First Pic- Vegged for 30 days, no buds yet

Second pic- 2 weeks into flowering. Small hairs grow at the tips of each growth shoot.

Third Pic- Buds start to form underneath the hairs

Fourth Pic- Just before harvest

Fifth Pic- Dried Harvest. Now you just cut the buds off the stems. All of those big tops are just individual buds growing from the main stem, all stacked around and on top of each other.

Does that help?

And yes, you can smoke the leaves. After a couple weeks of flowering, even smoking fan leaves got me high. But, I hadn't smoked for 6 months before that...