I have a kitchen arsenal for culinary throw downs. I have cast iron assorted pots and skillets for cooking meats and fish. There is a cabinet stocked with a juicer, blender, food processor, and professional blender. I got a mortar and pestle for grinding fresh herbs and spices… However, I do not have a “laboratory-grade precision decarboxlyator”.
Shanel Lindsay is the founder and president of the Ardent company. This African American woman’s company has created this country’s “first all-in-one cannabis cooker — a kitchen appliance designed to activate and prepare cannabis for baking, melting and infusing”. Ardent sells two devices. The NOVA and the FX that activate the THC in cannabis before cooking, infusing, or baking as NBC News reports.
It is reported that “Users can choose which strains or oils (THC, CBD, CBG, scents, flavors) to include for whatever outcome they want, including rolls, topicals or edibles“. OK…. Rolls? Does this thing make pre-rolls too? NBC news reports these devices also cook soup, pasta, and pastries as well.
Shanel Lindsey’s journey to create this device also speaks to the stigma surrounding cannabis as well as racism in the business of cannabis. Ms. Lindsey first began using cannabis for medicinal reasons. She sought high grade quality medicinal cannabis to treat ovarian cysts.
Ms. Lindsay has spent over a decade growing and testing different strains of cannabis. As a practicing lawyer she was arrested in 2009 for possession of cannabis. She informed NBC News “When I was arrested, my whole legal career flashed in front of my eyes,” said Lindsay, who attended Northeastern University School of Law and specialized in business, employment and insurance matters before pursuing cannabis law full-time”.
This led Lindsay to spearhead a legal battle to change the laws concerning cannabis in Massachusetts…. “So for us, it’s about making sure that there’s actually a pathway for people who have been on the illicit market to actually get to be part of the real market. However, if that doesn’t happen, all that’s going to do is continue to criminalize us and continue to have the same disparate impact while adding incredible insult to injury at the same time other people are making millions off of it”.
Lindsay started her company with no investors save her mother and herself. Lindsay saw companies getting millions for their idea. Lindsay could not secure a hundred thousand dollars with an active product as a lawyer already running the business. I wonder why that is? At any rate, her company has been profitable after its first year and has not looked back!
