Growing Basil

Basil is a frost tender annual herb which is easy to grow from seed. It can be  sowed directly into the garden after the ground warms up and there is no chance of frost. The seedlings will emerge in about a week and if grown in a solid row, will need to be thinned to about six to eighteen inches apart. You can replant the thinnings wherever you have space in the garden. I find that six to ten well spaced  plants  supply us with plenty of leaves to eat fresh, dry and freeze for the year.

I use some form of Basil in a lot of what I cook and I put it up in different ways, according to how it will be used. Fresh, it is really good with sliced tomatoes and fresh mozzarella cheese and is great mixed with spinach as greens on sandwiches or salads.

Dried Basil

Once your Basil plants are about eighteen inches tall, you can start cutting them. Take a heavy pair of kitchen scissors and a basket out to the garden and cut each branch of Basil back to a nice pair of leaves so it can keep on growing. It is better to cut about six inches each week or two than it is to cut it back too far all at once. Fill the basket, and using cotton twine, gather about five cuttings in a bunch and tie them along the length of string. Tie a loop in one end that will fit over your peg or drying arms and let them hang until dry and starting to crumble. 

Do not hang them in the sun, but indoors in the shade. If the weather is too damp for it to dry properly, you can lay it on a cookie sheet in a warm 200 degree F oven with the door open a crack to crisp it up.

Once it is dry, strip the leaves off the stems over a cookie sheet and then rub through a big sieve. Fill small half pint jars and save some of them for presents to give to family and friends.

I use dried basil in omelets and scrambled eggs and add it to sauces and soups.

Frozen Pesto Cookies

For a fresher flavor, especially in Lasagna or sauces, I really like to use frozen Basil cookies.

These savory cookies are made by picking the leaves into the food processor, adding a little olive oil and periodically giving it a whir. Add more leaves, whir again. Keep adding leaves until you run out or it gets too full. The oil helps it to mix and holds it together so you can spoon cookie sized rounds out onto cookie sheets. Place the sheet in the freezer overnight and in the morning, remove them with a spatula and load into quart sized freezer bags.

Drop a couple of these cookies into a pot of simmering tomato sauce, steam with spinach and stuff into a pork roast,  or add to the cheese filling of spinach lasagna, drop into stews. Add pine nuts and cheese fora fresh tasting winter Pesto over rice or spaghetti squash. It is very easy to use a cookie or two at a time.

-Wendy lee, writing at Edgewisewoods, Gardens and Critters