Do you grow your own cannabis or have access to trim? Are you wondering what you can do with all of those excess fan and sugar leaves? Use this guide to learn how you can use cannabis trim to make edibles and topicals at home.
Features
- A helpful guide to teach you about the two different types of trim
- Tips and tricks to get the most yield out of your product
- Guidelines for how to make tasty edibles with trim
Yes, You Can Use Trim To Make Edibles
If you grow your own cannabis, you know that trimming your plant is important.
Early in the growing stage, trimming can help encourage more bountiful yields and can help keep your plant healthy.
Later, after harvest, trimming the remaining leaves helps to ensure only the strongest, most potent part of the plant - the flower buds - are left.
Unfortunatley, not everyone knows what to do with the trim afterward. It's a question I've been asked many times in my Well With Cannabis Community.
So - is trim just waste, or can you actually use it?
Great news - it's perfect for making edibles and topicals!
Read on to learn more about what trim is and how you can use it in your homemade edibles and topicals to ensure nothing goes to waste.
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What Is Cannabis Trim?
Cannabis trim are the leaves that you intentionally prune from the cannabis plant.
There are two types of trim leaves based on where they are taken from the plant.
The first type is the larger leaves that you prune off the branches known as fan leaves.
Fan leaves are not exactly the best choice of trim to use in edibles if you're hoping to enjoy an intoxicating experience.
That's because fan leaves have very few trichomes, cannabinoids, and terpenes, and a lot of chlorophyll.
They are however extremely nutritious and can be juiced, used in salads, and more.
That leaves us with the second type of trim leaves, the sugar leaves. These leaves are quite small, and you can find them growing on the buds of your cannabis plants.
Sugar leaves have more trichomes than fan leaves and, therefore, more cannabinoids and terpenes.
Many of these trichomes can be seen with the naked eye, and are the reason for the name 'sugar' leaves, as they look like tiny sugar crystals.
This means you will be getting more medicinal compounds, and a more intoxicating experience (if working with THC).
If you need more plant guidance, be sure to check out this anatomy of a cannabis plant guide.
So, yes, some trim does have value - but not all trim is created equal. Sugar leaf trim is better than fan leaf trim.
A Note About Shake
No, shake isn't the same thing as trim, although the terms are often used interchangeably.
Shake is the stems and leaves that naturally fall off your dried cannabis buds.
Shake may have a higher cannabinoid and THC concentration than traditional trim.
How to Make Edibles with Trim
Now, for the part you've been waiting for: how to make edibles with trim.
Overall, you really can use trim just as you would cannabis flower, but there are few subtle differences to be aware of.
Fresh or Dried?
Edibles are easy to make with trim, and just as tasty, although it's important to know that you may end up with a more green colored and pungent tasting end product.
This is because the trim contains more chlorophyll, or green color, than dried flower buds. This will be more prominent if you use fresh trim, rather than dried.
While you can use fresh, wet trim, many people prefer to dry it first so the moisture from the plant doesn't end up in your final product.
To Decarb or Not?
If you want the activated effects of THC or CBD, you still need to decarboxylate your time.
Whether you want to do it in the oven or Instant Pot, the choice is up to you.
If you do not want intoxicating effects, and instead want the effects of acids like CBDA or THCA, you can skip the decarb process.
How Much to Use?
It is important to note that trim generally contains fewer cannabinoids than flower, so may have to use more to achieve your potency goal.
As a general rule of thumb, if you're using sugar leaf trim, it is recommended to double up on the amount used.
For example, in this cannabis flower to oil ratio guide, I recommend using one ounce of flower to two cups of butter.
To double the amount called for when using trim, it would be two ounces of trim to two cups of butter.
However, the only drawback is that you may not actually have enough oil or butter to cover all of the plant matter. In this case, add more oil or butter as needed.
If you're using fan leaf trim, you should be focusing on the nutrition benefits, rather than the intoxicating benefits. Try adding them to a smoothie, like this lavender blueberry or peach raspberry smoothie.
From here, you can infuse your trim into various types of butter or oil or make different kinds of tinctures as outlined below.
What Can I Make?
When it comes to what kind of edibles you can make with trim, the options are endless. Just remember, your edibles may not be as strong when using just trim.
Use trim to infuse oil or butter:
- Use a crockpot or Instant Pot to make cannabutter
- Make an infused oil like coconut oil, olive oil, or MCT oil
- Make a specialty infused oil like CBD oil, CBG oil, or CBN oil - depending on what strain or plant you are working with
Use trim to make a tincture:
- Don't decarb to make a CBDA or THCA tincture
- Decarb and make a Green dragon or Golden dragon tincture (the difference between the two here)
- Evaporate the alcohol from the tincture to make FECO
- Use your tincture to make sugar or salt
Use trim to make another staple recipe:
- Steep into a cannabis tea
- Make cannabis infused honey
- Make cannabis infused milk or cream
Use trim as a spice additive:
- Decarb and grind into a fine powder to use as a spice in many recipes
- Decarb and grind into a powder to fill capsules
Use trim for topical products:
Trim can absolutely be used to harness the topical benefits of cannabis! Use your trim to make:
- Cannabis salve
- Cannabis massage oil
- Cannabis lip balm
Collect The Kief
If you prefer to leave the nutrition and chlorophyll behind, you extract the kief, or trichomes, from the plant.
There are a couple of simple ways you can get kief from the trim. If you're a professional cultivator, then the best way to go about it is using a dry sift tumbler. It's convenient and easy for large operations.
For a home cultivator, you can consider using a silkscreen or a bud trimmer. The latter automatically collects your kief as you harvest your yield.
From there, you can decide to make concentrates with it and use it as you see fit.
How to Calculate the Potency
Calculating the potency of trim is nearly impossible without lab testing. However, many people want at least a rough guesstimate.
If you know the percentage of cannabinoids (THC%) of your particular strain, you can start from there. If we assume that trim is 50% less potent than flower, you would just halve the amount.
For example, if your strain contains 22% THC, you could cut that in half and use 11% THC as the base measurement.
You can then input that variable into my edibles dosage calculator to get a vague idea of the potency you could be working with.
Want To Make This Easier? Use A Machine!
If the process of decarbing and infusing feels like too much work, an all-in-one countertop device may be a perfect all-in-one solution.
My personal favorites? The LEVO and Ardent FX, but you can review the most popular infusion machines here.
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Final Thoughts
Trim is more useful than most people assume and you can use it on just about anything!
Looking for more ideas and inspiration for using your trim? Check out the Well With Cannabis Community for support and companionship.
My Edibles Made Easy Online Cooking Course will teach you how to easily make cannabis edibles and topical recipes at home. This step-by-step video course will teach you how to infuse, extract, and create edibles with many different product types - all from the comfort of your own home.
Learn more and enroll today →
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