[gardeners] Harvesting herbs
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 12 Oct 1999 16:12:54 -0500
Yesterday I picked two 10-quart buckets of basil leaves and then
discarded the old plants to the compost heap. Washed and dried the
leaves and then made pesto. Ended up with 6 vacuum sealed bags of pesto,
each should serve 4 persons. We like the old recipe out of the Betty
Crocker cookbook. Two cups of tightly packed basil leaves, 3/4 cup olive
oil, 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, two tablespoons pine nuts (I use
walnuts as the pine nuts are very high in price around here, like 12 or
13 bucks a pound.), and two teaspoons of minced garlic. Run it through
the food processor until you get the proper texture for your taste. We
like the pesto cold on pasta or on a freshly baked pizza dough.
Today I harvest a 10-quart bucket of oregano, about half the edges of
the bed so there's more for tomorrow. Washed it, ran it through the
lettuce thingee that slings the water off, and packed 8 trays of the
dehydrator. It will be dry in a few more hours and the stems will have
the leaves stripped into the food grade plastic jugs to be used later.
Tomorrow I will probably get the rest of the oregano in and do the same
thing with it. And there's still the thyme to harvest!! Boy do these
herbs do good in drought years. Looks like friends, relatives, and
neighbors will get herbs for the holidays again. Good thing as most
really like them.
The recently planted fall garden is looking good after our nice two-day
rain. Miz Anne planted some more pansies this afternoon, rescued a full
flat from the dumpster at K-Mart. Walked up just as the guy was tossing
them. Looked okay to us so we asked for them and he said sure. She had
to rip out a bunch of end-of-season zinnias and some torenias in full
bloom to put the pansies in but they look nice. Most are some kind of
pastel colors, either that or they're badly faded. I couldn't tell and
Miz Anne has gone off to teach her leisure learning class at the
university.
If it drys up enough to mow tomorrow the place will look right nice. Now
if I can just get done with wiring the greenhouse and patching the hole
in the carport ceiling where I ripped out the old fan we'll have this
place looking good again.
How does your garden grow?
George