It's October, so for our outdoor growers, that means it's time for harvest. This year, and the past few years as well, have been especially tough on our west coast farmer family due to unforeseen environmental tragedies. To add insult to injury, cannabis farmers aren't given the same opportunity as other agricultural farmers to insure their crops, and in circumstances like these, where smoke damage can destroy their entire harvest, it could be impossible for them to start from scratch the following year.
In these very uncertain times, access to cannabis in a damaged supply chain can become increasingly difficult. If curiosity, financial reasons, or access issues have you experimenting with your first home grow, you definitely want to take advantage of every usable part of the plant, including sugar leaf/trim, stems, flower, and kief.
One important thing to remember when making any type of cannabis infusion is that the first step is always decarboxylation. Simply run your material in the Ardent Nova by pressing the power button (it'll go from green to red, and then back to green when the cycle is complete,) or press the A1 for THC decarb or A2 for CBD decarb in the Ardent FX, and activate over 97% of all present cannabinoids. Now, we're ready to begin.
Pickled Lemons
Chef David Yusefzadeh preserved lemons (and last year's cannabis crop) using Ardent's precision technology! The jar of infused goodness remained inside his fridge for a full year, and contains lemon, cannabis (flower and leaves,) coriander, juniper, and peppercorns.
Pickled Turnips
Pickled turnips are delicious all year long. This mix of spicy, crunchy, and fresh is perfect for gyros and shawarma, meats, salads, omelettes, and more. Throw in your saved up, decarbed stems and trim, or use fluffy decarbed nugs for a potent surprise months from now.
Ready to make your own? Use the ingredients in the image above to make Middle Eastern Pickled Turnips and Jalapeños. Here's how to make the recipe in your FX:
- Decarb your plant material in the FX using the A1 setting to activate THC flower. Use A2 setting to activate CBD.
- Keep the plant material in the FX once it's finished decarbing. Drizzle 1/8 cup of EVOO over top, making sure the plant material is fully coated. Press the infusion setting and allow the oil to infuse for 30 mins. Do not strain. Place to the side. Wipe the FX clean.
- Add lukewarm water, salt and bay leaves into the clean FX, close lid, and allow it to heat up using the bake setting for 40 minutes.
- Allow the salty water to cool off, then add vinegar to the mixture
- Slice turnips, beet, and jalapeños into spears, placing them inside your mason jars with crushed garlic, herbs, and your cannabis/olive oil mixture.
- Pour salty bring over sliced veggies in the mason jars and allow to steep/infuse for about 5 days, agitating daily.
- Enjoy in the fridge for about 3 weeks, longer if properly canned.
Tinctures
Possibly one of the easiest ways to preserve your cannabis crop is through a simple tincture. Tinctures can be made in many ways! We quite enjoy making THC and CBD oil tinctures by decarbing our plant material, infusing it into MCT oil, and straining. To make something that isn't oil based, however, you'll need to use a strong grain alcohol like Everclear. This should never be heated inside Ardent technology or elsewhere. Feel free to reference our guide which instructs on how to use alcohol and vegetable glycerin to make an alcohol tincture with a more mild taste.
Know a better way? Tag us on Instagram with your preservation hacks for the chance to be featured on our page!