Fresh Harvest infused Cannabis Oil

SweetSue;3356538 said:

Fresh Harvest Oil

This is documentation of my recent run of fresh-harvest infused olive oil, so carefully developed by PsyCro and written up in his thread Olive oil extract update. I've adapted it a bit for my own purposes, but I recommend you read through his instructions. I've cleaned them up a bit in a blog PsyCro's Olive Oil Extraction Method. On to the fun.

The plant was cut, washed, and hung to drip dry for about four hours.

Buds were all clipped into the stock pot. This is a 3-quart stainless and I used 350 grams of buds and 437 ml of olive oil. PsyCro's recipe is for 400 grams of bud for every 500 ml of olive oil.

What was left was placed into small jars with open tops and dropped into the refrigerator for a two-week dry under low temp and humidity. Another experiment I'm playing with. It's a technique I learned from Dr Ziggy. It may be a way to retain more of the terpene profile during the drying stage.

Add the olive oil.

Get out the immersion blender and blend away. This take a good while so be kind to the blender. I found short bursts of power a better fit. That's a lot of plant material you're breaking down. Take your time and turn it to mush.

I keep going until I can't identify any piece of what I'm looking at, other than "green" and "plant material."

The stainless pot sits in a Dutch oven that gets filled with oil to create a double boiler. A water bath won't get temperatures in the pot high enough to decarb. I use Canola oil. Avoid cheap vegetable oils.

The rings in the bottom keep the stainless pot away from direct heat. Four of them lend stability to the arrangement. We're playing with hot oil here, it pays to be extra cautious.

Turn the fire on low and let the oil get up to temperature. This isn't a process you're going to rush. Block out the next three hours.

You'll be stirring every five minutes or so for the next three hours. After about 10-20 minutes you'll begin to see movement.

When you hit a consistent temperature of 212 degrees F (100 degrees C) set the timer for two hours. According to PsyCro's directions you're looking for a baseline of 221 degrees F (105 degrees C) for two hours. I personally try to keep mine at between 220 -230 degrees for at least 45 minutes of that two hours.

Initially what you're doing is boiling off the water. Keeping the temps in this range protects the cannabinoids. When the water boils off it can get dramatic. The depth of this pot was by design. You don't want hot oil and this watery mix to meet. Trust me, I speak from experience.

When it got to this stage I added a tablespoon of liquid sunflower lecithin.

Then, suddenly the activity diminishes and you begin to settle into serious oil production. Watch the flame to control the heat. It can spike quickly, but with a little experience you'll get the hang of it.

Decarb bubbles begin to surface. From now on I'm even more aggressive about mixing and mashing.

After I fished the thermometer out of the hot oily mash a couple times I hooked it to the pot. Life got much easier from then on.

You can see the noticable difference in the bubbles. This is the look of decarb.

At the two hour point, on the nose, this was all the bubbles I could generate. I could have let it go all the way until I got no bubbles at all, but I don't mind the mix of some acid cannabinoids. At this point, quite frankly, I was beginning to tire, and I had all of this to strain yet. I called it quits here and strained.

PsyCro has a more intensive finish to his production and he reclaims almost all of the oil he started with. I wasn't as aggressive, deciding that the almost constant agitation I gave my plant material as it cooked had knocked all of the trichomes open, spilling their precious stores into my olive oil. I assure you, if I didn't have more plants coming behind this one I'd have been more aggressive about getting every drop. Next run I'll work on that aspect. PsyCro has it all laid out in his thread.

Once it was strained I stirred in another tablespoon of lecithin and refrigerated overnight. This morning I brought it back to room temp, stirred well and filled capsules. KR's right, you really can't stir enough. Like the biobombs, the lecithin can separate overnight the first time. Next time I make oil I'll keep that second refrigeration in mind. I can see how that would be greatly beneficial.

Back on track. I took my first dose when I finished the first group of capsules. Running out should be a a non-issue from here on out.

So why do this labor-intensive method? Well, if you have mites like I did it allows you to save the harvest from the compost pile. Beyond that motivation, there's a strong argument to be made that more of the terpenes and flavonoids are locked into the olive oil, thus potentiating the cannabinoids with a stronger entourage effect.

Don't discount the value of processing on the day you harvest. There's nothing left except the roots, the stalk, the branches and the cooked down plant material. No plant hangs in my small apartment today, as is the norm when I dry before making oil. That was more of a relief than I anticipated.

Another tool in the oil-maker's belt. This is potent oil, loaded with medicinal value from the cannabis, the olive oil and the lecithin emulsifying it all together. You control the decarb, opening interesting possibilities.

I hope this helps someone gain the confidence to try this method. PsyCro is working out using a pressure cooker, and he's wonderfully pleased with how it's turning out. It's covered in his thread. Have fun with it.

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