This is a quick and easy recipe for making delicious cannabis sugar cookies. The recipe includes only 8 ingredients, and also is completed in just a little over 10 simple steps. This recipe will make 48 sugar cookies, and should take 60 minutes or less, start to finish.
What Ingredients you will need:
1/8 cup (~2 tablespoons) cannabis coconut oil (~26 grams)
solid wooden spoon (strong for enough to mix the dough)
spatula
digital scale
mixing bowls
cooking tray
oven mitten
Optional items:
parchment paper
whisk
silicone baking mats
Total time: ~ 30-60 minutes
Total cookies: ~ 4 dozen
Directions:
While the video does break the process down into over 10 steps, don't be fooled, this is a very easy to do recipe.
Start by adding the dry ingredients together. So that's the flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar. I whisk this all together for a bit, but that isn't a required step.
Next add the egg, vanilla and butter and cannabutter. Make sure the butter has been given time to soften to room temperature. This makes the mixing step a whole lot easier.
How much Cannabutter to use???
This recipe called for 2 sticks of butter, which also 1 cup or 16 tablespoons. So the amount of canna-butter you add is up to you. Just remember the more you add the stronger each cookie will be.
Coconut Canna oil conversion
1 tablespoon (1/16 cup), weighs about 14 grams or 15 ml
2 tablespoons (1/8 cup), weighs about 27 grams or 30ml
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup), weighs about 54 grams or 60ml
After you have mixed the cookie dough, you can go right into cutting the dough into cookies to cook, or you can put the dough into the refrigerator to cool and firm up. This step is optional and will increase the overall cooking time. However I find this process to make the dough easier to work with, and you can also clean the kitchen and pre-heat the oven while the dough cools. Your choice!
Now you're ready to make the dough into cookies. First lightly grease the cookie tray, but this isn't needed if you have a silicone baking mat. Pre-heat the oven to 350-375. Next begin cutting the dough into equal sizes. The goal here is to make 4 dozen cookies of equal weight. That way each will have the same amount of cannabutter. If you really want to be exact a cooking scale will help you with this step.
Once you have them cut and on the cookie tray, in the pre-heated oven your cookies go! They will need around 10 minutes depending on your oven. The goal is to get them to bake until just before they turn golden brown. Remember - golden good, Golden brown ok, brown not so good! Over cooking or burning them will not just ruin the sugar cookie, but also burn away the THC.
Once they are cooked to your desired amount. The sugar cookies just need about 15 minutes to sit in the cookie tray and then can be served, stored and even frozen for later.
Enjoy!!!
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We are in the process of trying out a new light. Switching the MH/HPS 600w system out for a TSL 2000 LED Quantum Light from MarsHydro (approximately the equivalent of a 450w MH/HPS system.
This video is just the unboxing and reveal in one of the tents. Though very excited to start putting this light to actual work and not just looking pretty on display.
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Here is a quick video of our solitary Northern Lights hermie plant on harvest day. We had to isolate her from the main area after the plant started displaying intersex traits.
It was a hard choice to move or kill the plant, because the plant was about 3/4's of the way through the flowering phase and we didn't really have another place for it. And yes this can be expected for some strains, but we didn't want to pollenate any of the other plants.
She was ultimately quarantined to the veg tent where we had our clones for the the next cycle. It was pretty fun to watch the clones also go into flower mode. However it took nearly a month for them to re-veg. Delaying the next cycle.
We were pretty sure this NL plant hermied as a result of human error. We made a couple mistakes with lighting and light leak during the vegetative phase. So this wasn't unexpected. We were happy to find that only one plant hermied.
The lighting was 12 LED bulbs putting out a combined total of 108w.
If anyone has any input about the leaf coloring that would be great. We did reduce total feeding strength about 2 weeks prior to harvesting.
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1. Party Hosting 101 - The Basics
Before you can assume the title of "King of the Party" or "Hostess with the Mostess". There are a number of factors you need to have locked down. Here is a list of the main things to have set-up before the guests start arriving.
Space - You need to make sure that your guests are going to be able to see the game and try to make them as comfortable as possible for the 4+ hour event. This also applies to the flow too and from the food/drink and bathroom(s). Try to ensure people can get to those stations without blocking the views of the other guests.
Food, Beverages and Non-Food Supplies - Ensuring that there is enough food and drink for all of the guests can be a daunting task. One easy way to help ensure the supplies do not dwindle, is to make the party a potluck design or BYOB. That way you can reduce the total amount you need to provide and set guest expectations ahead of time. Make sure you are well stocked on all the essentials for food and non-food activities before Game day. Avoid shopping the weekend of through game day if at all possible.
Vegetarians & Vegans Are Football Fans & Stoners Too - If you are supplying food to your guests make sure you have options for all of your guests. By stating in advance what you will be making, it will alert those with dietary restrictions to bring additional items.
2. Selecting the right Cannabis
If you are going to be providing cannabis to your guests, there are a lot of options to choose from now, Strain type, flower, concentrates, edibles). In our opinion the best choice would be either Flower or concentrates. Edibles are less predictable and we would not recommend them for this type of event.
Choosing the right strain for the Super Bowl - We recommend going with a hybrid or indica leaning strain, preferably containing between 10-20% THC. By choosing a hybrid and indica leaning strains you can avoid some of the negative effects commonly associated with sativa strains; such as anxiety, panic attacks, and paranoia. Hybrid and indica leaning strains tend to have more calming effects without fully knocking out your guests. We also strongly recommend against sativa given that the Super Bowl alone can cause a lot of anxiety and stress in its viewers. Indica and Indica leaning Hybrids will be a great option to avoid those issues.
We recommend: Northern Lights, BubbleGum, and most of the OG or Kush varieties.
Choosing The Right Cannabis Form (Flower, Concentrates or Edibles) - First we want to start with what not to choose. In our humble opinion we do not suggest offering edibles to your guests. Not everyone is experienced with edibles, and they have a longer on-set and duration, both of which may not be desired by your guests. Also homemade edibles can vary in strength well beyond commercial brands. You also need to clearly mark these as cannabis edibles so guests don't accidentally eat them. The main issue we see with edibles is that your guests may be under the influence long after the game has ended. More potent edibles could leave your guests under the influence into workday on Monday. If you choose edibles, be mindful of ensuring your guests get home safely (i.e. walking, car-pooling, ride-sharing, couching it, etc.).
Okay We're sorry for that PSA Tirade...
Flower & Concentrates are a great option for the Super Bowl. You have a variety of strains to choose from, and each will have a unique flavor profile and effect. Also there are a lot of ways to smoke cannabis. And they will not leave your guests stoned long after the game has been won or lost.
Vap Pens - These are expensive but really easy to use. They also make no mess and leave little odor after being used. Possibly the best choice if your budget will allow.
Water pipes, bowls and one-hitters - In our opinion these are all great options but you need to know your audience as they are not inconspicuous. One-hitters are a great method to conserve your flower reserves. If you have people over who do not smoke these are not the best choice. If you choose these options, we recommend cleaning out smoking pieces before the party and to have alcohol wipes. Some people will be very grateful to sanitize the smoking device between uses.
Party Joints or Blunts - These can be great when all attendees are okay with smoking. These can also be enjoyed outside or away from the main room. If you enjoy these methods inside, expect that room or rooms to smell like cannabis afterwards. If you go with these options, consider stocking up on papers and blunts for the party.
3. Good Party Etiquette - Cannabis Guidelines & Safety
As any good host, you need to work to make sure the supplies are stocked and the guests are having a good time. You also need to make sure the guests are not overdoing it. In many ways this is like keeping an eye on the alcohol consumption by your guests. Try imposing a cannabis cut-off like what is done at baseball games. Where alcohol is no longer served after the 7th inning. This will help ensure your guests will be able to get home safely. Also if you live in an apartment or condo with central air, keep in mind that your neighbors may be bothered by the smells. If you have a central air system, you should consider Vap Pens or have your guests enjoy the cannabis outside of the building and away from any A/C units and fans. And as we have mentioned earlier, if you have guests that do not enjoy cannabis, be mindful of this. Communicate the house rules to your guests ahead of time so there are no issues at the party. Also have back-up plans for any guests who are not able to get home safely on their own.
4. Super Bowl Squares - The Cannabis Version
This is something we are going to try this year. We thought it would be a fun thing to share. We are basically taking the rules from Super Bowl Squares and in place of cash winnings you get flower or seeds. Buy-in agreed upon by all parties and you work to fill the squares. And then during the game people learn if they won by the scores at the end of each quarter, half and final score.
5. Make Sure Your TV Gets The Game
This is by far one of the most important things to have locked down before kick-off. Yes it may also sound like the dumbest thing in the world, but with so many people getting rid of cable you may not have the channel to watch the game. Should you be one of those people there are a lot of options. Temporarily signing-up for a cable package, online streaming, streaming through your smart tv. Whichever method you go with, just do your research as some may be more pricey than others.
We would love to hear how you decided to enjoy the game. What cannabis strains did you choose, and what cannabis product did you have at your party.
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How to Clean Your Grinders & Make Quality Concentrates
This is a safe and easy guide to using isopropyl alcohol to clean your grinders, flower jars, and bubble bags. Through this method, the isopropyl alcohol rinse will make your gear look as good as new. And it will leave you with quality cannabis extract. This method uses the popular QWISO Method.
QWISO - Quick Wash Isopropyl (a.k.a Iso-Hash, Quick Wash Hash) is a very easy and effective method to strip the trichomes from the flowers of mature cannabis plants to produce high quality concentrates and extracts.
Any Well-Used Gear That Needs To Be Cleaned:
Grinder(s)
Kief, Bud / Nug or Flower Jar(s)
Bubble Bag(s)
What Supplies you will need:
Isopropyl Alcohol (91% or 99%)
Parchment paper
Razor (two makes this process easier)
Total time: ~ 3 - 7 Days
The total time depends greatly on how much isopropyl alcohol is used. This method does not involve heating, but rather passively allows it to evaporate. Which could take up to and even more than 7 days to be completely evaporated.
Step 1: Rinsing the Gear with Isopropyl Alcohol
The first step is to wash the gear that is covered in trichomes. It could be a well-used grinder that is clogged, flower jars that are covered in kief, and even bubble bag screens.
How to Rinse your Nug, Flower, or Stash Jars:
Jars are the easiest to rinse and clean. Just fill the jar approximately 25% of the way. Seal it back up and begin shaking it vigorously. You want to continue doing this until all of the walls of the jar appear to be clean of trichomes.
How to Rinse a Grinder:
Grinders are also fairly simple to wash. You need to rinse and clean each part of the grinder individually. And it is best to do so in either a tupperware or plastic bag. Fill the container to about 1/3 the volume, and shake it until that part of the grinder appears clean. If done well each component will look brand new.
How to Rinse Bubble Bags:
Bubble bags don't require the entire device to be rinsed. You only need to focus the wash on the screen areas of the bubble bag. We have had a lot of success simply dipping the screen part of the bag in a container filled with isopropyl alcohol.
Lift and dip, lift and dip until the bag has been cleaned of any trichomes left over from the last ice wash.
Cannabis Infused Isopropyl Alcohol Solution
Once the isopropyl alcohol has stripped the trichomes from the device or jar, the solution will change in coloring.
The more densely the concentration of trichomes and plant matter the darker the solution will appear. This greatly depends on the volume of isopropyl used. This solution can appear relatively clear if there is a much higher ratio of alcohol to trichomes. And it can also appear greener to even black if the solution contains any other plant material such as chlorophyll and plant waxes.
A solution that is dark golden in color and free of any plant particles (hairs and leaf) is ideal at this step in the QWISO process.
We were not able to keep the solution free of plant particles. This was acceptable for us.
For a purer solution and final product, using a coffee filter will be a very effective tool. We opted to not use a filter as you will inevitably lose some of the final product in this step.
Before the Iso wash
After the Iso wash
Step 2: Evaporation & Storage
Pour all of the cannabis isopropyl alcohol solution into your baking dish. You can use more alcohol on the jars and devices to ensure that you are not leaving any trichomes.
After all of the solution has been added to the dish, you will need to give the solution time to evaporate.
Although this sounds like an easy step (and it is), you need to ensure that the dish is stored in a well-ventilated area that is free of any heating sources. This technique is safe as it does not require you to put the flammable liquid over a heating source to rapidly evaporate the alcohol.
This process can take anywhere from 72 hours to over a week. It really depends on the total volume of alcohol used through the earlier steps.
Do not proceed to the next steps until the product is fully dry. If it appears wet or even oily, the product is not ready and you need to check back in no less than a day.
Step 3: Collection of the Final Product
Once the product has dried fully, you can use a razor to scrap the final product into a ball. This process is made easier if you use 2 razors. One to remove the hash from the glass dish, and the other to remove the has from the first razor.
This process can be difficult at first and also quite messy. It is best to collect the hash oil concentrate in a cold setting, as the concentrate will possess oil qualities when it becomes warm.
It may not look like much. But that golden even honey coloring is exactly what you are aiming for.
Parchment paper is a great medium to store the hash concentrate on. If you cool the hash in a refrigerator, the paper can be used to squeeze the hash into a thin pancake. Which can be an easy way to divide up the hash for use later.
Should there be a lot of left over product on the dish that you are not able to remove using the razor. You can go back to the earlier steps, using more isopropyl alcohol to pull the hash back into solution.
Final Product:
We have squished the ball into a thin pancake to show the golden amber color of the hash. This coloring shows up when the hash is backlit. The purer the product the more golden yellow it will be.
For us this is pure enough as it will eventually be converted into edibles.
We store this in the refrigerator, but it could also be stored in a freezer.
And just if you are curious how much can you expect to yield from your bud jars?
We rinsed 12 jars used to cure our flower. They were still covered in kief.
From those jars we were able to produce a hash concentrate weighing in at 1.0 gram.
Determining Strength and Potency of your Cannabis Concentrates
The best way to understand the approximate strength of your extracts, is to know how much cannabis you are starting with. It is very hard to get a starting quantity from cleaning your grinders, jars, and cannabis accessories (i.e. bubble bags). However you can weigh the final product.
Assume that hash, wax, concentrate you just made, contains no less than 50% THC.
That way you can determine that a gram of this concentrate is close to 2 times as potent as 25% THC flower. IF NOT MUCH MUCH STRONGER
Our recommendation, is to always start with a small dose. If that amount proves to be less than adequate, only then increase to another dose. Better safe than sorry.
Additional Notes
We didn't use heat for this method. If you would like to use heat to speed up the evaporation process, please use extreme caution. DO NOT PERFORM THIS TASK INSIDE YOUR HOME DO IT IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA, FREE FROM ANY HEATING SOURCES
Use caution when working with the razors. The concentrates are fairly sticky and could make you lose your grip on the blade. Take it slow and be careful with your movements.
Filters are a great way to keep your concentrate free of particles. You may end up losing some THC in the process.
If you have plastic devices you want to wash. Please do your own research on how isopropyl alcohol reacts to it. Some plastics can tolerate isopropyl alcohol, others may breakdown from contact. Do your own due diligence, before washing your gear. For your own safety and the longevity of your devices.
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This is a quick and easy recipe for making delicious cannabis chocolate bars. The recipe includes only 5 ingredients, and also is completed in just 5 simple steps. And really takes between 1-2 hours start to finish.
depends on how long the chocolate bar is allowed to cool during step 5
So, lets start making some homemade cannabis chocolate bars
Step 1: Measuring
Start by measuring and adding each of the ingredients (cacao powder, cannabis coconut oil, maple syrup, honey, vanilla extract) into the pyrex bowl.
We recommend using a scale for measuring out the cannabis coconut oil. It is a great tool for determining approximate strength of your edibles. See determining strength & potency below for more information.
Step 2: Heating & Mixing
Once all of the ingredients are in the pyrex bowl. Heat a frying pan on medium heat and add water into the pan. Place the pyrex bowl into the frying pan. You want a decent amount of water to be in the frying pan at all times. However not enough so that it will overflow once the water comes to a full boil. Depending on the heat setting, you may need to reapply water to the pan during this step.
Remember to only use glassware that is heat tempered such as pyrex glass. If you are not sure, use a smaller sauce pan instead of the glass bowl. As long as water can boil between them it will work fine.
Using a spoon or fork or whisk, begin to mix the ingredients. The cannabis coconut oil and other liquids will begin to turn the cacao powder into a gel. Continue to stir vigorously throughout this process.
Should the mixture be overly soupy or oily, add more cacao powder in small amounts.
Should the mixture be too crumbly and dry add more regular coconut oil (non-cannabis).
Most importantly, be aware of the temperature, as you do not want to burn the chocolate. You are simply trying to melt all of the ingredients evenly.
Step 3: Pouring the Cannabis Chocolate
Once all of the ingredients have dissolved, you are ready to pour the cannabis chocolate into your tupperware container. Turn off the stove and using the oven mittens and a spatula, carefully pour into the tupperware. The spatula will help you retrieve all that was in the pyrex bowl and also level out the bar.
Be careful here as the bowl will still be quite hot to the touch.
Avoid spilling the chocolate on the upper part of the tupperware as it will not be part of the finished molding at the bottom.
Step 4: Freezing the Cannabis Chocolate Bar
Depending on how cold your fridge / freezer is, this step can take around 30-60 minutes. If you are not in a rush to make use of your homemade cannabis chocolate edible it can stay in the freezer for months.
Step 5: Scoring the Cannabis Chocolate Bar for Proper Dosing
This is actually one of the most crucial steps in this process, aside from standard safety while cooking. Once the bar has had time to harden you need to score the bar into even parts.
This is really important so that you and everyone who enjoys this bar knows approximately how much they are ingesting. For reference I tend to break it down into 20 or 25 equal pieces.
It is always possible to eat more should you realize the dosing is too weak for your needs. Please be careful and do not overdose yourself or others.
Determining Strength and Potency of your Cannabis Chocolate Edible
Say you use 1 oz of cannabis flower to make a pound of coconut butter. That means you should be 1oz of cannabis distributed throughout that 1 lb of canna coco oil.
This recipe uses 50g of canna coco oil. Which is approximately 1/10th of that 1 lb of oil. So you can assume the entire cannabis chocolate bar will then contain approximately 1/10th of an ounce of cannabis or roughly 2.8 grams
And by breaking the bar into equal parts, let's say 4 parts, you then can predict the approximate strength from what it started at. In this example each piece of the bar would contain around 0.7 grams of active cannabis oil.
Everyone responds to edibles differently. So until you know your own tolerance, start with smaller doses.
Additional Notes
Long-term Storage: the 24oz tupperware is a cost effective method for creating the chocolate molds, and using the recipe above you can also fit 4 bars into a single tupperware. In the freezer these bars can last for at least 6 months.
When using Fruit & Berries: keep in mind that fruit and berries can reduce the shelf-life of your chocolate edibles. They should be always refrigerated, and consumed in no more than 1-2 weeks. Freeze your cannabis chocolate bar for longer storage.
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2018 Outdoor Cannabis Grow Week: Forget the week...Today we are harvesting Strain: Super Silver Haze
Last plant to be chopped down. Wanted to put together a quick video to pay homage to all three of them. It was quite the journey this summer and fall. That actually started way way back in early winter of 2018. When all three of these plants were selected from a cloning rig. They were the lucky ladies out of a group of ten cuttings.
All three of these plants had a slow start because of the cold temps through the spring and summer. But all of them took off once the temperatures started remaining above 70 degrees. And turned into giants that just didn't want to flip into flower mode.
They didn't need a lot of care and support during the vegetative stage. SSH strain grew tall during this stage and the stems were plenty thick to support them reaching heights of 13 feet. It didn't hurt that the summer saw very few high wind occurrences.
During this period we didn't need to provide them with any nutrients. Our soil was pre-mixed store bought 55 cubic liters and we then mixed it up with coco coir that was left over from our indoor grow.
We felt this was needed to help stimulate the root growth and allow oxygen to get and the excess water to flow out of the medium without pooling.
Although it was fun, it wasn't all happiness and orange sunshine.
We learned pretty early into August that these ladies were going to need either a meteorological miracle where weather remained mild and dry through October and maybe into November. Other option would be to physically manipulate the plants light cycle.
Unfortunately due to the heights of these plants any kind of tent or cover was going to be impossible for us.
So we were left with the natural option and had a wild ride watching the weather get progressively worse over the next 2.5 months. September went by without any major issues, and for the most part October's temperature didn't drop too much. But the constant humidity in the fall months was severely damaging to the bud development.
Some weeks the temperature was hovering in the 60's but it was either raining all day and on the off days the humidity was still >75%. That promoted a bud rot to form on all of our plants. And try and we might to remove the diseased sections, it wasn't always successful.
Given our experience with just three outdoor plants. We gained a new respect for any groups that professionally run farms out in the other legal states.
We also didn't use any pesticides this year. Another factor that promoted bud rot was the caterpillars we didn't realize were in our buds until harvest time.
Yeah Bub. I'm talking to you and all your friends. Next year it's on, like Donkey Kong.
Fun fact as we were trimming the leaves off the buds. This one caterpillar had an aphid riding on it's back. The aphid is just out of focus in the back but you can see it's body outline.
So this may sound like the grow was a total loss, but that's not true. We had pests, rot and harvested all three of the plants well before full bud development. And all of these facts are not ideal.
But we did learn a lot, and now know true sativa strains like SSH will need help converting over to flowering to make go full term before the season ends in New England.
And we have a lot of bud to work into oils, concentrates and edibles.
I have to say we are still perfecting our skills at the Ice Water Hash Bubble Bags. Our first run was good, but all other runs have not yielded anything great.
Here is a photo of some scissor trimming and finger hash formed into a little ball. Although it's small this was the first time i've been able to get nearly all of it all my fingers. Usually I would just scrub that stuff off and accept the loss. Again just another example of the small victories from this grow season.
This shot is really poorly focused and I don't have the caterpillars in the shot. But I took the photo because they would slowly start climbing the bag, even reaching the top after a little while.
Kind of felt like I was playing a caterpillar version of Tempest. Where I would need to knock them back down to the bottom or they would escape into the house and I'd be in trouble.
We have a ton of the pre-developed popcorn buds. If you can call them that. :(
Now all we have outside is around 100 gallons of soil and stems and roots which will be composted and spread around the gardens. Lots of experience gained this year, and a new approach to the 2019 grow season.
So that's where I left those pink flamingos...
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2018 Outdoor Cannabis Grow Week: 11 of Flowering Strain: Super Silver Haze
Well we did it! We were able to get one of the three Super Silver Haze plants to get nearly through the flowering stage. There were a lot of doubters out there. And a couple of times it really looked doubtful that these plants were could go the distance. But hey to poorly paraphrase MeatLoaf, "1 out of 3 ain't bad". And that's basically how we feel. 👏🙏
So we are seeing that this plant ended up having the slowest development during the flowering stage. It also had the least bud rot. Which could have been due to the fact that it was the farthest away from other plants and bushes.
The top colas were looking pretty ripe. And with the incoming weather bringing frost warnings and rain it seemed like a good time to harvest.
As you can see below even some of the top colas weren't fully ready for harvest. Oh well. There is always next year. And we'll have plenty of product from this season to convert into hash and canna-coconut oil for edibles.
We're definitely going to be testing our baking abilities this holiday season. 🍪🍫🍬
So of the plant really started showing a lot of purples.
According to WikiLeaf and other sources on the interwebs. Purple is unfortunately not indicative of a higher potency. But this could be due to genetics or the environment was optimal.
In our case it was almost certainly environmental. By that we mean the plants were allowed to flower in cold temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Under these conditions the chlorophyll in the leaves started to break down and another compound called, anthocyanin starts showing through as the concentration overtakes that of the chlorophyll. As you can guess this compounds color is purple.
The purple buds also stood out with these thick orange pistils (see below). The buds were ultimately not ripe and were not as filled out as we would have liked them to be by week 11. It was probably due to the cold, rain and end of the growing season weak sunshine.
We are very excited to try out these purple buds though. Our indoor grows haven't yielded any of these so this is a first.
From our research Super Silver Haze lineage is primed for purple buds. Northern Lights is a strain known to contain large amounts of anthocyanin.
Anyways this was a fun run. After this post we're transitioning into harvesting posts / videos. And then edible creations.
If you have any suggestions for edibles we would love to hear them and get any special recipes.
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2018 Outdoor Cannabis Grow Week: 9 and 1/2 of Flowering Strain: Super Silver Haze
Week 9 and 1/2 and we are cutting down the second plant. Unfortunately it is also immature, but the harvest was required to prevent the spread of bud rot. And the weather in New England was supposed to be cold and wet for the majority of the next 10 days.
Looking at the plants using a jeweler's loupe we saw that the plant had a pretty decent presence of amber trichomes. Not enough to really warrant harvesting at this time, but a higher concentration than the first harvested plant.
Some of the buds still had a lot of white pistils on them. As you can see in the photo below.
Some thoughts after growing Super Silver Haze outdoors in New England.
1. Train and top the plants
We didn't do this and they grew to be between 10-13 feet in some places. That was fun but it made them hard to manage. Had we topped and trained them over the course of the summer. The heights would have been managed better, and we could have better addressed other issues as they developed.
2. Provide support for the plants as the buds developed
Here in New England as the season changes from summer to fall the area gets a lot of wind and heavy rain. Both of which did a number of the tall top heavy sativa plants. By not providing them with proper supports, most of the plants had branches and stems that snapped and died.
3. Manipulate the light cycle
We allowed the plants to enter the flowering cycle naturally. This was by far our biggest mistake of the outdoor season. Had we forced the plants into flowering one month earlier, they would likely have reached their full potential in the flowering cycle.
4. Pesticides during the vegetative cycle
We didn't use any pest control methods this season. As a result the plants were attacked by caterpillars. These were in the buds as they were harvested and dried. Doing some general research on this subject, we could have found a number of safe options that would have helped the end product.
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2018 Outdoor Cannabis Grow Week 9 of Flowering Strain: Super Silver Haze
The Super Silver Haze strain is a 100% true sativa plant, and in our opinion they have truly thrived here in the New England climate. Today is chopping day for one of the three plants. It is farthest into the flowering stage, and also is getting hit the hardest with infection.
Although these plants have been very resilient to the cool climate here in New England (lows in the high 30's), they were susceptible to both mold and pests. And that has pushed up the harvesting timeline.
But that was not exactly their fault. We decided not to use pesticides, and did not provide them with any covering during the wetter weeks between September and October. It is very possible that these plants would not have had these issues if we tended to them differently.
Ultimately this was an experiment to see how well the strain could grow here in New England. And we provided them with minimal assistance. Other than the nutrients in the pre-mix store bought soil, we fed them nothing during the entire vegetative stage. And then offered only a handful of feedings during the early-middle flowering period.
In our opinion this strain did very well, and grew tall and healthy. And probably could have gone another couple weeks if the rot and pests weren't a factor. And that is without a covering.
All of the flower and sugar leaf from the plant being chopped today will be converted into concentrates which will be used for edibles. The plant matter will be bagged and frozen fresh. From what we have read, drying can remove some of the Terpene flavor profile from the concentrates if plant matter is allowed to dry.
That will be another video down the road.
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With Halloween just a week away. We felt it was appropriate to do a movie review. And this isn't to review anything new. Oh no this is from the b film archives. Thanks to the streaming video providers there is no shortage of terribly cheesy horror films to choose from.
You know the movies I'm talking about. Straight to VHS. Where there is a light amount of nudity, tons of poor to terrible dialogue, and plot lines that just really don't go anywhere.
Please note that below this photo there will be a lot of movie spoilers. Yeah I know this film is ancient but don't read further if you might want to watch this multi-movie series about a Warlock that terrorizes modern society.
So if you're still with me. Light 'em if you got 'em. And I'd like to suggest you check out Warlock (release date in the US 1991). Produced and released by New World Pictures.
Spoilers below this line...
First let's just say this film was very enjoyable with the help from some super silver haze.
Warlock the film, begins in Boston, Massachusetts in the 1600's where a witch is being held in a tower awaiting his execution. He was somehow caught by a witch hunter who is overseeing the warlocks detainment until he is burned alive.
New World Picture (release 1991)
And I like the dialogue here, because they are going to burn a living cat along with the warlock. Priceless...
I was reading reviews about this film before watching. One of the best comments. The Warlock is a lot like the terminator only he goes forward in time and is a fantasy villain rather than a sci-fi villain.
Anyways the winds kick up and the Warlock disappears with it, and he is transported to Las Angeles in the late 1980's. The witch-hunter magically followed the Warlock and continues his pursuit.
The movie at this point introduces a ditzy blonde female lead. Who is living with a gay roommate. That roommate is murdered by the Warlock. He actually kisses the gay roommate and bites off the man's tongue before murdering him. The acting is pretty terrible in this scene. And it seems like this whole angle might have been very edgy some 25 years ago. Now it just seems dated and unrealistic.
So the ditzy blonde is chalk full of lingo that probably hasn't been uttered by anyone since the 90's. I think that's one of the things that makes this movie so enjoyable. Just how dated everything about it is.
All rights reserved to New World Pictures
The ditzy blonde is cursed by the Warlock and starts to age 20 years every 24 hours. Her transformation is just awful, but she keeps on wearing her hip outfits which is hilarious as she goes from being a 20 year old to a 40 then 60 year old.
The Warlock is looking for pages of a book that will help him call out the true name of God and basically destroy the world by reversing everything God created.
It's really odd how a lot of the pages are stored in random places. Like tables and attics, as though these would not have been discovered at some point over the some 300 years they were hiding.
The plot is going to bounce around a lot. But stick with it, the ending is pretty good.
You get to learn a lot about hexes and witches in this movie. And combines 1980's LA hipster, with child face eating Warlock, Amish, and Grave desecrating all in just 103 minutes.
The ditzy blonde actually saves the world by injecting salt water into the veins of the Warlock in a Boston cemetery. I will say that nothing about that end scene looks like Boston.
And furthermore, this poor woman has it pretty rough. She is forced to endure a curse of aging. She has to travel from LA to Boston hunting a Warlock. And once she kills the Warlock, he and the witch-hunter disappear. Leaving her in Boston without her car, and a ton of new credit card expenses. And she was complaining about having no money from the start of the film and she went ahead and maxes out all her credit cards...
My favorite scene #1: Hands down the entire time they are in the Airport.
Why, because everything about that has changed. Yes it's a movie. But they show up and basically board a flight they have just paid for. And the protagonists run through the entire airport and board the airplane with a huge weathervane.
My favorite scene #2: The Boston cab driver scene
The film plays on the rivalry between Boston Celtics and LA Lakers in this scene. When the witch-hunter is arguing with the cab driver on where to go on Tremont street in Boston. Because he knew where to go over 300 years ago. Oh well it's unfortunate they couldn't get an uber in this movie and just point out the location on their phones.
Rotten Tomatoes gives this a 53%
And if you like this film please note that it has 2 other sequels. We watched the second one right after this one. It was also terrible enough to be good.
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Bud sites are starting to really fill in which is great. But we've also seen a fair occurrence of bud rod on one of the plants.
Having come from mainly running indoor grows, we have been trying to manage these new challenges as they develop. Which is obviously not ideal, but it's sort of all we could do.
We have been very lucky with the temperature. But the excessive moisture really hurt our plants.
Here are some bud shots at week 8. They are clearly not ready to be harvested. But we are racing against factors that we cannot control. So harvest is likely coming in the next week or two.
Even the lower bud sites have started to show amber colored trichomes and red pistils.
This photo was used for our youtube video. One of the better buds on the most eastern facing plant. It's been hit hardest by the bud rot.
Under a jeweler's loupe we are seeing a mix of clear, cloudy (white) and even amber trichomes.
We've noticed that the pistils and trichomes are in different stages based on where the plants are positioned. They sit in a row with one plant facing the east, one being in the middle, and the last plant facing the west.
The most western plant is the least ripe, with majority of pistils being white and the trichomes largely still having that clear look.
The most eastern plant is the most ripe, with about 40-50% of the pistils having turned red, and the trichomes being majority cloudy, followed by clear, and less so amber.
Here is an example of the bud rot. Such a shame that we couldn't control or prevent it from happening this year... 👎
It has been a really fun ride, watching these plants go from being cuttings, to foot tall transplants, to 12-13 foot giants.
And we arrived to this point with minimal feeding and training.
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