Let’s face it: eating your cannabis is the best option for maximizing the benefits. Your lungs aren’t very good at extracting cannabis, so you exhale up to 40% of the THC you inhale. Your liver, on the other hand, is excellent at extracting cannabinoids and making them available to the rest of your body–it’s like getting a 50% bonus on every dose. So what is the best way to make those edibles?
 
There are a lot of ways to add cannabis to your food, all of which depend on decarb’ing it at some stage. I usually start by roasting it, then I use the resulting herb in many different things. Here’s how to make a powder that you can add to oil for an extract, to vodka for a tincture or mouthwash, or to any food.

1. Break up the buds to maximize the surface area. It doesn’t need to be as fine as for rolling a joint but I try to keep the pieces under 5 mm.
2. Spread the cannabis into a non-stick baking pan. If you don’t have a non-stick pan, or if your raw cannabis is very sticky or resinous, grease the pan.
3. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil.
4. Bake at 250 F for 30-31 minutes.
5. Remove the pan from the oven and let stand at least 1 hour before removing the foil to allow the terpenes to re-condense.
6. Grind the herb finely to make it easier to blend and optionally, season it.

More on Seasoning

Cloves are excellent for seasoning:

• They neutralize the smell and minmize the flavour of the cannabis, making your edibles more discreet.
• Clove turpenes (which are also present in cannabis) interact with the brain’s cannabinoids receptors, boosting the potency of your herb.

 
Oregano is a good complimentary seasoning. It won’t reduce or change the flavour, but does improve it for adding to pasta sauce or salad dressing.
 

More on Baking

• Your house will most likely smell during baking. I try to do it late at night when my family is asleep or right after the kids leave for a few hours.
• If you bake too little, you may not get full THC activation. If you bake too long, the active THC will start to turn into CBN. CBN’s main effect is drowsiness, so if you have trouble sleeping, you might want to bake for 32 – 34 minutes.

More on Cleanup

• After roasting but before the final grind, add a little oatmeal to the herb. It absorbs excess resins to clean your grinder while you use it.
• The best cleaner for resin buildup in your grinder or other tools is vodka. Use the cheap stuff to rinse everything, then save it to make into tincture.
• Hand washing with dry dishwasher detergent works well for sticky dust accumulation.
• Inexpensive nylon-fibre paint brushes (I like Crayola) are great for cleaning or collecting the dust, as long as you keep them dry. Use a fingernail brush to clean the paint brush when you finish.