Welcome to Croptober

Even though we sell the best weed in Scarborough and Niagara Falls, we also love to support your efforts to grow and produce your own cannabis. All month long we’ll be sharing content that will help you get the most out of your home grow. If you’re looking for tips and tricks to harvest, check out “When To Harvest Weed” for a soup-to-nuts guide. If you’ve already harvested and want to know what to do with all the leftover trim, then read on! 

What To Do With Cannabis Trim FAQ 

Before we dive into recipes and expert advice on what to do with cannabis trim, we want to answer some basic questions about it. If there’s something we missed, comment or email us and we’ll add it in: 

What to do with cannabis leaves?

Once you’ve chopped your cannabis plant, hung, dried, trimmed and stored your homegrown bud, the next step is dealing with the leaves and trim. Of course you’re free to compost the leftovers but this article will also show you how to turn them into cannabis gold. 

Can leaves get you high?

The short answer is no, they can’t. However there’s a difference between fan leaves and sugar leaves. Fan leaves are the large cannabis leaves that you’ve been trimming all season. While these leaves make excellent nutritional supplements (see below) they won’t get you high. However, the sugar leaves will. These are the leaves directly around the bud where trichomes will be collected. You’ll want to create two piles: one are the fan leaves that can be used for various things and the other with the trim and sugar leaves to be used for edibles, concentrates and topicals. You can also grind up the sugar leaves and trim to smoke but it might not be as pleasant or as impactful as smoking your beautiful buds. 

Can you smoke fan leaves?

We wouldn’t recommend it. Even if you dry these leaves they won’t get you very high. The best use of fan leaves is to make juices and other food supplements (smoothies, etc). They do contain some CBD and small amounts of THC so you can also use them for topicals but they won’t usually be that potent. 

How to store sugar leaves?

If you’re not ready to use them, the best thing to do with sugar leaves and other trim is to freeze them. This will maintain the terpenes and flavour best. However, you can also drop them into your masons jars with a moisture pack, especially if you want to smoke them later. 

Are there any terms or vocabulary that I should know? 

If you’re an experienced home grower this may be a little recap to what you already know. However if this is your first season growing here are some terms you should learn as they will be an essential part of what to do with cannabis trim. If you’re interested in learning more, check our recent post: Cannabis In Canada 101

Terpenes

Terpenes are aromatic compounds found throughout nature, not just in cannabis plants. In cannabis, they contribute to the distinctive flavours and scents of different strains. When it comes to what to do with cannabis trim, terpenes are important based on how to harvest and store. Usually freezing trim or using it right away will maintain the highest terpene levels.

Topicals

Topicals are when you take cannabis trim or bud and infuse them into skin creams oils. They act like medicated ointments and people use for household cuts, burns and skin care. While we don’t cover topicals in detail here, you can definitely use your trim to make them. 

Decarboxylation

In order to consume cannabis and get high, you first need to decarboxylate it. That’s why you light a joint or bong or add heat to your dab rig or vape. When it comes to edibles you need to first heat cannabis trim to at least 110 degrees celsius for approximately 45 minutes. More about this below. 

Edibles and Culinary Use

Edibles are defined as any cannabis product that’s consumed through the digestive system. This includes beverages, traditional sweet treats and culinary use. You can turn your trim into cookies, cooking oil, bbq sauce or salad dressing with a little beginner canna-science (see below). 

Safety and Precautions

When you’re talking about edibles of any kind it’s important to understand your dose. If you aren’t precise in how you prepare your edibles you can always start with a tiny amount to see how it impacts you. Remember that edibles can take up to 90-minutes to be metabolized by the body so don’t double-dip unless you’re sure you can handle it. Also keep well out of the reach of children or pets once you’ve decarbed your weed.  

Vaporizing

Instead of combustion methods like joints, pipes or bongs, vaporizing is a popular way to consume cannabis. Depending on your device you should be able to set the perfect temperature to enjoy maximum terpenes and cannabinoids. If you’re looking to vape your trim, we recommend turning it into kief, hash or rosin first. 

Cost-Efficiency

When it comes to homegrown weed there are obviously costs associated with seeds, food, pots, lights and a tent (if you’re growing indoors). In order to get max value you’ll want to save your trim and even fan leaves for various methods of consumption. 

Storage and Shelf Life

In theory if cannabis is stored correctly it can last for months or even years. However, the terpenes and flavour profile will change over time so the best way to enjoy products is with fresh or frozen trim. To learn more about storing your cannabis for maximum freshness and curing, check out our recent article <Link to When To Harvest Weed>. 

Environmental Impact

We all need to do our part for the environment. Instead of throwing your cannabis waste into the trash, saving the trim and fan leaves for other uses is a great way to help out Mother Earth. At the very least see if you can compost the waste from your cannabis plants. If you’re into better understanding the environmental impact of cannabis check out Lisa’s blog, A Greener Future For Cannabis Packaging

Cooking With Cannabis Trim

One of the most popular ways to use cannabis trim is in cooking. Whether you’re creating edibles or infusing your food with weedy goodness, the process usually begins the same. The easiest way to cook or bake with cannabis is by first turning the weed into butter or oil. To do that you’ll first need to decarboxylate your flower or trim, otherwise you won’t get high. There are many fancy ways to do this, including accessories designed for it. However the simplest way is to place it in the oven for 30-45 minutes at 110 degrees Celsius (that’s 230 Fahrenheit for the metrically impaired 😉). 

Warning: The smell of decarbing weed can be a little intense so if you live with non-cannabis consumers who are fussy this method might not be best. Another way to easily decarb weed is by mixing your trim with olive or coconut oil in a mason jar. Place the closed (but not fully sealed) jar inside the pot of boiling water, stirring every 15 minutes, for about 45-60 minutes. This method will create some yummy smells but not as much as if you oven decarb your trim. 

The Great Cannabis Bake-Off 

If you’re into turning your cannabis trim into sweet treats, the best way is to start by infusing some butter. This will give you the most versatility since most desserts call for this golden fatty goodness in their recipes. Whether you’re making brownies, cookies, or crowd favourite lemon squares (mmmm lemon squares 🤤), your cannabutter will give your treats the extra kick you’re looking for. Here’s a quick and easy recipe to make canna-butter from our friends at Leafly: 

“Making cannabutter is cheap, easy, and only requires a few items (plus some time and patience). Keep in mind that butter burns easily, so keep a close eye on your weed butter as it cooks.

Materials

  • Baking sheet
  • Parchment paper
  • Oven
  • Saucepan, stock pot, double-boiler, or slow cooker
  • Mesh strainer or cheesecloth
  • Container for cannabutter
  • Cannabis grinder (optional)

Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup ground cannabis (7-10 grams), decarboxylated

When making cannabutter, we recommend a 1:1 ratio of cannabis to butter. If you want milder effects, use less cannabis.

Basic cannabutter recipe

  1. Decarb the cannabis. Preheat the oven to 245ºF/120 celsius. Cover the baking sheet with parchment paper and place the loosely broken up cannabis on it. Heat in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Gently mix the buds every 10-15 minutes to expose all sides of the buds. (Older, drier cannabis may require less time.) Tip: You can also set your oven to 300ºF and heat for 10-15 minutes, although the low-and-slow approach is recommended to better preserve cannabinoids and terpenes.
  2. Grind or break up the cannabis. Grinders break weed down to the same consistency and will save you time, but you can just as easily break up the weed with your hands. Keep in mind that anything small enough to fit through the mesh strainer or cheesecloth will end up in your finished product, so be careful not to grind the weed into a fine powder.
  3. Melt the butter. On low heat, melt 1 cup of butter in a saucepan, stock pot, double-boiler, or slow cooker. Add 1 cup of water, which will help regulate temperature and prevent the butter from scorching.
  4. Add the cannabis. After the butter is fully melted, add in the decarbed cannabis.
  5. Simmer. Simmer on low heat, between 160-200ºF; don’t exceed 200ºF or you may burn out the cannabinoids. Simmer for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally. The mixture should never come to a full boil.
  6. Strain the mixture. Place a mesh strainer or cheesecloth over a jar and pour the butter/cannabis mixture through it. Discard the plant material. Tip: Don’t squeeze out every bit of butter—this will add chlorophyll to your cannabutter, giving it a bad plant taste.
  7. Refrigerate. Place the jar of butter in a fridge, and let it solidify before using, ideally overnight, or a few hours at least. If excess water forms at the bottom of the jar, remove the solid butter with a knife and drain out the water.”

Infused Cooking Oil For Savoury Treats 

If you’re looking to get a little sophisticated but aren’t that sophisticated in the kitchen, fear not! Turning trim into cooking oil, bbq sauce, hot sauce (aka pepper sauce for the Caribbean folks out there 🥵) or salad dressing is actually quite easy. Many people use coconut oil to infuse since it burns at a fairly high temperature but you can do this with olive oil as well. In fact it’s even easier than cannabutter since you can decarb and infuse at the same time. If you want to do that, grid up the trim and place it in the oil, add another 45-60 minutes to the cooking process. If you’re cool with the oven method, follow this simple recipe you can follow, that once done, will give infused oil that you can add to your favourite meals and snacks: 

“Materials:

  • Baking sheet
  • Parchment paper
  • Oven or toaster oven
  • Mesh strainer or cheesecloth
  • Cannabis grinder (optional, but blenders and coffee grinder pulverize the cannabis, resulting in edibles with bad-tasting plant material)
  • Saucepan, stock pot, double-boiler, or slow cooker
  • Glass container for the infused oil

When making cannabis cooking oil, we recommend a 1:1 ratio of cannabis to oil. If you want milder effects, use less cannabis.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup (7-10 grams) of ground cannabis flower
  • 1 cup of cooking oil of your choice

Directions:

  1. Decarb the cannabis. We recommend decarboxylating your weed first, and then putting it in oil. Decarbing your weed turns the non-intoxicating THCA in the plant into THC, the psychoactive compound that will get you high.
    • Set your oven to 245ºF and preheat.
    • Grind or hand-break your buds on the parchment paper on a baking pan. Don’t grind it too finely into a powder, as it will pass through the cheesecloth or strainer and affect the oil.
    • Heat for 30-40 minutes.
  2. Heat oil and decarbed cannabis. Add oil and decarbed cannabis to a double-boiler, slow cooker, or saucepan, and simmer on low heat for 2-3 hours. Make sure the temperature of the oil stays between 160-200ºF.
  3. Strain and store the oil. Put a mesh strainer or cheesecloth over the container for oil and pour the oil/cannabis mixture through it. Do not squeeze it out—this will add more chlorophyll to your oil and make it taste more vegetal. Discard the plant material. The oil will have a shelf life of at least two months and can be extended with refrigeration.

Note: Be cautious when using the oil to prepare dishes that require heating. Do not microwave, and choose low heat whenever possible. The best THC oil for you will depend on your tastes, preferences, and tolerance. Oils that have a higher fat content, like coconut oil, may bind to your cannabis better than thinner oils. Adding lecithin when heating and infusing your oil can also increase its potency. Store your oil in a cool, dark place, ideally in a glass container, to preserve it for as long as you need.”

Got Cannabis Milk? 

One of the first methods humans used to consume cannabis was in milk form. Folks in what is now Central and South Asia used to crush cannabis with rocks and mix them with milk and other medicines. If you’re interested in how our beloved Mary Jane was used in ancient human history, we highly recommend Cannabis and the Soma Solution by Chris Bennet

Back to the topic at hand, here’s a simple recipe on how you can make your own cannamilk. It’s a great way to infuse coffee, tea or hot chocolate to keep you warm in more ways than one this winter:  

Materials: 

  • 7 grams of decarboxylated cannabis (trim or bud) 
  • 500ml whole milk (use less if you want a more concentrated batch)
  • 1 Cheesecloth

Method: 

  • 1. Decarboxylate around 7 grams of cannabis (a quarter ounce)
  • 2. In a saucepan combine milk and cannabis and bring to a simmer over low heat. 
  • 3. Stirring frequently, simmer  until mixture becomes aromatic, has thickened and has taken on a green hue, approximately 30-45 minutes. 
  • 4. Ensure milk doesn’t come to a boil as it can scorch. 
  • 5. Remove milk from heat, strain through a cheesecloth into the container of your choosing
  • 6. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Juices, Teas and Smoothies 

While the fan leaves from your grow might not get you high, that doesn’t mean you need to compost them. There are great nutritional benefits and there’s plenty of easy ways to use them. Consider adding them to your juicer and mix with other fruits and vegetables. If you want the fibre you can add them to your favourite smoothie as well. Although the easiest way to consume them is simply drop them into hot water, add some honey and presto, cannabis leaf tea!

Making Concentrates With Cannabis Trim

While cooking and baking with trim is a fairly straightforward process, making concentrates is a few levels up on the degree of difficulty. But with a little education, equipment and practise you can impress the hell out of your friends when you share your homemade hash, kief or rosin! 

Kief 

Before you can make any of the following concentrates you first need to turn your trim into kief. Once you do that it can be pressed in a few different ways to create hash or rosin. You can easily turn your trim into kief in the following ways: 

  1. Automatic bud trimmer: While this isn’t what the purist would use, it can definitely save you time and is more accessible if you have dexterity challenges. At the same time as the machine trims your flower it will capture the excess trichomes and press it into kief. 
  2. If you have a silkscreen you run the trim over it the kief will fall through and be collected. 
  3. While it requires an investment from a few hundred to few thousand dollars, a dry-sift tumbler will not only help you make kief but also hash too (see below). 

Bubble Hash

Using only water and agitation to press the kief or trim into pucks, many growers use their trim to create bubble hash. Here’s a quick-and-easy way to make bubble hash (aka ice water hash) at home: 

“What you will need

  1. Bubble bags
  2. 15 pounds of ice
  3. 4 ounces of quality cannabis
  4. Large bucket
  5. Pure water
  6. Cheesecloth

Method

  1. Arrange the bubble bags (smallest to largest) in the bucket
  2. Place the buds in the bucket
  3. Add the ice cubes on top of the buds.
  4. Cover the mixture with water
  5. Agitate the mixture without being too vigorous for about 15 minutes
  6. Rest the mixture rest for 30 minutes
  7. Drain the first bubble bag without squeezing and set aside
  8. Scrape the solid material left behind and put on a cheesecloth. This is your first sample of Kief
  9. Do the same with the other bubble bags to create purer kief
  10. Press between cheese cloth to create a “cakey” concentrate known as bubble hash”

Rosin 

Beginning at around a $500 investment and ranging to $2000ish you can buy a rosin press that will turn your trim (or bud) into dab-able rosin. Given that rosin can cost between $50-$100 per gram, you can see how homemade rosin can save you a bundle over time with this method. 

Conclusion of What To Do With Cannabis Trim 

Thanks for making it to From Trash to Treasure: Innovative Ways to Repurpose Cannabis Trim. We hope you’ve found at least one way you can stretch your homegrown harvest this year. At the end of the day there’s a lot to be done with your trim and fan leaves. From bubble hash to rosin to sweet and savoury culinary treats, if we’ve inspired you to get a little more high this winter than our job is done. If you need any great to help you consume your home grow, click here to shop for our assortment of accessories.

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