Moon Flower Wellness celebrates grand opening of Buckhannon, West Virginia, facility

Macie Queen and Riley Queen are sisters and co-owners of Moon Flower Wellness. The idea of starting a Hemp based business occurred in 2018 to the sisters. They explained that when the 2018 Farm Bill passed their family wanted to use their farm to grow hemp to produce hemp oil for bulk sales.

The sisters wanted to do something a little different from bulk oil sales.

“We grew a ton of hemp plants the first year (15,000-plus) and we convinced our dad to kind of do our own operation because we wanted to things beyond the bulk oil sales,” said Macie.

Moon Flower Wellness is a fully vertically integrated business — they grow their own hemp from seed, harvest the hemp themselves, and then it is off to the production facility so that the plants can be transformed into base ingredients that form the basis for all of their edible and smokeable products.

The hemp they grow is certified to have less than 0.3% THC, active ingredient in marijuana, in accordance with both state and federal laws. Each of their product lines has what is called a Certificate of Analysis on hand at the store so customers can read for themselves that their products are certified through the state through lab analysis.

The endeavor is a true family affair with their mother and grandmother working at the store as well.

“My grandma is in charge of our gummy production facility and Mom works in the lab and on the business side of it,” Riley Queen said.

The sisters’ grandmother’s nickname is the Gummie Granny because she makes all of the gummies and bakes all of the CBD infused products.

Moon Flower sells in all 50 states in the country through their online process and sources their hemp seeds from Oregon, per federal law that requires hemp products be made with only American hemp seeds.

In addition, they are selling their products wholesale to over 45 vendors throughout West Virginia and the United States. Macie and Riley have nine full-time employees and four part-timers on staff at this time.

Executive Director of the Buckhannon-Upshur Chamber of Commerce Tammy Reger was on hand to help with the ribbon cutting and to welcome yet another new business to downtown Buckhannon.

“We are here honor Moon Flower Wellness today. They had a soft opening earlier this week and the inside of the store is so amazing and cute,” Reger said. “It’s thrilling to have another business open on Main Street. Our store fronts on Main Street usually get filled up as quickly as they are available.”

She added that the previous business in that space was Jester Line, a gaming store, that unfortunately fell victim to COVID, but they have since reopened in a new location under the new name of IT Strategies.

Two West Virginia Wesleyan College students were at the store at least half an hour before the grand opening. They were excited about a new store in town and were looking forward to checking out the space for themselves. Stanley Ciciora and Jackson Heffner heard about the grand opening and wanted to see what it was all about.

Ciciora said, “We heard the first 50 people would get free goody bags, and we’re college students so we like free stuff. We’ve been longtime supporters of Moon Flower through purchasing their products at two different places in town.”

Heffner was succinct in why he was on hand for the grand opening.

“I’m here to support the business, and I’m excited about another ‘hang out’ kind of place in town. I’m really looking forward to going in and seeing what it’s all about,” said Heffner.

By the time the doors opened at 10 a.m. there were more than 60 people lined up along Main Street to see what the new store was like and what products were available.

For more information about the store and its products go to Moonflowerhemp.com or visit them at 46 East Main Street in Buckhannon.