Thanks for the kind words (and rep) guys, I hope you can make use of the info.
Regarding the leaf and trim question:
I personally only cook with loose leaf trimmings, stems etc when I don't have access to any bud/kief or good hash, but that's purely down to the difficulty in achieving precise results. Obviously the quality of any butter/oil is dependent on the percentage THC content of the source material. However, I've found that it's particularly difficult to be accurate (from a recipe point of view) when using loose green material.
The problem is, I might have 10 grams of leaves, stems & trimmings that might contain 2 or 3 percent THC overall, whilst someone else's 10 grams might have 4 to 6 percent, or vice versa, therefore, there's likely to be a big difference in the potency of the butter/oil.
As you already know, the THC is bound up in the cellulose structure of the plant (a high percentage in the bud, a much smaller amount in the leaves etc). When boiling down, (this only applies to leaves and stems) it makes little difference to the potency if you use fresh or dry material. Dried leaves and stems take slightly longer than fresh (assuming they haven't already been ground up) as you need them to soak up the water before they can begin disintegrate down to mush (releasing the THC content). Fresh already contains moisture.
The only other differences is the colour, butter made from fresh stems and leaves is generally greener, and dried, browner.
A final point. It isn't strictly necessary to dry the trimmings first because the process of slow boiling/simmering the plant material also isomerizes the inactive CBD, and decarboxylates the THCA into THC, 'wringing' out every last drop of that 'spacey goodness'!
You'll just need to be patient though as it takes a while.
Hey, roll a joint and smile in anticipation!
Cheers
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