Shearing season

Earlier this year Joel and I realized that our pesto stash wouldn't last us until summer. So, we decided to take action.

We worked on two different levels. We bought a bag of hydroponically grown basil from Wegmans (roots included), a packet of basil seeds (Genovese, of course), and a bag of soil. We took cuttings from the grown plants and planted them, along with the stalks that the cutting left behind. We also started some seeds.

This (see below) is what happened.


Yay!

We decided it was pesto time. You will see the aftermath in the follwing photos:

May they triumph through this difficult season and rise again, with more leaves than they had before!

Mmm. Who can complain when they have a pile of basil this high?

The end result. Yummy!

Basil+other good stuff=PESTO!

So, the small basil field that Joel and I planted earlier this summer was quite ready for a harvest today. So, we gleaned the stalks of their top sets of leaves...and ended up with about three wal-mart sacks full of fresh basil...(only one walmart bag if tightly packed...and I mean tightly). So, we just finished the third batch of pesto, each batch making about 16 oz... and we're almost out of garlic and are less than half-way through the basil. Whew! Conveniently, I've heard that pesto stores well in the freezer. And this is only the first harvest....the plants should provide at least a couple more just about as big.... All from two seed packets having cost about...$2.50 total. And, it's not even all of the seeds from the packets. This is one example of why I like gardening so much!

Maybe some pictures later....