Before Jetty Extracts became a household name on the West Coast, its story began on the opposite side of the country — in Buffalo, New York. Brothers Nate and Rob Ferguson grew up on a farm surrounded by open fields, a farm-to-table mindset, and an early respect for nature. Those roots would carry them through Utah’s mountains and California’s cannabis culture before finally bringing their brand full circle — back home to New York.
“...and now there are a couple of licensed dispensaries in our hometown right across the alley from where we used to hang out. So it’s pretty full circle how far things have come.”
Growing Up in Buffalo: Roots in the Plant
For Nate, the older brother, cannabis began as curiosity and conscience.
“I was selling cannabis, technically a ‘dealer’ by definition, but I never thought there was anything wrong with it morally. I felt there was something special about the plant – it brought people together, kept things mellow, and inspired connection.”
That open-mindedness shaped both brothers’ worldview. Rob remembers how the culture flowed down through Nate’s circle.
“A lot of Nate’s friends brought some of the best weed into our town. New York Sour Diesel was legendary – you’d always catch the scent in the school hallways.”
Even now, that Sour Diesel remains a benchmark for Nate.
“I still look for that strain today. I even have a jar from a grower at Revelry who said it’s the closest phenotype – it’s good, but nothing quite captures that Sour Diesel from our youth. We didn’t have testing and analytics, so you can’t really compare data from the nineties, but I haven’t seen anything that brings me back to that essence and that nose, that terpene profile just smacks you in the face.”
The Utah Detour: From the East to the Mountains
Nate and Rob packed a U-Haul and headed west with a few pounds of flower hidden in the back. They traded city life for small-town slopes and snowboarding freedom.
“We decided to go snowboarding in Utah for a year and brought New York flower along with us. In Utah, you could get a felony for even minor possession back then but we got jobs at a ski resort and started selling weed anyway. We were quickly known around the resort as the ‘New York guys.’ People came to us because at that time quality cannabis was scarce.”
That year in Utah led to unexpected connections. Passing California growers recognized their passion and shared their knowledge, striking up friendships that would eventually pull the brothers farther west.
California and the Birth of Jetty
By 2008, Nate and Rob were part of California’s early medical movement, opening retail and cultivation operations. When federal pressure shut them down, they pivoted to extraction and experimentation.
“The early vape pens weren’t great but we saw potential in the idea.”
“We thought, ‘What if we use 100% pure cannabis oil instead of synthetic additives?’ and that decision became part of Jetty’s DNA.”
Purity became the brand’s defining principle.
“We started the Shelter Project, Jetty’s compassionate cannabis program that provides free cannabis to cancer patients. And we started that about a year after we founded Jetty because there was so much need. Even before legalization, people came to us seeking relief from serious conditions — eating disorders, chronic pain, anxiety. We saw firsthand how cannabis could help people, like real business professionals, soccer moms, you name it, would come in and just ask for some sort of relief. And they would hear through the underground that cannabis is helpful - even if they didn’t know exactly how or why. So we’ve always had that mentality that cannabis can bring relief to anyone who needs it but there were a lot of impure untested products that were cut back then. We wanted to ensure that anything we made for medical use was clean, safe, and high-quality. And we figured, hey, why make one for one group of people and not for the other? It’s the same product that I would give to my mother, my aunt, my cousin that’s sick. The same product that we’d want to give to any recreational user as well.”
That commitment led to Jetty’s solventless process — clean extraction using only ice and water.
“It’s made using only ice and water, it’s a clean, solventless process, like fresh squeezed, organic juice that comes from cannabis instead of a fruit.”
Coming Home: Jetty Returns to New York
Now, more than a decade later, Jetty is bringing its California expertise back to New York, reconnecting with its roots while introducing new innovations.
“We focus on what we do best: manufacturing high-quality cannabis oil and developing new formats for it.”
The company is setting up manufacturing in New York and partnering with local farmers who share their clean-ethics approach. Their goal: replicate the trusted Jetty experience from coast to coast.
“For our distillate line, we do use botanically sourced terpenes as well. We want to create consistency from market to market. So if you try a Jetty distillate vape in California, it’s going to taste the same as the one in New York. We use a mix of botanically and cannabis-derived terpenes to ensure consistency – the same experience from coast to coast. Like what you expect from Coca-Cola, it should taste like a Coca-Cola no matter where you get it.”
Although cannabis-derived terpenes cost more, the brothers insist the difference is worth it.
Next
Jetty’s founders see New York as the next proving ground for authenticity and innovation.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how the industry unfolds and ultimately getting more Jetty products in people’s hands and watching the market mature. I think New York’s a great place for brands to do something different and bigger. You’re in the spotlight and under the microscope more in New York, and also California, than most of the other markets around the U.S. Success in New York can make or break a brand, so I’m excited to see what we can do there.”
“New York has some of the highest general consumption of cannabis products in the world, so it’s going to challenge us. We’re excited to challenge ourselves and continue pushing the brand into new spaces. I hope to see New York embrace cannabis more, even to the point where you start to see social clubs. It’s an events and tourist driven consumer market. We’re excited about the opportunities to engage with those types of activations and opportunities and more events like Honeysuckle’s Hall of Flowers After Hours. We’ve done those a lot in California but I think with the state of the market out there right now, you don’t see as many as you used to. Since New York is still in its early days, you’re going to continue to see a lot of excitement and opportunities to engage with more people in the New York market.”
From the alleys of Buffalo to the labs of Santa Cruz — and back to the state that raised them — Jetty’s story is proof that what begins underground can grow into something far greater when rooted in purpose.
For more visit https://jettyextracts.com
