Harvesting & Cleaning Basil

River · Thu Jul 09, 2015 6:39 pm

It's my first year to grow basil and actually use it. Piece of cake growing. I grew 5 varieties
Genovese,sweet,cinnamon,lemon, and Thai. The jury is still out on which is my favorite.
I have added the basil to my eggs and the only one I haven't tried is the lemon. The cinnamon wasn't good with the eggs the rest were ok.

A few weeks back I harvested a good bit. By the time I seperated the insect damaged leaves
It was probably 50/50 with the Genovese, and maybe 35% or so on the rest that went into the compost pile. Anything with black spots also were discarded. Since I have a good bit I am drying out batches to bottle.

Do u find that also have the same situation that I have when u are cleaning basil ?

GardeningCook · Thu Jul 09, 2015 6:51 pm

At this time of year & based on where you are located - yes.

Early-started Basils do start to decline this time of year. Based on where you're located though, you can most likely get a nice fresh crop by sowing a fresh crop now. Seed are still available (& in many places heavily discounted), & some big box stores & nurseries even still have started seedlings of common varieties.

rainbowgardener · Fri Jul 10, 2015 7:56 am

No, I don't discard nearly that much. Maybe my basil is in better shape or maybe I'm just not as picky about what I keep!

I do dry some basil and jar it up.

I also turn a lot of it in to pesto and freeze the pesto. Makes a wonderful, easy winter dinner to just thaw the pesto.

My basil usually keeps going well, into September, when I keep it cut back. In september I cut it far back, harvesting everything. Then it may still produce a bit more before frost in October.

sweetiepie · Fri Jul 10, 2015 12:41 pm

As long as I regularly trim my basil, it will keep going until the first frost usually September or October. I also dehydrate mine and put it in jars. Besides the occasional rouge leaf, mine stays in good shape. But I better be knocking on wood because now I jinxed myself.

GardeningCook · Fri Jul 10, 2015 12:54 pm

I've never been able to warm up to dried Basil. I've found that besides the fact that it seems to lose it's potency very quickly (like Tarragon), the dried also seems to develop a more intense sweetish flavor that I don't enjoy.

sweetiepie · Fri Jul 10, 2015 4:02 pm

I have to dry it because even with 2 and half full size freezers, I have no room for very many veggies. So they have to be canned or dehydrated. Being a North Dakotan, you really are not use to fresh stuff. You have to go 90 to 150 miles away to maybe find fresh herbs. Also being Norwegian helps, tend to like stuff, sweet and plain. So what I don't know doesn't really bother me. To be honest I don't even use it fresh from the garden because I don't know how. My recipes all call for it dry. HaHa!

rainbowgardener · Fri Jul 10, 2015 4:28 pm

Any recipe calling for dried herbs can be made with fresh chopped herbs. Just use 2-3 times as much of the fresh (like a tablespoon of fresh instead of a tsp of dried). Drying concentrates the herbal essences. And it will taste much fresher!

sweetiepie · Sat Jul 11, 2015 1:32 am

Thank you, rainbow, I forgot to add that my Norwegian kids don't like to see extra things in there foods and it is easier to sneak it in there if it is a powder form. Though after they have had to eat college food and then they come home they are more receptive to the extra green particles in there food. So hopefully at some point, I will be able to use it fresh with out wanting to pull my hair out.