How to Freeze Basil

Yummy basil.

Why does it seem like no matter how much basil I grow in the summer, I never have enough to get me through the winter?

And then I have to pay $45 for 5 leaves at the grocery store.

Because I live in the frozen tundra of Minnesota.

And they have to send us basil from Mexico, or some place equally tropical.

It's an injustice.

But the good news?

You can freeze basil!

Yippee!

There are several different methods for this...

You can make a simple basil pesto, and freeze it in small containers.

You can chop your basil and freeze it with a little water into ice cube trays.

Or, you can freeze the leaves whole - with no additives!

That's what I do.

I like this method best because I don't always like to have the addition of olive oil or water in whatever dish I'm cooking.

Does that sentence even make sense?

Please bear with me...I am sick and should be in bed, eating homemade chicken noodle soup and having Alejandro (my imaginary pool boy) rub Vicks Vapor Rub on my body.

Instead, I will stare at my computer, eat leftover beef stew, and cry because my  nose is raw from blowing it 96,472 times.

Anyway, back to the basil...this is how I like to do it:

1. Thoroughly wash and DRY your basil leaves.

These are not dry enough.

2. Spread in one layer on a baking sheet.

3. Place in freezer until the leaves are frozen...or be like me and forget about them overnight...whatever works!

4. Once frozen, remove baking sheet and transfer frozen leaves to zip-top bags or plastic containers (working quickly as they thaw fast).

5. Label and return to freezer.

Use these later in soups, stews, sauces, etc. I usually measure the leaves before they are frozen so that I can write that on the bag (example: 2 cups basil, 9/10). Keep in mind that some discoloration will occur when you freeze them...and possibly even more when you thaw them for use. They won't be pretty enough to use for garnish, but the flavor stays true and they are perfect for use in my Roasted Tomato Basil Soup!

Enjoy!

Garden Update 4: The Tomato Plants That Took Over The World

Holy crap.

My tomato plants went wild this year.

I don't know if it was the "new" soil in my brand new garden...

...or the fact that it has been a beautiful, warm summer...

Or maybe it has something to do with me being a stellar gardener?

Either way - my tomato plants were about 7 feet tall, and wide enough that they were choking out my basil, corn and pepper.

Were.

I chopped their heads off the other day.

And several arms.

I hope that they survive it, and start putting all their energy into the bazillions of fruit that already exist, instead of trying to take over the world.

And I hope that my peppers survive.

The basil and corn already look great, but the growing season is getting short, and I feel like my poor baby vegetables still have a way to go! My green beans are just flowering now...my onions and carrots are still babies, my basil could get bigger...

PLEASE, Mother Nature, let it be summer for another month or so! Is that too much to ask?

Anyway, here are some pics...

My "Early Girl" tomato plant, after I viciously hacked it off. See all of the fruit? All of the very green fruit??? Early Girl my ass.

Beans! In the last week or so, they have climbed all the way to the top of the fence (6 feet), and started flowering. I hope there is enough time for them to produce beans.

A mess of two ginormous cherry tomato plants, choking out my corn...but I showed 'em...this was before I had my way with them.

Remember the Giant Marconi pepper plant that my dad gave me for my garden? After the rabbits got in (and before we reinforced the mesh with chicken wire) and ate most of the limbs, it never fully recovered. This is the only pepper on it. Boo hoo. I hope it lives to turn red.

THIS is why I garden. A perfectly ripe, bursting with flavor, home grown cherry tomato. Don't mind my dirty fingers. You are lucky that I waited to eat it long enough to get a picture...delicious. And the very first one of the season.

Bell pepper...one of only a few. Darn tomato plants.

Jalapeno!

Here is some corn, after I cleared out some of the cherry tomatoes that were trying to kill it. I wonder if it will produce any ears?

Here is some of the bounty...basil (yay!), onions, peas, cherry tomatoes, baby carrot. And for the record, there was no Miracle Grow used here...no sir, my garden is organic! Just poop (manure), humus, and some compost that I got from Steve's mom and dad!

Garden Update 3.5

Rabbits.

In my garden.

Chewed right through the mesh deer fence.

My peas. Oh - my poor peas.

And my corn.

And some pepper plants.

Lindsey not happy.

Steve stepped in with chicken wire.

Lindsey ok now.

Can stop talking in third person.

..........................................................................................

I'd like to see the little buggers chew through metal.

If by chance they do, the next step will be to make the fence electric.

No, I am not at all dramatic about my vegetable garden.

Why?

Pictures and garden update IV to come later...

...when things have calmed down.

Garden Update, III

I am just a blogging fool this week, aren't I? This one will be short and sweet, and then I will leave you alone...probably until Monday or Tuesday. I just wanted to give you an update on how the gardening is going...without posting too many terrible iPhone pics. Once again, my apologies on the grainy pics!

This is the Italian Grilling Pepper plant that my dad gave me...it has one pepper on it, yay! None of my other pepper plants have peppers yet.

My "Early Girl" tomato plant...it is huge! Like 3 feet high. No tomatoes on any of my plants yet, just flowers.

Oh - my poor little basil. Will it ever get big? I hope so...

Corn! It seems to be growing pretty well...however, something is eating some of the leaves off of certain plants. Bug? Squirrel? I have a fence, but there is a gap between the bottom of the fencing and the landscaping logs...little bugga!

In other garden news...my green beans are doing very well. They are thick and tall and climbing on everything. My peas seem to be doing good, but they are much fewer than the beans (unfortunate, because I prefer peas). My carrots are growing and one tiny little romaine heart poked through the soil. Steve's mom gave me more lettuce seeds to plant, but I haven't planted them yet. I guess I am afraid to fail. Again. My onions are going crazy. Hopefully I will get some better pictures soon! Stay tuned!!!

Garden Update (Post II)

Finally, some sunshine! (No...I don't mean Steve...although he makes my garden grow too, if you know what I mean :) wink, wink)

My plants are doing good - with the exception of my lettuce. It never came up. At all. Not even one piece. Now, I don't claim to be a professional gardener or anything, but really? I've grown lettuce before. It is one of the easiest things to grow. And the weather has been cool with plenty of moisture...what the hell? I must have got a bad batch of seeds. Yup, that is what happened...it's not my fault at all.

Anyway, here is how my garden is growing...

...actually, this is how my garden was growing as of a couple weeks ago. I am behind on garden posts...

Beans! Green beans, with an "early girl" tomato plant growing in the background!

And again...

My tiny, precious, baby basil plants. I know - they are so small. They will grow big and strong though...hopefully soon. I am starting to worry. I have planted basil from seed before, but only in pots...I will cry and suck my thumb and beg for my mommy if these babies don't make it.

Roma tomato...aka "happiness in a square cage"...

Corn! Oh, I hope that this corn grows...I love corn on the cob! I have heard people say that it is hard to grown corn on the cob in this climate (frozen tundra of MN), because the growing season is too short. I am hopeful though.

Yes, peas! Pretty little buggers! I need to get some lattice or something in soon for my peas and beans to climb. And yes, that is my sprinkler sitting on top of an overturned pot in the background. Steve wants to mount the sprinkler on the top of the fence, but for now, this will have to do. Remember how long I told you it took him to "perfect" the fence? Yeah, I think I'll just make do.

Speaking of the fence...do you want to see what he did? I took some pictures, but it is hard to see because the mesh of the fence is so fine. Basically he hung sheets of deer fence from the top frame, and he weighted the bottom of the sheets with a piece of wood that fits neatly into brackets mounted on the side of the garden...does that make sense? Here are some pics:

See the board on top? That is what I do when I need to get into the garden to weed, harvest, etc. I lift the fence up and rest the weighted board on the top frame. Then, when I am done, I replace the board into the brackets at the bottom, and then critters can't get in. Here is a close up of the brackets...

See how the boards fit tightly and neatly in there? And those are my carrots coming up in the corner there...right next to my onions and in front of my peppers. In case you were wondering. That's all for now folks! Thanks again to Steve for my totally rad garden (and fence)!

Lindsey's Garden, Post I

Did I tell you guys that Steve built me a garden?

My very first garden ever!

The last few years I've grown an assortment of things: Tomatoes, Peppers, Basil, Onions, Lettuce, Peas...but always in containers out on my deck. This method is great if you have limited yard space or if you don't like weeding.

The problem with container gardens is this: some plants just don't grow right in containers! Another issue is that you have to water more frequently. I also had problems with space (last year I had 18 large pots of various shapes and sizes on my deck, which didn't leave a lot of room for anything else), and the pots started to leave dark rings on the wood of the deck. Clearly, I was starting to outgrown container gardening.

Then, Steve and I went and bought new patio furniture...lots of it. And a fire bowl that we can set right on the deck (observing the proper safety precautions of course, Mom).

This left no room for my vegetables. How sad! But after talking with Steve's Mom and doing some research, we decided that it was probably time to built a raised vegetable garden.

The first thing I did was call my Daddy. He is the one who inspired me to start growing vegetables. I would help him plant his garden, and as a thank you, he would give me some starter plants...a couple tomatoes, a couple pepper plants, some onion sets. The first couple of years I totally killed everything I planted. Brown, withered, dead. Then I realized what I mentioned above: you have to water containers more frequently than beds! And, like most things in life: you get out what you put in. The more time, care, love I put into my plants, the more I got out of them! Not only delicious, healthy vegetables...but the other benefits of gardening: stress relief, sense of accomplishment, responsibility, nurturing, etc...

But I digress...

The reason that I called my Dad was because I wanted his opinion and input on what kind/size/shape of garden I should put in...and so between him, Steve and I, we came up with this:

A 4 foot x 16 foot garden made out of landscaping timbers, 12 inches deep. Steve hauled in a bunch of dirt...which, you would think would involve the back of a pickup truck and possibly a wheel-barrow, and/or shovel...but instead involved a dump truck and heavy equipment.

 

This is what I get for asking a man who owns an excavating company to build me a garden. Oh, and did I mention he is a perfectionist too? Let's just say that the garden is very level. Hee hee hee - thanks sunshine!!!

After the dirt was in place I went and bought several bags of organic hummus and manure (yum), and mixed it in. By hand. Alone. With mosquitoes eating me alive. Now where was my big strong man and his heavy equipment??? I was abandoned. But, don't cry for me...I'm just being dramatic (as usual). It was hard work, but I knew it would pay off in the end.

Later, Steve built a fence around the garden to protect it from deer, rabbits, Kempton, and other thieves and mongrels. Finally I planted (with Steve's help): 7 tomato plants (plus 2 in pots on the deck), 5 bell pepper plants (including one Giant Marconi that my dad gave me...see picture below), 3 jalapeno plants, basil, romaine lettuce, onions, carrots, sweet corn, sugar snap peas, and green beans.

I'll continue to update you on the status of the vegetables I'm tending, including pics of the progress of the plants! I'll leave you with a picture of my dad's contribution to my garden...A Giant Marconi Pepper (Italian Grilling Pepper):

Thanks Daddy!