Hometown News: CulinaryCannaCo Featured in the Midland Daily News
Lilly Kujawski, Midland Daily News
There are some press mentions that just hit differently.
Culinary Cannabis Company co-founders Kate and Dave Nadolski were recently featured by the Midland Daily News, the hometown newspaper of Midland, Michigan, where the brother-and-sister team grew up. In “Midland siblings build Illinois cannabis company from the ground up,” reporter Lilly Kujawski tells the story of how two Midland High School graduates ended up building an Illinois cannabis company together from scratch.
For Kate and Dave, the feature is about much more than cannabis.
From Midland to Illinois Cannabis
Long before CulinaryCannaCo existed, Kate and Dave were growing up in Midland, where their family remains deeply connected to the community. Their parents still live there, both siblings graduated from Midland High School, and Midland continued to feel like home even after they eventually built their lives in the Chicago area.
As Dave told the Midland Daily News, “The city of Midland was the sixth member of our family.”
Years later, when Illinois created a path for new cannabis businesses, Kate and Dave decided to take a shot at something neither had done before: applying for an Illinois cannabis infuser license and building a company of their own.
That meant navigating an application process that ran roughly 400 pages, learning a highly regulated industry from the ground up, and doing much of the work themselves while still balancing jobs and family responsibilities.
The application itself came down to the wire. On April 30, 2020, Kate and Dave were racing to get their materials postmarked before the 5 p.m. deadline.
They made it.
The license was only the beginning.
Building Something From the Ground Up
It took years to move from an application to an operating cannabis company.
Today, Culinary Cannabis Company operates in Des Plaines, Illinois, creating infused products designed to expand what an edible can be. Under the CulinaryCannaCo brand, that has included infused cooking oils, condiments, baking products, syrups and other products built around the idea that cannabis can be incorporated into food in ways that go well beyond the traditional gummy or brownie.
The road to getting there has included enormous financial investment, regulatory hurdles, product development, construction, licensing and the everyday reality of trying to build an independent company in an industry filled with much larger competitors.
It has also meant doing it as brother and sister.
Kate and Dave bring very different strengths to the company, something that has become part of the way they operate. They can challenge each other, cover for each other, finish each other’s sentences and, perhaps most importantly, celebrate the wins together.
And this is one of those wins.
Bringing the Story Home
There is something especially meaningful about having the story told by the newspaper from the town where it all started.
The Midland Daily News feature looks back at Kate and Dave’s upbringing, the origins of Culinary Cannabis Company, the licensing process, the financial and personal risks involved in building the business, and what it has been like creating a company together as siblings.
We’re incredibly grateful to Lilly Kujawski and the Midland Daily News for taking the time to tell the story.
And to Midland: thanks for helping raise us.
Read the Full Midland Daily News Feature
FEATURED IN MIDLAND DAILY NEWS
Midland siblings build Illinois cannabis company from the ground up
Lilly Kujawski · Midland Daily News
Discover the full story behind Kate and Dave Nadolski's journey from Midland, Michigan, to building an Illinois cannabis company.