SunnyDayz Cannabis opens ‘craft’ dispensary in South Deerfield

SOUTH DEERFIELD — About five years since the Selectboard first approved Washington-based SunnyDayz Cannabis’ host community agreement for a “cannabis campus” along Routes 5 and 10, the dispensary has opened its doors.

“There was nothing here … just forest,” CEO and co-owner of SunnyDayz Brian Hajdarovic said on the roughly 5-acre campus at 105 Greenfield Road.

Instead of forest, a 26,705-square-foot indoor cultivation facility and a 3,539-square-foot retail dispensary now sit on the property. Still on the horizon is a 5,000-square-foot manufacturing facility.

Although the term “farm-to-table” rarely follows the name of a cannabis dispensary, Hajdarovic hopes to change that. Along with products from 27 vendors from as far away as Cape Cod, the SunnyDayz flower and the items that start with it in the store come from the cultivation building a few steps outside.

“This is where the babies start,” Cannabis Cultivation Technician Michael Marinaro said inside what he calls the “clone nursery.” The clone plants come from “mother plants” located inside another room.

About 80 cannabis plants grow from soil the team builds “from scratch,” Marinaro said.

“We add what is called a ‘compost tea’ to the soil to keep all of the living beneficials inside of there,” Marinaro explained, “which is why the cannabis has more flavor.”

To pick the perfect strains for SunnyDayz’s shelves, Chief Cultivation Officer and co-owner Ken Bouquillon narrowed the mother plants down from countless seeds. After the seeds grew into plants, he selected the plants that bloomed the best, cloned those plants, grew another batch of about 100 plants and chose the winning plant to grow.

“We started with thousands of plants,” Marinaro explained, “and we ended up selecting six to eight plants.”

He called longtime cannabis grower Bouquillon a “chef” plucking flavors and aromas.

“That is what has been lost in translation,” Marinaro continued. “A lot of owners of companies don’t actually have their hands in the cannabis.”

“It would be like a chef coming up with a new menu item,” added Hajdarovic, “but nobody actually tasting that item.”

The clone plants spread their leaves before blooming in another room that is practically tangible with the mingling aromas of Bouquillon’s “staple strands” and new strains, including “Death Star Tangie,” “Mr. Nasty,” “Peanut Butter Crunch,” “Swampwater Fumes” and other names from the seed breeders’ brains.

As the plants bud and bloom, an “all-in-one” building management system that Hajdarovic and Bouquillon helped design for commercial growers manages temperature and humidity. Without worrying about the plants’ environment, Marinaro can focus on helping them grow and flower. Instead of irrigation lines, Marinaro waters the plants and checks in on their progress.

“It’s a lot of work, but this is the labor of love part,” Marinaro said with a smile. “Every little step matters.”

Out of the soil, the cannabis flowers dry for seven to 10 days, instead of losing flavor in a flash dryer like in other facilities, Marinaro noted. For flavor that comes through in the final product, “The whole key is keeping the flower fresh,” he said.

The plants, still on their stems, cure in bins for at least a week before heading across the “cannabis campus” for final touches like filtering.

From seed to product, the process takes about 100 days.

“The term ‘craft’ gets thrown around,” Hajdarovic said, “but this is craft — when you’re using live soil, when you’re hand watering, when you’re hand trimming, when you’re managing each pot on a pot-by-pot basis. It’s just another level of cultivation technique.”

Customers can smell the results for themselves at the dispensary’s “deli-style bud bar,” as Hajdarovic called it. Budtenders open jars of the flower strains behind the counter for clients to take a whiff before weighing the flower on the scale and ringing it up.

“It allows the consumer to come in and actually see what they’re buying before they actually buy it,” Hajdarovic said.

At the other counter, customers can purchase a plethora of products, from pre-rolls and vape cartridges to edibles, drinks and tinctures.

The CEO envisions the dispensary catching leaf peepers and skiers from Interstate 91 on their way to Vermont and New Hampshire.

“Right now, I see SunnyDayz really moving the needle and changing this whole market,” Marinaro said. “The [cannabis] plant gives back to people, but you have to give it that love.”