Fingerboard Farm operated as a soybean and corn farm for years in Frederick County, but owner Dawn Gordon realized that planting a different kind of crop could be a way to switch from food to medicine.
When the U.S. Congress passed a bill in 2018 to make it easier to grow hemp, a low-THC variety of cannabis, Gordon jumped at the opportunity to add a new crop to her Ijamsville farm. Gordon used hemp-based products for years to mitigate the symptoms of Lyme disease and felt the plant had the potential to help people suffering from similar inflammation-based illnesses. The legalization of recreational cannabis in Maryland last year gave Gordon another chance to evolve Fingerboard Farm into an Airbnb with a unique cannabis-focused angle, capturing a demographic of customers that have long existed in the shadows of American life.
"I'm seeing so many younger parents who don't even consume alcohol and they say cannabis is acceptable in our homes,"Gordon said. "That is a whole realm of people who have been in the background."
Illustration by Jacqueline Prins/ACBJ; Getty Images
Gordon is among the many Maryland entrepreneurs finding ways to enter the growing cannabis market through events and other experiences that don’t require winning one of the hundreds of hard-to-get state licenses needed to grow or sell the plant. The state's nascent cannabis tourism industry covers a wide range of companies, from Airbnbs like Fingerboard to event organizers, travel agents and even chefs, all with a similar focus on providing experiences to a growing group of customers looking to do more than just smoke cannabis at home.
There is a lot of money in catering to people with cannabis-focused experiences. Forbes predicts the market is worth around $17 billion. Unlike the very regulated space of directly selling and buying the plant, cannabis tourism businesses can generally operate without licenses, providing an easier road to profits. Ancillary cannabis industries like tourism are considered vital for many entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds, who often cannot afford the high startup cost of a traditional cannabis dispensary or growing operation, said Shad Ewart, a Carroll Community College professor who teaches classes on the cannabis industry.
Cannabis tourism businesses generally fall into three basic categories, according to Ewart: Airbnbs that are cannabis-friendly, cannabis farms that offer tours, and events like puff and paints and cannabis-based dinner parties. These businesses are able to operate because smoking cannabis is legal in private dwellings and because they typically don't directly provide cannabis to customers. Instead, customers bring their own cannabis products and the businesses add value to the product by cooking it into food or providing a social occasion where people can smoke.
Courtesy of Front Row Travels
Cannabis-related experiences often go beyond just a consumption lounge or a house party. Ayanna Lawson operates a travel agency, Baltimore-based Front Row Travels, which provides cannabis-themed trips for people to use the plant in exotic locales The trips can involve tours of dispensaries and cannabis farms or even a personal chef who can cook food with a bit of cannabis mixed in. The company offers vacations in Tulum, Mexico, that include cannabis-related experiences like meals infused with cannabis alongside more traditional tourism activities like local cooking classes.
“You can bring the general tourism and tie it into hemp farm tours or some type of event culinary experiences,” Lawson said.
Cannabis influencers or brands offer top fans and customers trips through Front Row Travels as a reward, adding a business-to-business dimension to the travel agency. Not all of Lawson's events require customers to travel long distances. She also organizes local events in the Baltimore region, like a “high tea” event series at Cuples Tea downtown. One of Lawson’s most important partnerships is with Chef Jazmine Moore, who adds cannabis-infused food to Front Row events. Moore sometimes even accompanies Front Row Travels to act as a chef for a group of tourists when they travel to Arizona or another destination.
“Travel and food is something that people are already familiar with,” Moore said. “We’re just adding cannabis to it.”
Most of Moore's business doesn't require her to get on a plane though.Under the name Green Panther Chef, she operates in Washington, D.C., as a personal chef who travels to someone’s home to cook food, infusing cannabis provided by the customer for a dinner party. The four-to-five-course dinner usually gets people as intoxicated as two or three glasses of wine, she said.
The customer base for the dinner parties and travel experiences is older than what many people may expect. The prototypical cannabis user in many people’s minds may be a college student, but seniors are increasingly dabbling in the drug.
“These are people that have either heard about cannabis or may have dabbled with it in their Baby Boomer years, but they want to get back to something that's a little bit more like holistic and enjoy it with their friends,” Moore said.
Gordon’s Fingerboard Farm focuses on that holistic experience by allowing people to mix a taste of farm life with cannabis. Gordon first started using an old farmhouse dating back to the 1790s as an Airbnb nine years ago before she started growing hemp. The legalization of recreational cannabis last summer allowed her to market her Airbnb and events space as a safe place for people to smoke. People cansmoke the cannabis they bring from home while feeding one of the many animals grazing on the Frederick County grassGordon commented that the demand for events especially increased after legalization, with everything from engagement parties to golf parties taking place on her farm.
Appealing to people who grow cannabis at home is a particularly strong market for Gordon, as many companies are sprouting up to provide hobbyists with seeds or innovative ways to dry the plant. Gordon offers an event, the Home Growers Cup, to give hobbyists the chance to engage in a bit of friendly competition and share tips on cultivation. The event on June 2 sold out, drawing around 315 people to the farm to smell and admire a variety of cannabis grown by their peers.
Matt Hooke/BBJ
Many people in attendance were participants in the cannabis industry, from budtenders who grow the plant at home as a hobby or operate a cannabis events business on the side to people working on breeding new strains of the plant.
Not all the guests at Gordon's Airbnb are hard-core cannabis enthusiasts. For many people who have smoked cannabis but never tried to grow the plant, Fingerboard offers an opportunity to see what goes into a drug they may have used for years. Many customers get particular joy from seeing just how far the legalization of cannabis has come when they see cannabis growing on Gordon’s farm without worrying about the police coming to shut everything down.
“People that have never touched or smelled the plant before get such a thrill out of it,” Gordon said. “They love it. You should see the smile on their face when they get their head down in the flower."
