I Vaped Every Strain from a Cannabis Farm — Here’s What I Learned

I’m very lucky to have access to the cannabis created by a quality farm that is interested in transparency and organic growing methods. 54 Green Acres is a Certified Kind organic cannabis farm situated on a tributary of the Illinois River in southern Oregon, and one of the reasons I became invested in them was because of their transparency and terpene information availability. I have a lot of other reasons for loving them so much — their cannabis is the best I’ve ever tasted, they are incredible people, and their honey is amazing, but I digress.

While having testing standards that require terpene testing is still a long way off, it’s not impossible to find cannabis farmers who are transparent about how their product is made and what it contains. As interest in craft and organic cannabis grows, more farms will be invested in ensuring complete terpene information is available. As consumers and patients, it’s vital to take advantage of producers that openly publish terpene results to deepen our understanding of the plant.

Due to cannabis’ status as a Schedule 1 drug in the United States, it’s only been recently that we’ve discovered terpenes and the entourage effect in cannabis. Indeed, it’s only been in the last few years that a legal method for testing the effects of recreational market cannabis was devised. Science still has a long way to go to deepen its understanding of cannabis’ effects. That means for those of us seeking recreation or comfort by using cannabis, we must invest in our understanding of how cannabis works on us.

Not all Growers Supply Terpene Information.

Since 54 Green Acres publishes all of their terpene information on their website, I was able to use that information in conjunction with my cannabis journal to underscore my understanding of how particular terpenes affected me. By carefully observing and mapping out the effects and flavors that I enjoyed the most, I was able to grow my understanding of the flower. The power of having that sort of transparency from a grower is that it allows for the consumer to not only foster their understanding of the product, but also shows a commitment to where cannabis is headed. If you don’t have access to terpene information on the flower you have, you can look up some ‘average’ terpene profiles. There are a lot of caveats if that’s the route that you need to take.

Journaling is Vital.

Working through a journal in conjunction with those terpene profiles is also an exceptional way to grow your terpene palate. Terpenes make such a vast contribution to our experience of cannabis flower that it’s worth the investment of time to learn more about which work the best for you. One of the things that I definitely learned was how to take notes on each strain.

Getting the Most out of Your Cannabis Experience Requires you Know What You Want.

Many nuances of the experience of cannabis is subjective — which is true of any medication, food, or intoxicant. Since research has also been stunted, it leaves a lot to the consumer to decide how much they need or want to understand cannabis. There are a lot of tools at your disposal to help guide your journey, but ensuring that you get the experience you need will take some understanding of what you want.

I’ll give you a for instance. After I had vaped nothing but 54 Green Acres for months and months, I sampled several cuts of product from a variety of farms that also practice organic growing standards. One of the farms, Wee Farms, was one of the few certified organic hydroponic farms, which of course I absolutely had to sample. My understanding of hydroponics was actually built on the idea that organic material would introduce havoc into a hydroponic system. They had a strain of Sour Garlic Cookies that was recommended, and I’m sure that this is someone’s favorite. It’s intense and pungent, the garlic flavor is incredibly strong (if you are going to crumble some cannabis on dinner raw like your favorite streaming cannabis cooking show, this would be a great candidate). It packs a hell of a THC punch with 29.2%. But, it just doesn’t do it for me. It’s missing some of the terpenes I’m looking for.

The more I’ve spent time discovering cannabis, the more that I’ve learned that my experience is about far more than just the THC, and I tend to like grapey flavors like Purple Punch and a heavy, rich, earthy Hindu Kush. While I enjoy the energy and bright citrus flavors of sativas, they can also trigger anxiety and panic if I’m in public — but they still are vital to me working through some types of headaches I get. Knowing what I want and why is vital to how I can use cannabis — and a strain and farm that doesn’t work for me might be perfect for others.

I’ll also be writing up a series of terpene articles over the next few weeks that are a result of my research. Each article will be a deep dive into a cannabis terpene — from the most common to some of my favorites. I’ll also write an article discussing some information resources that you can use to see generalized terpene profiles if you don’t have the information that you need. discuss where some of that data is headed, what some of its weaknesses are, and how to use it to its fullest potential. I also plan to drill into the changes I’d make to my cannabis bullet journal layout.

I’ll be writing the articles as much for me as for anyone else, as I’ve not seen all of this information complied quite the way I’d like to see it just yet. Within those articles will be a lot of the lessons learned from my experience vaping every single strain that 54 Green Acres has to offer.