Tangwena's Malawi-Style Cob Cure: Fermented Cannabis
- Thread starter SweetSue
- Start date
Oldbear
Well-Known Member
I have some purchased buds. They are retail store dry so below the 60% suggested. Anyone know if I can simply add some moisture and cob it?
...I'll be running a couple of those this spring/summer, among other things...also picked up some husks while on my walkabout yesterday... cheerz... h00k...
Huh. Is there no way to create a post that carries a different subject than the thread as a whole does, with this new forum software? <SIGH>
Oh well, pretend that I changed this message's subject to "Long and Rambling," lol.
I've read about this before, but it has been years. I was somewhat interested initially, but was always afraid to try it. With the temperature shock and then removing as much of the oxygen as possible, I'd be concerned that the buds ended up going through an anaerobic composting process (to some extent) instead of an actual curing one.
Also I am SO PARANOID about the possibility of inhaling viable mold (spores?) that I'd probably end up doing what I do if I fear that bud has mold on/in it - throw it away instead of smoking it. (I'm not stating that this process would leave viable mold in the product, support the growth of same, et cetera - just that, with my lungs not being healthy, I'd be afraid of it, lol.)
Back in the early-mid '80s, before I realized that the local dealers who had decent cannabis but wouldn't sell it to me because of my age were getting their product from my brother (wishing that was still the case, lo these many years later
) , I bought a bit of cannabis from the guys who were getting MexiBrick and other highly compressed bales from countries to our South because they'd sell to anyone. Seems like half the time, that crap smelled like it was fermented instead of cured. I occasionally had a pretty... intense experience (although it rarely lasted). I assumed at the time that this meant I was occasionally getting some decent bud.
Then, a while back, a very kind soul gave me some bud. I had been out for a while (usually am, these days), so I know my tolerance level would have been slightly lower. Realizing this, I grabbed my cute little "micro bubbler" (that probably only holds ~.6g) instead of the glass spoon that my buddy calls my Personal Defense Bowl (capacity around two grams - or half your thumb
) because it's kind of a club. So I grabbed the tiny bubbler, started to put water in it - hmm... It already has water in it. Whoops. Cool, saves time and I am (was - well, still am, lofl, but for purposes of this, was) really, really wanting to get high, so grind/pack/light/INHALE...
Wow, that was almost like a THC OD situation, lol. Almost nauseous, I noticed that I was... not rocking, but I couldn't hold my head still, it was like an ultra slow motion epileptic fit, sort of. Ended up squatted down, holding on to a table to slow the flopping to a bearable amount. Was... Tell you the truth, it was like the ONE time I tried synthetic cannabinoids and thought, "This stuff can't be as potent as the real thing - so I better smoke the whole pouch at one time." Think I spent 20 or 25 minutes, squatted down in my driveway, holding on to someone's open car door because I couldn't stand up without staggering around.
Yeah, okay. Like someone trying cannabis for the first time - with "ultimate sativa" in a two-gram joint. In a phone booth.
Which I initially thought was cool. <LAUGHING> I mean... Well, if a tiny bowl does this, I can pull my Dugout/one-hitter out of the box it's been in since the early '90s and actually get some use out of the thing, right?
But that didn't happen. Next time I smoked it, it was "just bud" (as opposed to the weirdness described above). I even loaded my last pre-rolled cone and smoked it, and what do those things hold, a gram and a half? Hmm, WtF? I was having a really bad day, lol, so I proceeded to pack every smoking device that I have. I picked up the mini bubbler last. Started to pack it. Thought, "That water is RANK - made the entire bowl's worth taste like sh!t, so I better clean it out and put fresh water in it (besides, I like [/b]HOT[/b] water for a smoother, humidified hit anyway). I happened to look at the bubbler with light shining through it, AND...
There was something in the water! It looked like a little cloud of smoke, but obviously wasn't (it was just "hanging" there in the middle of the water).
I think it was mold or some other kind of nasty life form. That explained the taste, LMAO. It also probably explained why I was ill again and having trouble getting any air from breathing.
IDK, I really don't. But I suspect that the overabundance of mold(?) in the bubbler's water chamber was a causal factor in the intensity of that first buzz. After all, bongs/bubblers seem to be way better at filtering out some of the cannabinoid content than they are at filtering out nasty stuff (since the temperature of even hot water is far below that of the vaporization points for the various cannabinoids). So I was probably "injecting" each bubble of smoke with a non-zero amount of whatever it was that was growing in the bubbler's water - and then inhaling it.
So, for me personally, I wouldn't smoke any cannabis that I knew or suspected to be fermented instead of cured. If it was something I'd paid for... well, I wouldn't have. If it was a gift, I'd probably throw it away (and still tell the giver thanks, because a gift is still a gift, even it if goes straight to the dump) - and I'm a cannabis fiend, lol, who'll turn down almost anything (except, possibly, a good strong menthol cigarette, if I haven't had one for a few hours) if the alternative is a nice fat bud.
But that's just ME, and everyone knows I'm... Well... Not someone you'd use as a "reference human." I seriously doubt that I'd ever eat one of these things, either:
Century egg - Wikipedia
Ironically, every time I have bud, I find myself wishing that I was a newbie. I (okay, very vaguely ) remember that week, way back when. Riding in a car after dark, smoking joint after joint, then announcing, "Hey, I can't feel my legs! Oh, wait - I can feel them, lol, they're just floating somewhere over my head, I think? Up near where my arms must be." And laughing. F*ck, I miss laughing. Not the fake stuff that you produce when someone expects you to laugh, I can still manage that much, most of the time. But actual, spontaneous laughter breaking out? Been years.
But that's the best way to get there. You don't have to hear other people talking (oh so slowly). And you don't have to dig up enough of whatever it is that one needs to actually respond to them. For that matter, smoke enough and you don't even have to hear yourself (internally, if not through the ears) talking. Or at least that's what it was like back when I could still... when I was a newbie.
IDFK. Some say I have issues. Who am I to disagree?
Oh well, pretend that I changed this message's subject to "Long and Rambling," lol.
I've read about this before, but it has been years. I was somewhat interested initially, but was always afraid to try it. With the temperature shock and then removing as much of the oxygen as possible, I'd be concerned that the buds ended up going through an anaerobic composting process (to some extent) instead of an actual curing one.
Also I am SO PARANOID about the possibility of inhaling viable mold (spores?) that I'd probably end up doing what I do if I fear that bud has mold on/in it - throw it away instead of smoking it. (I'm not stating that this process would leave viable mold in the product, support the growth of same, et cetera - just that, with my lungs not being healthy, I'd be afraid of it, lol.)
Back in the early-mid '80s, before I realized that the local dealers who had decent cannabis but wouldn't sell it to me because of my age were getting their product from my brother (wishing that was still the case, lo these many years later
) , I bought a bit of cannabis from the guys who were getting MexiBrick and other highly compressed bales from countries to our South because they'd sell to anyone. Seems like half the time, that crap smelled like it was fermented instead of cured. I occasionally had a pretty... intense experience (although it rarely lasted). I assumed at the time that this meant I was occasionally getting some decent bud.Then, a while back, a very kind soul gave me some bud. I had been out for a while (usually am, these days), so I know my tolerance level would have been slightly lower. Realizing this, I grabbed my cute little "micro bubbler" (that probably only holds ~.6g) instead of the glass spoon that my buddy calls my Personal Defense Bowl (capacity around two grams - or half your thumb
) because it's kind of a club. So I grabbed the tiny bubbler, started to put water in it - hmm... It already has water in it. Whoops. Cool, saves time and I am (was - well, still am, lofl, but for purposes of this, was) really, really wanting to get high, so grind/pack/light/INHALE...Wow, that was almost like a THC OD situation, lol. Almost nauseous, I noticed that I was... not rocking, but I couldn't hold my head still, it was like an ultra slow motion epileptic fit, sort of. Ended up squatted down, holding on to a table to slow the flopping to a bearable amount. Was... Tell you the truth, it was like the ONE time I tried synthetic cannabinoids and thought, "This stuff can't be as potent as the real thing - so I better smoke the whole pouch at one time." Think I spent 20 or 25 minutes, squatted down in my driveway, holding on to someone's open car door because I couldn't stand up without staggering around.
Yeah, okay. Like someone trying cannabis for the first time - with "ultimate sativa" in a two-gram joint. In a phone booth.
Which I initially thought was cool. <LAUGHING> I mean... Well, if a tiny bowl does this, I can pull my Dugout/one-hitter out of the box it's been in since the early '90s and actually get some use out of the thing, right?
But that didn't happen. Next time I smoked it, it was "just bud" (as opposed to the weirdness described above). I even loaded my last pre-rolled cone and smoked it, and what do those things hold, a gram and a half? Hmm, WtF? I was having a really bad day, lol, so I proceeded to pack every smoking device that I have. I picked up the mini bubbler last. Started to pack it. Thought, "That water is RANK - made the entire bowl's worth taste like sh!t, so I better clean it out and put fresh water in it (besides, I like [/b]HOT[/b] water for a smoother, humidified hit anyway). I happened to look at the bubbler with light shining through it, AND...
There was something in the water! It looked like a little cloud of smoke, but obviously wasn't (it was just "hanging" there in the middle of the water).
I think it was mold or some other kind of nasty life form. That explained the taste, LMAO. It also probably explained why I was ill again and having trouble getting any air from breathing.
IDK, I really don't. But I suspect that the overabundance of mold(?) in the bubbler's water chamber was a causal factor in the intensity of that first buzz. After all, bongs/bubblers seem to be way better at filtering out some of the cannabinoid content than they are at filtering out nasty stuff (since the temperature of even hot water is far below that of the vaporization points for the various cannabinoids). So I was probably "injecting" each bubble of smoke with a non-zero amount of whatever it was that was growing in the bubbler's water - and then inhaling it.
So, for me personally, I wouldn't smoke any cannabis that I knew or suspected to be fermented instead of cured. If it was something I'd paid for... well, I wouldn't have. If it was a gift, I'd probably throw it away (and still tell the giver thanks, because a gift is still a gift, even it if goes straight to the dump) - and I'm a cannabis fiend, lol, who'll turn down almost anything (except, possibly, a good strong menthol cigarette, if I haven't had one for a few hours) if the alternative is a nice fat bud.
But that's just ME, and everyone knows I'm... Well... Not someone you'd use as a "reference human." I seriously doubt that I'd ever eat one of these things, either:
Century egg - Wikipedia
Ironically, every time I have bud, I find myself wishing that I was a newbie. I (okay, very vaguely
) remember that week, way back when. Riding in a car after dark, smoking joint after joint, then announcing, "Hey, I can't feel my legs! Oh, wait - I can feel them, lol, they're just floating somewhere over my head, I think? Up near where my arms must be." And laughing. F*ck, I miss laughing. Not the fake stuff that you produce when someone expects you to laugh, I can still manage that much, most of the time. But actual, spontaneous laughter breaking out? Been years.But that's the best way to get there. You don't have to hear other people talking (oh so slowly). And you don't have to dig up enough of whatever it is that one needs to actually respond to them. For that matter, smoke enough and you don't even have to hear yourself (internally, if not through the ears) talking. Or at least that's what it was like back when I could still... when I was a newbie.
IDFK. Some say I have issues. Who am I to disagree?
- Thread starter
- #145
TS..... 
You really need an afternoon at my place. 
Spontaneous laughter is my native tongue. Lol!
The fermentation of the Mexican bales bears so little in common with what we're doing its not worth the worry TS. This is primo cannabis, lovingly wrapped in a corn husk, which imparts its own magic to the delicious product. Top of the line vs bottom of the barrel.
You'll have to at least try some on a free day. It might be a way to get that joy going in your belly again.
You really need an afternoon at my place. Spontaneous laughter is my native tongue. Lol! The fermentation of the Mexican bales bears so little in common with what we're doing its not worth the worry TS. This is primo cannabis, lovingly wrapped in a corn husk, which imparts its own magic to the delicious product. Top of the line vs bottom of the barrel.
You'll have to at least try some on a free day. It might be a way to get that joy going in your belly again.
Oldbear
Well-Known Member
You mean this fine product?
Back in the day (late 60s early 70s) this was the norm. Flower tops and buds came later.
- Thread starter
- #147
They were discussing this and the thought was that reintroducing moisture might cause problems with mold. It's a vacuumed environment, so should that really be a concern?
I was thinking a cut apple in a jar with buds. What do you think Oldbear? I was also thinking we might be able to pump up the terpene expressions with the inclusion of other matter high in the desired ones, like lavender, or orange peel.
- Thread starter
- #148
You mean this fine product?
Back in the day (late 60s early 70s) this was the norm. Flower tops and buds came later.
Hahaha! I smoked that product all the way up until I came here and started my first journal.
My, oh my, how times change. Lol!
BigBearNTexas
Well-Known Member
The moisture from the pre-soaked corn husk would probably be enough to bring it up to the right moisture content. Under vacuum and heat, the moisture content should even out through the rolled cob.
- Thread starter
- #150
Oh...you’re right BigBear. Hadn’t thought of that. A fresh husk would also have more moisture.
Thing is, they haven’t seen the same results with buds below 68% RH. They’ll improve, but they won’t ferment the same way.
Hasn’t Tangwena used freshly harvest buds with no dry time?
lazyfish
Well-Known Member
Rosenthal mentions using lemon peels, herbs or other things to add moisture to dried or fermented buds in the link that I posted.... Ch 21
- Thread starter
- #153
Yes he was. He says you can get good results from harvest to 68% RH.
I timed the cobs just right. Today she’d have been too dry.
- Thread starter
- #154
2.5 hours to go. Tell me I'm not excited. Lol!
Hahaha I’ll bet you are!
Oldbear
Well-Known Member
Oldbear
Well-Known Member
I'm thinking that this may have been done 000s or 00s of years before vacuum seal machines. Earliest Asian cannabis users would not have had corn. Pondering what they may have used.....
Sue reintroducing moisture could be ok. Flavours sound like a great option. Only one way to find out I guess.
Sue reintroducing moisture could be ok. Flavours sound like a great option. Only one way to find out I guess.
Plenty of plans they could have used for wrappers.
Rice paper????
Banana leaves 