Northeast Hemp Commodities Offers Expertise On Growing And Processing Hemp

Highly Educated and Experienced Staff Ready for 2019 Harvest

Editor’s Note: This spotlight was written as part of a paid business partnership.

Vermont farmers who are searching for help with harvesting, processing, or selling their hemp crop this fall want a substantial return on their investment of time, hard work, and financial resources. Northeast Hemp Commodities, based out of Florence, VT, has the capacity to harvest large hemp fields with compaction machinery that presses all oxygen out of the bale, providing flower and biomass a shelf life of 11 months – plenty of time for farmers to complete their drying and processing steps. 

With new harvesting equipment and an experienced team of operators, personnel and field-tested technology, NEHC stands ready to work with farmers, offering their extensive knowledge of organic, sustainable farming; consulting services; and options such as seed/seedling sales, crop share and/or assistance in selling their products locally or nationally. 

NEHC works with raw hemp and biomass for processing into full-spectrum distillates, oils and concentrates. “We use Supercritical CO2 for the finest buds to distill more of the terpenes and flavors, and food-grade ethanol for standard extracts, which is more effective on a large scale,” said CTO Rye Matthews. “We are also working to produce small batches of of craft concentrates using a variety of solventless methods such as pressing rosin, bubble hash, and dry-sifting trichromes.”

Two basic missions permeate throughout all of NEHC’s services and farming methods: sustainability and quality control. In addition to field-testing crops, all production batches are third-party tested by certified labs to ensure their integrity, chemical percentages, and purity. 

NEHC was Clean Green certified (cannabis-specific certification) before the organic certification seal was even available for hemp in Vermont. This year the crop is certified USDA organic. 

Building Sustainable Farming Communities  

The core management staff at NEHC is a unique collaboration of farmers, scientists, marketers, and businessmen who are focused on growing and processing the finest hemp strains in the world. All seven are from Addison County, and three grew up on farms there. President and Founder, Tylor Highter, chose team members who had a shared vision of helping depressed farming communities become more economically viable with hemp; and throughout their entire operation, implementing the greenest and most sustainable methods possible.  

“We’re all from Addison County and we feel strongly about helping the farmers in this county and in the entire state,” explained Highter. “We’re striving to help farmers grow hemp, while at the same time producing high quality organic products that improve the lives of many Vermonters. It’s a dream job!”

In 2018, NEHC grew 60 acres of hemp, of which 40 acres turned out well, resulting in 70,000 lbs. processed. This year, the company has over 200 acres planted with land leased from farmers who have the right conditions for growing organic, verified CBD and CBG hemp strains, plus additional fields grown by employees and friends, bringing the total up to over 500 acres.  

A Business Grown from the Ground Up

A fivefold Increase in hemp acreage this year required expanding their total staff to 30 full-time people with added temporary workers at harvest. “Higher value crops require extra steps (such as organic certifications) and paying a good wage. It results in a healthier product and it helps the community,” added Matthews. “It’s worth it to us even if production costs are higher. It sets a standard for this new industry to grow in the direction of sustainable communities and producing the finest cannabinoid extracts and supplements available.”

In the meantime Chief Branding Officer, Michael Sims, attends expos and hemp fests around New England to educate farmers and help each of them find their individual solution to current economic agricultural challenges – in fact they were a Title Sponsor for Heady Vermont’s Hemp Fest.

The best way for farmers to contact NEHC is to fill out a form online under the type of services needed – farming, harvesting and/or processing. The staff at NEHC can also be reached at 802-797-8150 or drop them a line at [email protected].

NEHC CBD products can be found at Method Organics. Use promo code headyvt for a 15% discount on purchases.