Growing For Hash Episode #3: Fresh Frozen Harvests
- Olivia Walz
- Jul 26, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 30, 2023
Despite the terminology “Fresh-Frozen" becoming rather ubiquitous, it’s easy to miss the point. The point that freezing the cannabis immediately upon harvesting requires an all hands on deck philosophy to tackle the enormous amount of trim-work required. Unlike the standard and longtime practice of drying cannabis after harvest and saving the trim until after all of the cannabis has dried, fresh-frozen harvests present a list of challenges and a few big advantages over more traditional methods. Considering we grow for hash, the majority of Humboldt Kine’s cannabis is dedicated to fresh frozen harvests, in order to provide the nominal material for some of California’s favorite hash makers.
Fresh Frozen Harvests
Step One: Harvest
Step Two: Rough Trim
Step Three: Buck or remove buds from main stem
Step Four: Weigh the fresh material
Step Five: Place in Zip-Locks and carefully place in the freezer
Step Six: Pull the Root Balls, Drip Lines, amend soil, and prepare for replant!
The Back Story
Fresh frozen harvests helped to unlock an entirely new chapter for cannabis and hash fans worldwide. With the introduction of fresh frozen harvests back around 2016-2017, the cannabis was intended for butane hash oil. The quality of the BHO, quickly sky-rocketed and "Live Resin" became the new name. By 2017, solventless hash makers gave it a try and found fresh frozen harvests (along with some modern updates) provided the final push to near perfection. We quickly realized that freezing the cannabis material before mixing it in ice and water, makes the trichomes brittle and easier than ever for their heads to dislodge. The same bubble-hash methods used for decades, found a final piece of the six-star hash puzzle in fresh frozen harvest techniques.
Trim Time
Traditional harvests remove some of the major fan leaves, but otherwise the material is hung to dry. Once dry, trimmers can have at it. Fresh frozen harvests, on the other hand, require the entire harvest be trimmed immediately. The same day. Once cut and trimmed within a matter of hours, the plants are bagged, weighed, and frozen. One advantage however, is that it’s only a light trim compared to trimming a dry harvest and can be completed faster.
Bucking Flower From Stems
After trimming, the bouquet of flowers is delivered to the master buckers and sticks and stems say their farewells. As you can see in the video, we were able to turn the bucking or trimming machine down to its lowest speeds for efficient removal of the stems, known as “bucking”. Bucking by hand was the preferred method, and still is for very small batch productions, but on a larger scale, even for a small craft farm, the bucking machine has saved us an enormous amount of time, energy, and money over the years. Thankfully, the speed is adjustable, and at lower speeds the bucking machine works to remove the stem, while preserving the integrity of the cannabis flower and its delicate trichomes.
Bag and Freeze
With the cannabis trimmed, weighed, and placed in the freezer, the product is ready to go by the very next day. Without having to wait for the weed to dry, a night in the freezer and the material is ready to hit the wash. Fresh frozen harvests also allow the cannabis material to be stored and remain in prime condition until the ice water wash.
Replant
No sooner than we completed the harvest, we’re immediately back at it, transplanting our clones in order to harvest again in the Fall. Turn em and burn em baby. Back with another hit.
Check out the video and leave any comments or feedback below. Make sure to subscribe to our Youtube Channel and our Mailing List for all future notifications. Thanks hash fam!
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