Malawi Style Cob Curing.

[Maple_Flail]

Sorry guys, Been busy last few days. have had time to take pics just not post them. just as a spoiler.. surprising the cob i was less confidant about, after testing I actually prefer. Yay serendipity!

COB ONE

COB TWO

And.. An experiment... BOTH going for a victory lap ferment...

lets see if i can get some yeast/bacteria kibitzing going on...

 

[bugman52]

my third attempt at rolling a cob , i think i may have dune it right this time lol
14 hr at 37-38c then 5 days at a little lower temp what do yaw think, i dident roll it real tight , so it kinda broak apart some .
o it was gg4 x vietnamese black

 

[bugman52]

i sampled a small peace in my hash pipe when i had it unrolled, aroma was very sweet/floral, way more than the buds did, taste was very hot /harsh burnt sandelwood with after notes of burnt carmal, the high was diffren than the buds i smoked

 

[Tangwena]

Love the colors Maple Flail looking good to start aging now they should all benefit from a month or two of aging after drying.
Of course you can use them now as well but please make sure you age a sample of each to see what the difference is.

Bugman52 so far so good seal it up for a month to age and then check it out. If you seal it without the wrapping you will be able to keep an eye on the progress through the plastic bag.

 

[lowridersa]

Hi Tangwena, I like the new site upgrade, does take some getting used to, and we will all find our feet in good time!! An amazing time and life you lived in Africa in those years. I spend alot of time with an old private hunter, smoker who used to work in those areas during that time and you see the good times in his eyes.

I doubt much ever made it to SA, unless you were very highly connected you only ever saw the tourist cobs.

Good cobs were available in South Africa between the late 90s ( maybe before ) to 2007( ? ). I was very close with the grower/smuggler/ditributor of cobs into South Africa. They were sold in certain locations in Johannesburg and Cape Town for just over a decade. He ( Douglas Gondwe ) was a Rasta, an immigrant from Malawi, and was a top businessmen. He was a mechanic by trade, we used to sit in his workshop ( Rivonia, Sandton ) every few sundays removing hundreds of cobs from black bin bags while eating, listening to reggae and making plans to go to Malawi to visit his family. His blood brother was the smuggler who used to arrive over weekends with new stock every few weeks. We spoke about drying and curing methods they used, and his was sun dried only. It was the reason I made them the way I did, from pips supplied by his parents. I do believe in my theory and think the manure cured cobs are folklore ,but someone sure did cure it underground and someone had a trip after smoking some damn skunky cob. Sadly Dougie was shot by a Nigerian on a Sunday night on his way home from his workshop !!! That was the end of cobs in SA for many years and the end of a very good man. I used to have pictures of all the experiences but sadly most were lost from a series of robberies, computer crashes and moving like the wind!

I have personally never seen cobs under manure but I have heard people talk about it but I'm not sure about its truth.

I think my theory I sent via message has some merit. I am not denying some people cured cobs underground or with manure, but I think it had more to do with the border war and hiding cobs in places officials would not generally spend time to sift through.

I am really keen on following your process and making some cured bud from some malawi beans. Thanks for your reply and sharing.

 

[Tangwena]

Hi Tangwena, I like the new site upgrade, does take some getting used to, and we will all find our feet in good time!! An amazing time and life you lived in Africa in those years. I spend alot of time with an old private hunter, smoker who used to work in those areas during that time and you see the good times in his eyes.



Good cobs were available in South Africa between the late 90s ( maybe before ) to 2007( ? ). I was very close with the grower/smuggler/ditributor of cobs into South Africa. They were sold in certain locations in Johannesburg and Cape Town for just over a decade. He ( Douglas Gondwe ) was a Rasta, an immigrant from Malawi, and was a top businessmen. He was a mechanic by trade, we used to sit in his workshop ( Rivonia, Sandton ) every few sundays removing hundreds of cobs from black bin bags while eating, listening to reggae and making plans to go to Malawi to visit his family. His blood brother was the smuggler who used to arrive over weekends with new stock every few weeks. We spoke about drying and curing methods they used, and his was sun dried only. It was the reason I made them the way I did, from pips supplied by his parents. I do believe in my theory and think the manure cured cobs are folklore ,but someone sure did cure it underground and someone had a trip after smoking some damn skunky cob. Sadly Dougie was shot by a Nigerian on a Sunday night on his way home from his workshop !!! That was the end of cobs in SA for many years and the end of a very good man. I used to have pictures of all the experiences but sadly most were lost from a series of robberies, computer crashes and moving like the wind!



I think my theory I sent via message has some merit. I am not denying some people cured cobs underground or with manure, but I think it had more to do with the border war and hiding cobs in places officials would not generally spend time to sift through.

I am really keen on following your process and making some cured bud from some malawi beans. Thanks for your reply and sharing.

Wonderful story brother sounds like you had a good contact and a lovely guy to boot.
I remember coming home from work and seeing my gardener waving a cob at me that had been left for me by my supplier while I was at work.
He was always looking out for any primo that came through the system because he new I would pay top dollar for top quality it was an easy sale for him.
Along with the truck loads of cobs that passed through on their way to SA there was always a small load of primo for the boys.
The truckies and railway workers always got the good gear due to there traveling around the country.

Makes me miss my life in Africa it was an experience I will always cherish. As I said I never had any experience to justify the manure heap stories there were so much fairy stories surrounding the curing and just about every grower and village had their own style of curing.
I dont put much store in the fables floating around these days but who knows I certainly dont claim to ha ha.

The sun dried was the most common type and the main one exported. I came across plenty especially from the North of Malawi lots of sun dried cobs came from Nkota Kota area.
My favorite style was the compressed sticky hashish like cobs which are the kind I try to reproduce we called them chapter five cobs.
But there were others that were equally special and it is those I am trying to make going forward my main problem is its still illegal here so I'm shackled by that.

One loose packed style of curing I got from the Tete area of northern Mozambique is my next project. The flowers were loose packed but had a maniacal perfume like aroma and smooth smoking but it was very hard to hold it in your lungs.
It had a silvery gold color and inside of the cob had visible resin covering everything that was like gold dust. A true work of art and of course the high was devastatingly potent, most of the time 2 drags was more than enough.
I remember loosing control of my sense of touch and my finger were like sausages, holding the joint was impossible after 3 drags and I'm talking about a pin joint ha ha.

I visited my family in Zimbabwe about 10 years ago and it took me less than 24hrs to find my old supplier, but finding the good stuff we called chapter five was impossible he said the supply had dried up and all he had was sun dried style cobs which as you say have flooded the market.

 

[Maple_Flail]

as a total outsider, and a farmboy... a manure pile that has already been dug into for fertilizer would be just cool enough for a week or so to be in the upper range of sweats..

obviously stashed in some sort of satchel or vessel..

Logically I would consider Cobs in manure plausible due to potenal lack of something better, or as a remedy to deal with poor weather conditions that would make other styles difficult.. IE.. sun curing in storm season (if there is such a thing there)

 

[Tangwena]

as a total outsider, and a farmboy... a manure pile that has already been dug into for fertilizer would be just cool enough for a week or so to be in the upper range of sweats..

obviously stashed in some sort of satchel or vessel..

Logically I would consider Cobs in manure plausible due to potenal lack of something better, or as a remedy to deal with poor weather conditions that would make other styles difficult.. IE.. sun curing in storm season (if there is such a thing there)

The season when the crops are harvested is dry with no rain so rain would not be a problem.
It is possible of course the heat generated inside the composting heap would be perfect, a cavity lined with banana leaves would isolate the cobs from the manure the Malawians were very inventive when it came to using what was available.
From the variety of cures I saw there were obviously many different techniques used, not just one or two there is plenty still to learn about their techniques.

 

[BigBlack]

greetings and blessings. here's a cob update. if someone has an email and can post them, i can send via email. or someday i may be able to upload them but right now, sorry.

i partial chopped one lebanese and 1 sinai that was scraggly but crystally. alot of leaves and airy buds. (first garden and landraces; i'm happy it went as well as it did).

hung over wood stove until starting to dry, approx. 2 days.

rolled in parchment, secured with twine, vac/seal, hung over wood stove 2 days.

unwrap. no particular smell. no moisture inside.

rewrap. use big rubber bands instead of twine. then left one cob without a wrap.

decided i like that due to being lazy and old and crippled.

it's easy.

vac/seal 3 wrapped and one unwrapped. re hang over the woodstove.

chop remaining lebanses and sinai last thursday. hung whole in closet with fan.

this morning (saturday) i left all leaves on (i stripped all big fan leaves and most small during the grow).

merely cut the flowers in a big pile on the parchment.

used same technique as rolling cigar, using the parchment to massage the mass around.

i folded the ends of the paper up onto the ends of the rolls to push the flowers towards the center and compact it evenly.

wooden spoon handle works there.

rolling with the paper, squishing the ends in ... until it was firm roll, like sushi roll size.

into vac/seal. now in a big pot sitting over a heater at 34c/93f.

very pleased so far. makes it all fast and easy. we'll see about the end result but so far so good.

thank you one and all.

 

[Tangwena]

greetings and blessings. here's a cob update. if someone has an email and can post them, i can send via email. or someday i may be able to upload them but right now, sorry.

i partial chopped one lebanese and 1 sinai that was scraggly but crystally. alot of leaves and airy buds. (first garden and landraces; i'm happy it went as well as it did).

hung over wood stove until starting to dry, approx. 2 days.

rolled in parchment, secured with twine, vac/seal, hung over wood stove 2 days.

unwrap. no particular smell. no moisture inside.

rewrap. use big rubber bands instead of twine. then left one cob without a wrap.

decided i like that due to being lazy and old and crippled.

it's easy.

vac/seal 3 wrapped and one unwrapped. re hang over the woodstove.

chop remaining lebanses and sinai last thursday. hung whole in closet with fan.

this morning (saturday) i left all leaves on (i stripped all big fan leaves and most small during the grow).

merely cut the flowers in a big pile on the parchment.

used same technique as rolling cigar, using the parchment to massage the mass around.

i folded the ends of the paper up onto the ends of the rolls to push the flowers towards the center and compact it evenly.

wooden spoon handle works there.

rolling with the paper, squishing the ends in ... until it was firm roll, like sushi roll size.

into vac/seal. now in a big pot sitting over a heater at 34c/93f.

very pleased so far. makes it all fast and easy. we'll see about the end result but so far so good.

thank you one and all.

Best of luck my friend there was a method of curing used in the Congo or so I read that cured the cobs in the flue of the cooking fire like smoked meat or fish would you believe.

 

[bugman52]

Best of luck my friend there was a method of curing used in the Congo or so read that cured the cobs in the flue of the cooking fire like smoked meat or fish would you believe.

smoked meat curing sounds like a good chew.

 

[BigBlack]

here's pics of the sinai cobs after 12 hr ferment.

 

[BigBlack]

these are my first 3 cobs from lebanese. after 12 hr. ferment. they are way too small. but they smell nice and seem to be doing good.

 

[BigBlack]

these are 3 lebanese cobs from the second and final chop. they're bigger than the others. bigger is better.

 

[BigBlack]

after vac sealing the cobs, i put them into this big pot, then set it on space heater. it keeps 34c degrees.

 

[BigBlack]

i opened all the cob vac bags. there was no water to wipe off, so i took pics and put them back into vac/seal bags.
what now? do they stay in the pot at 34c? checking once a week or so? doesn't seem like much else to do now.

 

[Guest]

smoked meat curing sounds like a good chew.

Im imagining a fatty slice of pig belly marinated in in ground cob. then cold smoked. cobbed bacon mmmmmm.

 

[Tangwena]

Im imagining a fatty slice of pig belly marinated in in ground cob. then cold smoked. cobbed bacon mmmmmm.

 

[Tangwena]

i opened all the cob vac bags. there was no water to wipe off, so i took pics and put them back into vac/seal bags.
what now? do they stay in the pot at 34c? checking once a week or so? doesn't seem like much else to do now.

They look very dark at the moment but the last lot look the best for sure. do you have any pics of the plant or better still the buds before rolling up?
If they smell good all is well try to keep that aroma on track.
Were they moist when unwrapped? If so it would have been best to dry them until the surface is dry to the touch before resealing them.
Resealing them moist will cause them to keep fermenting, the longer they ferment the more terps will be lost.
Although the potency will increase its at the expense of the taste and smell. Its just a matter of which you prefer.
Take some out and dry them so you can compare the results later is my best advice.

 

[BigBlack]

i wonder where my photos went. ??
they are not on the thread.
but tangwena saw them b/c he commented.
now they are gone?
why? does anyone know?