On their official Facebook page, Blue Mountain Growers describes their business as: “Growing optimized genetics for the adult-use cannabis industry and honeybees.” Speak to the two partners in the recently state-approved and licensed microbusiness and you’ll get a sense that one of the things they’re all about is history, and that history’s appeal to connoisseurs.

For Spencer Sutton, head grower and partner, history is about genetics. Sutton also runs Catskill Mountain Kush, a legacy brand through which he’s been collecting genetics since the ’80s. Sutton is more than an enthusiast, he’s an expert. And his expertise extends to understanding how some cannabis varieties brought here from around the world can survive and thrive in Saugerties.

“There are Afghani varieties that were growing here in the ’50s and ’60s,” Sutton said. “And soldiers coming home from Vietnam brought stuff here that do really well in the Hudson Valley. There are just some varieties that due to climate, or breeding, or New York weather, do really well. Our Catskill Mountains kind of mimic the Hindu (Kush) Mountains.”

That’s certainly been the case on the Blue Mountain Growers property, which has been in chief operating officer and partner Gary Myer’s family for well over a century. Over the decades, the land has been used to grow many different things, and most recently served as a Christmas tree farm run by Myer’s father.

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