With medical cannabis as popular as it is, more and more patients have decided to make their own edibles at home. The practice is especially prevalent in states that do not allow smoking cannabis. Making your own edibles is easy, less expensive than buying them, and even quite fun.
Your biggest challenge is figuring out a process that works for you. Whatever you do, don’t rush things. The secret to making your own edibles at home is time. Remember that anything truly worth having is also worth waiting for. If you rush things, you are going to get an inferior product.
Before we go any further, most of the states that allow medical marijuana require patients to obtain a medical cannabis card before they can buy, possess, or use cannabis products legally. So before we even get into making your own edibles at home, do you have a card? If not, you will need to get one before you can visit a dispensary.
Dry and Cure Your Flower
Though there are exceptions to the rule, most cannabis flower you can purchase at a dispensary has not been fully dried or cured. Things are done that way for a reason. At any rate, drying and curing takes time. Do not rush it.
Both marijuana and hemp dry and cure best when kept in a controlled environment at about 70°F and 50% humidity. Obviously, you are not expected to invest in expensive climate control equipment any more than you would buy commercial extraction equipment from a company like Cedarstone Industry. Don’t sweat it.
Closets make excellent rooms for drying and curing cannabis. Choose an interior closet as close to the center of your home as possible. Set your thermostat so the temperature remains constant. Now, just hang up your buds for about 7 to 10 days. They should feel dry to the touch when they are ready to go. The stems will also snap rather than bend.
If you have the time, you can now take your buds and seal them in a plastic bag for 4 to 6 weeks. The idea is to wait until the material is cured enough that buds just fall off with a little shake. If you don’t have that kind of time, no worries. You don’t really need the extra step for medicinal purposes.
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Decarboxylate the Plant
The next step is decarboxylate your cannabis. It is pretty simple. Preheat your oven to 240°. Break the plant material into small pieces and bake it on a cookie sheet for 30 to 40 minutes. It should turn brown, not black.
Once finished, you can grind up the material and add it to your recipes. However, there is another option if you’re not real fond about eating tiny pieces of plant. Instead of decarboxylating in the oven, you can grind up the plant material and put it into a crock-pot or pressure cooker with some kind of fat. Some people use butter, others use coconut oil. You can even use vegetable oil.
Regardless, let it slowly cook for 4-8 hours. You will want to strain the resulting mixture before you add it to your recipes. Straining will eliminate any leftover plant material. Also note that you may have to experiment with several batches to get this right because you may need a longer cooking time in order to get the maximum benefits from your medicine.
You can make your own edibles at home without investing in expensive extraction equipment. All you need is some cannabis flower, a few standard pieces of kitchen equipment, and some time.
