FLX420 Summer 2022

First Stop on the Grass Route

by Tina Manzer, photos by Mark Stash

"As the Finger Lakes soils and weather attracted award-winning vintners, brewers, distillers and cideries, so, too will flow cannabis and its geneticists,” says Ed Varno.

Welcome to High View in Canandaigua, the first Airbnb venue in the region to openly welcome cannabis appreciators. The 22-acre horse farm features beautiful open pastures, several scenestealing barns, and five-star accommodations in an historic home. Unique views of legendary Bare Hill and South Hill in the Canandaigua Lake valley can be seen from its rolling hills. Five people-friendly Arabian horses live at High View with their equally charming owners, Vanessa Waters and her husband Ed Varno. Here, Ed recounts the couple’s journey to becoming Airbnb Super Hosts and explains the reasons they took the high road.

Q: Finger Lakes High View has been your home for many years.

A: Ed Varno: Yes. Vanessa acquired the farm in the 1980s. It needed a lot of attention to prevent its further decline and to save it from developers. We met in the early 1990s and never looked back. We have succeeded in saving the property from becoming a housing tract and consider ourselves stewards of the land, a responsibility we take seriously.

We opened our Airbnb in 2017 as a peaceful, private, and memorable getaway. We like people and enjoy sharing what we have with visitors.

Where did your cannabis-accommodating ideas come from?

We began following the subject when the U.S. began to discuss the impact of marijuana decriminalization. In 2014, when Colorado began selling recreational cannabis, we discovered “The Cannabist,” a section in The Denver Post’s Sunday edition. It was primarily educational with a list of online resources that offered information on cannabis and the future of the industry. That’s when our research began in earnest.

In 2019 we took a cruise to Alaska – an early recreationalcannabis-sales state. Vanessa and I visited five dispensaries to learn about their marketing. We saw that cannabis was being viewed in a different cultural light that focused on, among other things, the science of growing the plant. Strains and potency had become measurable. Testing is improving all the time.

The budtenders in Alaska were friendly and willing to share their knowledge. For us, it was very much like sitting with John Brahm of Arbor Hill Winery in South Bristol, talking about blending varietals and which grapes grown locally would complement our rare Finger Lakes Traminette. We realized that the cannabis culture fits hand-in-glove with New York State’s agritourism and farm-to-table initiatives.

Vanessa and I asked ourselves, “Do we want to dive in?” We’re retired, so we had to consider the risks. We talked about the safest and easiest way to tap into the cannabis industry, and decided we would not invest in stock, seek state licenses, or offer products for sale. Instead, we would simply set some rules and promote our Airbnb as being a location for “Your Cannabis Experience.”

We saw an immediate uptick in our bookings. Like us, our visitors are amazed at the legalization of recreational adult-use cannabis in the home state of the harsh Rockefeller Drug Laws we knew in the 1970s.

Compared to pre-MRTA, what’s different in the way you operate now?

Smoking has always been permitted on our property except inside the house and barns. We embraced the recent legalization of cannabis and offer our guests open-air places with great views to sit, relax and get elevated.

Are other lodging venues in our area following suit?

We have not seen other Airbnb offerings in the region openly welcome visitors who wish to enjoy cannabis. We realize that it’s still an emerging situation.

What are your plans for High View as cannabis becomes more readily available?

Vanessa and I will continue to offer a five-star stay here. Cannabis education will remain important: as others shared information with us, we, too, are willing to share what we have learned.

It is our hope that the state will see cannabis worthy of its agritourism and farm-to-table programs.

Finger Lakes High View is accessible exclusively through Airbnb. For more information, visit nycannatour.com.