BATAVIA, N.Y. — To help cannabis growers get the crops they have already grown out the door, the state is allowing pop-up events to happen across the state.
They are called cannabis growers showcases, and there is one coming to Batavia on Tuesday.
Greenside Cannabis has been a family-owned business for three generations, and right now they are getting ready for their first growers showcase in Batavia next week. It started as a family farm in the 1990s, then the focus moved to greenhouses with plants and flowers.
The cannabis business started last year.
"We sold our first entire crop to Empire Cannabis, and they are our processor in Western New York. Now, our current crop, we harvested in February, so now we're on our third crop right now," said Alexis Heim, Greenside Cannabis COO.
With so few state-licensed stores open in Western New York, Heim is looking forward to the store Dank 716 being able to sell her cannabis at next week's growers showcase.
"It's more like a pop-up dispensary. That's how, the best way to describe it. Because when you think farmers market, you think tents in a field, and that's not what it will be. It will be like a pop-up dispensary. So it will be like Dank, which is in downtown Buffalo, the dispensary, popping up at different locations throughout Western New York until the end of December," Heim said.
It works just like a dispensary. You have to be 21 or older, and there will be security at the door.
"We've got a lot of things to get done before we can open it to the public, but we are excited especially for that area which doesn't have access to a legal dispensary yet," Heim said.
This growers showcase starts in Batavia on Tuesday at Empire Hemp located at 204 East Main Street in Batavia. The showcase is scheduled from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday starting next Tuesday through Dec. 30.