Basil: How to Grow, Harvest and Store It

Basil, Ocimum basilicum, appears in recipes around the world. The pungent leaves show up in Italian pasta, Thai stir-fry and even tea. Fresh basil is better than dried, but it's expensive, with specialty grocers charging $3 or more for a few wilting sprigs. If you have a serious basil addiction like I do, it's cheaper to grow your own.

Basil varieties: Basil plants normally grow 18-24 inches high, although there are dwarf varieties.
Ordinary cooking basil: Common sweet basil, and some named varieties like Genovese are best for cooking.
Specialty flavored basils: Some basils have not only basil flavor but lemon, lime and cinnamon flavors. These are interesting in salads or in lemonade instead of mint. They don't taste good in spaghetti sauce.
Fancy colored basils: purple-leaf basil varieties are available, including Black Opal, Red Rubin, and Purple Ruffles. These are great in salads to add a touch of color and flavor and they look great in flowerbeds, but purple leaves make ugly pesto.
Thai basil: is a group of varieties popular for Thai cooking.

How much basil to plant: One plant, about a foot tall and a foot in diameter, can produce about 2 cups of chopped leaves every other week. That's flavoring for a few dinners, or one small batch of pesto. If you plan to make large quantities of pesto, 4 or 6 plants is the minimum number.

Where to plant basil: You don't have to hide basil in an herb garden; it's as suitable for a flowerbed or a window box as petunias are. A spot with full sun, or at least half-day sun, average soil and frequent watering is all it takes to grow basil. Mine is thriving under full Arizona sun, in unfertilized Arizona dirt. I have had no luck in Arizona with herbs in pots. If the pot is in the sun, the dirt gets so hot the roots die. If I put the pot in the shade, the plants are spindly and unhealthy. If all you have is a sunny balcony, give it a try, but please don't ask me for advice.

Planting directly in the dirt or in seedling pots: Follow the directions on the seed package. Basil germinates quickly, so you should have sprouts within a week. As the plants get larger, pinch seedlings out of the crowded spots and use them in cooking. You want to end up with plants about a foot apart. Transplant from starter pots when the plants are 4 to 6 inches high.

Growing basil from cuttings: If you put a cut basil stem in water and leave it for a week or so,it will probably sprout some roots. Carefully plant this into a starter pot or in the garden, and keep it very moist for a week or so. Expect about a 30% survival rate.

How to pick basil: Cut a few inches from the growing tips of some of the branches until you have harvested what you will use for the next few days. Clip just above a pair of leaves and the stem will sprout two new stems. Removing about 1/2 the leaves from one plant, and then letting it recover while I harvest the others in turn keeps the plants bushy.

Using Fresh Basil: To chop fresh basil, I stack the leaves and cut them into shreds with a pair of scissors. For finer bits, cut the leaves lengthwise a few times, then cut crosswise.

How to store basil: For keeping basil fresh for up to a week, I remove the lower leaves from the cut sprigs and use those leaves immediately. I make a bouquet of the sprigs in a small vase. The scent of the leaves is enjoyable, and I can pull out basil sprigs as I need them.

For long-term storage, freezing in a pesto is the best way to store basil because it preserves the intense aroma better than drying does. Pesto recipes are all over the internet - it's a paste of fresh basil leaves, vegetable oil (usually olive), garlic, some sort of nut, and usually a dry cheese such as Parmesan or Romano. I make it without the cheese because it freezes better, and add cheese when the pasta sauce is being served.

I make large quantities of pesto throughout the summer, whenever the basil needs to be severely cut back, use one portion of it for dinner and freeze the rest for winter. Use your favorite as a guideline. Nothing will explode if you alter the quantities. Leave the cheese out of the pesto recipe. Freeze the pesto in 1/2 cup portions. The easiest way is to freeze it as flat blobs in sandwich bags, then put the small bags into a gallon freezer-quality bag for long-term storage. Thaw and use, adding the cheese just before serving.

NOTE: Use fresh spinach leaves to make more pesto than your basil supply allows, or make a less pungent pesto. You can use up to half fresh baby spinach leaves without much change of taste, or more than half if you prefer mild pesto.

BONUS RECIPE, Low-Fat Basil Spinach Onion Pesto This recipe was a whim. I was browning onions for something as I was making a large batch of pesto and thought that caramelized onions can improve anything, maybe even pesto. I was right. It's pungent from the basil, and mellow and sweet from the caramelized onions. It has a thick "stick to the pasta" texture, and is lower in fat than regular pesto.

Several large onions , chopped into chunks
1/4 cup chopped garlic
1/4 cup (or less) oil
Your favorite pesto recipe

Brown the onions in a small amount of oil in a 250-degree oven until they begin to caramelize - it's a slow process, just stir them every half hour or so all day long, then add the garlic and continue until the mix is a deep tan. Make pesto, using a cup or two of the caramelized onions as a substitute for the oil.