The Grand Forks Herald sat down with Faye Pederson of Faye’s Humble Roots for 5 Questions this week.
Q: How did you come to start your business?
A: Unfortunately, it was due to a family tragedy. We had lost a family member to suicide, and that’s a life-altering thing to happen to a small family. I went to my therapist to help me with that situation, and she suggested I try CBD, because pharmaceutical medicine did not work well for me. So, she recommended a company called Humble Roots that was out of Oregon, and it was an organic and affordable CBD oil that she trusted, so I started using it, and I was buying it for my friends and family because it works so well for me.
I had tried pharmaceuticals, and they just didn’t work for me. I was on Ambien for 14 years. That was too long to be on a sleeping medicine, and CBD was was the way that I was able to get off a pharmaceutical medicine, not that I’m against pharmaceuticals, because there’s definitely a reason for medication, but this was a natural way for me to heal.
It was right after the farm bill in 2018, and the owners of Humble Roots, a small, woman-owned business in Oregon, asked me if I wanted to be their first wholesaler, and I said, ‘Well, sure I can do that,’ because I work at a CPA firm and I’m here all the time I can do this from work. It went from a corner in my office to now renting a space in the building where I have my full-time job.
Q: What are some of the reasons people might buy CBD products?
A: They come in for mostly anxiety and pain, sleep issues and neuropathy. I have a lot of products that are THC-free, I have nurses, doctors and first responders that get randomly drug tested, so I have products available for for people that are drug tested. Then, for people that cannot get medical cannabis, I do have stronger CBD oils and lotions that help those customers, and it’s all affordable and organic.
Q: What kinds of different CBD products do you sell?
A: All of my oils are farmed to shelf, so they’re not processed in a factory, and I actually have an oil that’s locally made in the Red River Valley too. I sell oils, I sell smokable flower, I sell pain SAVs. I sell CBD water. I have three different kind of gummies to choose from; Broad Spectrum isolate, which means no THC, pure CBD, and then full spectrum. Full spectrum means that there’s 0.3% THC, which helps with pain relief.
Q: Do marijuana laws affect your business at all?
A: I am just registered as a business. It is not marijuana. It is made from hemp. The hemp plant and that was passed through the whole entire United States through the Farm Bill in 2018. My only requirement is that you’re 21 years old or older to shop at my store.
Q: Has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your business?
A: It did. I did do a lot of vendor shows through the Grand Forks/East Grand Forks vendor craft shows. They do a vendor show at the VFW in East Grand Forks. It used to be at the Columbia Mall, but all those shows got shut down, so that kind of limited my way of advertising. I also closed my store to the public, but I did utilize my website more, and then I did contact-free delivery, contact-free pickup and I did free shipping up until March of this year. No matter how much you spent, I would ship it to you for free.
