Hello and welcome (back) to the Planet Forward blog and to another entry in my organic garden journal on a beautiful Friday before (what was formerly known as) Caribana weekend here in Toronto.  You can read the previous entry of my virtual gardening diary here. Today I am thrilled to write that my (tad bit expensive) garden has finally began to pay off in the form of basil plants. These are not your average basil plants – these are like basil shrubs that had me excited about harvesting my first crop.

A few days had past before I was able to tend to this magnificent crop and convert it into pesto which I expected to yield nine jars as has been the case in the past with my first crop. I started out by cutting back the plants and I had only made my way through three plants when my first bag was full (which normally holds 8 plants – that’s how big these plants are). After the fourth bag, I decided to stop harvesting and move on to the cleaning phase because cleaning basil for pesto is a bit of a rigorous process. You have to soak it, remove the leaves from the stems and then cut out all of the bug bites, sun blemishes, and wilted edges. The cut basil leaves then soak for a few hours in a cold water bath and the water is changed several times over that span.  It’s a process.

Basil Pesto image courtesy of finefettleguide.blogspot.com

After ten hours all the basil was harvested and filling my sinks and we moved onto phase two, the drying stage. For this to work you have to have a good salad spinner, as nothing else will get your basil dry. Once the basil is dry, you can move onto pesto production – we’ll call this phase three. Just to recap it is now after nine o’clock at night and we’re getting a little restless and pushing the food processor to the brink of capacity and performance. I’m surprised it didn’t break down or explode. Luckily one of my worker bees thought ahead and toasted the pine nuts, measured out the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and peeled heads of organic garlic. Once everything was prepped it was a matter of measuring out the basil and putting it along with the rest of the ingredients in the food processor and jarring. What makes this pesto so amazing is that its pure basil where as some will cut it with cilantro or parsley. Not to mention the combination of pine nuts and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

The final tally was over one-hundred cups of cleaned, packed basil leaves turned into seventeen 250ml bottles and three 125ml bottles of pesto that will last long after my garden is snow-covered and thawed again. There is nothing like enjoying this amazingly fresh and delicious pesto in the dead of winter.

If you have an abundance of basil and want to try your hand at pesto here is our tried and true recipe:

• 3 cups fresh basil leaves (washed and dried in salad spinner to equivalent)
• 4 to 6 garlic cloves
• 1/3 cup pine nuts
• 6 tbs freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
• 1/3 to ½ cup olive oil
• salt and freshly ground pepper

Combine basil, garlic, nuts, and cheese in food processor or blender. With motor running gradually add oil to desired thickness. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pesto can be used with any pasta, gnocchi or tortellini. It can even be used as a base for pizza topped with fresh tomatoes (or not) and cheese. It’s also good with proteins like chicken and pork chops but we’ll keep this vegetarian.

If you have any gardening tips, tricks, or stories, please do share and happy gardening. Remember to support your local (organic) farmer as encourged by a recent decision by Toronto politicians – read more here.