DIY Archives - Horn Creek Hemp The Healing Power of Nature Wed, 19 Feb 2025 11:01:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://horncreekhemp.com/wp-content/uploads/cropped-Horn-Creek-Owl-Logo-black-32x32.png DIY Archives - Horn Creek Hemp 32 32 How To Decarb Kief https://horncreekhemp.com/how-to-decarb-kief/ https://horncreekhemp.com/how-to-decarb-kief/#respond Thu, 21 Sep 2023 18:55:18 +0000 https://horncreekhemp.com/?p=66390 How To Decarb Kief? If you’ve ever collected kief from your grinder or sifted it from your cannabis buds, you might be wondering how to get the most out of it. The answer? Decarboxylation. Without this crucial step, your kief won’t deliver the potency you expect when making edibles, tinctures, or infusions. But what exactly […]

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cbg kief

How To Decarb Kief?

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If you’ve ever collected kief from your grinder or sifted it from your cannabis buds, you might be wondering how to get the most out of it. The answer? Decarboxylation. Without this crucial step, your kief won’t deliver the potency you expect when making edibles, tinctures, or infusions.

But what exactly is decarboxylation, and how to decarb kief properly? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! This guide will walk you through everything you need to know—from the science behind decarbing kief to the best methods for activating its cannabinoids. We’ll also share common mistakes to avoid and how to use decarbed kief effectively. Let’s get started!to

What is Kief?

Kief is the fine, powdery substance that collects at the bottom of your grinder or is sifted from dried cannabis flowers. It consists of trichomes, which are the tiny, crystal-like resin glands packed with cannabinoids like THC and CBD and terpenes that give cannabis its aroma and effects.

Kief is highly concentrated in THC, making it a potent addition to cannabis products. However, it remains inactive in its raw form, meaning that without heat, you won’t experience the full psychoactive effects of THC.

Why is Decarboxylation Necessary?

Raw kief contains THCA (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid), which is non-psychoactive. This means that if you consume raw kief, it won’t produce the high or medicinal effects associated with THC. Decarboxylation (decarbing) applies heat to convert THCA into THC, making it active and ready for consumption.

The process involves heating kief at a specific temperature for a certain duration to maximize its potency and effectiveness in various applications like edibles, tinctures, and topicals.

If you plan to use kief in edibles, tinctures, oils, or capsules, decarbing is a must. Otherwise, you won’t get the full potency out of your product. Now, that you know why decarbing is essential, let’s dive into the best ways to decarb kief effectively.

How to Decarb Kief: Step-by-Step Guide

Decarbing kief is slightly different from flower because it’s finer and more delicate. Follow these steps for the best results.

What You’ll Need:

  • Kief (your desired amount)
  • Baking sheet
  • Parchment paper
  • Oven
  • Oven thermometer (optional, for accuracy)
  • Spatula or stirrer

Step 1: Preheat Your Oven

Set your oven to 220°F (104°C). This is the ideal temperature to decarb kief without burning off its cannabinoids and terpenes. Allow the oven to fully preheat before placing the kief inside.

Step 2: Prepare Your Baking Sheet

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper to prevent sticking and make cleanup easier. Spread your kief in a thin, even layer to ensure even heating.

Step 3: Bake for 25-30 Minutes

Place the tray in the oven and let the kief heat for 25-30 minutes. Stir it gently every 10 minutes to prevent hot spots and ensure even decarboxylation.

Step 4: Monitor the Color Change

As kief heats up, it will change color from a light green to a golden brown. This indicates that the THCA has converted into THC, making it ready for use.

Step 5: Remove and Cool

Once done, take the tray out and let the kief cool at room temperature. It’s now fully decarbed and ready to be used in your favorite cannabis recipes!

Alternative Methods for Decarbing Kief

If you don’t have an oven, there are other methods to decarb kief:

1. Decarbing Kief with a Mason Jar

A mason jar can help retain more terpenes, reducing smell and keeping the potency intact.

  • Preheat your oven to 220°F (104°C).
  • Place kief inside a mason jar, sealing it loosely.
  • Put the jar on a baking tray and heat for 30-40 minutes.
  • Shake the jar every 10 minutes to ensure even heating.
  • Let it cool before opening.

2. Decarbing Kief Using a Sous Vide Machine

Sous vide allows precise temperature control, minimizing the risk of overheating.

  • Set your sous vide machine to 203°F (95°C).
  • Place kief in a vacuum-sealed bag or jar.
  • Submerge in water for 90 minutes.
  • Let it cool and use as desired.

3. Decarbing Kief in a Stovetop Double Boiler

This method is effective but requires constant attention to avoid overheating.

  • Place a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water.
  • Add kief to the bowl and heat for 30-40 minutes.
  • Stir occasionally and remove when golden brown.

Best Ways to Use Decarbed Kief

Once your kief is decarbed, you can use it in various ways:

  • Edibles – Mix it into butter, oil, or baked goods.
  • Tinctures – Infuse with alcohol for an easy DIY cannabis extract.
  • Capsules – Fill capsules with kief for easy dosing.

Sprinkle on Food – Add directly to meals for an instant THC boost.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Decarbing Kief

Even though decarbing is a simple process, small mistakes can impact potency. Avoid these common errors:

  • Using too high a temperature – Anything above 250°F can degrade THC and burn off terpenes.
  • Not stirring kief during baking – Uneven heating can cause some parts to remain inactive.
  • Skipping the cooling step – Cooling allows cannabinoids to settle, ensuring better potency.

Horn Creek Kief

We at Horn Creek Hemp are proud to present our solvent-less premium CBD pollen kief. Our extraction process, which spans a meticulous 12-hour cycle using a 151-micron mesh tumbler, results in a vibrant golden yield. Not only is our kief visually appealing, but its potency and purity make it ideal for various applications once decarbed.

Decarbing kief is more than a process; it’s an art form that requires patience, precision, and a keen eye. Whether you’re planning to integrate it into topical formulations, craft tinctures, or explore other avenues, Horn Creek Hemp’s kief ensures a high-quality starting point for all your endeavors.

Storing Decarbed Kief for Long-Term Use

To maintain the potency, flavor, and aroma of decarbed kief, store it properly:

  • Use an airtight glass jar to prevent exposure to air and moisture.
  • Store in a cool, dark place away from direct sunlight.
  • Consider vacuum-sealing for extended freshness

Unlock the Full Power of Your Kief

Decarbing kief is a game-changer for anyone looking to maximize potency in edibles, tinctures, and more. Whether you choose the oven method, mason jar technique, or sous vide approach, proper decarboxylation ensures you get the most from your kief.

Now that you know how to decarb kief, it’s time to put this knowledge to use! Try different recipes and methods to find what works best for you. Happy experimenting!

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]]> https://horncreekhemp.com/how-to-decarb-kief/feed/ 0 Home Built Hemp Dryer From Hops Harvester https://horncreekhemp.com/home-built-hops-harvester-hemp-dryer/ https://horncreekhemp.com/home-built-hops-harvester-hemp-dryer/#respond Tue, 21 Jan 2020 23:29:34 +0000 https://www.horncreekhemp.com/?p=2347 Home Built Hemp Dryer From Hops Harvester Hops Harvester sent a video crew out to capture how we use their hemp dryer.  We have two of their units now, both do 500 dry lbs per day.  Video below.

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horn creek hemp team members sorting plant material

Home Built Hemp Dryer From Hops Harvester

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Hops Harvester sent a video crew out to capture how we use their hemp dryer.  We have two of their units now, both do 500 dry lbs per day.  Video below.

horn creek dryer

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]]> https://horncreekhemp.com/home-built-hops-harvester-hemp-dryer/feed/ 0 Hemp Harvesting And Drying For The Small Hemp Farm https://horncreekhemp.com/hemp-harvesting-and-drying-for-small-farms/ https://horncreekhemp.com/hemp-harvesting-and-drying-for-small-farms/#comments Wed, 17 Jul 2019 22:36:47 +0000 https://www.horncreekhemp.com/?p=2164 Hemp Harvesting And Drying For The Small Hemp Farm It is one thing to plant ten or twenty thousand seedlings…  It is quite another thing to cut down and harvest the behemoths those plants become by late September.  Each plant produces 4 to 8 pounds of green material.  This is a huge task – one […]

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team members working on farm

Hemp Harvesting And Drying For The Small Hemp Farm

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It is one thing to plant ten or twenty thousand seedlings... 

It is quite another thing to cut down and harvest the behemoths those plants become by late September.  Each plant produces 4 to 8 pounds of green material.  This is a huge task – one that is often overlooked when deciding to grow hemp.

We researched and experimented with many different methods.  We settled on one that operates at a smooth and steady pace.  More importantly, it produces a vastly superior final product.  Our biomass flower is just that – flower.  No stems, just clean high CBD material.  By de-stemming the harvest we create consistent extraction material with maximum CBD content.  If you do this your extractors will be repeat buyers.  They love this stuff.

We also use this method for air-dried flower.  Bucking flower after hang drying has been a bottleneck.  This year we are bucking wet and air drying just flower.  The videos included on our youtube channel include bucking and drying.

Two Different Drying Methods

Air Dried Flower vs. Biomass

We use Munch Machine’s Mother Buckers.  We researched many alternatives.  The Mother Bucker was the best we found.  It is incredibly stout.  The moving parts are high-performance and take virtually everything we throw at them.  In operation we found the machines performed better than promised.  Munch Machine sales folks instruct you to have someone prep stems before feeding them into the bucker.  We found that to be not as necessary than indicated.  Our operators fed very large stems into the buckers.  If it was too large, they would rip off a few sub-branches and feed it again.  MBs are stout.

Mother Buckers are not cheap.  But we find again and again that you get what you pay for.  We never had any downtime with the MB.  Equipment failure is deadly during the harvest crunch.  But to keep them going you do need to keep them clean.  We keep 70% rubbing alcohol in spray bottles with each bucker.  Operators spray a few shots on the stripper wheels every couple hours.  The alcohol loosens sticky plant material and the action of the wheels removes it.  We do a more thorough 20-30 minute cleaning at the end of each day.

Horn Creek Farms

Mother Bucker

I understand that $20K upfront is a big number.  The math makes it work, and our ROI comes easily in one season.  We have two machines on a flatbed trailer with a generator.  Two operators stay on the trailer while two teams of two runners each gather stems from the field and stage them for the buckers.  If an operator gets behind, one runner can jump in and feed the machine alongside the operator.

This method produced 2500 wet pounds of flower every 5-6 hours.  So around 200 lbs per machine.  We do that with two machines and 6 people.  Speaking with other farms who used large crews to hand-strip I worked out metrics about 40 wet pounds of flower per worker per hour.  We are doing about 75 lbs per worker per hour.   The reason we stop at 6 hours is that by that time our dryer is full.

Hand stripping can be fast and we use that method for all smaller branches.  Two additional factors tilt the scale to the MB machines.  First, most hand strippers start out fast then slow over time.  It is hard work.  Using the machine keeps a steady pace.  The team works consistently whereas an all-human crew ebbs and flows.  Secondly, humans are complex.  Some don’t show.  Some show late.  Some can’t work.  If you do your harvest in waves you are hiring a bunch of unknown people, you must train them, sort out those who aren’t performing.  It is inefficient.  By using a team of 6 the workers can count on full employment every day from September 15 to November 1.  They know their roles and get to it every morning.

Hemp Dryer

This year we are buying another pair of buckers and another dryer.  We are also using the buckers for air dried material which will be placed on screens.  That will increase our hours of use per machine per day.

The dryer is covered more completely in another post. We source our dryers through Hops Harvester in New York.  They build ‘oast floor panels’ which are perforated screen louvers.  The louvers create three 2′ tall drying layers in a large plywood box.  We place green flower on the top level, then when the second batch comes in from the field we open the louvers which drops the first batch to the second layer.  in doing so the flower is turned for even drying.  After three batches the dryer is full.  When the first batch from the next day arrives, the original batch has been in the dryer 24 hours and is at 10% moisture and ready for storage.

Hops Harvester is a great company and very helpful.  They worked with hemp farms to create an improved dryer design for hemp.

Louvers are now larger which should prevent bridging of material when dropping from one layer to the next.  They use standard grain drying fans and burners.  There are a few things I learned in the process of building the unit that will make your own build easier.  For example, the equipment uses three phase power but can be rigged to work with a single phase.  Electrical and gas connections take some skill but are not too complicated.

Hemp Dryer

For air drying, we do both conventional methods of hanging stems on trellis webbing as well as placing flower on screens.  Bucking dried flower off the stems was a choke point last year so we are working on solutions to wet buck more flower and dry without trellises.  The downside of conventional air drying is the bottleneck of manually bucking flower.  Costly and time-consuming.

With two Mother Buckers and a single kiln dryer we produced 450-500 dry pounds every day throughout harvest.  I find that steady daily pace to be vastly preferable to inefficient and labor-intense pushes.  It also keeps us a little more sane.  As we ramp up we are adding buckers and dryers.  So far this method is working quite well.

Horn Creek Farms

Your own harvest and drying methods may be different given your volume and drying capacity.  These processes worked for us to create premium dried CBD hemp flower. Best of luck, Paul Murdoch Horn Creek Hemp Farms Jacksonville, OR

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]]> https://horncreekhemp.com/hemp-harvesting-and-drying-for-small-farms/feed/ 7 Make Your Own DIY Hemp Planter https://horncreekhemp.com/make-your-own-diy-hemp-planter/ https://horncreekhemp.com/make-your-own-diy-hemp-planter/#comments Tue, 16 Apr 2019 02:45:59 +0000 https://www.horncreekhemp.com/?p=2128 Make Your Own DIY Hemp Planter If you are getting into hemp farming this year, you are not alone.  Thousands of others are entering the market.  Those new farmers are creating demand for farm services and for equipment.  The more you can do yourself the better prepared you will be to thrive in this emerging […]

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horn creek hemp team members planting with diy planter

Make Your Own DIY Hemp Planter

  • Updated* April 11, 2023
  • 12 Comments

If you are getting into hemp farming this year, you are not alone.  Thousands of others are entering the market.  Those new farmers are creating demand for farm services and for equipment.  The more you can do yourself the better prepared you will be to thrive in this emerging market.

DIY Hemp Planter

If you have not purchased a transplanter (and 75+ horse tractor) or reserved the services of such, you will be greatly challenged to find one in time for the coming growing season.

We built our own DIY hemp planter both to save money and because we were not sure that we wanted to make that purchase.  Our planter cost $550 in materials and required several days to build.  If we did not already have water tanks we would have spent another $300.  Caution – welding is required.

Your DIY hemp planter will need to pass over the bed and drip tape; create a hole (optionally fill it with water); and position workers to insert seed starts into the prepped hole.  It will also need to carry water and a supply of starts.  We used a Kubota UTV as the power source.  Our set up with four people was able to plant 10,000 starts over a weekend.

Continued...

We built our own DIY hemp planter both to save money and because we were not sure that we wanted to make that purchase.  Our planter cost $550 in materials and required several days to build.  If we did not already have water tanks we would have spent another $300.  Caution – welding is required.

Your DIY hemp planter will need to pass over the bed and drip tape; create a hole (optionally fill it with water); and position workers to insert seed starts into the prepped hole.  It will also need to carry water and a supply of starts.  We used a Kubota UTV as the power source.  Our set up with four people was able to plant 10,000 starts over a weekend.

We started with a basic 4′ x 8′ light-duty trailer.  Craigslist showed one nearby.  Perfect.  The first task was to create a water wheel.  The water wheel is a metal wheel that rolls along the ground with a single spike.

Water Wheel Planting

The spike creates the planting hole.  We built the wheel such that each hole was automatically filled with a water/mycorrhizae solution.  Each time the hole is made, the wheel automatically fills it with about a quart of solution.

The planter could be built without the auto-fill feature.  One could simply have a worker perform that task manually.  But making it work is relatively easy and saves that third set of hands.

You will need a wheel with a spike to create the hole.  Do your calculation for plant spacing.  If you want 48″ spacing, divide 48″ by pi (3.14).  you will want a wheel with a diameter of 15.25″.  Be sure your wheel has weight and traction.  The wheel needs to roll evenly.  We found that adding angle iron worked reasonably well.

Horn Creek Farms

Finishing Up The Water
Wheel Planter

The axle should be hollow to allow water flow.  Spike should be roughly 6″ long.  Drill holes through the center of the axle so that water which is piped into the axle will keep the wheel filled.  A single hole at the base of the spike will allow a water fill upon each revolution. We attached a clamp fitting on the end.  The wheel assembly should be able to lift up for transitioning the planter between rows.

The seats can be easily purchased from a raft supplier.  Ours came off a 20- year old cataraft.  Here we calculate the height our planters want to be which is between 4-6″ above the soil catching on rocks – and drip tape – is a pain.  If in doubt go high.  The angle of the seats is important for comfort.  Swivel seats can resolve that issue, but footrests help a great deal. Once complete, we added an umbrella stand and drink holders for decadence.

Water tanks rode in the Kubota and the trailer.  a simple hose with a shutoff connected to the water wheel axle.  Raising and lowering the assembly can be done by a third person on the trailer who preps start trays, moves hoses, and fixes the random issues that will present themselves.

hemp planter farm

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]]> https://horncreekhemp.com/make-your-own-diy-hemp-planter/feed/ 12 How To Build A Hemp Kiln Dryer https://horncreekhemp.com/how-to-build-a-hemp-kiln-dryer/ https://horncreekhemp.com/how-to-build-a-hemp-kiln-dryer/#comments Thu, 07 Mar 2019 03:58:01 +0000 https://www.horncreekhemp.com/?p=2100 How To Build A Hemp Kiln Dryer Are You Thinking About Growing Hemp? One of the most significant questions is how you will dry your material. Here we explain how to build a hemp kiln dryer. Now that the farm bill has passed, you might be thinking about growing hemp.  If you do, you will find […]

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hemp kiln dryers

How To Build A Hemp Kiln Dryer

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Are You Thinking About Growing Hemp?

One of the most significant questions is how you will dry your material. Here we explain how to build a hemp kiln dryer. Now that the farm bill has passed, you might be thinking about growing hemp.  If you do, you will find it fun, engaging and an extraordinary amount of work.  It is, after all, farming.  Farmer’s hands look the way they do for a reason.

You have many decisions ahead of you.  How will you irrigate?  How will you germinate? Plant? Monitor for males?  However,  the most significant questions you face are how you will harvest and how you will dry your material.  We will tackle those questions one by one in this series.  We will begin at the end.  Because before you know how many seeds to buy and acres to plant, you need to be sure you have the capacity to dry your crop. Air drying is great. It keeps terpenes intact, and customers prefer this method for a number of products. 

You will need space, labor, and cooperative weather.  You will also need heaters and dehumidifiers depending on your climate. We like to use both air drying and kiln drying.  These methods provide flexibility.  One can relieve pressure from the other.  Having a kiln dryer is very handy. Ours is small, but it puts out between 400-500 lbs of dry material per day.  The dryer cost about $15,000 in materials including freight.  Consumables were $1 per pound for electrical and gas.  If you have natural gas that number should be lower.

Advantages Of Having Your
Own Kiln Dryer

Using a drying service costs about $6 or so per pound.  Adding hard and soft costs of having one’s dryer, we were about half that price – and we fully amortized the dryer in that calculation.  We see two disadvantages and three advantages to having our own dryer.  The disadvantages are noise and space.  A big farm should handle both.  A small farm might not.

The advantages – 1) We dry to our own specs.  Some, but not all services do so.  2) We dry as needed.  Drying services often want large volumes delivered at set times.  We can feed the dryer as we progress, in small manageable chunks.  3) We control our destiny.  Drying services fill up and we want to be in control of that variable.

Hemp needs to be turned over as it dries to prevent hot spots and to dry evenly.  We used Oast floor panels from Hops Harvester.  The concept is a three-tier dryer column blowing warm/hot air into a chamber in the bottom.  Three louvered screen layers are above that.  The raw material is dumped into the top.  Crews returned to the field for another run.  When they return, they drop the top layer to the middle layer, then deposit new material in the top.  At the next harvest round, layer 2 drops to tier 3, tier 1 to tier 2, etc.  Each drop turns the material over for uniform drying.

Build A Hemp Kiln Dryer

Hops Harvester designs a modular system so you can create a dryer sized for your needs.  Dryers can use 2, 4, or 6 panels per tier.  6 panels are the maximum number per tier.  If you need more, you will need to build a second unit.  Our design used six oast panels per tier, for a total of 18 4′ x 4′ panels.  That is 96 SF per tier, and it was just undersized to do about 5 acres.  Calculate your needs based on acreage and air-drying capacity.  We will add 1 or 2 units for 2019.

Roughly 24 hours after the first load went into the top layer it is done.  We place totes in the heat chamber and drop the finished material into totes, then into super sacks.  Once you fully load your drier, you just keep feeding the top layer every turn of the harvest crew.  By the time you empty each load, it will have been in the oven 24 hours if you keep a consistent schedule.

You will find your own sweet spot in terms of scheduling.  Raw green hemp flower should not sit overnight, as composting can begin. You will know if you are cutting it close by sticking your hand in a tote that has been staged.  If it is warm in the center, you are flirting with decomposition.  So we only used freshly harvested hemp.  The morning crew of 4-6 could prepare a load in 2-3 hours.  We targeted 700-750 lbs of wet hemp per cycle.  If the crew starts at 7, load #1 is loaded at 10.  #2 is at 1:00 and #3 is at 4 pm.  That way the dryer stays full and running 24/7.

Build A Hemp Kiln Dryer

Our dryer uses a centrifugal fan blowing through a propane burner, then through a transition into the heat chamber.  We kept temps at 95F which worked with our long warm harvest season.  Consequently, you might need to increase that temperature if weather dictates.

If you are reasonably good with electrical wiring, you can do most of this yourself.  However, we learned many things about the system which would make it much easier to install.  I would recommend a burner technician to tune the gas regulators and valves.  It is money well spent.

To build a hemp kiln dryer, determine the number of panels you need per tier.  They will help you select a fan and burner to work with your capacity.

We added a feed to get totes to the top layer and a catwalk to help load it uniformly.  Both were critical for heavy usage.  Ours is outside, so we added a roof.  That was essential as well.

hemp kiln dryers
hemp kiln dryer
buckets of hemp

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]]> https://horncreekhemp.com/how-to-build-a-hemp-kiln-dryer/feed/ 9 How To Make CBD Salve – DIY CBD Extraction https://horncreekhemp.com/how-to-make-cbd-salves-diy-cbd-extraction/ https://horncreekhemp.com/how-to-make-cbd-salves-diy-cbd-extraction/#comments Wed, 27 Feb 2019 03:20:00 +0000 https://www.horncreekhemp.com/?p=2076 How To Make CBD Salve – DIY CBD Extraction DIY CBD Extraction, Everything You Need To Know This short post provides the basics for DIY CBD extraction for tea, salves, and tinctures.  CBD salves are everywhere lately.  Do you know what they contain?  There is little to no USDA/FDA regulation as government agencies work to […]

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CBD diy salve and tea

How To Make CBD Salve - DIY CBD Extraction

  • 4 Comments

DIY CBD Extraction, Everything You Need To Know

This short post provides the basics for DIY CBD extraction for tea, salves, and tinctures.  CBD salves are everywhere lately.  Do you know what they contain?  There is little to no USDA/FDA regulation as government agencies work to respond to this new market.  You can know exactly what is in your salve with this easy-to-follow instruction on the basis of DIY CBD extraction.

t is easy and fascinating.  Our Horn Creek family first became intrigued with hemp after experimenting with CBD salves and teas. 

Whitney is not only our hemp whisperer. She is also a wizard at creating magic in her kitchen. Her salves have a devoted audience of friends and family. It is such a joy to hear friends recount success stories in their own personal struggles.

What Are The Benefits Of CBD Salves?

The results are anecdotal but quite compelling. Salves can be tremendously effective.  You can address deep aches and pains by first applying hot washcloths to the area to bring blood to the surface, then applying the CBD salve. Whitney adds essential oils but the key ingredient is CBD. Our salves test at 8% CBD, which is an incredible 2,240 mg of pure CBD per ounce. Compare that to commercially available CBD salves which range from 50-150 mg per ounce.

You can apply CBD salves directly to the affected area.  Users wanting sleep remedies apply the same salve to their necks, wrists, and temples. Most effective for insomnia is brewed tea from decarboxylated hemp. Whitney’s tea recipes are delicious and potent. Be close to your bed when you sit down with a cup.

What Do You Need For Your DIY CBD Extraction?

Oven

Crock Pot

MCT Oil

High-CBD Flower

Decarboxylation/Activation

Your first step is to turn CBD-A into CBD. If you read our COAs, you will see that actual CBD content is around 1% and CBD-A is in the high teens. Heating or decarboxylating will change CBD-A to CBD. There is some discussion about the benefits of raw CBD-A but we find activated CBD to be most effective for our purposes.

We use a convection oven set to 240F. If we start seeing light smoke we dial back our temp a bit to preserve terpenes. Place 4 oz of high-CBD hemp flower in a baking pan and place in the oven for 60 minutes. We use our kiln-dried flower which tests at 18% raw CBD. There are plenty of decarboxylation time/temp tables online. Some might vary. But we’ve found this schedule to produce consistent results.

If you are making a tea blend, you are almost done.  You can now add other dry ingredients to your activated hemp tea material.  We like Chamomile, Lemon Balm, Milky oat tops, Skull cap, and Valerian root.  Chai works very well with milk, and milk fats bind with the CBD. If you are making a salve, you are ready to add your activated hemp material to an MCT oil for your salve base.

Create Your Base

Once the plant material is decarbed and dry, loosely grind the decarbed material between your hands. This increases the surface area of your material to facilitate binding with your oil. Place your decarbed and ground biomass in a crock pot set to low. Steep for 4-6 hours. Stir it occasionally. You don’t want the material to overheat or it will smell scorched and the CBD may be degraded. We like 140-160F. 

Add your favorite MCT oil. We use coconut oil or almond oil. Coconut oil feels great on your skin but it can be messy. Coconut oil is a solid at room temperature and can be difficult to apply. Almond oil applies easily with a dropper which is nice if the area is very sore.

We generally use 2-3 quarts of oil per batch. Coconut oil is expensive when purchased in small quantities. 5-gallon buckets are much more affordable per ounce.

Horn Creek Farms

Finishing Steps

After your base is done, pour the mixture through a strainer or cheesecloth. The result smells earthy and wonderful. You will also be left with a small bolus of hemp mash. Dispose of this so that no pets can get to it. They love the smell but may not respond well to ingesting it. We have tested the leftover mash and found it to contain roughly .5% CBD and CBD A. This tells us that the CBD-A converted to CBD which then bound to the MCT oil base.

Now you know how to DIY CBD extraction and you have a marvelous CBD-rich base which you can use for salves or potentially an ingestible oil. We exclusively use it for salves, but others use it as a sublingual drop.

For CBD salves, we then blend our base with essential oils for effect. Juniper, Eucalyptus, Lavender, Turmeric, Cayenne, Arnica, and lemon balm are a few on our shelves. Some aid absorption, some pain, and some simply smell wonderful. The benefits of individual oils are an entirely separate and lengthy topic. The base is effective without other additions, but the right oils are like spice to a memorable meal.

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