Ounce of Hope, a local CBD boutique, opened its first store in 2019 at 553 Cooper St. In November, a second store opened at 5101 Sanderlin Ave.
About a year and a half ago, Ounce of Hope's owner Collin Bercier opened an indoor aquaponic cannabis farm. The farm is located at 4114 Delp St. and is open for tours.
"You can go online on our website and schedule tours. We do tours every third Saturday of the month," Bercier said. "We've done private parties here, movie showings. We had a baby shower here."
The farm is part of Bercier's larger plan for Ounce of Hope. The farm is an indoor facility with grow rooms at back. Another room is for the tanks of tilapia and koi fish, with the droppings used to feed the plants.
"As a brand, we wanted to control every process in the making of products by growing our own plants, doing the extractions ourselves, formulating our products," Bercier said. "Then the fish portion, there's some other advantages there. We're not really reliant on anybody else, whether it's supply chain or filling our dispensary with products. We are very self-sustainable."
One of the grow rooms has been set aside to grow marijuana if it is legalized in Tennessee.
The farm grows plants in both soil and in a deep-water culture — basically, a bucket of water. They are trying to determine which is the most effective way to grow the plants.
"There are advantages and disadvantages of both," Cam Heil, Ounce of Hope's operation manager, said. "What we're doing here is studying to see what works best with our aquaponic nutrients, indoor farming in general. Do we want a natural-based soil system? Or do we want the hydroponic-style living water system?"
The farm, because it is indoors, has no seasons, so plants can be harvested six times a year.
The farm grows hemp plants, which produce both marijuana and CBD.
"The flowers that produce the buds contain all of the cannabinoids, and these hemp plants have a higher CBD content than a THC content," Heil said.
The fish in the tank room arrived via the U.S. Postal Service. They are the livestock on this farm.
"They're providing our fertility," Heil said. "We're harvesting their manure. And it's in a concentrated form, so we don't have to waste a lot of water in order to harvest it."
The fish in the tanks will continue to grow and will eventually get too big.
"As [the koi] get bigger, we will need to harvest them," Bercier said. "So, we'll put them out on the market for sale. And then with a tilapia, as they get bigger, we can give them away to homeless shelters for tax write-offs. Or, we can do collaborations with restaurants where we provide the tilapia and maybe they tell our story on their menu."
Another room is where all the products are made. All of the store's 16 employees are rotated into the farm, with the idea being that they'll be more knowledgable about the products.
Bercier said that opening the farm has been a learning experience.
"We've made a lot of expensive mistakes, but at the same time, we've figured out some pretty cool stuff," he said. "Where you see our facility now, we're really turning the corner with it."
