Since my first buzz at the age of 22 I've been searching for an elusive euphoric experience, one that connected me to a deeper awareness, insight, and hallucinatory inspiration one might more often attribute to ceremony than recreation. After years of dreaming, and following three years of learning to grow my own cannabis, I've danced around the edges of my dream, but so far the Dark Devil Auto was the closest thing to otherworldliness I'd come across.
There was a singular moment in my youth where I was transported by the after effects of Columbian Gold, which memory may or may not be influenced by the hunky tennis player that shared that experience with me. Just in case he wasn't the cause of the memories being so......delicious, I'll be growing a Columbian Gold this year. A girl has to know.
I'll be cobbing that eventual harvest.
"Cobbing?" you inquire. "What is cobbing?"
I'm so glad you asked.
Well, it turns out someone has worked to perfect a method of curing that he believes closes replicates the cobbed buds he grew up appreciating in Africa. Tangwena was frustrated for years at the inferior quality of the euphoric experience with western-style drying techniques. For decades he devoted himself to the process of replicating the flavors and euphoric effects he remembered from his earlier years, but using safer methods.
In Africa the buds were cobbed and buried for fermentation, creating magical alchemy that transformed good bud into intense bud. Be forewarned, this is not cannabis you want to smoke as a newbie. At least not alone. Lol! Burying your cannabis can be problamatic from a sanitary perspective, particularly in the control of microorganisms that promote mold. Tangwena overcame that problem with vacuum sealing, and then he worked out a timeframe that gets the buds fermented and ready to cure in less than two weeks from harvest.
Vacuum seal the finished buds and let it cure for three months and you'll have an end product that will change how you think of your cannabis. From reading their accounts you'll change that perspective when they first come out of the cob after a week or so fermenting.
His thread is titled "Malawi style cob curing." When you've achieved success with this technique you're going to want to thank him. It'd be a nice gesture to stop by and pay your respects. If you don't want to bother with a
membership to do so you can let me know and I'll pass it on. I think he and I are going to be talking about this technique for many years.
Do yourself a favor, go to his thread and read his accounts of the euphoria. Come back ready to play.
Tangwena's thread's been up for years and runs nearly 250 pages. They welcomed me with open arms, thrilled to share what they learned as a team, and even reworked the flow chart fellow member repuk developed to reflect current knowledge. In a nutshell, this is our process. No need to reinvent the wheel.
I know, impressed the hell out of me too.
I want to do this. I'm going to do this. It's so much more fun to take these adventures with friends. Want to play? Ok, let's learn to ferment our cannabis together.
I'm just starting the process myself. I'm being a bit more casual with this thread than others I've started because I don't want to wait until I'm all ready. I want to start while I'm in process, let you guys jump in and add information as we go. I'll be harvesting my Malawi in the morning, and the plant needs to hang to get to around 80% RH before I cob any. That'll take between 1 to 3 days. As Tangwena describes it "the sugar leaves should be limp, but not brittle." He likes to think the buds are still alive when he cobs them, and talks sweetly to the buds as he compresses their sweetness into a cigar-shaped bundle of future joy.
Supplies:
* You'll need something to wrap the buds in. The best wrapper appears to be corn husks. I got mine from the rain forest, but you can find them in many stores for wrapping tamales. Alternatively, Tangwena suggested construction-weight paper bags. They'll withstand the abuse better than thinner bags. The corn husks create more surface area with their grooves. Tangwena says he swears by the sweeter taste created by the husks.
* The best cobs hold 1.5 - 2 ounces of buds, at somewhere around 80% RH
* A vacuum sealer system eliminates the threat of mold. You're going to squeeze them snugly.
* The process begins with a 24 - hour sweating step, maintaining the cobs at 40 C/104 F. There are many ways to achieve this, some of which repuk suggested on his chart. I'll be using a seed-starting heat pad with an inverted container under the insulating weight of a couple towels. Simplicity and frugality rolled into one.
There were some good pointers I found in just the first 10% of Tangwena's thread.
Aaaaand I just realized they got deleted. Lol! I'll go back over the material tonight and tomorrow and add it into this thread. I'll get the process worked up with details. They're aware that we're building on their experience and heartily encourage us to create a flow between the communities.
Tangwena's intention is to share this wonderful gift of knowledge with the world, to change the hearts and minds of cannabis enthusiasts, one cob at a time. I'm honored, as an unofficial ambassador of
to bring the knowledge back to my friends.
I think we're going to look back on this day warmly as the start of something wonderful. Can't you feel it?
Ok, who's in?
