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A hemp-focused store in south Springfield has rebranded as SoL Farms, a full-service plant medicine shop specializing in federally legal cannabis and psilocybin products.
SoL Farms, located at 4139 S. National Ave., had a grand opening Oct. 11, after a six-year run as Hemporium at the same location, said co-owner Greg Lee. The rebrand has been about a year in the making and cost about $40,000. In six years, the nature of the business has shifted and the rebranding reflects that shift.
“As we have dabbled and experienced the actual healing that can come from cannabis, we have naturally gravitated more toward plant medicine and healing and consciousness-altering effects,” Lee said at SoL’s grand opening.
Greg Lee owns SoL along with his wife and business partner, Rachel Lee. The plant medicine store specializes in hemp-derived, federally legal cannabis and associated products, as well as a multitude of mushrooms with psychoactive and healing properties. SoL Farms is dedicated to holistic wellness through natural remedies.
SoL Farms, a plant-wellness store, hosted a grand opening Oct. 11, 2024. (Photo by Ryan Collins)
SoL Farms’ grand opening lands almost six years on the dot from Hemporium’s grand opening, which occurred in October 2018. The store sells federally legal cannabis products that are derived from cannabis that is classified as hemp.
“We have cannabis flower that is as good or better than many dispensaries for cheaper,” Lee said. “Everything in here is technically classified by the federal government as federally legal hemp under the 2018 Farm Bill.”
Basically, the amount of delta-9 THC in the cannabis sanctions it as hemp or marijuana, according to the federal government. SoL’s cannabis products have just under the federally legal amount of delta-9, allowing the products to be sold as hemp. The amount of THCa — the main psychoactive cannabinoid found in cannabis — is about the same for federally legal hemp as it is for cannabis products with a higher concentration of delta-9.
The federal classification as hemp allows Lee to order cannabis products from high-producing states like Colorado, California and Oregon, Lee said.
“Everything that we do kind of skirts the line of what is and isn’t legal,” Lee said. “It’s all gray area.”
SoL is planning a foray into events as well, some that are cannabis centric, Lee said. For example, SoL plans to host a yoga event that features cannabis.
“We’re expanding more than just products; we’re going a lot more into events and stuff,” Lee said. “Cannabis Yoga, where people can have a few milligrams of THC and do yoga in the morning.”
SoL Farms, located at 4139 S. National Ave., hosted a grand opening Oct. 11, 2024. (Photo by Ryan Collins)
The magic mushroom kits that SoL sells operate in the gray, too, Lee said.
“I can’t sell you the actual fruited body of the mushroom,” Lee said. “What we do have is the substrate to grow it on, the box to grow it in, the instructions on how to grow it and the spores themselves.”
“Spores are the seeds of mushrooms. It can be as simple as you take a bag of substrate— dirt — and you inject a syringe full of seed into it and in a few months you have mushrooms.”
The spores do not contain psilocybin, allowing them to be sold under federal law. SoL also sells mushroom gummies that are derived from a non-psilocybin mushroom that still has psychoactive properties, Lee said.
The gummies “are a dissociative,” Lee said. “It produces a psychoactive effect, that does not mean it is psychedelic.”
SoL also specializes in the before and after use of psychedelics, Lee said. The store offers one-on-one consultation to prepare the customer for the trip as well as the care that comes after.
“If you’re going to go on a consciousness-altering journey, you need to know what you’re getting into and you need to know how to pick up the pieces afterwards,” Lee said.
“We assist with the mental preparation and setting work on the before side and the full integration of the experience itself.”
SoL Farms sells federally legal cannabis products and psilocybin mushroom kits, as well as a number of plant-based wellness products. (Photo by Ryan Collins)
The shopping center housing SoL is named Carleton Corners and has more than 17,000 square feet, according to Greene County Tax Assessor’s Office records. The property is owned by Post Time Properties, LLC, and was appraised at $2.3 million. Post Time Properties is registered to John D. Hammons, Jr., according to Missouri Secretary of State records.
Lee leases about 2,500-square-foot space in the shopping center from Maples Properties for just under $3,000 per month, the co-owner said.
The rebrand of the plant-wellness store is not all that’s in the works for the company. SoL Farms eventually wants to buy an extensive property and build a farm to grow and manufacture plant products, but also to hold retreats and large events, Lee said.
“We have about a decade-long plan to have land and to grow and produce, market, garden, that type of stuff,” Lee said. “A retreat center where we’re able to accomplish both adaptogenic things and psychedelic things.”
“]] The plant medicine store specializes in hemp-derived, federally legal cannabis and associated products, as well as a multitude of mushrooms with psychoactive and healing properties. Read More