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In this episode of the Legacies Podcast, host Tom Ritchie sits down with John Fowler, CEO of Muskoka Grown. Fowler reflects on his decade-long career in the regulated cannabis sector, tracing his path from commercial law to co-founding Supreme Cannabis and 7ACRES in 2014, and his subsequent work restructuring Muskoka Grown’s operations in Bracebridge, Ontario.
Fowler outlines the cultivation and post-harvest workflows required to achieve craft quality at scale, describing the implementation of commercial hang-drying and hand-polishing methods. He discusses the evolution of commercial phenohunting, detailing how nursery partnerships help independent cultivators mitigate space risks while continuing to access unique genetics. Fowler also shares the background behind Muskoka Grown’s flagship GMO cultivar, Koko’s Cookies, describing how it serves as a meaningful memorial for a deceased team member.
In the second half, the conversation shifts to international medical markets. Fowler details the business strategies and regulatory steps involved in exporting standardized cannabis to Germany and the United Kingdom. He explains why international buyers demand extreme consistency in THC levels and microbiological cleanliness (“low micro”), and compares these requirements to Canada’s domestic adult-use market structures.
Tom Ritchie Says: All right, welcome to Legacies, everyone! Don’t forget, Legacies is powered by AVEO, leaders in sustainable vape hardware. We are joined this week by John Fowler—the GOAT! John, it’s been so long, man. I’ve been waiting to connect again. You’ve done so much in this space: 7ACRES, The Supreme Cannabis Company, Blissed, BLLRDR, and now leading Muskoka Grown. And on top of all that, you’re still a recovering lawyer!
John Fowler Says: It’s hard to shake, Tom. I made some bad decisions early in life and decided to go to law school, so I try not to let people hold that against me!
Tom Ritchie Says: It’s all good, man! How has life been? What’s new and exciting?
John Fowler Says: Life has been good. I’m just crossing ten years in the cannabis sector now—started back in 2014 with 7ACRES. Earlier this year, I took time to reflect with colleagues. Ten years feels like several lifetimes in cannabis, but in traditional business, it’s just the blink of an eye. Despite industry headwinds, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. At Muskoka Grown, a major part of our story over the past year has been transitioning focus toward international medical markets in Europe and Australia. For me, that’s returning to my roots—supporting medical patients.
Tom Ritchie Says: During the 7ACRES days, everything was living life at 200 miles an hour. When you transitioned to Muskoka Grown in Bracebridge, it seemed like life got a little more grounded and peaceful. What was that transition like for you?
John Fowler Says: Those five years at 7ACRES were run at 200% capacity non-stop. That era of large public licensed producers was entirely about acquiring capital and deploying capital. When I stepped away, I evaluated whether to stay in cannabis. I realized the foundational principles that drove 7ACRES still mattered: proving that a cultivation facility can be a great business—not just something you want to own, but a place people genuinely want to work.
John Fowler Says: Under early medical frameworks, growing cannabis was a meaningful job that allowed people to feed their families and build careers. As commercialization exploded, I worried those roles would be reduced to transient, disposable agricultural labor. At Muskoka Grown, our mission is to craft top-tier flower while taking exceptional care of the frontline people who do the physical work every single day.
Tom Ritchie Says: It’s a stark contrast to the massive industrial buildouts. Muskoka Grown isn’t a boastful, loud brand plastering social media. It feels authentic and community-focused. What do you credit that to?
John Fowler Says: Every brand needs its own personality reflecting the people behind it. Our head of sales, Elise, brought an incredible persona that shaped how we engage retail partners. Dispensary shelves are full; every dollar of sales a brand earns comes at the direct expense of another brand. If Muskoka disappeared tomorrow, most stores wouldn’t notice unless we offered tangible value.
John Fowler Says: We built our recreational strategy on three pillars: first, delivering undeniable baseline value. Second, providing accessible premiumization—allowing a retailer to offer an ounce bag upgrade for just $5 or $10 more so the consumer enjoys higher quality and the retailer captures incremental margin. Third, building genuine long-term trust. When you help the dispensary win, they support your brand in return.
Tom Ritchie Says: Back in your law school days, what was your go-to legacy cultivar?
John Fowler Says: Like most Canadians back then, I smoked about 5,000 variations of Pink Kush, along with real OGs and Headband when you could find them.
John Fowler Says: Fun story: 710 Headband was the first truly exceptional weed I ever smoked. I was 18 or 19 and met Puff Mama, who ran the Underground Comedy Club in Toronto. A friend and I consumed so much at her shows that the upstairs neighbor complained, so I offered to help her find a new venue. My dad was a real estate agent, and we found an old print factory on Queen Street.
John Fowler Says: While helping her move into the space, she mentioned a grower friend was outside in a truck. Sitting in the back of a U-Haul on Queen Street, I smoked flower that tasted like nothing I had ever experienced before. That was my lightbulb moment realizing how complex, nuanced, and remarkable this plant could be. That kicked off my relationship with legacy growers almost twenty years ago.
Tom Ritchie Says: That palate evolution is so real—from the days of mystery hydro to appreciating terroir and genetics. When you founded 7ACRES, how did you balance commercial greenhouse yields against connoisseur flower quality?
John Fowler Says: In the early days at 7ACRES, we recognized that the vast majority of volume sat in lower price tiers, which led us toward greenhouse production. But we asked: what deliberate operational investments can we make to stand out from our peers? 7ACRES was the first large-scale commercial greenhouse in Canada to implement whole-plant hang drying. Our dry rooms were architectural marvels—3,000 to 5,000 plants hanging 20 to 30 feet in the air with massive, sophisticated HVAC airflow systems.
John Fowler Says: I often use a winemaking analogy: everyone grows similar grapes, but how you ferment and age the wine determines the vintage. While competitors bucked wet plants and rack-dried flower on trays, our hang-drying and hand-polishing finish preserved terpenes, trichome integrity, and bud structure. Virtually every major Canadian greenhouse later retrofitted to copy that hang-dry methodology.
Tom Ritchie Says: Phenohunting demands massive space, time, and labor. How do you justify that R&D cost to a board of directors or corporate investors?
John Fowler Says: Commercial phenohunting is about hunting statistical outliers on a bell curve. When you pop hundreds of seeds, most plants express average traits, but you’re hunting for that rare genetic outlier with extraordinary terpenes, unique morphology, or heavy yield. Sacrificing a few kilograms of immediate production is justified if you isolate a proprietary cultivar that delivers a 5% yield increase or creates an enduring market bestseller.
John Fowler Says: Today, specialized nursery operators manage massive hunts, allowing craft growers like Muskoka Grown to acquire proven, verified genetics that thrive within our specific facility SOPs.
Tom Ritchie Says: What are your all-time favorite cultivars across your career?
John Fowler Says: Two stand out: Jack Haze at 7ACRES, and Koko’s Cookies at Muskoka Grown. Both succeeded because exceptional quality was paired with an authentic human story.
John Fowler Says: Jack Haze was an extreme sativa-leaning phenotype discovered during an extensive White Widow hunt. It possessed an intense terpinolene-dominant sweet haze profile that smelled nothing like standard White Widow. We tested it, saw incredible daytime effects, and late one night brainstorming with post-it notes on a whiteboard, we named it Jack Haze. It became 7ACRES’ bestselling SKU for years.
John Fowler Says: At Muskoka Grown, we introduced a classic GMO cut—notoriously ugly to grow with an 85-day flowering cycle, but packed with pungent savory terpenes and high potency. Just before we introduced the cut, a beloved team member whose nickname was Coco tragically passed away over the holidays. The team chose to name the cultivar Koko’s Cookies in his honor. While transparent about its GMO lineage, Koko’s Cookies belongs uniquely to our team. In today’s market, you must check every box: analytical COAs, clean micro, striking bag appeal, and an authentic emotional story.
Tom Ritchie Says: You’ve traveled across the globe exploring cannabis infrastructure. What is the wildest travel experience you’ve had in the industry?
John Fowler Says: Back at Supreme/7ACRES, we became the first international investor in Medigrow in Lesotho, southern Africa—closing the deal just two weeks ahead of Canopy Growth. I flew 48 hours through Europe and Johannesburg, hopped a commuter flight up into the mountains of Lesotho, and spent twelve hours on the ground conducting due diligence before flying straight back. The drive to the facility traversed terrifying cliffside switchbacks with no guardrails while our driver casually chatted facing backwards!
John Fowler Says: Today, we focus on bringing international partners to Bracebridge. Nothing builds commercial confidence like touring a sparkling clean, fully dialed craft facility in person.
Tom Ritchie Says: Some Canadian LPs look abroad out of desperation because domestic shelves are saturated. Others export from a position of genuine capability. How did Muskoka Grown approach Europe?
John Fowler Says: When we took over Muskoka Grown out of bankruptcy in 2020, we overhauled the facility: shifting from rack drying to whole-plant hang drying and instituting clinical sanitation protocols. Recently, an international auditor who has inspected over 100 global facilities stated Muskoka was objectively the cleanest facility he had ever walked through.
John Fowler Says: In export markets, we view ourselves as pharmaceutical manufacturers rather than unpredictable farmers. I use Budweiser as a manufacturing benchmark: regardless of personal taste, their ability to deliver an identical product in every corner of the world is extraordinary. European medical markets require uncompromising batch-to-batch consistency. Our THC potency operates within a tight plus-or-minus 2% band across two years of harvests.
John Fowler Says: Furthermore, Canadian regulations allow up to 50,000 CFU/g of microbial counts, and producers frequently irradiate without consumer disclosure. Germany does not permit irradiation masking. Our Koko’s Cookies consistently tests around 500 CFU/g—two orders of magnitude cleaner than Canadian limits without irradiation. That clinical cleanliness makes us an indispensable supply partner in Europe.
Tom Ritchie Says: If the bulk of your in-house harvest heads to Europe, how does Muskoka Grown maintain its Canadian brand presence?
John Fowler Says: We split our brand strategy. Our Dank Craft label showcases in-house indoor flower targeted for European medical distribution, while our Muskoka Grown red bags cater to the high-volume domestic market. To service Canadian demand without diluting craft standards, we partner with premier craft greenhouse growers across Ontario and Canada who whole-plant hang dry and hand trim. That dual structure allows us to supply flying-off-the-shelf craft ounce bags in Ontario while exporting our in-house harvest to Germany, keeping Koko’s Cookies available in both markets.
Tom Ritchie Says: What regulatory hurdles must a Canadian producer navigate to export into Europe?
John Fowler Says: First, you must secure Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP) and EU-GMP certification, which requires months of rigorous audit validation. From initial handshake to product appearing on a German pharmacy shelf typically takes four to five months. Additionally, air cargo logistics demand extreme precision: if an export pallet is one inch too tall for an aircraft cargo hold, the entire shipment gets rejected. Every temperature logging monitor and customs document must be executed without error.
Tom Ritchie Says: Looking back at Canada’s rollout, did the rapid shift from medical to adult-use recreational harm the medical cannabis patient framework?
John Fowler Says: The issue wasn’t the timeline—it was the policy failure. Canada created zero structural incentives for patients to remain within the medical framework or for companies to invest in clinical trials. Charging excise tax on medical cannabis is an absolute travesty. Taxing medicine like recreational intoxicants forced vulnerable patients to abandon clinical oversight and self-medicate through adult-use retail stores where budtenders are legally prohibited from giving medical advice.
John Fowler Says: If governments eliminated the dollar-a-gram excise tax for verified medical patients and integrated insurance reimbursement, we would possess years of invaluable clinical research improving health outcomes. While Canada’s personal four-plant home-grow right is fantastic, sick patients should never be forced to cultivate their own medicine because commercial systems failed them on price and access.
Tom Ritchie Says: Maintaining positive workplace culture across 100 employees in a high-stress manufacturing environment is rare. How do you maintain company culture at Muskoka Grown?
John Fowler Says: In cannabis, your facility is the machine, and our frontline team does the physical work with their hands. Our general manager, Ram, compares our team to dragon boat racing: when twenty paddlers row in perfect synchronization, the boat glides effortlessly; if two people row out of cadence, the entire boat drags.
John Fowler Says: Uniquely for a company of 100 people, we do not employ a dedicated HR department. Instead, we distribute HR responsibilities across a dozen operational managers. Every manager—myself included—is trained in hiring, conducting performance reviews, and handling difficult interpersonal conversations. Sixty cents of every dollar we spend goes directly to our frontline team. When every manager takes daily personal ownership over workplace culture, team members feel seen, respected, and empowered.
Tom Ritchie Says: If you had to identify a leadership philosophy or mentor that shaped your management style, who would it be?
John Fowler Says: During my MBA, the most impactful case study focused on Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, and his philosophy of “Truly Human Leadership.” His principles are simple: every employee is somebody’s precious child or partner; people spend more waking hours at work than at home, so employers have an obligation to send them home fulfilled; and businesses are only as extraordinary as their people. Chapman built an eleven-figure manufacturing powerhouse proving compassionate management drives elite commercial success.
Tom Ritchie Says: John, your integrity and thoughtful leadership over the past decade represent the very best of Canadian cannabis. Thank you for sharing your story on Legacies!
John Fowler Says: Thank you, Tom! The podcast work you do matters immensely. Authentic storytelling is how our industry earns respect and builds long-term equity. Thanks for having me!
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CEO & Managing Director
John Fowler is the CEO and Managing Director of Muskoka Grown, a craft cannabis cultivator. He previously co-founded Supreme Cannabis and 7ACRES.
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Craft Cannabis Cultivator & Manufacturer
Muskoka Grown is a craft cannabis cultivation brand based in Bracebridge, Muskoka, Ontario. The company operates an indoor facility focused...
Learn More About Partner ↗The Canadian market is largely focused on recreational adult-use retail distribution, whereas European markets like Germany and the UK operate on highly regulated medical frameworks. European distribution requires strict adherence to European Union Good Manufacturing Practices (EU-GMP) and tighter microbiological thresholds than Canada.
The 'Budweiser benchmark' refers to the goal of achieving absolute product consistency across all batches, regardless of geographic scale. For cannabis producers, this means ensuring that cannabinoid content, terpene profiles, and moisture levels remain uniform to build reliable brands, particularly for medical patients who depend on consistent dosing.
To maintain craft standards at scale, Muskoka Grown employs indoor cultivation, followed by whole-plant hang-drying to preserve delicate terpenes and manual hand-polishing to refine the final bud appearance, avoiding the destructive effects of fully automated machine trimming.
