Brothers save family farm by growing ‘craft’ cannabis

Bruce County brothers have turned a small family farm into a craft cannabis operation. CTV’s Scott Miller has the story.

On the outskirts of Teeswater, Ont., Chris and Marty Johnston have converted part of their 150-acre family farm into one of the most reputable craft cannabis operations in Ontario.

“I think there’s a difference in having a family-owned private company. There’s a different sort of focus for you, in terms of putting your all in to make it successful. And that’s really where we’ve been,” explained Marty Johnston.

After their father passed in 2015, the Johnston brothers, who come from sales and tech backgrounds and not agriculture, were looking for a way to keep the family farm. Typical crops weren’t going to do it, so they turned to cannabis. They started with six acres in 2020, recently doubling to 12 acres, encompassing 17,000 plants.

“We surrounded ourselves with everybody that knows agriculture through and through. So, we married sort of our expertise in business with their agricultural expertise, and leaned on them heavily, because we knew what we didn’t know, and growing 12 acres of cannabis was certainly that,” said Chris Johnston.

Lune Rise Farms isn’t trying to become a large cannabis brand, and instead focuses on high quality, organically farmed, premium, sun grown cannabis with a great origin story.

It’s a story they are happy to share.

“We treat it like a cannabis vineyard. And that’s really the goal, to take the stigma out, and make it more approachable to more people. You know, come on in, we’re not hiding behind a fence because we’re the boogeyman,” said Chris, or CJ, as he’s known around the farm.

“Eventually we will expand to tourism and agritourism. That’s a focus for us because we think there is a lot to share in terms of how is this really done,” added Marty.

Not only do they grow cannabis, they process and make their own cannabis products right on the farm, which are then shipped across Canada, but end up largely in the Ontario Cannabis Store, which is aggressively marketing Ontario grown cannabis, to try and establish a craft cannabis industry, not unlike the craft wine or beer industry.

“The industry has kind of matured. What you’re seeing is what’s happened in other industries, whether it’s craft beer or wine, small batch like Niagara-on-the-Lake. Quality has become more of a priority than just price and potency. And that’s really a space that we’re living in,” said Chris.

While they are focused on the five weeklong harvest of their 17,000 cannabis plants this month, the Johnston brothers envision becoming a full circle operation, eventually selling their cannabis right from the farm, just like Ontario wineries and breweries do now.

“I think our industry will shift towards like the Ontario vineyard industry, where consumers want an experience, as well as the final product. We’ve always wanted to build a home base where people would want to come and see, how is this made, who’s making it, and connect with them on a more personal level. We think that removing that anonymity is important for the success of our brand,” explained Marty.

You can learn more about Southern Bruce County’s craft cannabis farm on the Lune Rise Farms website.