A grower-owned weed store
Green Union is owned and run by the people who grow the flower. The farm is upstairs. There are not many stores like that, in Vermont or anywhere.
Grown right upstairs
Our farm, First Chair Farms, is in the same building as the store. The flower is grown upstairs, then comes down to be dried, cured and trimmed, and walks over to the counter. It never leaves the building until you carry it out the front door. No truck, no warehouse, no distributor, no sitting on a shelf for months. You are buying it from the people who grew it, a few feet from where it grew.
Growers on the floor
The people behind the counter are the people in the grow room. They know how every strain was grown, how it smokes, and what it is good for, because they grew it and they use it. Tell them what you like, or what you are curious about, and they will walk you through the options without the sales pitch. First time in a dispensary? Say so. You will get straight answers and a good recommendation.
Small farms only. No warehouse weed.
We do not try to carry everything. We carry a small, hand-picked selection from other Vermont growers and makers, chosen by people who grow for a living and know what good flower looks like. We work exclusively with Tier 1 growers, the smallest cultivation license Vermont issues, with one exception for an old-school legacy grower we have been friends with for years. Tier 1 means real small farms, run by the people who own them, growing in small rooms and small fields where every plant gets looked at.
We are committed to those growers and we do not stock the big-warehouse brands. That is a choice. It means a shorter menu than some stores, and it means everything on it is something we would smoke ourselves. What we do not carry: boof.
The room has some history
The store is in the carriage house next to the Salt Ash Inn, a 200-year-old inn at the corner of Route 100 and 100A in Plymouth Union. The carriage house was built in the 1990s and used to be part of the inn. Before it was a store it was the green room for the music events we ran here, so a lot of bands have hung out in this space. It was also the drop-off spot for the very first Vermont Headies, Vermont's own version of a Cannabis Cup back in the day. Growers from all over the state brought their flower and products here on a random Sunday afternoon, everybody hung out, and a lot of good friendships started in this room.
Not like every other dispensary
Most dispensaries are retail operations that buy from whoever supplies them. We are a farm with a store attached, between Okemo and Killington. Come in, talk to us, and see the difference.
