This article was originally published on 2Fast4Buds and appears here with permission.
If you've ever wondered how to use your precious sugar leaves, find out how you can turn your trimmings into edibles and more!
For many growers, obtaining sugar leaves is the best part of harvesting cannabis buds. Partly, it’s because while you can always purchase buds in dispensaries, one cannot lay his hands on sugar leaves unless he personally grows cannabis plants. However, there are many growers that throw away sugar leaves because they don’t know what to do with them.
If you’re one of them, here’s the ultimate guide to educate you on how to use sugar leaves.
1. WHAT ARE SUGAR LEAVES?
It’s possible you’ve never heard of sugar leaves; however, if you’re a grower, you’d have handled them. Once you grow cannabis plants, you’ll notice that it develops leaves. These leaves get bigger as the plant grows, and are known as fan leaves. Sugar leaves develop slowly along with the buds. While fan leaves are visible from the branches, sugar leaves peek through buds where only their juicy tips sprinkled with a generous amount of trichomes are seen.
Sugar leaves are small and dainty. They aren’t really visible in some plants where there’s a heavy amount of resin. Once you remove the fan leaves, you’ll see small sugar leaves clearly. Even fan leaves have trichomes, but in negligible quantities. Named aptly due to the resin that resembles sugar, growers collect even small leaves to make different products.
2. HOW TO COLLECT SUGAR LEAVES?
Collecting sugar leaves is as simple as harvesting the buds themselves. However, since sugar leaves are small, you’ll have to spend some extra time trimming them one by one. For this reason, many people let the sugar leaves stay on the buds and smoke or vaporize them along with the buds. Another point to note is that the amount of sugar leaves obtained per plant will be small.
Thus, you can save the sugar leaves by storing them in a ziplock bag or an airtight container and placing them in the freezer until you’re ready to use them. This will also ensure that the leaves are brittle and it makes it easier for the trichomes to fall off when you’ve finally decided what you want to do with them.
3. CAN YOU SMOKE SUGAR LEAVES?
This is a question many people ask. And, rightly so. If you’ve grown those plants with so much effort, it’s natural to wonder if you can smoke them too. Yes, it is possible to smoke sugar leaves, but remember that it can be harsh on your throat. It doesn’t make sense to trim the sugar leaves and then smoke them because you can simply leave them on the buds. You’ll also need more sugar leaves compared to normal buds because the leaves don’t contain as much resin present in the buds. Therefore, if you decide to trim the leaves, make sure you create something else with them or you can just leave them on the buds.
4. HOW TO USE SUGAR LEAVES
If you want to use sugar leaves to make different cannabis products, keep in mind that the trichomes differ from one strain to another. For instance, a strain like Green Crack Auto may not produce as many trichomes as, say, Gorilla Glue that’s famous for its resin. Just like the strains differ when it comes to the effects they produce, the amount of trichomes also differs. Sometimes, plants with super huge buds don’t produce too many sugar leaves while those with smaller buds will have a lot more sugar leaves.
Last but not the least, no matter what edibles you make, remember to decarboxylate the sugar leaves before using them so you get to use active THC or CBD. Here’s how you can use these amazing leaves studded with resin.
EDIBLES
People generally use cannabis buds to make edibles. If you’re short of buds, though, you can easily replace them with sugar leaves. However, note that you’ll need to use a lot more sugar leaves compared to the buds because although sugar leaves do contain resin, they don’t have as much resin as the buds themselves.
What you’ll probably end up with is an edible that doesn’t make you as high as the buds but they are amazing nonetheless.
BROWNIES
Making brownies with cannabis flowers is super easy. You can replace the blossoms with sugar leaves and the effect will almost be the same. But, if you want super potent brownies, use more flowers. For instance, if your recipe calls for 50 grams of flowers, use 50 grams of sugar leaves instead to produce a milder effect. For a stronger high, use 50 grams of buds plus 25 grams of sugar leaves.
OUR FAVORITE WEED BROWNIE RECIPE
A quick web search will produce a ridiculously long list of recipes for the classic pot brownie, but after years of trial and error, we have landed on this absolute banger. We love it for a few reasons – It doesn't use a ridiculously long list of ingredients, it's almost impossible to stuff up, and isn't too high in sugar.
INGREDIENTS
- 20g /sugar leaves,
- 500 ml coconut oil
- 1-liter water
- 2 cups of white sugar,
- 1 cup of cocoa powder,
- 4 eggs,
- 1 teaspoon baking powder,
- ½ teaspoon salt
METHOD
First, let's make our canna coco-oil/ In a large pot, add the coconut oil, water, and sugar leaves. Make sure you decarb …