Friday 01 August, 2014 by Uncle Spike

Every summer I grow a patch of black basil for drying.
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Which ends up spread across the guest bed for drying.
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Before being crushed when dry for use in the kitchen.
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Category: Chef Spike, Gardener
| Tags: basil, cooking, gardening, herbs, kitchen, photography, POSTADAY, turkey
I’ve never heard of black basil? I have sweet basil to make pesto, and Thai basil. Thanks for sharing, I will have to find some!
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Never knew there were so many types either… check this out!
http://pantrygardenherbs.com/compare-herb-varieties/basil-about-the-different-varieties/
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Holy moly, that’s amazing! Thanks for the link👍
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Isn’t it great to be able to use your own produce? Have you considered buying a dehydrator? I’ve recently started using mine again and just bought 6 more trays. It’s going at the moment with produce from our garden: bay leaves, parsley (flat and curly), lavender, rosemary, rosebuds and rose petals, hibiscus flowers and some berries
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No need here… we have very hot dry summers from May-Oct and even in winter the herbs dry in just a few days with the amount of winter sun we get.
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We have a similar climate in the opposite times of the year but I find the dehydrator does a better job and quicker.
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Maybe a difference in humidity? I have never had any problem in drying stuff to a crisp in super short time.
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It’s pretty dry here but have also loved in even drier places so the slight increase in humidity could be the difference.
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I love harvesting my fresh basil. It never makes it to the drying stage. I usually end up making multiple batches of pesto that I freeze in ice cube trays.
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We did that a few years ago, but it takes an extraordinary amount to create one small jar of pesto!
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Basil is my favorite! And oddly enough, this appeared on my feed right above a recipe blog post about basil chicken quesadillas….
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Spooky…. bloggers thinking alike eh?
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so that’s what flowering basil looks like … pretty 😀
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Funny how many of the herbs look amazing when you leave them to overgrow and seed.
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some flowers are even nicer than the herbs! teehee
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I love the taste and the smell of basil and have some lined up for my evening meal to use in a new recipe. Sadly, it’s not home grown but I bought it growing in a flowerpot from the supermarket, so it should last longer than from a packet.
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Yep, keep it well waterered and they last a long time
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Do you save the seeds for next year’s planting?
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A few, yes 🙂 But I also like to use packet seeds mixed in to keep the healthy strain going.
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