3 minute read
BRISTOL BAY BUD CO
22 Bristol Bay
Bud Company
RICHARD AND HEATHER ALLEN didn’t plan on working in the Cannabis industry. Heather has taught mathematics all around the world, while her husband Richard worked on the railroad. After bouncing around the United States and the Middle East for a number of years, Heather was offered an opportunity to teach math at the University of Alaska Fairbanks remote campus in Dillingham. So, the duo packed their bags and left Qatar for the Bush. For three years, while Heather taught, Richard commercially fished. During their tenure, Richard says he and his wife became ensconced in the community and found themselves, like many villagers, struggling to find affordable, high-quality Cannabis.
Surveying the Veg Room
Owner Richard Allen shows off his tattoos.
Bristol Bay Bud Company's cultivation center. From L-R Head Cultivator Dustin "New Guy" Campisi, Owner Richard Allen, and Office Manager James Burkham.
“I’d hear stories about people paying $100 for sticks and stems,” says Richard. “It really bugged [Heather and me] that people in the Bush were getting mistreated and overpriced, so we decided to do something about it.”
In June 2019, the Allens opened the Bristol Bay Bud Company, which became the region’s first retail Cannabis store. They worked hard to keep the store stocked with shatters, sugar wax, resin, edibles, CBD products and flowers. However, they realized that the only way to really regulate the prices of Cannabis at their dispensary was to grow their own products.
By August 2020, just over a year after opening their first dispensary, the Allens opened the doors of their Wasilla-based cultivation facility. The 2,400-square-foot facility is the brainchild of Richard, who combined his knowledge of construction with his engineering background, and then with the computer modeling experience of his second-in-command, Dustin Campisi.
“I met Richard five years ago, and he let me in on how he had plans for a store and grow. I told him I could do CAD work, and that’s how I started with him,” explains Campisi. “But everything you see in here is from Richard’s brain. I was just his minion helping to bring it to life.”
Although Richard and Campisi had experience working with small homegrows, neither had ever run a commercial cultivation.
“Together, me and my growers have about 36 years of growing experience, but this was a different thing. We did a lot of research and a lot of trial and error because everything about the facility was DIY,” says Richard.
From the coco bricks Richard’s staff manually break and hydrate in-house to the PVC rollers used to construct sliding tables in his flower room, it’s obvious Richard’s creative mind is all over the Bristol Bay Bud Company’s approach to growing. It’s also evident that Richard is not afraid to make mistakes and adjust accordingly.
“We started out growing 15 strains, but five of them didn’t like our facility, so we got rid of them. Right now, we are growing some bigger plants, but we may transition to some smaller ones. We’re still figuring out how to optimize the facility,” says Richard. “You know, we’ve been growing in closets, garages and tents for so long, but this is a whole different ballgame.” Richard’s fearlessness also extends to the plants he’s decided to cultivate – the most infamous of which is Titty Sprinkles (our Strain of the Month pg 24). “She’s a horrible bitch to grow, and we’re still learning the best way to grow her. But mark my words, she’s going to be a star,” laughs Richard. While Richard and his team may still be honing in on their unique growing strategy, they are resolute on one thing: Cannabis is medicine. “I watched my uncle battle cancer for 15 years, and the one thing that helped him was Cannabis,” says Richard, who uses Cannabis to help treat his own arthritis. “That’s why we nicknamed this place ‘The Pharm,’ because I really believe that Cannabis is natural medicine.”
