ORANGE — With the goal of expanding opportunities to learn about cannabis cultivation, Morning Dew Cultivars recently wrapped up its first four-week training course.

The modest facility with few windows and industrial metal walls on Daniel Shays Highway opened in June after being under construction since September 2021. While the team is still operating at half capacity, its members make “boutique quality” cannabis to sell in dispensaries across Massachusetts while providing free online learning and in-person technical training to aspiring cultivators through a first-of-its-kind incubator program.

“We want to reach people who have been historically excluded from opportunities like this,” Morning Dew Cultivars Chief Operating Officer Tory Peele said during a tour of the 7,500-square-foot grow facility.

Peele previously said the Dew Work Incubator program is strongly geared toward residents of Greenfield and Amherst — two communities she said were identified by a March 2021 report from the state Cannabis Control Commission as being disproportionately affected by the nation’s war on drugs and cannabis prohibition policies.

“We acknowledge that cannabis prohibition was a racially harmful policy,” she continued. “We want to make ourselves available to open doors for folks.”

The way Morning Dew Cultivators is “opening doors” is by offering this four-week incubator program. Participants learn about propagation, preparing a cultivation space, pruning and post-harvest. The organization — which is the culmination of two years of brainstorming and planning by Tory Peele, her husband Zach Peele, and her father and stepmother, Pat and Lori Kaltner — expects to run the incubator program twice a year at no cost to participants.

Athol resident Christina Ellis was one of the first participants in the program.

“It was neat to learn things I didn’t know,” she said. “It was great to take the course because they provided access to resources and a breakdown of common terms.”

As the cultivation process goes on, the product is transported to different rooms across the facility. Morning Dew Cultivars had 740 cannabis plants sitting on shelves three weeks away from being harvested in one room, and another room with 860 plants that were two days away from harvest.

Plants start in the propagation room until they are large enough to be transported to one of the two flower rooms. There they sit, growing taller for months.

As the plants begin to flower, leaves are cut off the stalks, getting the flower buds ready for harvest.

Days before harvest, Morning Dew Cultivators uses a method called dry trimming that allows the plants to dry out slowly, letting enzymes break down the sugar produced by the plants. According to Director of Cultivation Zach Peele, this method creates a “smoother smoke.”

The plant’s branches are brought into the drying room on racks where they hang until they are fully dried.

After this stage, many companies use a machine to pick the nugs (a smokable, self-contained piece of cannabis flower). At this facility, everything is done by hand with a pair of small scissors.

“Using the machines destroys the bud,” Zach Peele explained.

The product is then placed in bins for two weeks to cure. The bins are “burped” — meaning cultivators let the gasses produced by the product out of the container and allow fresh air to come in — with decreasing frequency as the waiting period goes on. This method was borrowed from techniques for curing meat, according to Zach Peele.

After this, the product is ready to be sold at dispensaries. Morning Dew Cultivars is working through its first batch, with all its products still in the flowering stage.

“We want to provide mentorship and access for folks to get into the industry,” Tory Peele said.

More information on Morning Dew Cultivars is available at morningdewmass.com, if one is 21 or older.

Bella Levavi can be reached at 413-930-4579 or blevavi@recorder.com.

]]>