Medicine from the Sun

I’ve been having a terrible month. I was craving a road trip. I wanted to see the bay, to be by the water. It would be good for my soul right about now. However, it would be unlike me to go anywhere without purpose, so a few days prior I sent an email to SunMed Growers out in Cecil County, MD. I explained that I had toured an indoor grow in Washington County and I wanted to see what a natural sunlight grow was like. The email was forwarded to Mr. Paul Quill, who invited me to come do a tour of their facility.

The drive was easy, a mix of highway and backroads. I arrived a little before 1pm and was checked into the facility where I met Paul. We sat down for a few minutes and chatted back and forth. He explained that the president of SunMed, Jake Van Wingerden, is a third generation greenhouse grower who has many years of experience in the wholesale nursery business. He started SunMed, and after upwards of three years of planning and building their first product was sent to the Maryland Cannabis Program in March of 2018. Paul was brought in to help. He had a 28 year career in law enforcement here in Maryland and also worked for the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission before coming to SunMed- where he handles a little bit of everything- a jack of all trades!

We suited up for the tour: lab coats, hair nets, shoe covers. In the first room, I met a group of employees who were responsible for trimming the buds. They have a series of machines that de-stem and tumble the flower, and another that sorts it by nug size. This is then followed by hand trimming. The shake is never wasted, instead all the trimmings are added to a large compost pile.

From the trimming room we made our way to the greenhouse entrance and when we entered the main growing space it took my breath away. A 60,000 square foot sea of green pot plants. The sunlight hit my face and the warm air filled my lungs- it was almost impossible to feel anything but absolute gratitude and happiness in that moment. Anything that was on my mind earlier was fading away with each breath. The Dutch-style greenhouse was brought in piece by piece from Holland and assembled on-site. The plants are suspended on rolling tracks throughout the whole greenhouse, which makes for an incredibly functional use of space when it comes time to rotate the plants throughout the building.

SunMed grows over 100 different strains, including, the classics: Sour Diesel & Northern Lights, CBD dominant strains like Pennywise & ACDC, and some of my personal favorites: Purple Punch & Durban Thai x Cindy 99. They have a strong core focus on sustainability. Instead of applying pesticides, they opt to use predatory mites and ladybugs. They have hundreds of fans to maintain good air circulation- which creates stronger plants & prevents any environment where mold could grow. A state-of-the-art climate control system keeps each room at the proper humidity and temperature. Paul explained that SunMed is one of only two natural-sunlight cannabis grows in Maryland. They do also have supplemental lighting for cloudy days and certain stages of growth where extra sunlight is necessary. Paul walked me out back where construction crews were hard at work laying the footing for another 120,000 square feet of greenhouse.

From the greenhouse, we made our way into the drying room, which is kept at a much cooler temperature. The plants are hung upside down immediately after harvest to allow all the terpenes to flow into the flower before it’s trimmed and packaged. A freshly cut batch of Chem Dawg x Skunk No. 6 was hanging in the first room, it smelt like a fresh cut lawn- almost so much so that it was hard to distinguish it as marijuana. The next room was a few days further into the drying process, and the smell was much sweeter. The last room was filled with gray plastic tubs. Inside the tubs were huge bags of un-trimmed flower. Paul opened one of the airtight bags to toss, or “burp”, the flower which allows for even drying. The strain was called Clementine and the aroma was SPOT ON! Can’t wait to try this one in a few months.

From there, we went to packaging where I got to watch pre-rolls being made. The woman loaded up the Raw 98 specials into a machine and took what basically looked like a giant dugout and filled up each little vessel with bud- packing it tight. She attached the two pieces together, turned the machine on, and within a few minutes she had 50 perfectly packed pre-rolls. I saw a couple other cool pieces of machinery, including one that perfectly weighs and packages the flower, before Paul led me back to the front room where we started the tour. Just as we were ending the tour we ran into the president, Jake Van Wingerden, who welcomed me to the facility. They loaded me up with some swag: a trucker hat, some lighters, a lanyard, and some pens- before sending me on my way. I got in my car and immediately turned on my camera to go through my shots. What an awesome experience. Many thanks to Paul, Jake, and the team at SunMed for the warm welcome! Happy Harvest!