Curing Process

What is curing? Curing is the process that prepares cannabis flowers for consumption after harvest. We consider this to be arguably one of the most important, and one of the most nuanced aspects of farming. You can grow a plant to perfection, only to completely ruin it during the cure. Something that has happened to us a few times (those RIP videos on our main page).
Cannabis that has not been cured properly will often smell like hay or wet grass. If cannabis is over cured when packaged, the flower will have a bland smell, not representative of the genetics. A good cure is somewhere in between; removing just the right amount of water for the desired biological processes to continue after harvest. Too much water removed too quickly will stop all metabolism in the plants cells, and not enough water removed will encourage pathogens like mold to flourish. With moisture still in flowers after harvest, plant cells are still alive, and processes like decarboxylation of acids and isomerization of terpenes is happening during the cure. To quote the great Robert Clarke, "Certain metabolic activities take place for some time, much like the ripening and eventual spoiling of an apple after it is picked." The key to a good cure is controlling water removal during drying, and managing moisture levels post-trim. An initial large evaporation of moisture is important when plants are first hung to dry, this will help stop mold and other pathogens from finding a home. For the rest of the dry, slow and steady wins the race. Keeping the environment cold(58°-62°) with slightly higher relative humidity(55-60%) allows chlorophyll, the compound responsible for green pigments in plants(and also that wet grass smell), to break down over time. After drying for a couple of weeks, whole plants are taken off the line, and bucked down to individual branches with flowers still attached. The trim team gets busy immediately after drying, so we can better manage the water content remaining in the flowers. From there we seal the manicured flower in air-tight containers, and burp these containers until we feel the texture and smell is ready for packaging. Burping is another way to manage water content, a quick evaporation of moisture helping further those metabolic activities. This is as simple as opening and closing containers for different lengths of time, evenly distributing moisture throughout all the flowers.
All that being said, it is important to understand every cultivar grows different and can cure different. There's a million ways to grow, and a million more to cure. There is no formula to guarantee a perfect cure every time, variables need to be dialed in for each batch, and adjustments made for different cultivars. Questions? Hit us up