Here's a project for tomorrow. My basil is ready and waiting to be made into pesto. It is a great crop this year. One row about 8 feet long. I keep the flowers pinched and it makes nice big leaves.
Tomorrow, if I get time, (I've been trying to find time for this for a couple weeks now) I'll cut down the plants, bring them home, trim off and wash all the leaves, food process them with olive oil and then refrigerate them. When my husband gets time (he's the real chef!) he'll add cheese, nuts and salt to make pesto.
The garden is really looking like fall now. The squash vines in the foreground are almost all dead. I have pulled most of the tomato vines (just behind the basil), though the poles are still up. Peas and beans are sprouting nicely beneath them. Those are beets behind the basil, which have been a fantastic crop this year.
basil (Ocimum basilicum)
9 comments:
What healthy basil plants. I bet the pesto will be delicious.
Have you ever grown Thai basil?
Those are some spectacular looking basil plants. You should be stocked up with pesto for a while.
Nice Giant Belgium tomato too. I was eying the Brandy Wine photo you had up to grow next year but now I might try this one instead. I took some heat this year for not growing a truly red tomato so I will have to add one to the shopping list this winter.
Is that at the community garden plot? I don't recognize it at all from the previous pictures! My basil has also thrived this year, I'm not quite sure why - the rain?
Beautiful basil! Is it genovese? Every year I grow different types of basil, but I always have some genovese in there for the end-of-summer pesto manufacturing.
And on a related note, do you happen to know if purple ruffle basil will make a good pesto?
Parsec, I have never grown Thai basil. Is this a good variety? I will look into it.
Dan, I feel strongly that no tomato garden should be without a Brandywine plant. It is the ultimate heirloom. If I could only grow one heirloom, this would be it. But I am having a lot of fun with my Giant Belgiums. They are producing more tomatoes than my Brandywines this year (which are often low producers for me). Again, I should warn - GBs are small to mid-size tomatoes for me! Not Giant. I took some more pictures of ripening GBs today as the colors and shape are just lovely.
Jennifer, Yes my community plot is very different looking all of a sudden. The summer plants have all died back and my fall crops are coming up. I really wish I could find a way to photograph the whole garden, like I can with my home garden. I bet the rain is the reason the basil has done well. Do you have basil in containers?
Caroline, My basil variety is called Nufar. I just checked Google and found that "Nufar basil (Ocimum basilicum "Nufar") is the first variety of Genovese basil (O. basilicum "Genovese") that is resistant to fusarium wilt." from Wikipedia. Here's a link from Farmgirl Fare (always a good source) on purple pesto.
My basil in containers has always smelled nice, but been very leggy. We direct sowed them into the garden this year and they took off, it's wonderful to brush by them while picking the green beans :)
hmm, then brandywine will be the red tomato for next year and maybe add the GB if I can find room. I doubt I will find more room but it seems I always dream of it.
Kathy wrote: "I really wish I could find a way to photograph the whole garden, like I can with my home garden."
You can do this with photosynth (www.photosynth.net).
What a gorgeus basil plants
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