I’m about to embark on my first venture into edibles. I’ve been doing tons of reading and have found that there seems to be 4 different ways to do just about everything. Rather than start 10 new threads with questions, I thought I would start an “edibles journal” and intermix my experience with questions I have along the way. Hopefully this will assist others that are trying it for the first time and are overwhelmed with all the information out there.
My goals:
Use as much equipment that I already have as possible, to try to keep costs down.
Try to find a balance between “best methods” and “easiest methods” for a beginner.
Produce one “lightweight” product that is relaxing and can be enjoyed any time.
Produce one “you better take this on a Saturday” product that is hard hitting and long lasting.
Try to use the “worthless weed” (see below) for something instead of throwing it out.
My equipment:
Stovetop
Refrigerator/freezer
Two toaster ovens (Avoid stinking up the house by using in the garage or barn)
4 quart slow cooker/crockpot
Mini (20 ounce) slow cooker/crockpot
Personal Blender
Magic Bullet Blender Gummy bear molds Harvest More Trim Bin Quart Mason Jars
My supplies:
About 3.75 ounces (106 grams) of decent bud.
About 1 ounce (28.5 grams) of trim from the plants that produced the decent bud.
About 1.5 ounces (45 grams) of “worthless” (buzz only lasts 15 minutes) weed.
.07 ounces (2.1 grams) of trim from the worthless weed plant.
Ideas of things to potentially do/try/make:
Cannabutter (obviously)
Brownies
Gummy Bears
Capsules
Tincture
Extractions via the @blackthumbbettymachine free method
@highcountrygal I hope you make a reappearance soon. I got the Trim Bin last year because of your glowing reviews and already have a question about it…
So, I guess I will start this journal by asking - does anyone can anything be done with that weak weed, or should I just throw it out?
I was thinking perhaps I could pick a particular recipe and just quadruple(or more) the amount of herb added to it.
Maybe by increasing the concentration I can either make it stronger or longer lasting.
And for those wondering about this plant, I had a White Widow plant I as growing last year that just would not turn amber. It had cloudy trichomes at something like 10 weeks of age, but never got past 5% amber. I let it go 16 weeks and finally gave up and harvested it. I’m surmising that almost all of the THC had degraded by then.
Also, since I know this will come up in conversation:
Of course I would love to try a Magical Butter Machine but I want to make sure that I enjoy making edibles and can do a decent job at it before I spend money on more equipment.
There are a few other machines out there that cost less for sure. I’ve just never personally have used the others because I’ve had great success with mb2. But totally understand the spending portion of it @blackthumbbetty methods work great for her and I’ll definitely be following along!
I have 3 boxes of fans/sugar leaves that I plan on making a killer batch of budder out of. I’ll use 500 grams of decarbed dried trim, a few spritzes of everclear, 2/3 cup oil/ghee, a quart of h20, and my pressure cooker. In less than an hour, I’ll have enough budder to make 30+ kick-ass edibles (for others, it’ll probably make 45-60 servings).
First you must decarboxylate your raw material. Use the whole plant minus the roots. This will give you the highest medicinal effect.
Heat oven to 200-212 degrees. Put desired plant material in a mason jar and seal the top. Put jar in oven for 45 minutes.
After decarboxylation remove from oven and let it cool over night. This will allow the terpenes to absorb into the plant material.
Fill this jar with Organic Coconut Oil. Fill to the top of the jar covering all the plant material.
Cook in a water bath at 118 degrees for 5 days. Stir occasionally.
Remove from water bath and filter Coconut Oil. Squeeze the material to remove all the oil.
Re-fill the jar with new oil and heat for an additional 3 days. Remove from water bath and filter.
Now add Sunflower liquid Lecithin. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons to one cup of coconut oil.
This can be used as an oral or topical solution. Enjoy. This way may cost Hundred dollars for the sous vide cooker but I’ll tell you what I’ve made it 100 different ways and these are by far the strongest using butter or oil
My butter guy takes 8 oz plus of my trimmings leaves stems any waste plant matter to make 1 lb of ghee butter. His methods very time consuming take him a day to make the ghee and another 48 hours of butter cook time but the product he brings me back is fantastic 1/3 cup of butter in a brownie mix gives brownies that 1/2 brownie puts regular consumers on couch for hours. I eat about an 8th of a brownie to sleep
Okay, here is my second question:
When I decarboxylate the material, do I have to use it all right away or can I decarboxylate a bunch of it and freeze some for later?
Okay, here’s another question:
Last year I did a wet trim on a plant I harvested. I put this wet trim into a ziploc and tossed it into the freezer.
Should I let this trim air dry for some period of time, put it in the oven for a short time to dry out, put it straight into the oven and decarboxylate it, or something else?
Lots of people do exactly what you did without any negative results. I tend to let mine sit out and cure and don’t seem to have any ill effects that way either.
I pop off any stray calyxes from the stems, but I don’t bother with them, otherwise. I used to simmer them down into the budder, too, but decided they weren’t worth the hassle.
I like it, I’m gonna steal it