Building from the Ground Up with Bridgette Pinder of Grounded Gardens

Some people find cannabis. Others build their life around it.

Bridgette Pinder has done both.

In this episode, recorded live at Lucky Leaf Expo, we sit down with the founder of Grounded Gardens to talk about what it really takes to grow something from nothing in Minnesota’s cannabis space.

From purchasing her great grandparents’ land in Hutchinson to building a vertically integrated hemp operation, Bridgette shares the real story behind the work. The long days, the setbacks, and the constant need to adapt in an industry that changes by the week.

This conversation goes deeper than business. It’s about resilience, community, and choosing a different path when the odds aren’t in your favor.

We also get into:

•  Building a cannabis business rooted in family land 
•  The early days of hemp farming in Minnesota 
•  Navigating challenges like banking, websites, and regulation 
•  Why community has always been at the center of the movement 

Minnesota cannabis didn’t just appear. It was built by people like Bridgette, one step at a time.

Listen in and stay connected with the community.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

The thoughts, views, and opinions expressed on the Canada Connect Show belong solely to the individuals and do not reflect those of Canaconnect and its affiliates, sponsors, or partners. Can I Connect does not promote or facilitate any activity that violates state or federal regulations. Everything you hear here is strictly for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not legal advice. It is not financial guidance, and it's definitely not medical direction. Seriously, don't take our word for it. Even if someone on the mic sounds like they know what they're talking about, and they're probably crazy smart too. Regardless of how legit our guests may be, you should always do your own homework, consult with your attorney, and understand the risk you're taking before you do anything when it comes to cannabis. Our intention is to keep it real. If you've got a problem with anything we've said, take us to court.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

What haven't you done in this space for that?

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Right, right, exactly. Done it all. And we've done a lot together too.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

And we have. And thank you so much for leading the community throughout 2022 as we were working towards legalization and bringing people together on Wednesday nights. Yeah, it was fun. And even, you know, this hasn't been said out loud probably enough, but like Wednesday nights has always been the night that we get together. Yeah. It's funny how that has continued. Now at Giles. Now at Giles. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

It's pretty cool. I love it. I I I love being part of this family.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

So it is cool. And you know, I know there's there's always trouble in internally within. Right. However, we talk to so many people that are coming into Minnesota and they're excited about the market and they just feel like we have a great community here. We do. And it's true. We do.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

We really, really do. Yeah. And all families argue and fight, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:50

That's right. You've overcome so much. Like, how do you get how do you get going in the morning?

SPEAKER_01 1:58

What a question. Oh my goodness. How do I get going in the morning? I mean, because you've been doing this seven years since I've known you, but like 2018, we've been in the hemp market.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Eight years.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Yep, and I've been an activist for way longer than that. Um, I don't know, I'm really excited about every day. I'm excited about what's to come. And this space is so new that there's always something new going on. Or being in the being in vertical, we always have something new tomorrow. So it's not like you're sitting in the same thing all the time. I have a hard time staying stagnant. Yeah. I need to be in doing different stuff and like putting on events or you know, different things like that. So I'm always looking forward to what does today hold for me? Right. What am I gonna learn today? What's gonna come our way? What do we have to overcome today? Right? Like, and a lot of it is overcoming, yeah, right. And getting on to the next thing. Like, you know, how do we get through this? Oh, our website was shut down today. How did we get through that? Or bank was shut down today? How do we get, you know, all the things that have come with this space over the last you know, set seven years.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

And what inspired growing for you? Do you do you come from a family, like a farming background at some point? Because like you were a hemp farmer. Yep. You were you've been vertically integrated. That's always been a part of your business place. Yes. So for folks that don't know as much about you, yeah, talk about the the the family background that you have and and and Hutchinson as a place and and where does it all originate from?

SPEAKER_01 3:29

So I purchased my great-great-grandparents' homesteaded land. So yeah, so we have 18 acres. Um and I was born and raised in Hutchinson. I left when I was 18 because I was a drugie. So um I community was really hard for me because as a as being labeled as that, people don't want their kids hanging out with you. People, you know what I mean? So um I at 18, I was like, okay, I gotta get out of here or I'm gonna end up in prison. Right? So it was I recognized that and I moved to the cities right away. And um I always knew that cannabis was what helped me get through my day. Um, and so I knew that I needed to be in that space. So um my family is all still in Hutchinson, and I always said, whenever we legalize, I'll go back there.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

You did, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

I've said that my whole life. And so um we legalized in what, 23? Right. Um, and we've had our hemp farm out there since 2018.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Um, and so we've been growing hemp, like you said, since 2018, and we do it all by hand. It's a lot of hard work. Right. Um, and um we're that's why we're excited to get into the new space. But we'll always grow hemp. Okay. So um we're gonna always keep our hemp license. We'll grow our C B D and our C BG um so that we stay with all the cannabinoids that we can.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Yeah, and one thing that uh is really interesting is the land that you owned, not far from there, there was a hemp breaking plant. Yes. That was a that was a writ that was at one point purchased by 3M and it was shut down because hemp was only a wartime crop. It was not a peacetime crop, which to me is so perverse. Yes, it's so wrong for a healing plant to be labeled a wartime crop, and it really tells you everything that's wrong with government and war and uh the the fighting nature of our society. Yep. Talk a little bit about the historical the store the timeline and the history that you're aware of at dating back to a hundred years ago.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Yeah, so well during the war, uh farmers were required to grow 20% of their farm and hemp.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

Yes, okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Okay, so my family's land had to grow 20% of our farm and hemp. There is hemp ruterol everywhere at my farm.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Wow. And that's ruteralis. That's uh that's like the ditchweed or something like that. Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

All the all the old strains that have been out in the ditches that were grown for hemp. And yeah, so that's what crosses with my plants, right? So we have that, it's all over. My grandpa used to take us through the field, and he said, You pick that or we're going to jail. Wow. Yeah. So I grew up, we would, we would walk the farm because we were we'd pick rocks or we would corn to tassel. I grew up farming. Our family's been longtime farmers. Um, and so yeah, we would walk the fields and we would have to pick the hemp plants out because they were in fear of the government coming in and taking their farm because that was marijuana on their farm.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

Fast forward 2026, where is the city of Hutchinson at as far as cannabis and how friendly are they to adult use dispensaries? What have you been through? What are some of the successes? What are some of the still challenges? As you're very aspirational in your goal and for the consumption element of it to be all in one place. So talk to me about what you're building in Hutchinson modern day.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Okay. So we um we have our dispensary out there, we have our lounge out there, uh, we have our manufacturing all in the same building.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Um, we are going to start our grow, our outdoor grow in May. Okay. So Hutchinson has been very favorable. They're not putting a cap on, um, which, eh, you know. Sure. Um, but um, so Hutchinson has been great. Our county has been a little tougher.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

So we went for a conditional use permit last year and we got denied. So I got a grant from the USDA to put up 12 greenhouses on my farm. Oh. And I want to put up like a 5,000 square foot shed for our to put our um freezers in, our drawing rooms in, so we can create the space that we want to regulate our plants.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Um, and so they're is that McLeod? It's McLeod County.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

McLeod County, yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

So they denied us about a year ago. So I've hired some representation and we're gonna go back um and try try again.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

So that's where we're at right now, but we can grow outdoors. Okay. We're gonna get our fencing in, and come May, we should have plants in the ground. Okay. So our plan this year is to grow um two sets of autos and run them, um, uh freeze everything, wash everything, and make it into concentrates and vapes and edibles. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Now you're very knowledgeable about growing. For those who are less knowledgeable about the growing season, when do you typically want to see plants in the ground?

SPEAKER_01 8:13

In May. We start our plants indoors before though. You do? Yes. So for the last, since we've been growing hemp, we always start our plants um in late April. And then we like to get them out second week in May, but for the last three years, we've lost our plants.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

We've had horrible weather. So we've our plants have gotten drowned out for the last two years. Yeah. Because that's we've had so much water, so we've lost everything. Um, and then the third year or the year before those two, it was so dry, and we carry water into our farm. So we have 250 gallon tanks on our truck. Wow. And we go to the fire department and we fill up those tanks with water because we don't have a well. So without them letting us have a structure on our farm, we can't have a well. So I can't have well, I can't have sewer, but I have electricity.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

So we have to bring our all of our water in. Wow. So for that now going into the hemp or the cannabis side, we will get our RO water brought in from um our plant in town.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

So I won't go to the fire department and do like what we've done with our hemp.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

Um, we'll go and we're gonna we'll plant more than likely in pots on the ground, okay, right? So that we can control our soil. Yes. As you start getting into the soil of your ground, I mean, our soil, we're on our eighth year of organics. Well, but before that, for 50 years, it's been farmed the traditional farming way. Yeah. Right. So we've been working very hard and it's it's amazing when I go in there and I dig up my soil and I see worms. It literally makes me want to cry because I know that my soil is coming back to life. I hear the quail in my farm in my in my wheat field, and it it just brings you all this joy that all of this life is coming back. And it's only taken us eight years. So you can imagine what regenerative farming can do and what hemp and cannabis can do. Yeah, it's it's pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

It's so cool. There are there are very few bridges still in the Minnesota cannabis industry that have gone from hemp farmer to cannabis farmer that are unafraid to stay vertically integrated no matter how small or how big they are. Uh Ben Lipkin comes to mind. Dan. And, you know, I really enjoyed Brock, his right-hand man. And I know they made it, they made a special effort to work with you in Ground and Gardens to ensure that you had available products for your store to open. Yes. And granted, we are under limited supply right now. Grasslands is one of the better options out there. Um what are your hopes in 2026 as it relates to your dispensary and where you hope to be by the end of this year?

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Um, well, we hope to have our product. We're hoping by legacy that we can have a booth and we'll have our concentrates available from our first grow. So that's that's where we're fingers crossed, right? That's our that's our goal, yeah. Right? That we can share our first harvest with everybody. Wow. Yeah. So that's what we're going for right now. We're excited about that.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

I'll never forget your treats at 2019 Legacy.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Legacy, yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

And I may or may not have gotten high off the CBD that night.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Well, you know, our our C B D has always had that little bit of TAC in it, right? You know, so you know we're that full spectrum. So, you know, if we don't if we don't know it, we don't grow it, right? So, like, so we never got into the Delta 8 phase. You never got into the never sold Delta 8, we never did any of that. Like we grow what we can or we sell what we can grow.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Yeah, we're we're we want you to think of us as the farmers market model, right? We we grow it and then we sell it. And we have a bunch of other amazing farmers that um around us that we've helped kind of get their micro licenses and things like that. Yeah, so they'll grow for us, and then we have our manufacturing, so we'll be able to use that. And so it's just an exciting time right now with community and all these new people that have come in the space. Like I see all these new faces all the time. I'm like, wow, there's so many new people from what we've seen over the last eight years.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

There's new people, but also with respect to to what you do and who you work with, like like seeing Juan yesterday at the show. Like I remember pandemic, uh, meeting Juan in in Uptown before we headed up to another uh counterparts uh farm. And like talk about some of the strength and support system that you've had throughout the trials and tribulations as you've been a cannabis entrepreneur for the last eight years.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Well, yeah, if we didn't have our community, we wouldn't have anything. I mean, my teen is so strong, and the people that I have around me are so amazing that they've lifted me up to where I am. I wouldn't be able to do any of this that I do without these people behind me, and none of us would.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

It does seem like for both of us, it is a superpower to have good people around us. Yes, yes, and and at times it's challenging to to it and it does take it does take some time to weed out.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Yeah, it does. It definitely does. And it's a hard space, and I love people, right? I I love people, I love giving to people, I love helping people, and sometimes I give too much, right? And and you learn that, and and so sometimes you have to learn to be a little more closed off than you want to be, right? Which which isn't it isn't fun because it's not who you are as a person, right? So um it's I feel I've kind of been away from the space for a year or so. So it feels good to be back in the space again. And I mean, we've been doing our remodel and getting our license and everything. So we've been just so busy that I haven't even been able to do things. But now with our license, I'm excited that you know, for all the events to come now.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

Well, and on that note, I I noticed that you're very much running your same playbook. Like you've you've you've restarted events out in Hutchinson, not new events, events that you know that work. Yep. Uh Puff and Paint as an example. Like what are some other great uh event models or concepts that you've crafted? I mean, you've always been very helpful in bringing the community together, but but what's working for you right now?

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Uh yeah, definitely bringing community together, creating a safe space for community. That's always been my goal, right? Safe space for our community because I didn't have that. Okay. So I always want to give people what I didn't have. I never had a community because I was this person that used cannabis. You were othered. I was othered, right? And so I moved to the cities where there wasn't community, where people didn't know what I was doing. And so to be able to come in and create community here has been so amazing.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

Cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you're doing it back in your hometown. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

And so, and so we're doing like so um some of the classes we just did a um ceramic pipe making class.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Yeah, that's what I saw. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

So that was really fun. We have a a roach clip making class coming up. We can come in and make your own roach clip, and we're doing puff and paints, and and we're doing, we're gonna start doing like seed swap nights. Cool. People can come in so we have breeders and so people can meet each other, right? We're in these small communities, we've been shunned and pushed aside for so long that I think it's important for the communities to now be able to meet each other, not just in the cities, no, but these small towns can now enjoy what all the fun that we have in the cities, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:12

I totally agree. That's that's something that uh I made a conscious decision to say, okay, we're gonna go to Braiderd. Yeah. And we're gonna start developing that niche because that market is underserved with cannabis opportunities, cannabis events and opportunities. Yeah. Um, I know we're getting into the community aspect, and I'm excited to talk to you about more events coming up in 2026, but like, where is the store in Hutchinson? If folks want to come to your store, where where are you?

SPEAKER_01 15:40

So we're right on Main Street. Our address is 45 Main Street North. Um, we uh bought the old gold coin building. It was a um Chinese restaurant for years and years. Um, said to be set in prohibition. Lots of things went on in this place, I've been told. I don't know. I was never there. So um, but yeah, it's really cool that um I was able to get my own space and build it out how I wanted. I rented so many spaces and I put so much money into other people's spaces.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

Isn't that hard?

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Yeah. And then the buildings sell and this happens. And so I was like, look, I need if I there's all the things we need. You need safe rooms, you need, I mean, all the things that you need. Yeah, the money that you have to put into that, I can't imagine putting all that into somebody else's space.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

I'm so happy that you have your own building.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Me too. So that was that was a blessing. So I was really lucky and blessed to get that. And yeah, it's it's super exciting for what we can do, how we can collab with other companies. Um, Island Pezzi is gonna come out uh once a month and do some events with us. Great. We're collabing with um our neighbor, Olita Sips, they're gonna come over and we're gonna do game nights. Oh yeah. So yeah, we're really trying to get more involved in the community.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

I mean street marketing. You you guys gotta scratch each other's backs and and build trust and community.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Yeah, we're part of our chamber of commerce. We love our chamber. We yeah, so it's really nice to be in my community again. Yeah. And be welcomed into my community as a cannabis user and not be scared to be a cannabis user.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Lazy, lazy. Yeah. Uh grounded gardens is online.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Yes, routed gardens is online.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

Where can where can folks find you online?

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Groundedgardensmn.com.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

Cool. That's groundedgardensmn.com. Uh dispensaries are open. Go and visit them in Hutchinson. Bridget is has always been a leader in this community. Thank you so much for your support. It was great to sit down with you. I wish you all the success this year. Good luck with the growth. Thank you. And let's catch up again in a few months.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Let's do that.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

It was great. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 17:38

Good to see you.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Thank you.