About Us
David Rankin
David Started growing and wholesaling hemp a year ago but has been a cannabis enthusiasts for over 2 decades. “I love sharing knowledge and info on all of our products because I use them on a daily basis. From the flower to the dog biscuits I believe we have something for everyone to benefit from.” David loves the outdoors, his 3 beagles, cat, and fiancé Kim. He enjoys fishing, hunting, whitewater kayaking and Cannabis.
Nic Blais
Nic is a multi faceted cannabis industry professional. From brewing and extracting to growing, building soil and making organic fertilizers he tries to understand everything surrounding this plant. Nic has been a cannabis consumer for over two decades and originally got into the industry in 2008. Laws were very different at that time and he ended up in legal troubles from 2011-2018. This forced him to put his passion for cannabis on pause.
During this time he went to school and completed the brewing and distilling science certificate program at South College. This led him to brewing beer for Crafty Bastard Brewery for several years. From the brewing world he met and became a part of an amazing community here in Knoxville.
In 2018 his legal troubles were over and he knew he would jump into the cannabis industry first chance he got. 8 months later Bluhen Botanicals opened and he was offered a job in the extraction lab from a friend at another brewery. He put his two weeks notice in the next morning with crafty and finally started his journey working with cannabis.
At Bluhen he learned about large scale ethanol extraction of hemp biomass. Using big tanks of ethanol and explosion proof machines his team would process hundreds of pounds of hemp every day. Learning how to use these machines and how to work safely with dangerous solvents was impeccable knowledge to gain. At the same time, working in this capacity was really driving the need to get away from working with the plant in this way.
A friend had mentioned the best of the best solventless concentrates coming from cannabis grown in living soil. After a little research on living soil he found natural farming and down the rabbit hole he went.
Less than a year later a blessing in disguise happened, he was laid off from Bluhen and the company shut down. With a google search for “hemp farms around knoxville” he found Rush Hemp Farms, a farm/lab with a focus on living soil and so much more. Over the next few years he grew his knowledge on soil building, growing, ethanol extraction, product development and all around how a cannabis business operates.
Looking to expand his knowledge further on natural farming and inspecting quality cannabis, in his free time he took an online courses from Trichome Institute and attended an in person course with Chris Trump. Summer of 2022 Nic and David started growing together and by spring 2023 were opening the first Appalachian Natural Cannabis Co. store front!