Location: Grants Pass
Signature Strain: Cherry Wine, which took home the top prize in the Outdoor CBD category at the 2017 Cultivation Classic.
It sounds like the plot to an edgy new sitcom—a married couple buys a 5-acre cannabis farm in Southern Oregon, and the wife brings in her ex-boyfriend as a head cultivator. That Three’s Company-like scenario is the true story of Alter Farms, and so far, it’s working out well for them. CEO Jodi Haines battled cervical cancer when she was younger, and was an early beneficiary of Oregon’s medical marijuana program. She and her husband, Jason, entered the weed business themselves in 2014, with namesake Cody Alter—an experienced cultivator going back to his teenage years—doing most of the growing. Together, they’ve built an award-winning, eco-conscious brand whose sun-grown cultivars are reflective of the region’s terroir. “We give people a taste of Oregon,” Haines says. Alter’s first Cultivation Classic win, for its hard-hitting Purple Hindu Kush, put it on the map in 2016. Sales-wise, though, the farm has made its biggest splash to date with Cherry Wine, a strain of CBD with a flavor that lives up to its name. MATTHEW SINGER.