The heavenly basic – BASIL is such a wonderful herb and it can be grown right outside your kitchen! It can be snipped and added to many dishes or added to salads. Pesto’s main ingredient is basil and with just a few plants, you can make your own. Fresh-made pesto beats any bought pesto hands down.
Basil is one of the easiest herbs to grow. Having the luxury of basil should be on the “Bucket List” of everyone who loves to cook. You can pick, wash, strip the leaves from their stems and use in the many foods we enjoy. Best of all is the wonderful scent that fills your kitchen. The essence of summer freshness.
Basil (Ocimum basilicum) is native to India, Iran, and other warm regions of Asia and has many flavors in addition to the licorice, peppery, and minty taste normally associated with basil. There are varieties with lemon, lime, and cinnamon taste. It is an essential in dishes from Italy and the Far East. Think of pasta sauce, pizza, pesto, and Tai dishes.
Making your own pesto is easy and takes just a few ingredients: 2-3 cups of basil leaves 2/3 cup of olive oil 2-3 chopped garlic cloves 1 tablespoon lemon juice Blend all ingredients together. Add more or less of the ingredients to suit your taste. You can also add a little salt & pepper, red pepper flakes, parmesan cheese, and/or pine nut. Use now or refrigerate/ freeze for later use. Keep basil from turning black by covering with a thin layer of olive oil.
Basil is extremely sensitive to frost. The leaves will turn black even when the temperature dips to 42 degrees at night. I start seeds or put my plants out when I plant my tomatoes, the first week in June. If we are having unusually cold weather in June, I wait until warm weather is constant. You can extend the growing season by planting in containers and bring them inside when the weather is cold in spring and fall.
Growing Basil:
Plant seeds and cover with ¼” of soil in pot or ground. Thin the plants to 10 inches (use the leaves of thinned plants). When the plant is 8 to 10 inches tall and has branched several times, clip off the outer stems and leaves. Leave a couple of stems and the leaves to produce a bushier basil plant. You can do this all summer for more harvests.
You probably have seen cut basil in the produce area with other herbs. It wilts easily once picked and usually doesn’t last long. Pots of basil plants are also sold and you could plant them outside. When they are grown in such a protected environment with no wind or fluctuation in temperature they are “soft”, and have to be slowly adapted our NM extremes of weather.
Enjoy your basil!
Edith Iwan is a Cibola- McKinley County Master Gardener who lives and works in Thoreau. As a Master Gardener she assists the County Cooperative Extension Service in providing accurate, research-based gardening information to county residents. If you have any gardening questions, please call the NMSU Cibola County Extension at 505-287-9266 or NMSU McKinley County Extension at 505-863-3432