Ancient method of making hash is alive and still being used

Pakistan’s Goat-Grown Hashish

A Pakistani hashish seller shows off his “black gold” in the country’s northern tribal region.
For Noor Muhammad Afridi, dealing in “Awal Namber Garda” is more than just his life’s work.

By providing the black, sticky hashish that keeps his customers very happy, he’s keeping up a long family tradition.

Just like his forefathers in the Afridi clan, the 32-year-old from Pakistan’s tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghan border has become a connoisseur of the local delicacy, aged to perfection with a centuries-old technique.

“If you put [freshly prepared] hash resin into a goatskin or a sheepskin, it matures into something very good,” he says. “It is well-preserved inside the skin, which also adds oil to it.”

The technique is believed to greatly enhance the hashish’s quality and, more importantly for its users, its effect.

If the end product makes the cut, it earns the right to join the prize sheepskins hanging from the rafters of Afridi’s hash shop in Jamrud, gateway to the Khyber Pass.

‘Top-Grade Dust’

Hashish is illegal in Pakistan. But it’s easily available and widely consumed in the country’s largely lawless northern tribal region.

To obtain Awal Namber Garda, Pashto for “top-grade dust,” Afridi must travel from the plains of Jamrud to his clan’s ancestral lands in the nearby mountains of Tirah Maidan.

There, a moderate climate, red soil, and locals skilled in the craft of cannabis combine to produce what is renowned as the region’s best hashish.

It is an arduous journey made by way of rides in open pickup trucks and steep hikes, but it can yield huge revenues.

Every gram guarantees profit – Afridi can fetch up to $500 a kilogram for Awal Namber Garda – and, if all goes well, Afridi has plenty to stock his shop.

The process begins once carefully cultivated marijuana plants have been cut and hung upside down.

After they have dried, a thin cloth is used to carefully thresh the plants to collect the glistening, hairlike resin glands protruding from the buds and upper leaves.

The residue is crushed into a fine, malleable powder – the main ingredient for making what, for Afridi, is black gold.

The next step involves goats and sheep that locals slaughter in celebration of a good cannabis harvest.

The longer the hashish is kept inside the skin of a freshly slaughtered animal, the better – three months at least, says Afridi. The process works best during the hot summer months, but direct sunlight must be avoided.
A hashish seller shows off his best-quality product, preserved in goatskin.
A hashish seller shows off his best-quality product, preserved in goatskin.

Shah Mahmud, 55, is the type of farmer who Afridi has watched since childhood tending to cannabis on the tiny terraced fields of the Tirah Maidan.

Mahmud says the resin powder is stitched into the skins, which each hold six to 10 kilograms of hashish.

‘Not A Bad Addiction’

Drawing on his experience of decades of hash use, Mahmud claims that when the process is completed, Awal Namber Garda is beyond compare.

“Its outstanding quality is that the oil has enhanced its effect,” he says. “If it’s dry, it loses its effect and smoking it even causes headaches. The [summer] heat is like an enemy of Garda. If you protect it from the heat properly, nothing can harm it.”

While hashish available outside Khyber is often adulterated with henna, chewing gum, or even chemicals, Mahmud maintains that the hashish prepared in the Tirah Maidan is the real deal.

“Hashish is not a bad addiction even if you smoke it for 50 or 60 years,” he says. “Cigarettes are more dangerous because each one you smoke reduces your age by a minute. Garda doesn’t dry out your mind. A charsi (hashish smoker) is always straightforward.”

Afridi seconds the notion and says that locals use hashish to treat many diseases.

He insists that few of his regular customers ever get sick.

“Awal Namber Garda is very good,” he says. "The second- and third-rate hashish is considered very bad because its effect is similar to your brain being squeezed very hard.that’s what Pakistan & Afghanistan sheep skins are good for :wink::yum:,

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@globalhead . Thank you VERY much for posting this. I was thinking about this exact subject last night before I went to sleep. I guess “ great minds think alike”. Peace. :rainbow:

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I know I have a sheep’s stomach lying around here somewhere…

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Very interesting. My question is what’s that ball of fur in his right hand? Kind of looks like a cat, but the angle makes it difficult to be certain.

Thank you for posting this!

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thats GoatSkin/Fur with the Hash inside

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That is the fleece which is curing the black gold. The lanolin from the fleece cures and matures the black gold.
I have heard of this process for many years and from different sources and this is the first time I have been able to verify it.

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Holy shit but I can be seriously dimly blind sometimes.

Thank you!

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“Mr.Nice” also wrote about hash-in-Goatskin in his Book,if i remember right

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…i guess,that hash smells/tastes pretty goaty

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Might even be mentioned in Robert.E Clark’s “Hasish”…it was definitely there in Svoboda’s triology and holy men (baba’s) also speak of it…

Surprisingly not the case… I believe it tateslike good hash oil :slightly_smiling_face:

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my mentor used to travel the hippie trail through the hash regions when he was a young man. I remember him showing me pictures he took of the hashmakers curing the hash in sheep skins.
The particular family he stayed with stored the hide wrapped bricks in a dug out cellar and like the story in the original post here… the hash was aged in the hides for 6months or more before being considered ready to consume. He told me that in that area he wanted to try some fresh hash resins and they refused telling him it makes people crazy and irritated. They only consumed the hash after it was cured. I mentioned this years ago when i joined icmag but was met with some skepticism LOL Nice to see some facts that back up my mentor’s stories hehe

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I think you used it for the Haggis last week… :thinking:

:smile: :vulcan_salute:

Cheers
G

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What was a bagpipe today could be your food tomorrow.

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Thank you @globalhead for sharing this.

I found the ancient methods of making hash a lot more fascinating than the new industrial ways with the new over breed strains. There is story behind, there is soul. It’s families that are doing that for generations and generations, it’s their way of living, it’s something that force respect.

While I knew they kept the hash in goat skin in the mountains for up to 6 months sometimes, I had no idea there was some kind of adulteration over there or like chewing gum was used, and thought that adulterated hash was a Moroccan thing especially with henna…

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People are always adulterating substances that get you high … in the mountains they make charas oil and use that to revive old dried up charas and put it through a pasta machine and the product is sold as cream.
In Kashmir they discovered that tea oil has anti fungal properties that prevent mold and keeps the charas viscous longer.
I heard the goat skin was buried underground and required at least six months but if kept longer it gets better :slightly_smiling_face:

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True.
How is this charas oil made ? is it made with alcohol ?
I see how the product might look like now that you describe it. It’s interesting.

I myself did some “jelly hash” like that mixing old resin with fresh oil.

I heard once about this tea oil on Charas, it’s very interesting !

Thanks for the information, I always wondered a lot about the Charas scene in India, I only smoked it with pleasure !

Cheers

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I believe ethanol is used as a solvent to make oil and to purify it and make honey activated charcoal is used and you lose a lot more in the processing that’s why honey is so much more expensive :slightly_smiling_face:

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@saxo what was the name of Mr Nice’s book? I’m a fan of Shantibaba but wasn’t aware of his book and didn’t find any references in a google search… curious to check out a copy though!

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I believe the book was called Mr. Nice …the Howard Marks story … unless he’s written more than one.

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