High Country Horticulture is nestled in an Eastern Washington Valley near Methow, where a microclimate and rich soil provide the basis for a living soil farm growing weed for hash and top-shelf greenhouse flower. With a small team but a big passion for growing, we sat down with Alex Adriance, operations manager and head grower, who drives this expanding farm that supplies premium fresh frozen to brands like Oleum. With a knack for hashy flower and a love for the earth, it’s all about care for the plant at High Country Horticulture. Adriance puts it simply: “If I didn’t love it, I would be out of the industry by now for sure; I don’t do this for the money.”
How did you get into the weed industry?
I started growing in medical, saved money, and invested in a failing 502 grow license that I was trying to save and got really screwed over. So I was down and out but wanted to make it in the weed industry. My uncle had this property he had just sold to a bakery owner who wanted to grow but didn’t have the time. So I made the trip over here and met my future best friend and partner!
How has the farm developed from that chance meeting?
Brick by brick, we have built the business. With him as the investor — and my partnership and stake earned through sweat equity — we’re brothers at this point, with nine years together. We started with a shed and a fence, a bare-bones structure to meet requirements. So we grew and sold some weed and built first hoop houses, then greenhouses, and over the years we’ve scaled into two 30-by-96 greenhouses that are going to be updated this winter.
It takes time to build a sustainable grow in this industry. How has that journey been for you?
It’s a marathon, not a sprint! We’ve been selling weed each season, getting the tools or next building we need, and now we are finally 95% built out. We’ve finally reached that point of efficiency, improvements, and equipment needed for this Tier 2 to thrive. After nine years, we can call it built out, our grows pimped, and we can finally start saving money instead of putting it back in.
How has your focus on growing hashy strains led to success?
The market has corrected after the last few years of difficulty, and so many people have gone under that wholesale has gotten better for us on fresh frozen. We work really hard to produce the highest quality fresh frozen that is trimmed and yields well for hash and live resin. We have a collection of really good hash strains, and we work hard to please the extract crowd. Our GMO is the biggest seller for hash, live resin and flower; 33% of our canopy is that [strain] each run, and we’ve had people hit 6.5% yield to rosin on that strain. We look for unique terpene profiles, like Sour Banana Haze, which has a unique banana peel with earthy lime profile and yields really well.
How are you growing to produce such terpy plants?
We are showing the full season for this interview, but the focus is two rounds in each greenhouse every year. We have really good soil on a plateau that’s extremely mineral-rich. When we tested the soil before starting, it had almost perfect desired levels for nutrients like calcium, magnesium and phosphate. It’s from the Missoula, Montana, glacial flood at the end of the ice age that dumped sediment this way, so the soil is sandy and rich. We used grassroots fabric beds without a bottom in the greenhouse, took a bunch of peat moss and compost to add more organic matter with a ton of worms. For the last five years, it’s been no-till soil that we amend. The soil gets better and better each year, and I’m able to use less nutrients because of the nutrient cycling of the natural soil.
Is living soil your preferred methodology now as a grower?
I grew up doing indoor hydroponic gardening and mixing 10 to 15 different nutrients, and now I’ve pretty much switched to the opposite way where I work with nature. Once you get good soil going, you can maintain top dressing, leaves and compost, and amend a bit; it really does get foolproof. Organic living soil is definitely my passion, and if I ever grow an indoor grow again, it would be a living soil garden. That’s where my heart is at.
Do the plants respond better to that environment?
The resin we produce for extracts is so great that companies pay more for our greenhouse flower than for indoor products. The returns for High Terpene Extract have a night and day difference. Other agricultural growers have known for a long time that stress and natural environments are good for plants. The best lavender in the world comes from Provence, France, where the soil is mineral deficient, so the plant produces more linalool. Our soil and microclimate produce the same effects for the plant: the right amount of stress to push the plant to produce terpenes.
Despite all the hard work and isolation as a farmer in Eastern WA, you really do love the weed industry and working with the plant! What keeps you excited for the future?
The harder you work, the luckier you get, and I finally met someone good and a great place to grow weed. It’s just like the restaurant industry. I went to culinary school, and restaurants are so tight and hard to turn a profit. I feel like it was a really good crash course for growing weed — to focus on being efficient. When I started I had stars in my eyes and wanted clout, but now I realize that I love growing weed, horticulture in general and living on the mountain to grow the best weed. I want people to know we grow in an earth-friendly way, and I hope that in the future, a vineyard-style license will be available so we can share with people how we are growing, and let them taste our terps directly!
High Country Horticulture
3 team members
5,000 plants
25 strains
2,000 pounds of finished flower
50% of the harvest sold as fresh frozen
