Turning Over A New Leaf With Community In Mind
Photos + Story by Cliff Standard Co.
In the sunlit fields of Brownwood, Texas, something extraordinary was taking root. Two acres of hunting land had been cleared. The foundation was laid and water and electricity were connected. From the ground up, a large greenhouse and adjoining facility were erected. And if you were to venture out among this two-acre field of crop, you would find Eddie and Martha tending to their newfound passion: The hemp flower.
Admittedly, they had little experience in farming, let alone building a brand and growing a business. “Initially, we just wanted to sell the flower when it was ready,” Eddie said. Both had worked as public servants in both the military and education for most of their careers. “We had no idea about LLCs and all that stuff,” he said with a laugh. “It was like drinking from a firehose.”
That firehose turned all the way on when they entered their first competition in 2020. With their very first harvest complete, they entered the Taste of Texas Hemp Cup and won Best Flower in the state of Texas. By the end of the competition, they had won six of the nine categories. After that, Oak Cliff Cultivators needed no introduction; people began to seek them out and it’s been growing rapidly ever since. “It was a very cool introduction to the community,” he said.
Some might call it an overnight success; in reality, Eddie and Martha had put everything, including their life savings, on the line. Their journey into the hemp market began a few years earlier while Eddie was still working with FEMA down in Austin. He spent 15 years working on emergency and disaster medical response and had developed a network there. He eventually met a lobbyist who was working on the Texas Adoption of the 2018 Federal Farm Bill. This federal bill legalized the industrial production of hemp nationwide.
One day, this lobbyist asked Eddie for some insight into how federal money was used when there were natural disasters. “There were some questions about how insurance worked for farmers and I was able to talk through it with him,” he said. “But the whole time, I was amazed to learn that Texas was heading in this direction with hemp.”
“We didn’t want to give up, so we cashed out of our retirement funds and decided to bet on ourselves.”
He came home and shared the news with Martha, and she could immediately see his excitement. She had recently left a 15-year career in education to start a travel agency, which saw quick success (and was even featured in Entrepreneur Magazine). “We talked and agreed that he should pursue this while I kept building this travel agency,” she said. So, on March 6, 2020, Eddie received his last paycheck and began building Oak Cliff Cultivators.
Of course, we all know what happened next. The pandemic began and travel completely shut down. Suddenly, both Martha and Eddie were without a regular paycheck and there were bills to pay and mouths to feed. “It was really tough…but we had to just figure it out,” she said. They faced a difficult decision: Should they go back to their original jobs or try to save their newfound dream? “We didn’t want to give up,” Martha said. “So we cashed out of our retirement funds and decided to bet on ourselves.”
Since then, Oak Cliff Cultivators has been a prominent pioneer in the space. But there have been other challenges to overcome along the way too. Both Eddie and Martha, for instance, have experienced a love-hate relationship with the cannabis plant throughout their lives. Eddie’s father was incarcerated for marijuana distribution when he was still a kid. This left his mom to raise Eddie and his brother on her own, so he experienced the worst consequences of cannabis as his family struggled.
The plant really became a symbol of that pain and turmoil for Eddie for many years. “They took everything from us–the house, cars, and it really damaged our family,” he said. So when Eddie told his mom he was planning to start Oak Cliff Cultivators, she was really concerned. “She really didn’t want anything to do with it,” he said. But then she continued to talk with Eddie about it. And she learned that he was doing things the right way: legally. She saw how people were benefiting from it and how it could be used for good, to help people.
“More than anything, we are here to educate and influence our community in a positive way.”
Eddie was redeeming the plant and, to some extent, the legacy of his family. His mom was convinced. “She's now on board” he said with a smile. “She goes to our farm, she trims, and she's an integral part of the process.”
Martha also developed a negative association with the plant as a child. Her father struggled with alcoholism, which led to a variety of problems at home. It’s common for all of us to associate particular memories with sounds and even smells. For Martha, the smell of marijuana was closely linked to this time in her life. “I did not want that in my life,” she said. “Looking back, I see that it wasn’t the marijuana that caused the issues, it was really the circumstances. But it was still associated with that time in my memory.”
When Martha became an educator, she steered clear of cannabis knowing she could be randomly drug tested. For many years after that, she participated in Red Ribbon Week each October, encouraging kids to stay away from drugs. “I was preaching to them about the drug war and I really meant it too,” she said.
Fast forward a few years, and Martha was serving in Denton as an assistant principal. She began getting migraines and after a while, noticed they were happening more frequently. “I thought it was just the stress of the job and since school needed me, I tried to power through it,” she said. This only made matters worse, as her health issues only increased. Eventually, Eddie encouraged Martha to take a step back. “So I did; I really started to try and take care of myself too,” she said.
Martha went to see a doctor who prescribed her a variety of different medicines. They performed test after test to try and figure out what was causing her problems; eventually, they determined that she was going through early perimenopause. “I had like six prescriptions I was supposed to be taking, and I hated how they were affecting me,” she said.
As a sort of last resort, Martha reluctantly turned to CBD and began to research it heavily. She found a product to test out and, to her surprise, it brought almost immediate relief. “I was having three to four migraines a week,” she said. “And then it became like three a week, two a week, one a week to where I went three years without a migraine.” She continued to explore the benefits of this product and learned that it was also effective at treating insomnia, mood regulation, and depression. “The sleep regulation was a game-changer for me,” she said.
Martha became a believer in the power of hemp through her own experience with it; however, she knew there was still a stigma, especially for moms using CBD products. So ever since Oak Cliff Cultivators started, Martha has channeled her passion for education into helping people understand the product, outside of its prevailing stigma. “Especially for moms, I want them to know it’s okay to use the product,” she said. “You won’t become a bad mom and you won’t lose yourself; in fact, you may find that it helps you to become an even better mom,” she said. That was certainly true for her. With the relief she felt from her migraines and other health issues, she was more present at home and able to do more with her kids.
But she admits, it’s an ongoing battle. “The biggest hindrance people have is the social stigma,” she said. They ask: How do I talk to my kids about it? And how do I explain it to my family and friends? Through regular programming, Martha is initiating these conversations and holding a safe space for them to happen. She and Eddie are also extremely active in the community through volunteering and regular events. “We are counteracting the ‘lazy’ stigma that is sometimes associated with the plant.”
In 2021, less than a year into business, Eddie and Martha were invited by their friend Miguel to do a pop-up at Tyler Station. After a few more visits and pop-ups around the building, they both began to feel at home. “Everybody was welcoming,” Eddie said. “I mean, we never felt like we were strangers. We’re also two minutes from our house and from our kids' school.”
Eddie recalls seeing Tyler Station as a kid when it was vacant and unused. “Man, I remember throwing bottles at this building,” he said with a laugh. “We use to catch the train here…there was nothing good happening around here.” So he’s been happy to not only see it thriving but also to be a part of the community that now calls it home.
Martha still remembers the first conversation she had with the building owner, Monte Anderson. He cut right to the chase, asking point blank: What's gonna set you apart from all the other CBD stores? “I thought it was a really great question,” she said. “It showed me he cared and it really challenged Eddie and I to define our business.”
Today, Oak Cliff Cultivators continues to set itself apart. As a true farm-to-table business, they create high-quality, small-batch products (like their new seltzer that just hit the shelves!). “More than anything, we are here to educate and influence our community in a positive way.”
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