Meet Belle Hunt | Managing Partner/Owner/Operator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Belle Hunt and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Belle, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I was working at a local dispensary when it became recreationally legal to smoke and grow your own cannabis in Arizona. I had hundreds of people wanting to grow their own but had no idea how to get started, let alone where to find what they would need to have a successful growing experience. Having several years of growing my own when living in New Mexico and having a years worth of larger scale growing experience, I felt like we had enough knowledge and the want to help people, to open a grow supply store. We wanted a safe space people could come to and talk about their own grows or ask the questions that can’t be bother to be answered by the typical garden center. Our goal is to help people do what we should have been able to do all along, grow your own.

What should our readers know about your business?
So where shall I start? Well let me start by introducing myself. My name is Belen Hunt, I’m 41 years old, Hispanic/Anglo woman married with 4 children. I was born and raised in Tucson; Az lived in New Mexico for about 9 years. We moved back to Tucson about 4 years ago. I have always been interested in the healing qualities of plants, especially cannabis. I think the very first time I put a weed seed in the ground I was about 15. I had no idea what I was doing and stuck about 10 seeds into a pot, watered them and threw them into my windowsill. Well, they all popped, so I took them and set them all up in their own little containers and just let them go, no nutrients watered when I remembered lol. About 3 weeks later my mom was walking by my window and spotted the evil devils lettuce growing in my room. Needless to say, they all died a horrible death at the hands of my ever-loving mother. That did not stop me from wanting to grow my own medicine. The next time I got to grow was a few years later when I moved out. That experience was a little different, but the result was about the same, no smokable weed. It wasn’t really until I was in my 30s that I could afford not only the items I needed to grow successfully but the space and time needed to get it right. When my husband and I lived in New Mexico he was able to get a cultivation license and we set off on our growing adventure. We worked day and night to get this right. We spent hours and hours researching online and reading books to gain the knowledge needed to get that dank, tasty end result. Our first batch smelled like (I know this sounds bad, but it was so good) catpiss but it smoked so smooth and oh and the high you might ask? Phenomenal! Ok so now it’s late 2018 and we have moved back to Tucson and there is no way to get a cultivating license in Arizona unless you live 25 miles from town or the closest dispensary. So, I decided to look for a job in the cannabis industry. It took about 6 months and about 15 applications to get my first interview. I was so excited I could barely hold still during the call. Well, I didn’t get the job… Again, this did not hold me back. Well, it now in January 2019 it’s my Birthday month so I was looking on Leafly.com (an app that helps you find dispensaries near you) to see which dispensaries offered Birthday specials and I noticed there was a dispensary I had not gone to yet. I literally walked into the little hippy dippy dispensary, and I fell in love. The smell oh the smell of this place blew me away. I looked to my right and there it was, they had a full grow right next to the waiting room. I knew right then I wanted to work there. I went back out to my truck grabbed my resume and handed it to the cashier.
Fast forward to early April 2019, we are coming home from a camping trip, as we get to a place where we get cell service and my phone rings. It was the hiring manager for the dispensary, and she would like me to come in for an interview. The interview was a success, and I scored a second interview but this time I get to go to their large grow facility!!! I walked into this huge warehouse (I only knew I was in the right place from the smell lol) and just knew I was home. April 20th (420) of 2019 I was hired on and worked at both the grow facility and the dispensary when needed. I worked at the grow facility for the most part but in December 2019 when Covid-19 hit they moved me over to the dispensary. Apparently when people are cooped up in their homes for days at a time, they really like to smoke a ton of weed. Eleven months into the pandemic Arizona pass Bill 207 and recreational adult use was now legal. Anyone over the age of 21 could now legally grow six (up to 12 with two people in the home) plants in their homes. The night 207 passed we started getting phone calls about if we (the dispensary) had any cannabis with seeds in it. At first, I thought this was an odd question, as most people HATE seeds in their cannabis. Then it hit me…
That night we set up our tent and grabbed my stash of seeds I had been collecting over the years and stuck a few seeds in a wet paper towel and made the list of all I was going to need to get my girls going again. As my husband and I were setting things up, I brought it to his attention that there were at least a dozen calls that night about seeds and that there was really no place that people could go and get anything really cannabis related. This was the beginning of the discussion about the opportunities that prop 207 could potentially do for us. We had been talking for years about opening our own dispensary but cost behind getting a license is astronomical. So now that people can grow their own weed, they are going to need a place to go to get their supplies and we thought why not come to us? We got straight away to writing a business plan and looking at all the hundreds of suppliers, vendors and products that are now available to the at home grower. We found a building that needed some work but would be a perfect space for a little grow supply store.
We started ordering all the supplies you would need to have a good indoor grow. Then construction began and we tore down and painted walls, scraped and cleaned the floors, all the while I’m still working full time at the dispensary. As time went on, I found it harder and harder to not only helping maintain our garden, and still work at the dispensary and get ready to open this new business I knew it was time to let something go. I left the dispensary on good terms, and we went on to open our doors on July 31st, 2021, to the public. We are happy to answer any questions about growing that the new to grower might have, which I think gives us a bit of an edge over the nurseries that never seem to know anything about growing cannabis.
It’s now been almost two years since the passing of 207 and I am now on my ninth harvest. One of the great benefits to being able to talk to all the different vendors out there is we have been able to do some experimenting with different lights and nutrients. It’s amazing to see the difference the lights and nutrients make. We have used just about everything in the store, so we have a true understanding of the product and the effects they take on the plants and the end results.
One of my goals in opening Indoor Grow Buddies LLC was to help people. I would eventually like to have classes and little workshops to help people along in the different stages of growing. There’s nothing like seeing the smiling faces of people after they realize that they can grow and harvest a great crop and can supply themselves with their own medications and or food. Growing your own food and medicines are some of the most essential things we can learn to do for ourselves. It’s my hope that I can help people learn and gain confidence in their growing skills and learn some new things along the way.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
There are so many amazing places to visit while in Tucson. One of my favorite places to eat is Bisonwiches, a lovely small combination pub & sandwich shop known for hefty portions, bread-bowl soups & happy-hour specials. I would also take then to a few of the outstanding Mexican restaurants like Teresa’s Mosaic Café, La Parrilla Suiza or El Sur. There are a few hidden gems restaurants in our little desert city. If you like pizza I would suggest Brooklyn Pizza. There are some amazing Sushi and Pho spots to die for. I would definitely take them to Fuku Sushi and Miss. Saigon for the best Pho and milk tea boba drinks you will ever have. We would definitely take a day trip up to Mt. Lemmon. Mount Lemmon features hiking, skiing and rock climbing just an hour from Tucson and its about 20 degrees cooler up there. We would definitely take a day to tour some of the botanical gardens here is Tucson that are known worldwide and have been nominated by a variety of magazines and travel journal as a must visit. Tohono Chul is my top pick with Tucson Botanical Gardens and Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum/Garden as my other choices. The night life of Tucson has variety of great nightspots ranges from quiet wine bars to college hangouts and high-energy dance clubs, with lots in between. You will find breweries, sports bars, country/western saloons, LGBTQ bars and clubs, comedy shows, concert venues, theatres, and even casinos. With all these great venues available at our fingertips you won’t have a problem finding something that fits your interests.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would definitely dedicate our achievements/success to both of our parents. They have always been our source of inspiration and a guiding force in all of our endeavors. Even when we have had setbacks, they were there believing in us. They have given us the knowledge, confidence and support needed to make it in this crazy world. Whatever we are today is because of their belief in us.

Website: www.igrowbuddies.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indoor_grow_buddies_llc/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/indoorgrowbuddiesLLC

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzje6ZjjRV5N64DFG-h4s9Q

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@indoor_grow_buddies420

Image Credits
Belle Hunt and Brentley Hunt Photographers