Hey pesto

It's that time of year when a frost alert is out, and the basil needs to be harvested.

 

This year instead of using a blender I used my newly acquired blender stick. It worked a treat.

Here is my how I do it from last year.

 

I now have my basil safely stored in the freezer to be used whenever I need it.

Basil and Pesto

With a frost due any night in Canada it is time to harvest the basil, make a big batch of pesto and freeze the surplus.

 

For me the best way to preserve the basil harvest through the winter is to freeze it.

I do this by stripping the leaves from the stems and throwing the leaves in a blender with enough olive oil to make a puree.

This mix then goes into muffin trays to be frozen. I find that if I line the trays with paper, then once the basil mix is frozen I can remove from the metal trays and throw the frozen patties into a bag. Each time I need to use basil for cooking or pesto it is easy to take a patty of two out of the freezer to use. Or even cut a patty in 1/2 if necessary.

 

 

To make pesto, I don't really use a recipe.

I blend several handfuls of fresh basil with enough olive oil to make a puree ( or use a thawed basil patty or two)

Add a tbsp of nuts to the blender-pine nuts, walnuts or cashews.

Add a tbsp or more of grated parmesan cheese.

Add 1-2 cloves of garlic

Salt and pepper to taste.

Blend all together, and serve on pasta or use as a dip.

A nice variation to plain pasta pesto is to add a few raw diced tomatoes.

Top with more grated parmesan cheese.

 

 

Perpetual Parsley and other Herbs

Parsley is always in my garden, and I never have to plant it. Both in New Zealand and in Canada, it self seeds with abandon. Yes it is a biennial. That is, it produces leaves only the first year, then flowers the second year before dying. I find that if I let it go to seed it self seeds quite nicely. If the seedlings are in the wrong place, then in early spring it is easy to transplant them.I must have planted it originally, but now every year I have both last years plants flowering, and the new seedlings establishing themselves. The beneficial insects love the flowers.

 

I also have chives, both the regular chives with the pink flowers, and garlic chives with white flowers. Both can be divided as the clumps get bigger.

Thyme slowly spreads along the border. The bees love it when it is in flower. It also self seeds if it finds the spot to its liking. I've had it self seed abundantly in a gravel pathway.Lovely to walk on.

 

Oregano is more of a thug, spreading quickly where ever it can.

 

 

 

Not as bad as mint, which has been banished from the garden, and is growing where the lawn meets the wilderness. I have regular mint and chocolate mint.

Beebalm (bergamot) spreads its way through the garden, fighting it out with the other thugs. Red is my favourite here.

I usually grow some of my basil plants in a pot. The roots seem to enjoy the extra warmth, and I can keep them well watered and fertilised, which they appreciate.

I grow 2 kinds. Italian Basil which makes great pesto,

and Thai Basil, which I love for the flowers, and for cooking Thai food.

I keep the Italian basil picked free of flowers,so it will keep producing new leaves. The Thai basil I usually let it go to flower early on because it is so pretty.

Sometimes I'll grow a small leaf Greek basil. It forms perfect mounds of leaves, and looks like it has been trained to rounded globes. Four or five plants in a pot makes a very attractive planting for on the deck. It tastes good too.

 





How and why I garden

I love to eat and I love to garden, it's that simple.
I don't want to eat pesticides or herbicides, so I don't use them.
Because of the way we live I garden in four very diverse climates. In Canada(zone 4) I have a short season garden-2 1/2 months frost free if I am lucky, followed by very cold winters. In New Zealand I garden in a mild temperate climate-almost frost free all year round, and in Thailand I am gardening in a tropical climate.
Most of my garden practises are based on a permaculture approach. That is I try to be sustainable and build in lots of diversity which cushions me against crop failures and pest invasion.
My gardens aren't big, but there is always something to eat in them no matter what.
I try and eat in season, and according to the country I'm gardening in.
I have compost bins and worm farms on the go, and every now and then spend enough time in one place to even keep chickens
.
Here is the garden on June 29th a few weeks after arriving back in Canada, just weeks after the last frost of the season.

 

and here it is again today, 1 month later.

 

 

I am eating lettuces, arugula,peas-both sugar snap and sno pea,beans,summer squash,pak choi,rhubarb,basil,chives, parsley.

The lettuce and parsley self seeded from last fall,so that gave me a good start.