I recently learned a great way to keep fresh basil at your fingertips. I’ve tried growing it in the house with an aerogarden and found that to be too expensive and produced very little – not to mention the fact it’s just plain noisy. I tried the window sill but not enough light in our kitchen. In the garden it grows well but when cooking you don’t want to walk all the way out there just to get a few leaves to garnish a dish. In the refrigerator it tends to wilt and the store bought hydroponic version just tend to get slimy after just a while because it was stored in cold storage at the grocery store. By accident I learned while trimming back the basil in my garden because it started to flower that you should keep those trimmings even if you aren’t going to use them right away.

Basil gets bushier and fuller when trimmed. I enjoy the flowers so I thought that I would save them and have a nice little vase of cut basil flowers that smell nice too. I set it next to a diffused window thinking they would wilt and die in several days like cut flowers from the garden do and low and behold they never did. They actually developed roots and continued to grow some leaves that I could harvest right there.  A few of them sprouted quite a root system that I eventually just planted them back in the ground and I had another basil plant!

Next time I have scrambled eggs I can have fresh cut basil mixed in. The picture here is a  variety called purple leaf basil that taste just as good as the Italian Basil in my opinion and yet is a nice ornament in the kitchen. Italian basil will work just as well with this method.

Eventually the weather will get too cold and I won’t be able to have fresh cut basil but this method helps to extend the life that way. Be sure and keep some for drying though since they work great when re-hydrated and thrown into soups or just as an aside to a dish. You can group them in a bunch on the stem and hang them upside down to dry. This works well especially if you directed a fan at it.

I like dry mine by to laying it out on a tray made of screen and put it in front of a fan. Here is a link of the device I like to use. You can easily make one yourself but this one is all nice and contained. I recently learned that you can also freeze basil in a ziplock back. Apparently you can have greens all year round that way. I haven’t tried that one yet but that is next on my list of things to do!