Ginger LeafAlberta has a bit of a cowboy reputation. If you’ve never been, you really ought to visit this rugged province, a landscape as diverse as its people, including craft cannabis culinary creator/agricultural enthusiast Redawna Kalynchuk. Her Twitter bio may read “Artisan Cannabis Edibles Confectioner moving from legacy to legal,” but her recent attachment to North 40 Cannabis Co vaults her into a major player and producer on the edibles front. Her unconventional approach to reaching these new heights sparked a conversation or two about women in weed, and how she found her footing in this forest of bros.
Speaking from her sprawling acreage in rural Alberta, Redawna looks back on her culinary career and how she got her start.
From Junior High to High Times
A wholesome holiday exchange curtailed into a career working with confectionary when Redawna received a beautiful batch of English Toffee for Christmas one year. The sugar rush may have subsided but the warm gooey feeling of a thoughtful and fragrant gift sat with Redawna for many years. Food has that effect, washing our memories in savoury souvenirs that marinade our lives for years to come. She began her lifelong love affair with sweets, making her own brittles and bars to give and share, before a chance appearance before the Recipes to Riches judges made her realize her product was more than just a hobby, but possibly a profession she can share on a much grander scale.
Picking up retail opportunities at local farmers markets got her goodies into the right hands, and an online store brings national attention to her growing product line. As a lifelong cannabis supporter, it was a natural fit to begin crafting CBD truffles and more. Carefully and thoughtfully producing a line of infused offerings took some trial and error, dosing is difficult to get right across the board, but working with a friend who has MS, Redawna saw the possibilities and was thrilled to be able to help her friend ease her suffering, even if just for an afternoon.
Consistent Quality, Consistent Results
Parlaying her experience as a food blogger and baker with recreational cannabis pursuits led her to create some wonderful highly potent chocolate. Combining her time working as a manager at a retail cannabis shop only polished her knowledge of the plant, bringing terpenes and other sciencey efforts into her recipes. White chocolate is a particularly favourite variation, but of course brittle has proven to be a top seller too.
“It has been a few months of R&D and a series of testing to nail down the formulation for our first product. I just received the final results which allows us to officially go into production! There were tears!!! This is a dream come true! I am incredibly excited to announce I am collaborating with Gord Nichol and his team at North 40 Cannabis. I am taking all of my knowledge and the spectacular confection recipes I have perfected over the years to create what will be a unique and exceptional artisan edibles collection. So many years of working on my confections I never thought this is where I would land. So grateful and excited to get to work!!”
Redawna Kalynchuk
Redawna’s Almond Brittle will be available through the North 40 Cannabis Medical platform starting in December of 2021 with plans to enter the regulated market in select provinces by January 2022
The interview may be edited for length and or clarity.