Serena is dedicated to producing clean cannabis, she believes that her products should never have to be irradiated. She has decided that if she will not consume the product she will not sell it.

You may be wondering: what the heck does this mean?

Did you know that most of the cannabis produced legally in Canada is zapped by gamma rays? According to Leafly around 80% of Canada’s Licensed Producers use irradiation on their product. Irradiation is used to either prevent mold, bacteria and yeast from growing, or to kill it if it’s already present. That’s right. The weed in your pipe could have had mold in it. If microbial testing finds any mold etc. present, the cannabis can then be irradiated to save the harvest and make it sellable. Some producers simply irradiate everything. At Because You Cann they believe in doing it right the first time and have never failed a microbial test!

Because of this, Serena has implemented extensive sanitation protocols (hand washing, device cleaning and facility cleaning), employee PPE policies, environmental controls and monitoring, extensive employee checklists and is also trucking water for the facility in from High River- a community over 50kms away. However, this is municipal treated water and much higher quality for growing clean cannabis.

After stepping onto the floor and learning about irradiation, microbial tests and water I was whisked off to the growing ‘pods’, where the scent of Blue Glue Kush (BGK) intensified. The current crop was just finishing week two of flower. Serena was explaining to me that at the present time they were experimenting with topping and not topping the BGK to see how this would affect overall yield.

Topping is a high-stress plant training method that involves removing the tip of the plant’s upper growth. This allows the plant to grow multiple tops rather than just one. More top colas means a bigger yield off each plant.

Next we moved onto the drying room- and let me tell you… the smell in there!!! Now THAT is what heaven smells like my friends!!!! Wow! I wish I could digitally bottle the smell and have you click here for a fun little whiff of what it smelled like! And for me - having only ever harvested and grown my own cannabis- this was more drying flower than I had seen at this point. I was in shock, I was literally dumbfounded.

And then Serena took me to check out the storage and processing area. She showed me her pride and joy: Blue Glue Kush. It was curing and waiting to be packaged and sold to happy customers like you and I! Those blueberry terps smacked me in the face when the curing containers were cranked open.