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A groundbreaking new web series that tells the story of Kevin Summers, a successful corporate executive that returns to his family’s farm after 30 years to take on the “greatest challenge of his life.” Branchville documents the successes and challenges of farming hemp as seen through the eyes of a first-time farmer. Branchville is a story about a family and community that comes together with the shared vision of revitalizing a rural community and creating a new model for regenerative agriculture.
Episode 1
There’s No Place Like Home
Kevin Summers, former CIO of several Fortune 50 companies, returns to his childhood home, now a rundown house that he saved from being torn down. After spending nearly 4 years repurchasing the land his great-grandfather owned, Kevin, his brother Jasper, and farming consultant Farmer D race against the clock to prepare the desolate field for farming, before 80,000 hemp seedlings get delivered.
Episode 2
Tell Me You Love Me
Only a few weeks into the project, Kevin has come to realize that farming hemp, a newly-legalized crop for South Carolina, has provided new and harder challenges. Unlike the traditional row crops that his father farmed, hemp is proving to be more delicate and unique than Kevin had imagined. With 150,000 seedlings planted, Kevin, Jasper, and Farmer D need to solve the problems of water, nutrients, insects if they want the farm to succeed.
Episode 3
One Game
Having solved the problems of watering and caring for 80 acres, some of the hemp plants are only a few inches tall, while others are over 6 feet and flourishing. Kevin and Jasper’s team of farm operators work with farming consultants from Netafim to understand how best to care for the health and strength of the plants in the farm, at a scale of the 2nd largest hemp farm in South Carolina.
Episode 4
Biomass
Now with most of the hemp plants healthy, full, and keeling over in weight from their buds, Kevin and Farmer D approach how they can monitor and test the hemp plants in bulk to schedule the best time to harvest. Now that technology plays a larger role in farming, Kevin reflects that flexibility he now has as a farmer, able to connect with his children in a way that his parents were never able.
Episode 5
Long Days
As winter approaches, harvesting the hemp plants is at utmost importance before the frost comes. However the CBD oil percentage of the plants, although testing at higher levels than most farms around the country, has to be precisely timed to maximize output. Kevin and his team have to also manually check the quality of each plant, else they harvest too soon or too late.
Episode 6
Almost There
Because the hemp plants have to be extracted from the land by hand, and dried on-site before they can be processed and stored, harvesting is taking a lot longer than Kevin and the team anticipated. Adding just one day to the drying process can drive the total 80 acre harvest by months. Kevin also discusses the lessons learned on the farm with a South Carolina Department of Agriculture representative, like how one inch of rain can be the same as 20 days of drip irrigation.
Episode 7
The Impossible
The Summers Family Farm is in their last 2 acres of harvest just before Thanksgiving. 80 acres of hemp have rendered thousands of pounds of Grade A quality, organic, hand-shucked and dried buds ready for CBD extraction. Kevin has utilized the trade secrets and opportunities from South Carolina, but is thankful that the season has come to and end. Jasper and Farmer D reminisce about the how rewarding the hard labor has been.
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