Cannabis Infused Coconut Oil

It’s time again to make some cannabis infused coconut oil. It’s one of the concentrated forms of cannabis that I make and use to keep my rheumatoid arthritis in clinical remission. I used to ingest the infused oil in capsules, but that’s messy to do even with the capping tray I have. I’ve tried all kinds of methods to fill the capsules with the infused oil, but it’s still messy. Eventually I poured the infusion into plastic containers to keep in the refrigerator. I add some to smoothies and I’ve also used it in cooking. And yes, it’s awesome as a personal lubricant which is all I’m going to say about that. Except that I’ve seen a liquid form of coconut oil at the grocery store that may stay a liquid after infusing which might be interesting to try.

To begin with, I selected a gallon jar’s worth of Cuvée, a lovely strain from TGA Genetics Subcool Seeds. It’s such a beautiful plant that I chose a picture of it for the cover of Confessions of a Back Porch Herbalist. In fact, a picture of the full grown plant that I’m making this infusion from appears in the book and in the picture on the right.

The bud structure is dense and tight, full of resin, yet gives a soft, feminine appearance and isn’t messy to harvest. A primarily indica dominant strain, Cuvée is a cross between Blackberry Kush, Romulan, and Cinderella 99. The smell is a blend between chocolate and cherry in this phenotype, and it’s probably one of my most favorite cannabis plants from which to make medicine.

Initially I heated the oven to 240º, frantically searched for my oven turkey bags, and after finding them, I poured in the dried Cuvée, tied off the end and put it in the oven for 40 minutes to decarboxylate. Decarbing is important with cannabis so that the THC activates. You can make medicine without decarbing, but your medicine won’t be as potent, so take the time to decarboxylate your bud.

I use an oven turkey bag in my convection oven because it keeps the terpines from escaping during the decarb process. It’s important to open the bag immediately upon removing the bag from the oven so that moisture doesn’t collect. I typically open the bag and pour it out in a large bowl as soon as it comes out of the oven. From there, using latex gloves, I crumble the cannabis with my hands. I don’t grind it like some folks do because the trichomes tend to stick to whatever I’m using to grind with and I’d rather they end up in the infusion. So I try not to disturb the decarboxylated cannabis any more than necessary.

While the cannabis is decarboxylating in the oven, I melt the coconut oil in my crockpot. When I became a patient six years ago, I played hell trying to find a crockpot with a keep warm setting on it. Low wasn’t low enough evidently, but I persevered and found one. Now I see them everywhere.

Anyway, temperature is important when infusing cannabis because you don’t want to cook the medicinal properties out of it. The keep warm setting does the job without burning the cannabis.

After crumbling the cannabis bud, I poured it into the melted coconut oil in the crockpot. I’ll let it infuse for the next 24 hours and then when it’s cool enough, I’ll strain the mixture and pour it into containers. After trying various methods of straining, I finally settled on using a fruit press. It presses the spent cannabis into a nice compostable cake which makes clean up a breeze. Other options require more hand strength than I have so this press has been a life saver for me.

The coconut oil can be strained even more using either cheesecloth or a coffee filter, but I like to have a little herb in my infusions so I only strain the infusion with the fruit press. Cannabis likes to infuse in fat and coconut oil seems to bind well with the plant’s constituents. Besides, it tastes good. So use it in capsules or use it in anything else you want. Ingestion is ingestion. All that matters is that cannabis interacts with your body’s endocannabinoid system so that health returns.

It’s not about getting high. It’s about healing. And there’s nothing like cannabis for that!

Blessings!