Navy veteran Jeff Boogaard added a small plot of cannabis plants to his Asian water buffalo farm in Lovettsville, Virginia, in 2019, as an experiment — and the following year, he pivoted his farm entirely to the crop.
What is now the Cannabreeze Farm is planting its fifth season of cannabis crop right now, but he is not growing hemp for fiber production. Cannabreeze is entirely about CBD, or cannabidiol, the substance derived from hemp that has health and wellbeing benefits but not the psychoactive properties of marijuana’s THC.
Cannabreeze, with just over 12 acres, is part farm, part destination, with an on-site shop selling CBD rubs and balms, oil drops, edibles, drink infusers and even pre-rolled joints and flower buds for smoking.
The farm also has picnic areas, holds its own occasional events and is available for private events bookings.
“One of our number one objectives really is to educate the community to help remove the stigma of this plant,” Boogaard said. “We have festivals right here on the farm property just to have people come and embrace it and be more comfortable.”
Boogaard and his team grow, dry and produce their CBD products on-site. Extracting CBD oil from cannabis is a complicated, multi-step, multi-day process. At Cannabreeze, that includes one of only three custom-made machines in the U.S. used for a large part of the process.
In addition to the farm store, its products are available online, and at 15 D.C.-area farmers markets. Cannabreeze also has a partnership with Lost Rhino Brewing Co. in Ashburn for non-alcoholic CBD-infused seltzers. The current one is called Pineapple Dream.
The Virginia General Assembly legalized possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana and authorized sales for non-medical use starting in 2024, and Boogaard says making the switch from hemp to marijuana would be very easy. They’ve already tackled the learning curve for growing the plant.
“Think of a red tomato versus a green tomato,” Boogaard said. “We would just be planting a THC-dominant seed rather than a CBD-dominant seed. We are also in the process of installing three fully-automated greenhouses so we can grow year-round.”
But marijuana would not choke out Cannabreeze’s CBD ambitions.
“Our ultimate goal is to grow more compatible CBD in the health and wellness community and make it aesthetically pleasing and very nice to smoke, at the same time as delivering the quality of what we call plant medicine to our customers,” he said.
Boogaard says marijuana does have mental and physical health benefits similar to CBD.
“THC has a lot of medicinal value as a plant. It is not as robust as other cannabinoids like CBD and CBG,” he said. “But it does have tremendous value, especially in areas of pain and major stress disorders.”
The name “Cannabreeze” is a reference to both the product and the farm’s location on Breezy Meadow Lane in Lovettsville, and while catchy, Boogaard has some regrets about choosing it. The name prevents him from advertising and marketing on most social media platforms, which prohibit cannabis-related marketing.
For Boogaard, CBD is also personal.
A few months after that first crop in 2019, his then 22-year-old daughter was diagnosed with cancer. While he makes no claims CBD had any impact on her recovery from cancer, he believes it did help with the symptoms and the anxiety of treatment.
“What I learned is that chemo does far worse damage to the body than the actual cancer, and CBD helped her get through that, both physically as well as emotionally,” he said. “I really believe that it was providence. That God was telling me it was something that I needed to continue, and that’s why I did more research on this amazing plant. I’m a big believer that this is a big game changer when it comes to health and wellness.”
His daughter is two-and-a-half years in remission.
Cannabreeze is located at 13554 Breezy Meadow Lane in Lovettsville, Virginia.
