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I think a little clarification might help. Do you mean during the curing process? Just after harvest? While it’s still on the plant?
One trick I heard from @tasiakelle was to flash freeze the buds right after harvest. It retains significantly more of the terpenes and other goodies if you do that.
One of the points of curing is to remove the remaining chlorophyll (which contributes to harshness etc), and as the chlorophyll goes the green colour would also significantly disappear leading to browning?
@Hunter @tasiakelle - do you flash freeze them when wet? or after drying? Or does the flash freeze process draw out all the water?
Hi guys,
am curious, the term “flash freezing” pertains to using liquid nitrogen, how can you do that on a large scale and not have high costs or problems with inexperienced handlers of such a substance? if thats not the process, please explain?, I see this working for smaller weight yields but not when you have thousands of pounds of material,
looking forward to responses.
C
Flash freezing simply refers to freezing something very quickly to prevent large ice crystals from being formed (large crystals damage cell walls and alter flavor). You don’t need liquid nitrogen for that – you can use dry ice or more powerful freezers for it. The trick is to make sure everything that is flash frozen has a high surface area to volume ratio. The more volume something has, the slower it freezes. Flash freezing is about speed.
So do you flash freeze it when green/wet, or when freshly dried? Obviously before curing.
I don’t know from personal experience, but my assumption would be right after harvest, which would be wet. A lot of the compounds you want to hold on for flavor will evaporate during the drying process.
And then how do you consume it? Do you thaw it? Is it smokeable or is it more for doing resins and extractions? I have heard of doing it with liquid nitrogen many years ago but never explored it. Interested to know more.
Both I flash freeze wet and dry. If wet it does not draw out the water.
I spoke to another grower who had a very interesting method that utilized the "Flash Freezing, using commercial freezers and then,…after frozen, roughing the bag, tossing it around and when opened, all the outer leaves had been “TRIMMED” off, broken, ….the buds looked amazing and smelled beyond good, I don’t know if it was a fluke or a new trimming process, but it sure was interesting. If some one tries this , please let us know asap, It will save a lot of time, money and could improve quality and appeal.
Cg.
Yeah, that sounds like a great method - Anyone try this yet? I don’t know anyone that does this, but we keep a cool temperature around or below 70 F degrees during drying to keep their color and smell. Then placed in turkey bags to cure at similar temperature and 55% humidity.
HI All,
Well I just returned form northern Cali where I did a Post Harvest Production, that included cutting, hanging (specific style) drying and curing approx. 10,000 units and the system I designed worked beyond perfect.
Curing and drying in the field for 7-10 days was ideal, the result absolutely the best smoke and smoothness I have tried in over ten years!!! am a new born believer in “aurora Grown” plants again.
Actually when you compare a salt based nutrient regime and indoor growing to a natural environment (both have their issues) I can see a huge difference in the size, quality, and end result of this product…
Every single person I "showed the material to thought t was INDOOR and I can tell you no indoor I have seen has the level of crystalline and resin, like this material did.
I am super proud of the system I designed and implemented over three huge farms and I can implement this on any location in California…the difference between a “three day” air cure and a ten day slow cure is night and day and I am convinced this is the way to process now for field work…
If anyone is interested , please feel fee to contact me;
Charles
charlie@budmarketers.com