I freaking love basil. It is delicious and versatile and is nice to have on hand at all times. I use it fresh in salad, on pizza out of the oven, with sliced heirloom tomatoes and cheese, and cooked in pretty much EVERYTHING. Buying fresh basil from the store is super expensive and it tends to get wiltie pretty fast. AND is super delicate so you aren't supposed to wash it and who can stand not washing something from the store! Also it grows great in containers indoors so you can have fresh basil all year!
Right now Trader Joe's has pots of planted basil for $2.99 (!) and several friends have commented that they are not able to keep their basil alive for very long so I just wanted to give a few pointers on basil propagation (if you don't have a Trader Joe's try a garden store, I don't recommend growing it yourself because it takes forever to get to a point you can start harvesting it, but if you are crazy patient go right ahead).
First you will need a few things: Basil plant, extra potting soil, container, water, sunny window.
Your pot should be at least a little bigger than the container that the basil came in and put a little extra potting soil in the bottom (I mixed some compost from my compost bin with the potting soil to make it richer). Basil likes rich, light, well draining soil. If you don't know what that means just get a little bag of potting soil from the store and that should work fine.
Remove the plant from the plastic container by squeezing it a little on all sides and gently dumping it out into your hand.
Gently roll between your hands or squeeze the root ball to loosen the soil a little, but be careful not to damage or break the roots.
Plop it into your pot, fill in the sides with soil, and give it a little water. Pretty self explanatory.
One general note about watering plants: don't just fill up a watering can with tap water and douse your plants. ESPECIALLY tropical house plants! These little fellas have been living in a nice, warm, controlled environment and to suddenly have a bunch of cold water dumped on them is a shock to their systems. The best way to water is to plan a day ahead and fill a container with water, then let it set overnight. The water will be at a nice room temperature and the chlorine in it will have evaporated out. If yer in a pinch and need to water right away make the tap room temp-ish by turning on the hot water a bit.
Now that you have a nice potted basil plant place it in a sunny window and harvest leaves when needed. When you pick the leaves it is important to pinch off stems just above a set of leaves and not pick off individual leaves.
This will make the plant fuller and bushier and prevent flowers from developing. If you do see flowers developing pick them off right away so your plant will continue to grow and produce more leaves.
Basil is a natural mosquito repellant and is a delicious addition to nearly everything. Leaves can be dried or frozen and are good fresh or cooked with other things. Keep your plant in an accessible place and don't pick leaves until you need them. Steep some leaves in a container of olive oil for a simple salad dressing.
Thanks for reading! I'll going to try to post on a weekly basis from now on so please let me know if you have any topics you are interested in! And maybe someday on a daily basis!
-Anna
Photos by K.C.
