Just Call Him

STORY BY ERIKA LEIGH PHOTOGRAPHED BY NATE BLAIS

Just Call Him “The Dogfather”

Ten years ago, if you’d asked Greg “Chemdog” Krzanowski where he thought he’d be, the outlook was bleak. “I lost everything I owned – cars, money, everything” Krzanowski said.

Krzanowski’s Easthampton apartment, where he was growing 97 cannabis plants, was raided in 2011. The plants were all seized, Krzanowski was arrested and eventually sentenced to three years’ probation and was ordered to pay a hefty fine. Today, he’s the Director of Cultivation for Canna Provisions in the Berkshires.

“It’s very emotional, to have everything taken away and then 10 years later, be growing thousands of plants with no issues whatsoever – all the strains that you’ve pretty much pioneered and gotten out in the world and made famous – it’s very humbling,” Krzanowski said.

But to know how “Chemdog” helped create some of the most famous strains of cannabis, we’ll have to go back to 1991 in Deer Creek, Indiana. Krzanowski, just 18-years-old then, was a Deadhead, touring around the country to see legendary sets by The Grateful Dead. At one of the concerts, he met some fellow Deadheads from Colorado who sold him a couple of eighths of what they called, “Chem Weed,” named because of its highly chemical smell and taste. The strain was also known as “Dog Bud.”

“You rolled over like a dog, it got you so high,” Krzanowski explained. “It was some of the best, best weed I’ve ever smoked in my life. It tasted so good; Some of the best pot I’d encountered, smelled, tasted, seen in my life– and I know good weed.”

Krzanowski continued to follow the band around. He’d exchanged numbers with the guys who’d sold him the Chem Weed and couldn’t stop thinking about it once he was home.

“I got in touch with them and ended up getting a couple of ounces in my hands. It came from Colorado to Massachusetts, and in one of those bags, I ended up finding 13 seeds,” Krzanowski said.

From there, Krzanowski started his business by trying to grow four of the seeds. He fused the two original names – Dog Bud and Chem Weed into “Chemdog.” Two strains from the original plants survived – the legendary Chemdog was born.

Luckily, Krzanowski’s strains were so well-known that despite losing all of his plants, it wasn’t hard to get back on track. In 2019, co-founders of Canna Provisions, Meg Sanders and Erik Williams asked him “It’s kind of a dream, to some extent. I didn’t think 10 years ago that I’d be in this position.” Krzanowski said. “My team is awesome. I can’t even imagine having any different team.”

to join their team amid the boom in legalized cultivation and sales of recreational marijuana in Massachusetts.

“I never wanted to get up and leave Massachusetts to do this legally, so to be able to do this in Western Massachusetts, it’s a whole other world for me,” Krzanowski said. “It’s a great feeling …and I wouldn’t want to do it outside of Massachusetts.”

Now, Krzanowski is in charge of legally cultivating more than one thousand plants and managing a grow team for Canna Provisions. While he admits it’s still upsetting to think about what happened to him a decade ago, the process of growing, drying, curing and ultimately seeing his product on the shelves in Canna Provisions’ Lee and Holyoke stores, feels like he’s come full circle.

“It’s kind of a dream, to some extent. I didn’t think 10 years ago that I’d be in this position.” Krzanowski said. “My team is awesome. I can’t even imagine having any different team. Going to work every day, I have a two hour and 10-minute commute and I don’t mind it a bit. I love going to work.”

And it’s a good thing Krzanowski loves going to work, because Canna Provisions’ new grow in Sheffield is keeping him busy. The grow started operations in November and is opening in phases. Right now, Sheffield “A,” about 5,000-square-feet of grow space, is up and running, with plans to start growing in Sheffield “B,” another 3,500-square-feet, soon. The site also includes seasonal outdoor grow space, which is awaiting approval by the state’s Cannabis Control Commission.

Erik Williams, Canna Provisions’ Chief Operating Officer, said Sheffield “A” has about one thousand plants. Its first harvest this spring produced about 100 pounds of the “Stardog” strain, and he expects that will be a typical yield for the space and its plants. Williams is anticipating Sheffield “B” will produce an additional 88 pounds per month.

“We’re only six months in and we’ve already had plenty of harvest. It’s a true miracle that we’ve already had so much so soon,” Williams said. “Both Meg [Sanders] and I have stood up a bunch of grows and this is the fastest we’ve been able to get them up and running and producing.”

The Sheffield grow will eventually be home to 10 permanent strains, with 15 other strains in rotation, all overseen by Krzanowski. The grow employs about 10 people full-time and is in operation six days a week.

Krzanowski, along with Director of Growth Johnny Hamala, put the entire grow team together. Hamala said one of the most fun parts of putting the team together was that most of their applicants knew who “Chemdog” was but Krzanowski and Hamala would conduct the interviews together as “Greg” and “Johnny.” At some point, the applicants would usually ask when they’d get to meet the cannabis-growing legend, not realizing they’d been in the room with him the whole time.

“He just never let on who he was,” Hamala said, while Krzanowski laughed. “We just did the whole interview and then they were just so excited to not only know that Chem was a real person but a real guy that they were going to be working with.”

In addition to the new grow, Canna Provisions is staying busy. The company recently launched a new product line known as “Smash Hits,” another creation masterminded by Krzanowski. “Smash Hits” is a self-proclaimed craft cannabis line. The Smash Hits are Canna Provisions’ in-house brand and flower, using Krzanowski’s strains of Chemdog, blended with his flavors and a few other strains and flavors from other members of their grow team.

Smash Hits is inspired by the origins of Chemdog, that 1991 Grateful Dead concert. Williams explained that Canna Provisions is essentially the “record label,” while Chemdog is the artist creating the hits. Smash Hits offers different strains called Hi-Fi, LoFi and Mid-Range – in line with Canna Provision’s existing offerings: Energizing, Calming and Balancing. Smash Hits are sold in both Lee and Holyoke and will have some consistency where long-term offerings of each strain and flavor are concerned, but there will be special Smash Hits that vary by holiday and season to keep things, “fresh and intentional,” according to Williams. These new strains are also producing some buds that are much larger than an eighth, so some strains are available in what Canna Provisions is calling a “big hit,” which are sold by the gram exclusively in their Holyoke store.

Krzanowski is excited about the Smash Hits line because he says it’s not only an opportunity for people to know they’re really getting a Chemdog strain, but it’s an elevation of sharing his love for cannabis and what he does. Krzanowski still seems a little shell-shocked at times that he gets to do what he loves in the place where he grew up.

“My blood’s green. Like people love wine, I just love good marijuana,” Krzanowski said. “I just want to provide the best possible flower I can to everybody in the northeast, not just Western Massachusetts.”