The Managua, I like this name a lot !
Was it fresh leaves ?
I am making weed milk since a teenager
I do it like that : use whole milk because it’s the fat that extract the THC…
I boil the plant material in water for like 30 minutes (so there is less of that chlorophyll taste), then drain it, pour whole milk cooking it for 40 minutes. I think (I am not sure) the more you cook it the more sedative the result will be because of CBN ? anyway that’s how it felt.
I add a bit of vanilla, a bit of spice, and you got a Malagasy Bhang Lassi! you can make mix it with amazing Malagasy black tea of Sahambavy ! @globalhead I’d love some Bhang Lassi, Chai Tea and good old Charas
In Mada in some parts of the island people traditionally make infusions, inhalations or tea with it to treat yellow fever, migraines or painful periods for example. A bit like in some countries in main land Africa as Congo. As for edibles, zamal cookies are quite popular in my circle.
Majority of people don’t use medication and rely on a great number of endemic medicinal plants there is here. Cannabis like I mentionned but also Khat, Ravintsara, Eucaliyptus, Aloe Vera … A lot of stuff is not documented yet. It’s very fascinating .
Sadly the Kerala Gold can no longer be found but I have Andhra Gold which is supposed to have come out of the KG.
Great to know you like bhang lassi and Indian charas…some very good clean resin coming out of Himachal Pradesh.
It’s heartening to know people use medicinal plants instead of allopathic medicine, in India too there is a major resurgence of Ayurveda.
The best and most pristine Islands in the Indian Ocean are Madagascar, Maldives & Lakshadweep.
You can link your topic to the Island cannabis strains thread if you like …
Do you know if there’s a political start movement of decriminalization in Tananarivo? Is there a possible start of debat or morals is still hermetic and very closed ?
By hoping the good vibes from South Africa will influence soon Eswatini, Mozambique etc in road of Madagascar like a come back to the source 2000 years later ^^
Very interesting thread,
It’s rare info you give here
Malagasy strains were certainly the least documented until recently, and the traditionnal curing methods even more so… very related to Malawi cobbing it seems ?
I don’t think there is any movement, the plant is still badly viewed. In part by the older people.
I know that neighboring countries are decriminalizing it, I hope it will be the case one day but I am truly not sure.
The political situation is very complicated. I don’t think cannabis is a priority here if there is any. I think you got an idea if you already visited .
In Tana you will never see anyone smoking weed in the streets or bars. Maybe in some rough remote neighborhoods but in general no. In the country side or the coast it’s somehow different with people openly chewing Khat in the streets and smoking weed in some bars and remote places… At least most traditional zamal don’t have a very strong smell when smoked.
Thanks @Aero I am glad to share, to participate as I realized as well that it is not very well documented …
I talked about it a bit here:
I am not sure if they are related , I still got to find out how they do nowadays but it seems to be very location dependent.
I do think that the Zamal coming from the east is buried underground in banana leaves, at least in the humid areas. The bouquets are more compressed and they taste like ground.
But from drier places (far south) I am not sure… it’s different, less moldy, more resin, taste less like ground and bouquets are more aerated … They might be dried under the sun?
I am not familiar with Malawi plants and cobbing in general. But still very interesting topic.
This recipe sounds really interesting. I will try it.
What kind of spice do you use with vanilla?
If the water is drained, it may also reduce the potency of the plant material?
I have grown Zamdelica with nice results , it’s ZamalxGolden tiger from ice seeds , would be interesting in edibles
Madagascar is a big country with difficult access, tough roads. For example to go from Tana to Tulear, it’s gonna take you 2 days full driving (at least) with a 4 by 4, imagine with trucks or even buses… In some very rough dirt roads, it happens that you do 100km in 10 hours .
Even if we are talking about like for example let’s say 600 km of transportation needed, with the state of the roads here we are talking about a day or two of driving in a truck (if not more to be honest), also got to count the transportation from the actual growing place by foot or zebu in hidden paths for multiple days… So even if it’s cured in a specific way by the time it will arrive at you it’s gonna be different…
As it smuggled it depends as well on the way of transportation I suppose. I heard that it is sometimes hidden with charcoal. A lot is exported.
So I think curing is quite random if you live in Tana, or big cities in general, greatly depending on your contacts.
Best it to get ourselves closer to the herb.
I got a friend that lives on an island on the east coast, that when he is coming in Tana, just stop smoking zamal. He claims the zamal is not good anymore, more expensive, weaker, bad taste… I smoked some with him over there and yes the zamal looks better, greener and just fresher, with clean effects. The transport is altering to some extent the weed.
The climate is very different on every part of the island, some are very humid and cold during winter while others are very dry, arid and very hot. Cold and temperate in the highlands, very humid and hot in the whole eastern coast, very dry and very hot in the western coast.
The culture is also very different, language, traditions, fady varies a lot on the location. A bit like India I guess, @globalhead there is multiple dialects, and it is sometimes hard to understand each other. So a lot is getting lost in translation …
Just to give an example in the highlands for egg we say “atody”. The same word means testicles/balls in the far south ! Funny when you are just asking for some eggs … Do you have balls man? The amount of confusion sometimes is awkward and quite comical.
I am detailing all of this because, as we don’t say specific names for landraces, locals differentiate the quality/effect with the location of growing. It’s the climate that makes the weed truly different. I have been told that South east is the best place as the climate condition seems to be ideal to grow good plants. Not too much rain, not too hot, good altitude… It’s close to impossible to access, it’s like “closed”.
So I guess each different weather got its own different strain that prefers a specific climate.
In my experience, the herb from south create more resin but also more seeds and harsher taste. I’ve had dark purple herb in Ampefy, in the highlands, 6 years ago, I am not sure I can find that back. The zam from the east is also often a bit more fruity.
To me, it makes sense that the best origins are far south, south east, and north east as they are really hard to get places, very remote, possible conflict zones with no to little state control. The southern part of the island hosts the biggest zebu population of the island, and therefore more Dahalo influence and control. There is quite some heat with the precious stones too, but I reckon those syndicates don’t care about weed.
Back in the day, the iconic Isalo national park was occupied by the Dahalo, they got pushed further in the mountains to the Makay, where they found paintings in caves very recently, draws questions of what kind of people were there, why they were so remote, and far from everyone and everything !
In Isalo they found evidence that Persians came at some point in those magical mountains.
Also, when it’s raining season, so supposedly now, the supply seems to slow down. The rain season has been later and later because of climate change, we are waiting for rain now.
Not so long ago, the rain would have start now and with a lot of water. Nowadays it’s months late, little and random.
Wow what a rich, diverse culture and environment. It’s the “under-developed” areas that hold much of the magick lost in urban modernization / controlling paradigm that accompanies the city centers. Would love to visit those inaccessible areas and better understand the cultural traditions unique to each subset of people living in the different environments.
Wish I could sample landraces grown in each of those micro-climates ^^
Yes that’s what I am trying to describe, It’s incredibly diverse, it seems to be an endless supply of new things all the time. You go 200km one way, people, environment is already very different. I would think there is potentially as many different landraces as micro climates/cultures.
The problem is that if there are inaccessible it’s because of safety too, there is conflicts, and it would be simply not possible to go to most of the supposed “growing” places. .
I think the seeds size can be meaningful but it’s also relative because there can be variation in a same plant in fact and also there’s difference regarding geno/pheno. (Pre-flowers’s seeds for example are a bit bigger).
That said i found that the seeds i received and repro from Toliara (Betroka’s origin imho) were quite small and comparable to the most tiny i experienced with Swazi Rooi.
Ya 18/20 weeks are like 50% majority of pure sat i think, Gold kind theory. With Malagasy I found others 25% Red earlier and 25% Green with endless flowerings. I do not really found Black ones 12/14 weekers like in South African’s higher elevation of Drakensberg or Mulanje mountains (Lesotho, Swazi, Malawi).
I’d love some Bhang Lassi, Chai Tea and good old Charas 
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The amount of confusion sometimes is awkward and quite comical.
