4 Minute Read
"Our Land to Your Hand"
In May 2022, the Ellwood's team took a trip up to Gloucester, VA. to visit River Organic's farm on the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
There, we met the owners, growers and producers to see their seed to bottle CBD production.
Teresa Brown - River OrganicsRiver Organics is a female owned, local small business. We create the highest quality USDA Certified Organic CBD products to empower our customers to live their best life. We grow our hemp organically and sustainably right here in Gloucester, where it's hand seeded, cultivated and harvested at optimum bloom. Our team then processes it on site in a state of the art extraction facility meeting USDA Organic extraction requirements. We control the process from seed to bottle, and all products are independently tested by a third party laboratory.
Interview with River Organics
with Adrianne Ryder-Cook Joseph, Founder and CEO
How did y'all get into farming?
After having rented my farm to a local farmer for a number of years, he chose to retire. At that time we decided to farm the land ourselves. We wanted to be organic so we needed to fulfill all the many criteria for forming organically. Once that was accomplished and we got our USDA certification for the land we begin growing organic corn and soybeans. In a sharp learning curve I discovered that non-GMO modified corn and soybeans do not behave as well as their GMO modified cousins! It was a painful lesson.
How did River Organics get started?
In 2018 the farm bill passed and I knew we could grow hemp. I thought this might be the perfect crop for us to grow. I was already a user of CBD and realized that, by growing our own hemp, I could control the quality of the product from seed to bottle and produce the highest quality CBD on the market.
What makes River Organics unique?
We are one of the very few CBD companies to be USDA certified at all three levels: growing, processing, production. We are also unique in being a woman owned company growing on the family farm. We are “single growth” in that we grow all our own hemp and do not use anyone else’s hemp. We are environmentally conscious , grow our hemp sustainably, use recyclable packaging and as a member of 1% for the Planet, we give 1% of our proceeds to The Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
What products can customers expect to see at Ellwood’s?
You can expect to see River Organics' USDA Organic Full-Spectrum Tinctures, which are available in 4 potencies and 5 flavors, our 100 mg CBD Lavender Bath Bomb, 50 mg CBD Lip Balm, and our amazing 1500 mg Extra Strength Pain Relief Oil with Arnica, which customers have termed "magic oil," as well as a selection of our wildly popular non-alcoholic CBD wine.
What’s in store for the future of River Organics?
We are excited to bring CBD champagne, both white and pink to the market in the very near future. We plan on broadening our product range in the fall with more strain specific products including sleep sprays and energy sprays as well as gummies and a face serum.
Left to Right: Dan Lamprecht, Emily Sedlak, Michael Lumpkins from Ellwood Thompson's
