Decarboxylation: Don’t Waste Your Harvest

Decarboxlation…The Golden Rule For Edibles

I’ve seen it a hundred times.

A grower spends four months hovering over their plants, drying them to perfection, and then they just toss raw buds into a batch of brownies and wonder why they don’t feel a thing. It’s a crying shame. It’s detrimental to your stash, frankly. If you want your edibles to actually work, you have to understand decarboxylation for cannabis.

Without heat (or long enough heat), that THC is just sitting there as THCA—it won’t get you high, and it won’t help your pain. Your body cannot even utilize it!

In my 50 years, I’ve tried every “shortcut” in the book. And, you WILL feel the effects of properly decarboxylated cannabis.

But the truth is simple: science doesn’t care about your shortcuts. You need a specific temperature for a specific amount of time to “activate” the THC medicine. Get a cheap oven thermometer. Don’t trust the dial on your stove; most of them are off by 10 or 20 degrees.

The Ghost approved of a low-and-slow approach. 240°F for about 40 minutes.

That’s the sweet spot.

You want the buds to turn a light, toasted brown. If they go black, you’ve burnt off the terpenes and the potency. It’s imperative that you grind the bud after it’s dry, not before, to keep those precious oils from evaporating into the hot air of the oven.

At Just Cannabis Seed, we believe in using every part of the plant. But if you’re going to eat it, do it right. Don’t be the guy who wastes a half-ounce of prime flower because he was too impatient to use the oven.

The Ghost Tip: To keep the smell from alerting the whole neighborhood, put your broken-up buds in a Mason jar with the lid on tight (but not “gorilla-tight”) and place the jar in the oven. It keeps the smells nature of your kitchen work in your kitchen.

Have you ever “baked” a batch that did absolutely nothing? Tell us your edible horror stories or get advice over at the JCS Growers Community forum.