Ever picked up a jar of flower and seen something like this?👇

THC: 0.425% | THCa: 31.271% | CBD: 0.00% | CBDa: 0.00%  
Harvest Date: 5/5/2025 | Package Date: 6/5/2025 | Use By: 5/5/2026  

Our favorite brands like to utilize their packaging to provide a wealth of detail for the strain and specific batch, but what you see there, is the state-mandated info that must be included on every product sold in Illinois. This information is basically your cannabis report card, but for this blog, let’s focus on the Harvest Date.  

🌱 Harvest/Manufacture Date  

• Flower & Pre-rolls: This is when the plant was cut down, started drying, and continues into the curing process.  

• Concentrates & Edibles: This is when the product was extracted or infused.  

For flower, this date marks the beginning of the transformation from wet, non-smokeable buds to the sticky-icky we know and love. After harvest, flower gets dried (about 1–3 weeks) to remove any extra moisture and harsh chlorophyll. The flower is then cured (another 2–6 weeks) to preserve trichomes, and mature the flavor profile.  
 
From our experience, a longer curing period (3-6 weeks) typically requires and implies better bud quality. This means a larger space between harvest date and package date is typically a good sign. 
 
Those little labels might look intimidating, but once you know what to look for, they’re like cheat codes for picking the right product. For any information not listed on our website, we encourage you to ask in-store and we will be happy to help! 

📕Learn about more Cannabis label information on these blogs as well!

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