There were few scenarios more fitting for the dish. Several of my college friends were in town visiting Jon and I to meet our four-month-old baby, and we were enjoying brunch at The Stanley. We had ordered, among many other things, hemp-smoked chicken nuggets. Biting into it tasted as though I was downing a munchies-induced Happy Meal in a car laden with weed.

Hemp is a subspecies of Cannabis, but without THC, the compound found in marijuana that makes you feel high. Since its production was legalized several years ago, chefs and farmers have been looking for ways to incorporate the plant.

Nicole Burnette and Gail Syfert, owners of Queen Hemp Company, received their license to grow hemp in January 2018. Queen Hemp Company was born out of Burnette’s Rogue Farms Urban Hydroponics, which sold specialty lettuces and microgreens. That experience made the transition to hemp a natural one, as Burnette had spent six years using indoor growing methods with Rogue Farms.

“When the opportunity came on to get my license for industrial hemp, it was a layer on to what I was already doing,” she says.

Burnette is not alone in making the transition to hemp. North Carolina has long been the top grower of tobacco in the United States. As tobacco decreased in popularity, however, those farmers have had to look elsewhere to survive. The hemp boom has provided an answer for many of them.

Inside the company’s headquarters, a warehouse fitted with growing lights and shelves teeming with the five-leafed plants, you’ll find several varietals of hemp in production. Each of them has slightly different tastes, though all fall under the regulation of having less than 0.3 percent THC content. Marijuana, on the other hand, has a THC level of at least 15 percent. The plants are regularly tested by a third party.

Queen Hemp Company sells their CBD oils, edibles, pet treats, and topicals throughout Charlotte. The leaves are also provided to area restaurants, such as The Stanley, through Freshlist.

“To me it’s not just about CBD or the plant as a marketing piece or any of that,” Burnette says. “There really is value to it from all aspects, and the closer you can get to the earth, the closer you get to the plant itself — the whole plant — using it that way just makes sense. A lot of farmers discard the rest of it and there’s good nutritional value in the plant.”

Chef Clark Barlowe, who owned Heirloom Restaurant until selling it late last year, held a hemp dinner shortly after it became legal to do so, and has been using the plant since. According to Barlowe, there’s a bit of a gray area, as the only regulation set by the FDA is that when cooking with the extract, it must be full spectrum, or made using the entire plant — otherwise, it’s considered an unregistered food supplement. When he cooks with it, he most often uses it in plant form.

“The way I think about it is it’s an herb, like it’s just like oregano or sage or anything else, so there’s a lot of different things you can do with it,” he says.

He’s made a hemp gremolata using the plant in place of parsley, as well as a hemp version of cream of spinach bisque. Barlowe will be taking part in the Queen City Cannabis Cup at Norfolk Hall on Feb. 8. On Feb. 15, he’ll be collaborating with Queen Hemp Company to host a dinner inside of their grow room while the plants are in bloom. (See that menu here.)

“I’ve always joked that I like doing the hemp dinners because the guests at the hemp dinners are the most relaxed and easy guests that I deal with at any dinner,” he says. “It probably has a little bit do with [the hemp] and maybe it’s a little bit placebo, but at the end of the day, if it’s working and it’s relaxing people, whether it’s placebo or there’s something that’s actually chemically active, I’m happy to have it either way.”

Freshlist, a company that connects restaurants with farmers, added Queen Hemp Company leaves to their offerings in late 2018. When they deliver to a restaurant, they include copies of Queen Hemp Company’s permits and test results showing the THC levels in the plants. And restaurants are slowly figuring out how to incorporate it onto their menus.

“The supply is building, now we’re going to have to create markets,” Freshlist owner Jesse Leadbetter says. “People are going to have to understand how to use it.”

Verica’s play on chicken nuggets shows how chefs can have fun with the dish, while Barlowe’s tasting menus show its versatility. Kel Minton at Soul Gastrolounge, Tattoo, and KiKi Bistro has been experimenting with hemp in cocktails. As chefs learn to use it, expect to see more of the ingredient on menus — as more than just a novelty, eye-catching item.

“It’s definitely getting out there because it’s just an herb,” Barlowe says. “And so for any of us to ignore a brand new ingredient for our pantry, I don’t see anybody doing that.” —Kristen Wile

 

 

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