Konopie harvest
By Jacob Heiser of the Denmark News
In August, we told readers about a new kind of farm
that has taken root just northeast of Denmark on
Langes Corners Road. For more than three years now,
Konopie Wellness has been providing customers with
high-quality, organic hemp products at an honest
price.
Konopie is the brainchild of Mark Rozmarynoski who
took the lessons and techniques learned growing up on
his family’s dairy farm (located just up the road from
Konopie’s present location) and applied them to the
organic hemp business after the crop became legal
across the country following the 2018 Farm Bill.
This week, we thought we would give our readers an
update as Mark and everyone else at Konopie tackle one
of the busiest parts of their year, the harvest. Last
Tuesday morning I had the chance to visit Konopie and
see firsthand all the hard work that goes into taking
their crop from plant to product.
I was blown away to see how large their plants (which
were already well over six feet tall in August) had
grown in the last two months. The plants, which were
mere seeds in April, now tower over eight feet with
stalks the size of small trees. These massive stalks
were piled high on a series of wagons that stood in a
line leading out of the processing building where Mark
and his army of helpers were busy processing the fresh
harvest.
Rozmarynoski explained there is a lot more of a
process to preparing the hemp plant for safe and
quality consumption than most people realize. He
demonstrated how the large stalks are fed through a
“Hemp Stripper” which separates the fibrous stalk from
the leaves and buds. The leaves and buds (biomass) are
then tumbled through a large forced-air propane dryer
at 120 degrees for two hours. The dried biomass is
then ready for extraction and refinement before being
processed into Konopie’s line of high-quality
products. The byproducts of the process are not simply
discarded though, the stalks are dried and used for
animal bedding and the biomass left over after
extraction is used in a variety of ways including
animal feed. Rozmarynoski says an important feature of
their business is “using every piece of the plant”.
Mark proudly showed me some of the many innovations
and improvements he and his team have made to their
equipment and process in the last three years. Some of
the machinery, like their powerful “Hemp Strippers”,
are completely of their own invention while others,
like the large driers, had to be tweaked and reworked
to serve their unique needs.
So, is all this hard work worth it? Konopie’s business
director, Paul Renard, says the answer is a resounding
yes. Although the market price for hemp products has
fallen drastically since legalization in 2018 (due to
so many people getting in the business), they believe
the market will soon stabilize like any other new and
exciting crop. Renard says Konopie is steadily growing
with no plans of slowing anytime soon.
Konopie’s products can be found at an ever-growing
number of local retailers as well as online at
www.purekonopie.com. Their website also has a wealth
of information for anyone interested in their process
and products.
Subscribers of The Denmark News can read the article here