Fire Creek Farms was born from the flames of resilience and a decades-long pursuit of excellence. Originally from Billings, Montana, owner and Chief Strategy Officer Victor Hernandez grew his very first plant in 1997. He was inspired by the quality of Cannabis coming from British Columbia at the time, and Hernandez sought to learn as much as he could about cultivating the chronic as he continued to grow throughout the late ’90s and early 2000s. In the mid-2000s, he moved to California, obtained a medical license and began honing his skills in outdoor cultivation.
“I was introduced to small-scale light-deprivation growing,” Hernandez explained. “I saw these beautiful quality flowers produced under the sun, and I was like, oh my goodness, there’s a possibility to grow Cannabis that’s on par with indoor, but for a fraction of the cost and most importantly — a fraction of the environmental footprint.”
After about two years, Hernandez moved back to Montana to start law school. When the Ogden Memorandum was released in 2009, dictating U.S. attorneys take a hands-off approach when it comes to enforcing federal regulations in states where Cannabis was medically or recreationally legal, Hernandez was faced with a difficult choice.
“I said, OK, look, I can either continue law school and make a living, or I could just jump into what I’ve loved so much for so long: growing Cannabis,” he explained. “And that’s exactly what happened.”
Hernandez became a caregiver, which allowed him to cultivate up to six plants per patient. In early 2010, he opened his first dispensary, Sweet Water Cannabis. The dispensary, however, was open for only a couple of months before earning the distinction of being one of the first legal dispensaries raided by the federal government. No charges could be filed at the state or federal level because Hernandez operated within regulatory guidelines. However, the raid still took down the business as he knew it.
To keep honing his practice in cultivation, Hernandez moved back to Grass Valley, California, where he lived for four years while growing medicinally and running a delivery business for patients in need. In 2015, with recreational legalization in Oregon, he moved again, this time to reopen his dispensary. During the green rush, Hernandez struggled to find viable dispensary real estate, so he fell back on what he knew best: growing. After nearly 20 years of horticulture experience driven by a hunger for knowledge and surviving everything from an illegitimate federal raid to green rush-induced real estate crises, Hernandez found a picturesque property in Corvallis and established Fire Creek Farms in June 2016.
Seeking to survive the market and some of the ups and downs that the coronavirus brought to the Oregon Cannabis industry, Hernandez ended up agreeing to work with a multistate Cannabis corporation on the East Coast in 2021. He helped manage operations in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Maryland and eventually Florida, where he oversaw 18 stores, 4 acres of outdoor, an acre of greenhouse and 1,300 indoor lights.
“While it was enjoyable and exciting to work at that scale, I could not leave Oregon. My kids were raised here, and Oregon is just so special, so I knew my time was going to be limited within the corporation,” Hernandez articulated. “I figured, this is going to give me a good chance to come back home and to build the Fire Creek I’ve always wanted, which I always wanted it to be vertically integrated to a degree, or at least have a place to showcase our flower and our work.”
This year, on April 22, Hernandez finally reopened his flagship dispensary, appropriately dubbed Fire Creek Farmacy, marking the most exciting chapter for the enterprise yet
Farm-to-Table
Fire Creek Farms is currently run by Victor Hernandez, his wife, Bridt Hernandez, and two employees.
“We are a true mom-and-pop shop; my wife and I are out there doing the work every day. Our hands are dirty, and we’ve sacrificed a lot of summers to do this,” he explained.
Running a light-deprivation farm means that May through October is the busiest time each year. They pull tarps at 7 p.m. each night and reposition them over the plants at 7 a.m. Consistency is paramount, and any deviation can throw off the overall growth cycle.
Cultivation methodology is an important variable at Fire Creek Farms. When growing outdoors, particularly organically, multiple factors that can affect the integrity of the end product fall outside the farmer’s control. To address this, the team works hard to build a healthy ecosystem rich with biodiversity and harmonious living
“We start very, very clean,” Hernandez explained. “We don’t kill anything on our farm: no wasps, bees, nothing. We have learned that everything has its place, and it creates a symbiotic relationship. We spray nothing, we treat nothing. Throughout the course of life, the plant will never see anything outside of rainwater.”
One huge benefit of light deprivation is that it helps achieve an earlier harvest, avoiding most of the bug and mold issues that tend to spike in mid-to-late October in a typical full-term, outdoor growth cycle. Because this method alters the photoperiod in Cannabis plants, it also lets you grow longer-flowering strains, like an 11-week GMO plant or a 12-week Honey Bananas crop, in shorter windows.
Depending on the cultivar, however, figuring out how the flower grows best, or when it shows the best flavor under specific conditions, can be a balancing act.
“The goal is always: How can I get the best flower in the middle of the summer? And then we really started digging in on expressions,” he said. “What is going to cultivate really well during the heat? What is going to cultivate really well during the latter part of the summer when it starts to get cold at night?”
Like the harvest and selection process, drying and curing at Fire Creek Farms are tailored to each strain. Given environmental variables, like fluctuating weather and temperatures at the end of summer, there is no one-size-fits-all approach.
“It’s not as simple as putting it into an SOP and saying, ‘Hey, it has to dry it for this amount of time under these parameters, and it will be like this all the time,’” he said. “While that can be frustrating on an operational business level, it’s part of what makes it the craft, if you ask me.”
To Vertical Integration and Beyond
With the addition of a dispensary this year, the Hernandezes have created an ideal outlet to curate and provide their products to the customer at affordable prices.
While light-dep flower has always been the baseline of the business, Fire Creek Farms has expanded their output this season to include rosin, live resin and both regular and infused prerolls. Collaborations with Oregon brands like Subzero NW and Entourage Cannabis will also be available on shelves in-house and at select retailers across Oregon.
“Just like we do with finding the flavor for our flower, we did the same thing with rosin and other products. For us, our goal is to make sure that when you see a jar from us, it is special, as unique as possible. We’re not just growing it because it yields 3% or more,” Hernandez said.
The effort to cultivate clean, exemplary products with minimal ecological impact highlights Hernandez’s commitment not only to the consumer, but to the environment we all share. For someone who has been in the trenches of Cannabis growing since well before modern-day legalization, Hernandez finds a lot of reasons to be grateful.
“I cannot tell you how much of a blessing it is to be in this industry. I’ve gone through all the trials and tribulations, so there’s inherently a sense of owing the Cannabis community that I don’t think I’ll ever not have,” he said. “It’s my duty to make sure I’m providing the best product and making sure that my plants are grown to the best capacity. I want to make sure that the flower I’m growing is providing relief both physically and financially for the people we serve.”
Farm Location: Corvallis
Dispensary Location: 568 SW 3rd St., Corvallis, OR
Open Monday-Saturday 9 a.m.-7:45 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Growing Space: 17,500 square feet of light deprivation
Standout Cultivars: Sour Diesel (maintained since 2007), Blueberry Z, Blue Cheese, Honey Banana, Strawberry, GMO, Hashburger, Crunch Berries, Grape Gas and Wedding Pie.
firecreekfarmacy.com | @theofficialfirecreekfarms | @firecreekfarmacy
