Shortly after I reviewed the strain Agent Orange, grown by Bondi Farms (pronounced Bon-Dye), I reached out to them to see if I could get a tour of their facilities.

They were gracious enough to allow myself along with two other guests for a tour, with the great weekend weather in tow we made the trek to Longview and it’s a lot closer than I originally thought.

I met with one of the owners Greg, who has a background in business, and Mo, the head grower, who used to grow medically.

Bondi Farms is named after a famous beach in Australia, and one of the first things you’ll notice is their label, it’s so inviting! I don’t know if it’s the bright colors, or the image of an ocean landscape, but it definitely calls out to me and makes me happy and relaxed (so does their weed).

Bondi Farms is a Tier 3 recreational grower/processor here in Washington. For those who don’t know what Tier 1, 2, or 3 means you can refer to this handy link from the LCB, but Tier 3 means “you can produce cannabis for sale at wholesale to cannabis processor licensees and to other cannabis producer licensees.

Tier 3 allows for 10,000 sq ft to 30,000 sq ft of dedicated plant canopy”, I think Bondi Farms is about 14,000 square feet…I think?

The building itself is 2 stories with lots of room to grow, so far out of the 15 or so rooms they only have about 5 occupied. Greg made it clear to me that they’re starting off slow, so that they don’t bite off more than they can chew. If memory serves they had a pretty big vegetation room, 2 (maybe 3) flowering rooms, a clone room, drying and storage room, and a room where they roll their joints and package weed for deliveries.

I’ve only been to 2 growers here in Washington and that’s including the Bondi visit, but from what I saw their space was nice and open and VERY clean, something Greg said inspectors have complimented them on. Did I mention how great it smelled in there? I wish I could package up the scent and sniff it when I’m stressed.

Bondi Farms received their license in Sep/Oct, they harvested in December, and started selling in stores in January. When I asked if they avoided any problems by starting later, they couldn’t think of any, but they have had some difficulties getting into stores.

I wonder if that’s something other later starters are facing versus the growers who were here from the start? Bondi Farms is working hard to get their name out there, they’re doing as much marketing as possible, and going to as many events as they can. Greg himself drives to a lot of the stores to make contacts with the retail stores in Washington and to deliver the goods.

They’d like to get to know other growers in the community, my friend who tagged along had asked if they’d be open to trading strains with other growers, Mo told us that he’d be open to sharing, but may be more protective if the strain’s unique.

In my opinion, it would be cool for growers to trade strains if they’re comfortable, who knows what strains they themselves could create? I’m not that knowledgable on growing, and aside from what’s your process, or what lights do you use, I don’t know what to ask. I brought along a friend who grows on the medical side so she can help with certain questions, and help dumb it down for me to understand.

According to her Bondi uses a soil based medium and general hydroponic nutrients with their plants, they use gavitas lights that are “pretty awesome”. They do things the standard way that most growers do. They have a lot of smaller plants rather than larger that are trained to spread out.

When it’s time to harvest they dry and cure for 2 weeks.

As of right now Bondi is focusing on bud and prerolls, we may see edibles in the future along with some CBD strains too. All their pre-rolls are all-bud joints are ground up in a processor and then rolled up using Raw Cones (I want to try). 

Bondi Farms has 5 strains available in stores now, with MANY more in the future. As of right now I know they have a Juicy Fruit and Purple Trainwreck to possibly come. You can find Agent Orange (my review w/ pics), Blue Hawaiian (I want to try), Girl Scout Cookies, Granddaddy Purp, and Super Silver Lemon Haze in many of these stores: High End Market Place here in Vancouver, Lucid in Lacey, Crockpot in Port Orchard, Issaquah Cannabis Company in Issaquah, Ocean Greens in Seattle, Purple Haze in Everett, Freedom Market in both Kelso & Longview locations, Herbal Nation in Bothell, Bud Commander in Tumwater, and Higher Leaf in Kirkland (make sure you call/check out their menus to make sure strains are in stock).

One of the things I learned, that was actually surprising was when Greg told me that some stores prefer that they abbreviate or change the names on a couple of their strains, mainly Agent Orange and Girl Scout Cookies.

Some ex military don’t take too kindly to the name “Agent Orange, and others aren’t too fond of “Girl Scout Cookies” being the official name of that strain. With all the progress made, I didn’t think strain names would be that big a deal… I mean, the thought never occurred to me… EVER!

Whether I think it’s silly for people to scoff at strain names, I think it’s very cool that Bondi Farms caters to the consumers wants/needs. Which is a big thing to them, everything is for the consumer! They strive to make sure they’re giving us the freshest weed possible, they store their weed in the dark (to protect potency) in air tight containers, and when they receive an order they filter through their buds to make sure the nugs look quality, then package them fresh before they hit the shelves.

One of the things I love about Bondi Farms is that they use the plastic bottles and plastic joint containers instead of plastic/resealable bags.

They do this to protect the product and to make it more visible. I understand that some companies prefer the plastic bags because of cost, and that you may not be able to get a decent sized label on there, but I just prefer the bottles.

I feel like it keeps the product fresher, and it does in fact protect the bud. Greg told me that in the future when they start packaging higher quantities that those would most likely be stored in glass containers.

I’m not sure how other growers/processors package their product when shipping/delivering to the retail locations, but Bondi uses cardboard carriers with slots that hold each container to ensure even safer delivery. Since all the recreational weed out there is tracked through the LCB, I thought it was VERY cool that Bondi’s barcodes are created specific to each store they’re sold at.

So what are some of Bondi’s goals?

A focus on repeat business with consistency, a focus on quality and on fairly priced, GOOD weed to us. They understand that people smoke to chill out and they’re doing their best to make sure they’re helping us escape that stress. These are all things I can appreciate and while meeting with Greg and Mo, listening to what they had to say, I didn’t think it was bullshit. So, what are you waiting for? Get your Bondi on.

Bondi Farms Social Media:

Facebook

Twitter: @bondifarms

IG: @bondifarms

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