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Thank You For Your Support

Photo: Brian Bins / Courtesy of Bluebird805

With your support and perseverance, on March 17, 2020 we at Busy Bee’s Organics finally received unanimous county board approval for our farming project. This is a momentous win for our family farm, workers, and the broader cannabis farming community.

We are so grateful for the support each of you has shown throughout this process; we couldn’t have done it without you! But what made us the happiest was an overwhelming sense of community. We hope that our victory will help pave the way for more projects to successfully navigate this system.

— Sara and Nate, Busy Bee’s Organics

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We have taken great care to work with our neighbors and stay true to the character of our community. We started by planting over 4,000 trees to create a living screen around the entire property-including a magical row of native sycamore along Hwy 246 that are already over 30’ in height. We prioritized biodiversity of the farm through the addition of another 600 olive trees. To preserve land for nature and the Santa Ynez River that runs nearby, we will only plant on ⅓ of our total acreage.

Sara RotmanOwner and Farmer, Busy Bees Organics

I’ve known Sara and Nate since they came here in 2014. We’ve been farming next to one another, our crops not more than fifty feet apart, for five years with zero conflicts. Their farm is compatible with ours. My family and I support their project and their right to farm here in Santa Barbara County.

Ray AmbyConventional Broccoli Farmer and Neighbor

Our farm is not just our business and sole source of income – it is our family home. And we love it deeply. When I hear anti-cannabis opponents talk about the plant as some sort of nuisance or noxious hazard I cannot relate to that position at all. My bedroom window looks out onto a field of cannabis; and it is beautiful. This is a plant and an agricultural product that literally saved my life and now enables me and my family to have a livelihood and to preserve a small family farming tradition that would otherwise not be possible.

Sara RotmanOwner and Farmer, Busy Bees Organics

Nate and Sara are the very best neighbors, and have completely beautified their ranch. My main house has stunning mountain views, and I welcome anyone worried about aesthetics to come and see the project from my house, and you’ll realize there is no impact negatively as far as views… To allay any fears you may have, come and see the project, come and see my home and see the views.

Lynda EnteNeighbor and Ranch Owner

Our best management practices are also designed not only to support our business, but to promote harmony with our neighbors. Our business model is built around concentrates, so we select genetics for citrus, floral and fruit flavors rather than the ‘skunk’ profiles commonly associated with cannabis. Our market is for ‘fresh’ material, not dried. We generally don’t do any outdoor drying. Rather, we harvest, vacuum seal and flash freezer or ship our product off site as fresh flower within 2 hours of harvest – reducing the opportunity for our plants to off gas terpenes by up to 90%.  We traditionally accomplish 2 harvests a year with an approximate mature flower time of 7-10 days per harvest. Meaning we only have an opportunity for potential odor approximately 15-20 days a year. In 5 years of continuous operation and 9 harvests, we have not received a single complaint about odor or anything else. In fact, until the notice of our project went out to the public, most of the neighbors didn’t even know we existed.

Sara RotmanOwner and Farmer, Busy Bees Organics