B.A. Botanicals sits on an idyllic farm a short drive from the city of Portland, where owner Sebastian Stalman takes advantage of his flat open spaces to lay out enough greenhouse space to keep him and his crew busy. He’s a few days into harvesting when we arrive and the entire place is a dazzling array of fall colors and filled with the scent of ripe Cannabis.
While walking from one space to another, Sebastian points to the soil he’s reused in the nearby vegetable and flower gardens, explaining, “We recycle the soil in all of our greenhouses, too. We brought it in years ago and now we just lightly amend it. Living soil is better for flavor and we don’t have to truck in soil after every harvest.”
Getting a glimpse at the hash destined for dispensaries this fall, and it’s clear Sebastian wasn't joking when he said that they are prizing flavor first and doing a lot of small-batch, low-yielding flavor bombs.
Sebastian is perpetually on the hunt and dialing in the cultivar that works best for his palate and cultivation methods. Altogether, B.A. works with approximately 40 different strains, pared down from a list three times that size, sifting for what hits all the marks. “The classic OG is always going to be my favorite,” Sebastian says as he shows us a few rows of OGs and OG crosses that blend into a patch of Chem 91. My eyes light up and we talk about his days in NYC delivering Chemdog by bike service. The dank herb left an impression, and here he is, years later, planting rows of it.
Sebastian’s garden line-up of cultivars reads like a dispensary dream menu: Bacio Gelato, Trop Cookies, Triangle Kush, Chem 91, Kush Mints. He shows us a handful of Zkittlez crosses and explains that he loves the flavor, but would be happy to find a plant that washes better. Nearly all of this flower is destined for hash, as B.A. is freezing close to 70% of this harvest. With some of these flavors spanning just a few plants, many of these drops will be incredibly limited.
“Overall, the goal is to grow flower in a sustainable manner, and produce the sort of rosin that I would like to smoke.” Getting a glimpse at the hash destined for dispensaries this fall, and it’s clear Sebastian wasn’t joking when he said that they are prizing flavor first and doing a lot of small-batch, low-yielding flavor bombs. He’ll be offering notoriously low-yielding strains like Zkittlez when his hash drops later this year. “It’s all single source, so we can go with low yielders and be OK with it – we think the flavor and quality of the resin is ultimately the most important.”
We close out the tour by checking out some of the curing flower they’ve recently harvested. The cool nights here have brought a lot of colors out in the flower and everything looks and smells amazing. Gas profiles, fruit flavors and bakery aromas were on full display. Get a taste for yourself soon … these jars hit shelves right as this issue goes to print.
