Tucked away in Brigham City, in Box Elder County, thousands of frosty plants are in bloom—showcased by one of Utah’s medical cannabis juggernauts. As we tour the immaculately clean facilities at True North Organics, with a seemingly endless panorama of green, it’s hard to believe this cannabis wonderland exists in such a small town.
True North’s vegetation building is 3,000 square feet, and its greenhouse spans 25,000—totaling roughly 28,000 square feet. They grow around 6,000 plants at any given time. During our visit, staff provided sterile personal protective equipment, including shoe booties, bouffant caps, and beard restraints, to guard the plants against biological and chemical contaminants.
“True North of Utah is a fully vertical operation, and with that being said, we have our cultivation and processing facility here in Brigham City,” said True North Head Grower Brandon Alonzo. “We do everything from growing to packaging, creating SKUs, and shipping those units out the door to all the pharmacies here in the state.” Alonzo also serves as The Flower Shop’s director of operations.
True North Organics was among the first to obtain all three cultivation, processing, and pharmacy licenses in Utah—a three-peat also achieved by brands like Dragonfly Wellness, WholesomeCo, Standard Wellness, and Curaleaf. The company expanded from The Flower Shop in Arizona and, in 2020, opened two Utah pharmacies, originally named Perfect Earth Apothecary before being rebranded as The Flower Shop.
Years of tried-and-true cultivation methods have paid off. The key is quality and uniform strains that deliver the same effects every time a patient visits the pharmacy.
“We like to look at our operation as a craft grow, meaning we do things that not all growers do—not just in our state but in the industry as a whole,” Alonzo said. “First off, we take extreme pride in our mother rooms, and we push for 100% uniformity from strain to strain. In veg, we top our plants early on to train them. This encourages a low, wide structure right out of the gate.”
The Sea of Green (SOG) method was developed by Dutch growers as early as the 1970s and in the U.S. in the 1980s. It is one of the many established growing methods True North implements in its operations.
“When we get into flower, we use a technique called low-stress training—also known as the Sea of Green method—where we spread our plants to increase light penetration, which helps lower bud development,” Alonzo said. “We also defoliate our plants at a specific time during the flowering stage to boost airflow, improve light exposure, and reduce bud pressure. This ensures high yields without sacrificing quality.”
Techniques at True North
To trim, the team uses a large automated machine called Mobius, but every bud is still manicured by hand for the final touch, enhancing bag appeal. A stem is “bucked” when buds and trim are removed from the main stalk. True North recently invested in an auto-bucker, eliminating the need to hand-buck each bud.
True North’s processing team produces various consistencies of concentrate loaded with terpenes, such as strain-specific live rosin. These are designed to retain the flavor and effects of the original strains. The team uses a modern system that evolved from bubble bags and ice water. Workers pack biomass into filter socks, equivalent to 160-micron filter bags. They typically run about five socks per day, placing them in a deep freezer overnight.
“Our deep freezer is set to -180 degrees Celsius, which is -112 Fahrenheit—super cold—and that’s just to reduce any heat transfer from the solvent in the biomass,” True North Extraction Lead Hunter Bruderer said. “That way, it keeps the solvent cold. The colder you have it, the better the product.” They then take the filter socks and drop them into a reactor vessel, managing various settings to develop different forms of concentrate.
A few strains tend to stand out, but one remains king: “I do always have to hype up my favorite strain, which is the Sherb Crasher No. 6. This has been a staple strain for us here in Utah,” Alonzo said. Many patients say that Sherb Crasher No. 6 smells identical to Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries cereal.
“As for new strains, I’m very excited about the Chem 91—that’s Chemdawg crossed with Skunk. The Kush Mints—that’s Bubba Kush crossed with Animal Cookies. And the Lemon Sponge Cake—that’s Lemon Skunk crossed with Cheese,” Alonzo said.
Utah’s flower is superior to medical cannabis in other states for specific reasons: “This is a very small market, which in turn creates a really competitive market,” Alonzo said. “There’s very little room for error when it comes to the cultivation and processing processes. You can tell all the Utah cultivators take the craft very seriously.”
