The Urge to Spark
The urge to spark up, finally answered.
Riding the bus into New York City early that morning, surrounded by the familiar faces of the commuter crew, I had a single urge: to light up.
It was October 1. Croptober, if you will. And the New York weather definitely got the memo. Crisp air and gray skies welcomed the first day of the month, setting the tone for a fall morning that felt perfectly suited for a trip to the countryside. The first stop was The Daily Green, a dispensary in Midtown Manhattan, where members of the press gathered before heading north to visit the Hurley Grown farm in Hurley, New York. To be fully immersed in the experience—and in any product that might come my way—I decided to hold off on smoking until I got to The Daily Green. My thinking was simple: if I was going to spend the day learning about cannabis cultivation, I wanted to come in with a fresh perspective and take it all in as it unfolded.
Little did I know, the morning was about to offer a lot more than an opportunity to spark up.
Bagels, Coffee and a Gift Bag
Once inside The Daily Green, we were ushered upstairs, where bagels and coffee awaited as the rest of the press group arrived. It was a comfortable start to what would become a full day of cannabis, conversation and agriculture.
Attendees also received a discount, giving us another reason to explore what The Daily Green had to offer. The dispensary has something for the broader public, too: from October 1 through the end of November, it’s running a giveaway in which one customer will win an entire pound of cannabis. Before departing for the farm, we were presented with a gift bag packed with products from several familiar names in the New York cannabis scene. Inside were a 1-gram vape from The Botanist, a 100 mg pack of STIIIZY Watermelon Wave gummies, a 1-gram joint from MAJOR, 3.5 grams of flower from ElectraLeaf, The Daily Green-branded rolling papers and a The Daily Green T-shirt.
It was a generous welcome and a good snapshot of the brands on New York shelves right now. But the real destination was still ahead of us.
PuffNRide: The Road to Hurley
The press group sets out across Hurley Grown.
Outside The Daily Green, our transportation arrived in the form of a PuffNRide van. And this was no ordinary ride.
Designed with cannabis enthusiasts in mind, the van had a rolling tray up front and ashtrays throughout. The smoke-friendly setup made for a relaxed trip north, turning the ride into part of the day rather than just a way to get from Manhattan to the farm. As the city gave way to the Hudson Valley, conversation turned to cannabis culture. One especially spirited debate centered on a familiar question among smokers: to grabba or not to grabba? For the uninitiated, grabba is loose tobacco leaf crumbled into a blunt or joint alongside the cannabis. People feel strongly about it either way, and the van was the perfect place for everyone to make their cas
