Come Visit Us!
What to do with a beautiful, historic building, once a busy community hub called the Hepworth Cider Mill? Sell CBD, of course!
This lovely space is on 9W in Milton, next door to the Hepworth packing house and across the road from Hepworth greenhouses and the Hempire State Growers’ on-site lab. Gail Hepworth, HSG’s CEO explains the transition from cider to CBD in their mill: “Part of being multi-generational farmers is transforming to move with the times. Our Cider Mill offered hot cider donuts and all-you-could drink free cider as part of a successful roadside farm market that operated for 92 years. The building itself is very special to the family and we decided that a CBD sales and education center in this new industry would be a wonderful use for it.”
If you’ve driven on 9W at all this summer and fall, you have no doubt both seen and smelled the bountiful fields of HSG hemp. Amy and Gail Hepworth’s commitment to organic, regenerative agriculture segued seamlessly into CBD hemp in 2019. Introducing hemp to the region, Hempire’s goal is to complement their family’s Certified Organic vegetable farm as well as other farms that are part of the Hudson Valley agricultural landscape.
All HSG products made with CBD extracted on the farm from hemp grown on the farm and meticulously traced from seed to shelf are available in the CBD Mill. The seed-to-sale process allows the HSG scientists to trace every field of hemp, and every plant, through the extraction process to its final incarnation on the shelf. HSG uses an on-site extraction technology which they offer at cost to other farmers to use in processing their hemp into CBD distillate, in order to assist in the development of this new industry in the region.
Hempire State Growers’ president and lead farmer Amy Hepworth says, “The reason we are farming hemp is that it is and always has been the people’s plant, until it was taken away from us about 100 years ago. We want to help people refamiliarize with hemp, and we want the local economy to benefit from it as well. It is our goal to make this abundant plant accessible at the best possible price point, and for the crop’s financial yield to benefit the entire community.”
The Mill will be used as an education center too. Diane Duffus, HSG biologist and educator, will be involved with community-based educational events at the CBD Mill. She explains, “Hemp is a plant that holds the promise of a broad range of medicinal and health attributes, which we will learn more about as further research is conducted. Because it is relatively new on the market and not currently regulated by the FDA, there is no guidance for usage. At HSG, we believe it’s important to educate consumers, from scientific, agricultural, and health perspectives, so they can make informed decisions regarding their personal CBD use.”
Stop in and see us! We are open 7 days a week. Our fall hours are Monday-Thursday 9:00-6:00, Friday 9:00-8:00, Saturday 10:00-6:00, and Sunday 11:00-5:00. Enjoy 20% off all products for the month of October to celebrate our opening. Our online store is up and running too, and can be accessed with this link, for pre-orders to be picked up in the store.