In the outlaw days of California cannabis, Nat Pennington used to store his weed in pickle barrels buried in the ground. Back then, Pennington needed a way to stockpile his crop in a way that would make it last until next year’s harvest. And, with the active threat of federal law enforcement, he also needed to keep it hidden in places that couldn’t be traced back to him. Eventually, Pennington, who is now CEO of Humboldt Seed Company, would work his way up to storage in septic tanks. While Pennington’s techniques to keep his weed fresh in the early 2000s seem novel today, they were operating on the same principles as all methods of good cannabis storage: keep it dark and cool.
“The pickle barrel was a relatively inexpensive way to waterproof seal large objects or large amounts of a product, namely, in this case, big bags of cannabis,” Pennington says. “We could dig a hole and bury it and that’s a big hole, I mean, a pickle barrel is like 50 gallons… People use [pickle barrels] for rainwater catchment, cisterns of sorts, water tanks, things like that, but in Humboldt, indoor grows even started using them for their reservoirs to mix nutrients and do hydroponics and stuff.”
Like any flower that’s been picked, cannabis flowers begin to evolve and change—in both appearance and chemical composition—the moment they are harvested. Getting moisture out of the buds and keeping all the aromatic and flavorful elements in is the alchemy of great growers. The purpose of amazing weed is to smoke it, not store it, but the dream of having an epically large headstash remains. If aged properly, cannabis can reach the two-year mark and still smoke great.
Harry Resin, a world-renowned cannabis breeder and writer …
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Author: Ellen Holland / High Times
