Hi folks, I'm coming here to start the process of ending this grow journal. I harvested about three months ago and the weed is definitely cured. Photos are about to come — I'm doing a real studio photo shoot for those buds, they deserve it! While waiting for the shots, I made some pretty damn dank hash temple balls using the iced water extraction method (solvent-free) with my little washing machine. It's a mix of the 8 strains I grew here — never ideal to mix different kinds of resin... but man, this is some serious dedicated work, so I'm making myself happy with that 14g shiny temple ball in the end 😉 Here are a few details about my process for you guys (and don't forget — you can do it with fresh material! Fresh frozen is always tastier. Also, the drying process is much more efficient and faster with a freeze dryer, but... you need the budget for that. I don't, so I go with the air drying method — check it out below): 1. Get your dry trim, then cure it properly for at least a month (I did 3 months). Smell it — mmh, sweet, dried to perfection. ✅ 2. Freeze it, delicately wrapped in a freezer bag. 3. Let a large amount of tap water sit for at least 24h to remove chemicals like chlorine, then use it to make plenty of ice cubes — don't be shy, especially if you're not working in a cool environment. 4. Prep your washing machine: add trim between two layers of ice, fill up with clean water (as much as you can, large vortex is better than a smaller one), then make it seat for 30 min (45 min for thicker buds) the time that the dried green material gets wet again. 5. Prep your filtering tools: catch bag, different mesh bags, spoon, etc. 6. Wash as many times as you can before green contaminants appear, as these lower the quality of your hash — don't hesitate to go up to 8 to 12 washes if the resin still looks clean! Important: each wash has its own specific duration, and they get progressively longer as you advance through the process. Frenchy Cannoli (a true hash legend) provides a detailed timetable for this — from as little as 30 seconds to 1 minute for the first wash, all the way up to around 25 minutes by wash 8. Make sure to follow that schedule rather than using the same duration for every run or running it too long the first wash !! It could breaks to quickly your precious material before you collect all the trich's and the quality would be lower in the end. 7. Collect the wet resin in the mesh bags with a frozen metal spoon, make patties with the resin, and let them sit over some towels in order to drain as much water as possible (place a tissue made for hash collecting over the towel). 8. When the patties are a little dry to the touch, wrap them as they are in the tissue and place them in the freezer for 48h or more. 9. With an iron strainer, microplane your patties over the biggest flat surface you can get! It's important that your micro pieces of hash dry widely and don't get too compacted. Any failure in the air drying process will nucleate rot, ruining your hash in the end and making it a poor product — eventually something to throw away. Sad when you think about all the phases of the process to get to this point! 10. So, in order to air dry properly, you must — it's not optional — lower the RH of your dry room to 35% or slightly below, never above and let it dry as long as needed until the material feels like dry sand. For myself, I found 10 to 15 days is ideal. The room must be very lightly ventilated (not directly on your resin!) and in complete darkness — the goal is to preserve all those delicious terpenes! Ideally, temps around 60°F or 16°C 11. Now that it's dry, collect your resin with a large thin spatula! Make a little mound between two layers of PaperHash, boil some water, and fill up a wine bottle with it! ⚠️ From this point on, to avoid exposing your carefully dried resin to a more humid environment — which could ruin all your hard work — everything must happen in the same drying room. Keep working at 35% RH until your temple ball is tightly and airtight wrapped in PaperHash. (And don't forget to drink water — it's dry in there! 💧) 12. Start to slowly press your resin. Magical moment. Finally.... 13. Press 3 times for 10 to 15 minutes in order to really decarb your hash — because that's what it's all about! Between each press, try as best you can to shape a patty... until the final press, when you'll be able to form that magical shiny temple ball (it only shines with gloves on, guys 😄) 14. You are now allowed to try it — for quality control purposes only, of course! 15. Because you want to age your hash for the sweetest 5-star smoking experience: wrap your temple ball in a large piece of PaperHash — if you can get that brand it's ideal, or another kind (check https://thepressclub.co) as long as it's organic! 16. Place the wrapped temple ball in a glass jar and store it in a dark, cool place. 17. Wait a minimum of 3 months before opening it. 18. Open, smell, touch — you'll be amazed. Roll it up with some weed or tobacco or both (I do both) / Or get a Hooka... you are smoking some true primo aged hash made by yourself! Taste the difference and realize all the path from choosing the seeds online until this first amazing puff ... 🙏 I want to credit my inspiration for making this kind of hash to the great Frenchy Cannoli, who has shared all his knowledge through amazingly rich tutorial content that you can find online with a bit of searching. 😉 Peace Frenchy 🕊️☮️