CADIZ — A story that began as a search for specialty crops in the area and one that may eventually benefit from the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program led to the product of hemp.

Not many of those specialty crops are found in the local area. They include certain fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, herbs and spices, honey, floriculture and nursery crops, according to Meghan Harshbarger, media outreach specialist for the Ohio Department of Agriculture.

Hemp is not considered a specialty crop, and some may be surprised at how widespread its uses really are.

Isaac Wiegmann and his wife, Holly, own and operate the Next 7 Organic Farm along Brushy Fork Road in Cadiz, where they’ve been farming together for more than 10 years. Isaac was raised in the greenhouse and nursery business under the wings of his father and grandfather, who own farms in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The Cadiz farm comes in especially handy, as it also operates as a processing plant for hemp – something that is hard to find in the region.

Ohio law requires farmers to plant at least ¼ of an acre and 1,000 hemp plants. For indoor growing, it requires 1,000 square feet and 1,000 plants.

“We’ve been around plants and growing our whole lives,” Isaac said of his upbringing.

Hemp isn’t the only product grown at the Cadiz site, as their website displays a whole list of items including beef, pork, chicken, eggs and numerous vegetables.

“We run diversified, certified organic vegetable production out here for fresh market sales,” he said, with The Public Market in Wheeling as one of their retailers.

They also grow for the Community Supported Agriculture, a food subscription delivery box program.

“And it’s nice selling what’s coming off of our farm close to home in Wheeling,” he said. “We’ve been pursuing the vegetables for years now and have a pretty good system figured out.”

They’re up to 5 acres when fully planted, which keeps them busy.

But why hemp?

Some years ago, Isaac came across a farmer who was looking for advice on growing hemp. Based on his knowledge of farming dating back to his childhood, he eventually was hired to help and the next two years became an educational journey. He is now in his third year growing hemp and is only getting started.

Isaac said the main focus on most of the legal hemp production going on now is for cannabidiol – or CBD – production, which is a botanical oil used to make various wellness products. He also called it an amazing fiber plant but said there are many other uses as well.

“It’s one of the oldest cultivated fiber plants in the world,” he said. “So it goes into all sorts of textiles.”

He cited clothing and rope as only a few examples.

“The seed is edible and nutritious to be used in animal feed and human food and all sorts of edible potentials there,” he added. “And it’s also a great plant for building biomass. It produces so much plant growth. It’s one of the fastest-growing plants that if you grow it as a manure crop, it produces a huge amount of organic matter that you can then turn back into the soil and build soils.”

Hemp also acts as a bio-remediator, helping to pull toxins out of the ground and “then you can clean the soil with it essentially.”

Isaac said profitability can be iffy, especially if hemp is not grown properly and the Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which is the chemical that causes the high in marijuana, isn’t below legal standards.

“You know, it is and it isn’t,” he began regarding profitability. “Some people truly luck out or have the right niche or some farms can be overnight successes once they have a product. But that’s really not the case in general. It’s really a struggle to make any money with hemp in general. It’s a whole upward battle and a new marketplace. With it not being on store shelves for the last 70 years, people are kind of uninformed about why they might be using a hemp product or they’re not necessarily seeking it out.”

The game-changer, though, is getting the right level of THC, as the law states that no more than 0.3 percent can be found in the hemp plant or the state could come in and force the plants to be destroyed.

“And it happens to a fair amount of growers” that struggle to meet that threshold, he said. “Huge losses. People have lost everything because of hot testing.”

The best strategy, he said, is to select proven genetics from reliable sources in the beginning.

“Raising the plant well and keeping it away from environmental stresses” is another tactic he cites, along with having the correct balance in water level when growing. The type of soil is another important factor, as well as whether the ground has been cultivated or properly prepared.

“It can be an economical cash crop for us,” Isaac said. “It’s also something that we really believe in. Educating our community and making it more accessible to people is all part of our goals and helping other farmers and making genetics available to them.”

Isaac furthers his research by collecting genetic samples from around the world to grow, lab test and and see “what these different cultivars from different origins present and looking for some really nice stable plant that can be grown out and offer farmers a selection.”