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HOME GROW / SHOPREVIEW if they are completely dry by placing the paper bags in plastic zip lock bags and sealing them. Leave them in the zip lock bags for a couple of days. If you can see moisture on the inside of the plastic, or the buds feel moist when you squeeze them, then they are not ready and should be removed from the zip lock bags and left in the brown paper bags for another two or three more days.
sealed. The main factors in THC degradation are heat, light, oxygen and water. So the jars should be filled to the brim and kept in a cool, dark place where they are also safe - not the kitchen cupboard!
The final test to see if the buds are completely dry is to take one of the larger pieces and bend it, the stem within the bud should snap. If the stem bends without snapping, then there is still some moisture left and you should continue with the paper bags for a final two or three days.
The paper bag method means that you should have some nicely dried bud, but the process does not stop there. You will need to open or ‘burp’ the jars to let out any excess moisture that has built up. Otherwise, condensation can occur and moisture can build up, which can lead to mould developing. There would be nothing more heartbreaking then pulling out a jar that had been curing nicely for a few months, only to find that that your delicious harvest is covered in mould!
When you are confident that the buds are dry, then they can be placed into preserving jars – the kind with a rubber seal and latch on them - and
The jars should be ‘burped’ every other day, simply open the jar for around ten minutes and gently stir the buds around. This allows the stale air and moisture out.
A Lovely Cured Bud, Ready For The Grinder
The burping process should continue for around four to five weeks, after which the buds can literally be left for years.
it has gone too dry, you can add a little moisture by putting a fan leaf or a piece of orange or potato peel into the jar.
If you do pull out a fine vintage and find
Happy curing!
De Sjamaan: 14 years striving for excellence Having begun as a modest smart shop in a working class neighbour- ‘Coincidences’ saga of de Sjamaan began in 1997, hood of Arnhem, de Sjamaan has grown over the space of 14 years into The when Ananda took over a smart shop a leading international web shop and wholesaler. Soft Secrets took a on the Klarendalseweg in Arnhem. look back with Chief Shamans Ananda, Satyama (Ananda’s mother) and Strengthened by the success of his first enterprise he decided barely a year later sales manager Narayano – and a look forward. Because with its new to open in the centre of Arnhem a second 'open, transparent and low entry threshold’ company headquarters de Sjamaan is well set for the future… That the smart shop in the Netherlands has survived all the setbacks is a minor miracle. First it was the banning of ephedrine in 2004. This was a painful blow for the industry because the herb was the basis of many successful herbal highs; in 2007 followed the Kruidenbesluit (Herb Decision), which in one blow put a whole series of natural products on the blacklist. Then the
Chief Shamans Ananda and Narayano are ready to meet the rose-tinted future
shroom ban of 2008 threatened to be the final death knell for the industry. Thanks to a combination of perseverance, business acumen and idealism, de Shamaan managed to navigate deftly between the rocks with a bit of legal manoeuvring – and emerged strengthened from the turbulent years.
shop. There was just one small problem: he had no idea how the new shop should be financed. Business was good, but not so spectacularly that there were piles of cash lying around. When the perfect shop location was found in the Bovenbeekstraat, it turned out that the owner of the place coincidentally was an old friend of the
family. The deal could be closed under favourable conditions for old times sake. As Ananda says: “Things like these continue to happen for de Sjamaan. It is a sort of combination of intuition and coincidence, whereby time and again at just the right moment things fall into place.” In 2001 the chance came along to take over the Dr. Paddo smart shop in Nijmegen. This spacious shop in the Bloemerstraat was also transformed into an open, transparent and low threshold smart shop to be proud of. With the start of the new century, de Sjamaan had grown so strongly that what had become a business concern spread over three shops began to be a bit logjammed. As well as this the traffic in the narrow streets of Arnhem was a nightmare for both suppliers and customers. Yet it was not until 2008 that Ananda and his mother independently of each other discovered the same site in the nearby
An important decision was to extend the range of products with a sophisticated collection of head shop articles and premium cannabis seeds. “Our aim is to become a one-stop-shop”, explains Narayano. “That’s why we also stock the ranges of our smart product producer colleagues.” At the same time they continued the core-business – “the development and creation of our own smart products.” The company now has two of its own shops, supplies as a wholesaler the ever growing (inter) national market and delivers via the web shop to individuals worldwide. Just as every year, de Sjamaan will be manning a spacious stand as an event sponsor at the Spannabis Hemp Fair in Barcelona on 25, 26 and 27 February 2011. All in all, de Sjamaan has a unique position, and is becoming one of the most important European suppliers and producers of smart products in the broadest sense of the word.
Home-grown shrooms It better than buying from a dealer and safer than picking them yourself in the woods: growing your own magic mushrooms with the de Sjamaan home-grow kit. De Sjamaan has selected six different varieties for you, each with its own distinct character. What they have in common is that each of them is ready to be encouraged to stick their little heads above ground for you. As long as you follow the instructions carefully within a couple of weeks you’ll be able to harvest a good couple of hundred grams of fresh shrooms.
