with crippling debt and relentless stress.<\/p>\nThe Road of Trials <\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nkept on pushing, kept on scaling up,\u201d Pooler says. \u201cBut I really wasn\u2019t
\nprepared for the huge overhead of the recreational market, especially as per
\npound prices crumbled.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nrecord of consistently selling out of flower, drop after drop, Pooler says he
\nwas forced to scale down his operations in November of 2018 and take a
\ndifferent approach. Instead of pushing large volumes of product into a flooded
\nmarket, the company now focuses solely on top-shelf indoor. <\/p>\n
\none of the few farms in the state that has a hard time keeping our products on
\ndispensary shelves,\u201d Pooler says. \u201cWe are proud to be surviving in one of the
\ntoughest markets in the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nmost important ingredients for quality flower are \u201cthe genetics, nutrients, and
\nthe farmer.\u201d <\/p>\n
\nare the genetics. I\u2019ve spent the last 14 years hunting and breeding what I
\nconsider elite genetics. Over the last three years we\u2019ve had more than 7,000
\nphenos we\u2019ve selected from about fifty varieties of cannabis, so the search for
\nnew fire never stops,\u201d he says. \u201cAs far as nutrients, I could give you my
\nrecipe right now [he uses only the Oregon-made Nectar for the Gods], but
\nwithout the right farmer you just can\u2019t get the same results. Each person that
\nworks here cares just as much, if not more than I do about what the finished
\nproduct turns out like.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nhe no longer offers budget flower or anything he considers to be an inferior
\nproduct. <\/p>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/heroesofthefarmOC@2x.jpg\")
Reaching Apotheosis<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nbefore he turned 33, Pooler says he reached what he would call his rock bottom.\n<\/p>\n
\nfrom my good friends to Uncle Sam a big chunk of money,\u201d he says. \u201cI was
\nblaming everyone else for the problems I was facing, but in the end I just had
\nto take things into my own hands and change my future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nfirst thing he took into account was his health, taking on an ambitious
\nexercise regimen, giving up alcohol, smoking less weed and picking up a reading
\nhabit for the first time in his life.<\/p>\n
\nat changing his surroundings. With a rocky relationship with his county that
\nincluded getting zoned out of several costly properties for extraction
\nfacilities, Pooler and his crew joined in the dialogue. They started showing up
\nto council meetings, organized community service and cleanup events and became
\nfamiliar faces to their neighbors, many of whom ardently opposed the cannabis
\nindustry. <\/p>\n
\ninviting the community over for tours,\u201d Pooler says. \u201cPeople were asking
\nquestions like, \u2018Will I get high from the smell,\u2019 and \u2018Are you in a cartel?\u2019
\nAll I could tell them was that I\u2019d be a whole lot richer if either were true.
\nThey may not love what we are doing up here, but now they respect us, and know
\nwe are here for the long haul.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nsupply of new genetics about to hit the market and freshly licensed facilities
\ncoming online after years of investment, Pooler says he\u2019s optimistic again. <\/p>\n
\n
\nRead More: The Heroes\u2019 Journey<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"