It's harvest time!!! I couldn't be more excited. In my reality it is a magical time of year and a pure joy to be around happy growers.
(Cannabis Sativa Fresh Leaves)
This season, I have been gifted the leaves, stalk and roots of one six-foot tall Sativa.
As is often the case, the grower didn't know the strain name of the seed that was used to produce the plant. That didn't matter to me, I was thrilled to be able to use the rest of the plant that was just going to be composted otherwise.
So, I set out to dehydrate as many of the leaves as I could fit in my 9 tray Excalibur food dehydrator.
( Cannabis leaves in the dehydrator.)
I dehydrated the cannabis leaves for 18 hours at 118 degrees F. Then I bagged the leaves and yielded 1.5 large freezer bags of dried leaves.
(Dried Cannabis Leaves.)
( 1.5 large freezer bags of dried cannabis leaves from a 6 foot tall plant.)
Preparing the root was slightly more complicated. Cleaning it took about 45 minutes, just to get it "mostly" dirt-free.
(Notice the size of the stalk. It was like "wood" and required a saw to cut.)
(Lots of roots.)
I cut the roots from the main root ball and cleaned them again. I used a soft bristled brush under warm running water, to do this. Then, I put the roots on 2 trays in my dehydrator and dried them for 24 hours.
I am planning to crush the leaves and grind the dried roots to make a powder. I will then use these powders to make tea blends and topical ointments for joint and body pain. I'll also use them to make a topical salve for skin conditions, like psoriasis.
I welcome your comments and thank you for taking the time to read my material.
~RebeccaRyan
That is some good freedom, there.
Yes @freebornangel! The plant was grown with free dirt, free water and free sunlight. Then, the plant's leaves and roots were freely given and now I am freely sharing what I am doing with it, without censorship. Just like Steemit, it is freedom.
Thank you for winning this battle in the struggle, we can't be free alone and your efforts are making us all freer!!
This post is awesome! I'm following you, super excited for your future posts.
I'm going to go through your past posts and ask any questions I don't find an answer to.
Thanks for taking the time!
I'm am glad you are excited @anthonyjerrigo! I'm in love with cannabis plant medicine and am happy to have a platform to share the information and teach others what I know. Please enjoy and ask me any questions you may have along the way. I'll do my best to answer. :)
So this is how it's done? I would love to see your process for making a salve or something!
Yes. This is the first few steps in preserving the leaves and the roots for further applications in the future. Thank you for commenting . I plan to follow up with the recipes or "how to s" step by step, for making the tea blends and ointments.
So cool! I'm looking forward to future posts. Followed. :)
Thanks @rigaronib!
You are so lucky! Such an amazing job to help people and you deserve it Rebecca.
Thanks @jpiper20! As I see it, we just have to continue to spread the love around. I consider us to be on the same team.
We are indeed!
So interesting. I am looking forward to hear more about the tea...
Today, I've been working on sourcing all the ingredients for the tea and think I have almost everything I want to put in it.
I am being gifted leaves as well and will be making tea for sure...and now will wait till you do ointment and will do that too!!!
Thanks @starkgrl, for your comment. The tea is relatively easy once you get the leaves cleaned off the plant, washed and dried. You could just lay them out on cooling racks in your kitchen, if you don't have a dehydrator, and dry them naturally for a few days. :)
That is a very good question @noganoo. I have been reading that the roots can be excellent sources of CBD. I have never consumed the roots or the leaves other than juicing the leaves fresh. So this is completely an experiment on my part. I dry other herbs all the time so the cannabis leaves are no different and I plan to use both the powdered roots and leaves in tea blends and in topical salves. I thought I would write a post on the making of each of those things as a follow-up to this "prepping " post. I will include my thoughts on whether I think it's worth the effort and time involved or not. Thank you for taking the time to read and comment. :)