// WASHINGTON TECH ZONE Presented By
A Quick Cure for Preserving Crops New tech delivers perfectly dried buds in less than 14 hours. The western side of Washington is one of the most humid places in the country. While it may not feel humid due to the temperate climate, persistent rainfall keeps the air damp. That moisture can make it difficult to properly dry and cure flower. Powdery mildew and mold are pervasive problems for farmers in the Evergreen State. An innovative approach gaining a foothold across the U.S. and Canada is Cryo Curing. Michigan-based Cryo Cure has reimagined traditional freeze drying and is using their patent-pending tech and U.S.-made machinery to advance the industry. CEO and co-founder Tracee McAfee explains, “Commercial Freeze dryers are designed to remove all moisture from whatever it is that is being dried. For a smokable flower that’s not good because when you’re drying it out like that, you’ve removed a lot of the valuable terpenes and it’s going to be dry as dust and not smoke very well. What we’ve done has taken that out of the equation of freeze drying and modified it with our ‘recipe’ for smokable flower that is full of terpenes, at the desired moisture content and water activity level. This creates the ultimate consumption
experience while improving the bottom line for cultivators and processors.” Washington’s Olympic Peninsula is one of the rainiest places in the world. While that’s great for cutting costs on irrigation, it puts outdoor growers at higher risk of botrytis, or bud rot. Bud rot can occur during the growing process or during drying. These outbreaks can result in thousands or even millions of dollars in crop loss. Cryo Cure’s freeze drying process mitigates the problem and is an affordable longterm solution that takes buds from stalk to smoke in just hours. Their smaller CC360 machine can process up to 100 wet pounds at a time and dry a batch in 12- 14 hours. Their largest machine, CC720, holds up to 1,200 wet pounds at a time.
Photo @kandidkush
McAfee said this method also preserves terpenes more effectively than traditional drying. “We’re able to capture and preserve a terpene Photo Brie Brewer called carene; it’s a fragile mono terpene that normally dissipates during Photo Brie Brewer traditional drying methods. We’ve suspended that degradation with our Cryo Cure process.” McAfee understands people need to see, smell, and experience the results themselves. They’re offering live demonstrations as well as case
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studies and independent lab results on their website. “Unfortunately, there’s a lot of snake oil in our industry right now, so people really want to feel confident in what they are integrating into their operations. We back up everything we do with consistency, science, data, education, and proven results,” said McAfee. ❖
