I just had my morning "budder" and figured I'd talk about saving weed.
I was debating between a Volcano vape, and a Ardent Nova decarb contraption. My 'discretionary' funds allowed either the Nova ($200) or the vape ($4-500) a few months later. I'm impatient, and glad!
I am retired, and like the moniker says, stay H.A.F. pretty much only when I'm not sleeping. Growing your own is great for getting better potency, but I was still going through between a quarter and a half bag a week. After reading about the Nova, (the 'Lift' is the exact same as the Nova, but for 'oregano' in non-legal states
) and the fact that it never gets above 120 degrees, and that it was a controlled set of cycles and has sensors to adjust the time needed based on weight.
Amazing. You can just eat the buds and be good. I only made budder to see about their claim that you could infuse in the same contraption after you decarb. Ran a batch with keif and a batch with flowers. Both good. But I won't be making any more unless it's for a recipe. It's an unnecessary added step. I made a batch of brownies, did half with the budder as a substitute for part of the oil, and some with regular batter, and the decarbed flowers just ground up in it - no difference.
Think about this. If your flower is 20% THC, that means that every gram contains 200mg of THC. If it is decarbed so you get 95%+ of that potency activated, you can get a 20mg (standard) dose with 1/10th of a gram of flower, and a 'couchlock' dose (even for a heavy-weight) with 50mg. It seems to last a lot longer than smoking or vaping, and you can tell a difference in the effects between different strains just like if you smoked it. Can you imagine decarbing a quarter bag and having it last for weeks?
I now separated all my flower stock into 'tops' & 'other', and the 'other is now all for decarb. Next harvest I am going to try drying all my sugar-trim and decarbing it, then doing a dry-rubbed keif.