Acetone and Butane are toxic.
...and alcohol is a poisonous central nervous system depressant, lol. My goal was never to consume the product that I was using to remove the cannabinoids from the plant matter (and concentrate them).
Plus they'll blow your house up if you're not VERY careful. I have gas heat, and a gas furnace. Won't take the chance.
Err... I have found that, if one is going to use an open flame to heat a flammable substance up to the point at which it can be boiled off, that there is not really a great deal of difference (in practical terms) as to what, exactly, that flammable substance is. All three substances will produce quite a fireball :rolleyes3 . That's why I - and, I assume, most people who care about the ability to sleep in their own bed at night - do not use flames as the source of heat for the boil-off process. And, as far as that goes, why I do not perform such tasks inside my home. <SHRUGS> I don't smoke when I am leaning over a charging automotive battery, either
.
That's half the reason that I switched to butane. Unlike the other two substances (acetone or alcohol), butane boils at a low temperature. One does not need a gas stove to cause a rolling boil - room temperature alone will do it. But sitting the container in a pan of hot water will do it even faster.
So, I go the least toxic and safest way
<SCRATCHES HEAD> I would think that would be the old-fashioned screening and/or "beating" of the plant material during the coldest/driest part of the year. People did that for thousands of years, AfaIK. It's not the most efficient way, the fastest, or the least labor-intensive. But there is not a whole lot of harm that could happen when one sits there laboriously dry-sifting one's herb.
since I'm new to this, and can't make fatal mistakes.
One can always make a fatal mistake...
once. But I take your meaning, lol.
You might want to look into some kind of ice-water extraction (or "dry ice" (frozen CO₂) and water) technique. For best results, one should use a fine mesh (typically, bags that fit one- or five-gallon buckets, but a "quick and dirty" setup could be done with a large jar or two, if one does not mind the waste). You would then be free to combine the result with whatever carrier that you felt to be suitable for your application, be it alcohol, a vegetable-based oil, or animal fat (lard would probably work great, although people don't seem to ever mention it - but it sure made grandmother's food taste great and have a perfect texture
).
I admit that I had failed to consider your skill/knowledge level, and assumed that you had done a good bit of reading on extractions.
whatever works for a particular grower is what he should use.
I can agree with that statement, in general terms, cautiously.
I do an old-fashioned, 1 month minimum tincture brew period.
As I mentioned, I used to do that. I did not care for the wait, but worried that if I cut it short, I'd be throwing away part of the (potential) result. I did not care for the price of liquor. Then I saw that grain was cheaper.
If I could find a liquor I could tolerate, I'd drink the tincture. But anything strong enough to extract the good stuff tastes NASTY to me!
I could recommend an excellent 25- (or 50-)year old single malt Scotch whisky, lol. But it'd be cheaper to fly to Arizona and buy ready-made product. I agree that (most) cheap liquor tastes akin to paint thinner. It's probably ultimately more harmful to consume, too :lol: . But I'm old enough to remember being told, "Of course it tastes horrible - it's
medicine."
That's 3 in the last 2 days! Today is day 3 since I planted them. The first one it already stretching and has hit the cover. It is going to have to be moved to a solo cup with a clear solo cup as a cover.
wish you well. I have been over at Sue's absorbing information and trying to learn.
