Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Logan Brown. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Logan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Our mission is accessible medicine. Both my partner and I have been on this path from a young age. My background in herbalism began with a chance internship with a local Herbalist and Midwife when I was 19. I was going to school in Eugene and very open to all possibilities. My mentor and I hit it off right away, beginning what turned into a several year long apprenticeship wherein we together grew medicinal herbs, processed them into medicinal products and ultimately learned as much as we could from the plants and one another. My partner began their journey as a young chef, creating with food from his parents garden at the age of 8. He eventually went on to get a culinary degree and design creative meals wherein food was the medicine. We both were actively cultivating herbs, food and/or cannabis when we met and quickly realized our shared vison of creating our own farm someday. While we were fortunate to always feel welcome on the farms we helped out on, we easily recognized how privileged we were to know the “right” people to help us learn the ropes in the cannabis industry as well as source quality inputs. We believed that this incredibly beneficial plant should not be gatekept in the ways that it had been, so we jumped on the opportunity to buy land and grow ultra medicinal cannabis. Using homemade inputs, regenerative techniques, and transparency, we’ve been able to offer not only top shelf flowers and products, but education and resources for others disenfranchised by the cannabis industry and beyond. Our society is going through an overhaul, where people are realizing that the most effective medicines are useless if the are not accessible in both a monetary and physical sense. We hope to be the bridge for people seeking to take wellness into their own hands for both preventative and remedial purposes.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We provide more than just hemp products. We are putting the medicine back in the cannabis industry and reclaiming mama ganja’s sovereignty as a plant of power. For too long, she’s been used and abused for the purpose of profit and intoxication, being marketed used as a drug for majority of consumers. While some have always used cannabis medicinally, we’ve seen how the cannabis industry as a whole has morphed into a machine designed to do whatever it takes to make the most intoxicating buds, regardless of the consequences to the plant, cannabinoids, surrounding environment or the consumer. It’s only recently that laws have changed to reflect the dangers of this race to the top, limiting pesticides, detrimental nutrient inputs and more, but ultimately these changes are more reactive then retroactive, leaving many consumers to navigate potentially hazardous sources on their own.

At Simply Sol, we make sure our consumers, land and plants are compassionately cared for at every step of the process. We recognize that the only way to allow the full medicinal benefits of cannabis to shine is to use only natural processes, regenerative techniques, and organic homemade inputs. With proper care, the relationship between people and plant becomes reciprocal, giving powerful healing without negative side effects that mirrors the integrative care it received during it’s growing process. Much like human beings, plants thrive when their inherent nature is respected instead of commodified. These practices and beliefs are reflected in our name, Simply Sol. The recipe for good medicine is simple in both practice and ingredients. All of the products we create utilizing our lovingly cultivated CBD contain as few components as possible and are made in small batch to ensure quality, efficacy and the VIP component , cannabis, is always at the forefront. Much like the cannabis plant itself, our products speak for themselves in terms of the potent medicinal value within each bottle, jar or flower. While more benefits are still being researched, we’ve seen proven tangible improvements with a wide range of issues, from insomnia, anxiety, depression to IBS, glaucoma, arthritis, chronic nerve pain, COVID symptom relief, muscle aches, memory loss and many more.

When we began, we knew our intention was to reintegrate regenerative medicine back into the cannabis industry, but we could have never anticipated just how many people in our community and beyond would come to rely on our flowers and products to improve their lives and well being. While the healing aspect of our work is by far what we are most proud of, just the fact that we’ve been able to create a thriving small business built on sustainability and ethics is a very close second. Our journey has introduced us to thriving network of other disenfranchised farmers and business owners making their own waves in the agricultural industries and beyond. Being a part of this network wherein the goal is not only to succeed, but to share resources, facilitate education, and literally build the entrepreneurial landscape we want future generations to transverse is truly inspiring to say the least. We are beyond grateful to be members of this village that helped us and will continue to help others succeed.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In the first year of our business and within 4 months of one another, we experience 2 natural disasters that were severe enough to gain federal recognition. The first was the wild fires that consumed a majority of the west coast. The fires began only a few months after we purchased our home and farm, so we had just finished designing, building and utilizing our infrastructure to begin our first grow. We anxiously watched as the fires approached from the south and the east until it just wasn’t safe to stay on the property. The power had been turned off days before to prevent any additional hazards, so we did the best we could to water our several acres with pumps running on generators under the deep red foreboding sky. The day we got the immediate evacuation alert, the air and sky was black and thick, limiting visibility to only a few feet in front of you while wearing headlamps at 3pm in the afternoon in the summertime. while driving away in a single file line of cars for miles, we all could see the edge of the fire approaching over the hill. We had to evacuate for two weeks, with little to no news about the well being of our home and farm, but we held out hope for what felt like the impossible, to eventually go home with our property intact. Our town was one of the few lucky ones, as our hopes were granted. The fire came within a half mile but stopped due to the fire lines local ranchers had made with their equipment across their acreages. We were most impressed by the resiliency of the plants, as they were not able to respirate or photosynthesis during that 2 weeks due to the thick smoke and black sky, they essentially paused in time, patiently waiting until they could grow again. In a way our local community and the plants taught us a very important lesson in how resilient you can be when you have no choice but to rise to the occasion. We were more determined then ever to cultivate this land and business to the best of our ability since we’d been given the cosmic grace to continue right where we left off.

The second instance was a record breaking ice storm that winter that brought the pacific northwest to a grinding halt. We had recently began operation in our indoor facility, which lost power once the power lines became to heavy with ice and started snapping at most all junctions for miles. We did all we could to maintain somewhat stable conditions for the more sensitive indoor plants which were suddenly subjected to the frigid could of the northern winter, but we weren’t able to accomplish that. We lost thousands of plants we’d been nursing and propagating for our spring planting. While that felt like a huge blow at the time, we were able to recognize just how well situated we were to bounce back. We planted new seeds that we were fortunate enough to have on hand and began again as soon as we could. What felt like a huge loss at the time ultimately turned out to put us a month behind schedule. We definitely had to work harder and spend more money getting there, but fundamentally, the amount we learned in terms of preparedness and quick thinking is enormous, making us sure that we now know how to succeed and thrive under almost any circumstance. Sometimes, situations that feel like a crippling blow may just turn out to be the key to you surviving obstacles and situations that others can’t.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funding was always a bit of a obstacle for us, as my business partner and I had saved enough to purchase the farm and property, but not much after that. I did some research and found this really unique company called Steward, where in they provide farmer negotiated loans to regenerative agricultural business that are entirely funded through investments from friends and family. It’s similar to other crowdsource funding options, but the interest and repayments are returned to the contributing members, i.e. your friends and family who invested. The farmer gets to dictate their own terms and loan caps to meet their needs, resources and income projections which takes the negative aspects of traditional loans out of the equation. We ran a campaign through them and were able to raise $100,000 in a few months. we found this to be so creative and directly in line with our ethics as a business hoping to benefit our community first and foremost. We found the company incredibly helpful not only during our campaign, but in the long term, often checking in on us and our goals to offer support however they can. We highly recommend looking at this company or other similar to them operating within your industry as we were very surprised that not all lenders are predatory, but truly supportive in a multitude of ways.

Contact Info:

• Website: simplysolfarms.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/simply_sol_farm
• Facebook: facebook.com/simplysolfarms
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/simply-sol-llc

Image Credits
alex qaudrini photography lauren beane photography