Wendy Fillippazzo and Melissa Cox are moms, friends, and two women in cannabis, making up the 70%-female team at High West Farms. How do they succeed in a predominantly male field like cannabis? These two women lean on a combination of guts, perseverance, and good old-fashioned hard work.
“I love coming to work,” said Cox, Manager in the Trim Room. “I get up every morning excited. I pick up all the trimmers — I drive them to work!”
It’s that sort of dedication to the Farm that Fillippazzo, Grower, echoes in her sentiments. “It’s my dream where I work right now,” she said. “I think we work with the best people, this job is my heart and soul.”
It’s clear both of them love their jobs, and they value each other as teammates. The all-female Trim team was recruited and is led by Cox, who got her start at another small cannabis facility prior to moving to High West Farms in 2022.
Speaking about Cox, Fillippazzo notes, “Most trimmers do 1.5-2 pounds [of cannabis flower] a day. Cox built her whole team, and each of them trims six to eight pounds a day. They can finish a full 115-plus pound harvest in a matter of days.”
Beginning as a horticulturist in a large facility growing tomatoes and cucumbers, it didn’t take Fillippazzo long to realize growing cannabis was her passion. She began work at a large national dispensary chain and then moved to High West Farms in September of 2022.
Beginning in the office, Fillippazzo eventually migrated to the cultivation team. She credits Head Cultivator, Will Palencia, with her success and attributes the faith he had in her catalyst to her job position.
“Will taught me a lot of stuff,” she said. “Will put us women here, he believes in us.”
When asked if Fillippazzo and Cox have faced any challenges as women in the cannabis field, they both noted that they overcame hurdles with a determination to prove they can do anything a man can do.
Cox chuckled as she recalled a time someone thought moving a pot was going to be too heavy for her. “I was like ‘watch me,’” she said, laughing.
As a grower, Fillippazzo has spoken up for what she believes are best practices but has been met with pushback by some male colleagues.
“It’s hard to tell other growers anything — so many are set in their ways,” she explained. “But then you bring a woman grower to a male grower and it is not the easiest! Even if you know you’re right, it seems difficult to accept it coming from a woman.”
Fillippazzo believes men and women can be equally good growers, and Cox confirms saying, “I work just as hard as anyone else.”
Working hard is exactly what the 22-female and nine-male teams at High West Farms do: they manufacture over 10,000 pre-rolls a day, utilizing only full flower that Cox and her team trim on-site. The Farm’s pre-roll brand, Simply Twisted, produces a diamond-infused variety that’s 100% flower, without the use of shake or trim.
So, do great products begin with a great grower or great genetics?
“Both! Because a good grower will pick good genetics,” said Fillippazzo. “We set high standards for all our products.”
When picking genetics for the farm, Fillippazzo relies on a mix of environmental and sale-ability aspects, telling me, “The most important factor is how it will grow in our facility, in our summer and winter.”
In fact, the Farm has cycled through over 100 genetics that didn’t work in their environment. The ability of a certain strain to be consumer-sellable is also a factor, although Fillippazzo said she wishes it were easier for small operations like High West Farms to land on dispensary shelves. “It’s a lot of steps to get into a dispensary- we keep working hard to get our products out there.”
As a grower at High West Farms, Fillippazzo has leaned on her experience and prefers using a coco medium because nutrients are better managed.
“Coco is the closest you can get to hydroponic, there’s no nutrients in it so I can control the different stages of the plant better,” she added. “I also prefer to grow in a greenhouse instead of indoors, I like natural products and no pesticides. I think the cannabis at our facility is as close to organic as you can get.”
Nestled in Dragoon, Arizona, High West Farms is a cannabis farm dedicated to sustainability and organic practices. Utilizing organic pesticides and nutrients, harvesting water drain-off, and solar power are a few of their commitments to environmental sustainability.
The farm houses nine greenhouses and produces flower and concentrates for a variety of brands available at dispensaries across Arizona. In addition to the pre-roll brand Simply Twisted (available at Desert Bloom and SAINTS Dispensary in Tucson), High West Farms produces a higher-tier product labeled Crescendo Cannabis, available in 1/8th’s only at SAINTS Dispensary.
Leaning on their determination, Fillippazzo and the whole High West Farms team hope their products land on more dispensary shelves soon.
“We’re a mom-and-pop farm, we’re dedicated to putting the best flower out there,” she said. “Put a group of women on something, they will get it done.”
For more information, visit highwestfarms.com and follow High West Farms on Instagram and Facebook.
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