BUCKHANNON, W.Va. — Most mornings in the spring of 2019, sisters Riley and Macie Queen got up before daybreak and drove out to their family’s hemp farm in central West Virginia with their childhood friend Cayla Collett. After hours spent trimming and tending hundreds of plants with loving precision, they’d all ride together to class at the local college, hemp leaves still stuck in their hair.
“We just had to tell our professors, like, look, we’re not smoking before we get to class,” Riley Queen said. “But we are working.”
Their multitasking has paid off. Run by three generations of women from the Queen family, Moon Flower Hemp is approaching its third growing season. The company, which has four full-time and six part-time employees, has sold to customers in every state, placed products in nearly 30 stores, created more than two dozen new items, and bought space for a future bricks-and-mortar retail location in one of West Virginia’s most vibrant towns. All this, despite a fire in November 2020 that destroyed $60,000 worth of inventory and supplies and caused $200,000 worth of damage to the building, as well as a pandemic that closed thousands of small businesses nationwide.
The company has had 400 percent growth since its first year, Riley Queen said [Read More @ The Washington Post]
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