Water Mill Horse Farm OK'd to Grow Cannabis

A second South Fork-based farm was recently approved by NY State regulators to start growing recreational marijuana, joining a small group of East End outfits that previously got the OK. Big Sky Ranch Holdings LLC, which is the company that operates Big Sky Ranch Hamptons — an entity billed as the equestrian component of Nova’s Ark Project, the 95-acre sculpture park and art center in Water Mill — was granted conditional cannabis cultivator license by the state Cannabis Control Board at its June 23 meeting.

The award comes after fellow South Fork company Bridgehampton Loam LLC previously won a license. North Fork growers that have also gotten the greenlight to grow recently legalized recreational marijuana are Peconic Growers in Riverhead, Jennifer Bihm in Cutchogue, WJF Farms in Cutchogue, Riverhead-based Plant Connection and East End Flower Farm.

Additionally licensed on the East End are Speonk-based Brian Klug Landscaping and Route 27 Hopyard in Center Moriches. They are among more than 200 growers statewide.

The license is good for two years, and holders will be able to distribute cannabis flower products to retail dispensaries. Statewide, the large majority of cannabis grown outdoors and in greenhouses is expected to be processed for products like edibles and vapes, with the rest to be sold as smokable flower, said Allan Gandelman, president of the NY Cannabis Growers and Processors Association.

The first-wave growers this year are projected to produce a couple of hundred thousand pounds of product — a fraction of the projected demand in NY, which could eventually be over 1 million pounds annually.

~ With Associated Press