Meet Kusala Care’s Head Cultivator
“I’ve been into growing plants since I was a kid. I was really into carnivorous plants. In sixth grade I bought my first Venus flytrap and eventually built a collection worth about $1,500, including Nepenthes, which are Asian tropical pitcher plants. They catch bugs, digest them and turn them into nutrients. I was fascinated by that.”
- Justin Lee | Kusala Care Head Cultivator and Co-Founder
For this Paramus native, cannabis came into his life not long after. “I discovered weed in eighth grade through my friend’s older brother. He rolled us a blunt and completely ripped us off, selling it to us for $70. My friends and I smoked it in a porta-potty and then went to the eighth-grade dance. Since then, the plant has always helped me feel normal.”
Favorite way to consume: A bong, usually with one of his favorites, Koala Kush.
Quality Kings Garden To Kusala Care
Justin’s road to building Kusala Care started in the legacy scene. Back in 2017, he founded Quality Kings Garden, a small grow where he began dialing in his craft. Those years were spent experimenting, connecting with other growers and going deep into the rabbit hole of cultivation. A lot of trial and error, plenty of late nights and more than a few hours on YouTube studying what truly high-quality, organic cannabis should look like.
“Quality Kings Garden helped me really ingrain myself in the community and connect with a lot of people who are actually passionate about the plant. For example. Maine has some of the best weed in the country. There are a lot of OG legacy farmers up there who have been doing this for 20 or 30 years. Being around that community really taught me a lot about what organic cannabis should be.”
Many of Kusala Cares’ strains come from Justin pheno hunts, as well as being sourced through other trusted growers. Justin says, “Over the years, I’ve developed a real sense of what’s good and what isn’t. I’m a real smoker, so I know what people want and I have a better palate than most people I’ve met. I’m very particular and a little OCD about standards and how things should be. If something isn’t good, I’m not the type of person who will pretend it is.”
Kusala Care In-House Hunt:
- Straw-Picanna (Strawnana x Tropicanna Cookies)
- “Reminiscient of a classic Strawberry Banana Orange Juice a lot of us grew up on.”
- Bred by @808genetics.llc
- Hunted by Kusala Care
- OMG Burger (GMO x GMO)
- “It’s like GMO had a baby with an onion smashburger. Savory, Gassy and Astringent”
- Bred by @808genetics.llc
- Hunted by Kusala Care
Meet The Other Half Of Kusala Care
“What’s wild is that my parents originally sent me away for weed and now years later they’re in support of my cannabis business and my mom even microdoses at night. It’s a complete 180.”
- George Lutfey | Kusala Care COO and Co-Founder
For George, Kusala Care has been a healing endeavor. After finding cannabis at an early age and multiple arrests during his childhood, he was sent to a boarding school for drug rehabilitation.
Years later, those same experiences helped lead to the founding of Kusala Care. When New Jersey introduced social equity licensing for cannabis businesses, George and Justin’s past arrests qualified them for the program. They knew they had to take a shot.
They submitted their first application and, as approval after approval came, they started to realize it might actually happen. Four years later, that process finally led to the launch of Kusala Care in Oakland.
During that process, George kept his day job while handling licensing, town approvals, facility design, equipment setup and graphic design—doing whatever it took to keep things moving.
Outside of Kusala Care, George still finds time to step up to the mic and lay down a few rhymes. He’s spent years in music production and sound engineering, working across everything from producing instrumentals and running recording sessions to editing and mixing
Favorite way to consume: A Koala Kush joint.
Soulful, No-till Living Soil Bud
“People underestimate the power of soil. A lot of people think the power comes from nutrients in bottles or powders from nutrient companies. But our goal with this was to show how much better things can be with organic soil. We keep everything really simple. It’s water only. No bottled nutrients. Our philosophy is that the soil is where the truth of life is. We come from the soil and return to the soil. Soil is where life starts and where life ends.” -Justin
At Kusala Care, everything begins with living soil. Instead of relying on bottled nutrients or synthetic inputs, they grow in ways that allow the plant to fully express itself. “We’re trying to replicate Mother Nature as much as possible. When you’re doing that cycle over cycles, it’s similar to what the Earth has been doing through seasons for hundreds or thousands of years. The soil cycles and builds over time,” George adds.
“In a lot of synthetic grows, people say everything ends up tasting the same. No matter the strain, it can start to taste like the nutrients being used. We haven’t gotten that complaint once…Our weed has soul. There is something special about smoking weed grown in a no-till bed that’s on its fifth, sixth or seventh cycle. A lot of MSO weed feels soulless. There’s nothing in there. It’s like a cardboard box with THC in it. It’s not a living thing that had a life and a story behind it. When things are grown in soil, they carry a certain feeling to them. It’s like that person’s vibe. The same way you walk into someone’s house and it just smells like their house. It’s recognizable. It’s theirs. For example, in Oregon, all of Kush Kirk’s hash tastes like Kush Kirk’s hash,” Justin explains.
High THC Doesn’t Equal Better Weed
”You wouldn’t walk into a liquor store and buy Everclear. So why are you approaching the dispensary in that way when you’re just coming in here trying to buy all the Everclear.”
A lot of consumers assume higher THC automatically means stronger or better quality cannabis. We get it. It’s the easiest number to compare, but in reality, cannabis contains dozens of compounds working together (aka the entourage effect), including terpenes, flavonoids, esters and other aromatic molecules that shape how a strain affects you.
It’s why some “people say they smoked something testing at 35% THC and barely felt anything. Then they try something around 17 or 18 percent and it hits much harder. Kosher Kush is a good example. I’ve been smoking for almost twenty years and that strain still knocks me back, even though it usually tests around 18%,” explains Justin.
For Justin, “The nose knows. The challenge in New Jersey is that people can’t smell anything before they buy it. So we try to educate on what each strain smells like. If a strain smells a certain way, those aromas usually give you a good idea of how it might feel in your body. Look for the profiles you like and you’ll likely find the effects you’re looking for. It’s not an exact science, but it’s one of the best tools we have while we’re still learning more about the chemistry behind cannabis.”
Electric City Hash Company Collab
While Kusala Care does its own phenohunting, they’re also collabing with Electric City Hash Company. Known in the community as the Wooks of Scranton, Electric City has built a national reputation for its single-source, organically grown Live Hash Rosin and 6-Star Full Melt.
At Pure Blossom:
- Gary Payton (The Y x Snowman)
- “It’s not the Gary Payton cut from Cookies, but a lot of people who normally don’t like Gary Payton have said they really enjoy this one.”
- Bred by: Cookies
- Cut from: @electriccityhashcompany
- Key Lime Sherbet (Key Lime Pie x Sunset Sherbet)
- “Equal blend on the palette of freshly baked key lime pie, sharp lime juice and classic Sunset Sherbet gas.“
- Bred by @808genetics.llc
- Cut from @electriccityhashcompany
Shop Kusala Care
“We believe keeping it small scale is how you maintain the quality.” – George
At Pure Blossom, one of our biggest priorities has always been curating the best cannabis in New Jersey and supporting indie growers. From the start, Kusala Care just made sense. Their approach to cultivation, genetics, and community lines up with everything we believe in, and we’re really proud to be the first to introduce them to Pennington.
For the Kusala Care team, “When it comes to selecting dispensaries to work with, the biggest thing for us is community focus. We’ve met some dispensaries that are really just about the money. They might as well be selling eye cream or anything else. There are easier ways to make money than getting into this industry. We want to work with people who genuinely love the plant and care about its future.
Another big thing for us is working with people who actually smoke. Sometimes people approach us saying they have the biggest volume or the biggest sales numbers. That’s not really what we’re focused on. What matters more is whether they actually care about the future of the plant and the community around it.”
Visit Pure Blossom for Cannabis and Other Essentials
Explore Pure Blossom’s curated selection of New Jersey cannabis brands and essential accessories. Whether you’re doing the old Google thing, searching for a dispensary near me or nearby dispensaries in New Jersey, Pure Blossom is a short, scenic, calming drive away, and our friendly guide-connoisseurs are excited to take you through our curated selection of New Jersey cannabis brands (and other essentials). We’ll see you there!