In what may have been some kind of Christmas miracle, the owners of the Green Goat Cannabis Shoppe in New Paltz received word that they could open their doors on December 24 of last year. Four days later, this source for locally grown and processed cannabis was up and running at 3 Cherry Hill Road. Drawing on strong bonds of friendship, a shared vision for what acquiring and consuming cannabis could be like, and the mysteries of how goats bless the earth of a centuries-old farm, the three people at the center of this artisanal establishment are ready to curate cannabis from their own crop for all comers.
The name for the business comes from Green Goat Gardens, which is where farm manager Eric "Sticky Ricky" Versen has been overseeing both cultivation and production on part of a St. Remy farm that dates back to 1762.
"It was a goat farm," explained Nicole Digilio Kross, the managing partner. The entire parcel is about a hundred acres, but one small parcel has proven extra-special. "Where they herded is where we grow" the cannabis that goes into their products. Something about the long-term presence of goats has made that soil especially welcoming to these plants.
Versen, a Kingston native who learned legacy growing in Detroit over ten years, acknowledges that adapting to Hudson Valley live soil "has been a learning curve" that had to be climbed from July – when Versen was hired — through the first harvest that was concluded in October.
Read more at Hudson Valley 1
