Yesterday we began the annual harvestin of the basil. This years bumper crop of basil was triple last years output. It was also all volunteer basil. Chip called me as I was heading home to remind me that we needed pine nuts and french bread.

I arrived home to the fragant licorice smell of our thai basil. Chip had already chopped it all from the garden and it was layin in mounds atop the kitchen counter.

We began plucking leaves from the stalks of basil but soon realised that if we wanted to eat anytime in the near future, we needed to make an initial batch for dinner. I had an idea that some help might be a good idea so I suggested we bribe our friend, Gloria, to assist with the harvesting for the price of a succulent dinner of pesto pasta, garlic bread, salad and wine. It was a hard sell. *laugh* She arrived about half an hour later and Chip quickly poured her a glass of red wine. Gloria and I sat plucking the leaves off the basil while Chip began grating the selection of cheeses I'd bought on the way home. Instead of just purchasing parmesano reggiano as I normally would, I decided to buy and assortment of similar cheeses.


Here they are in all their glory. We shredded the cheeses all together for a 5-cheese basil pesto. As a new twist we decided to also toast the pine nuts.

This year, since we had an ample supply of basil, I opted to make sun-dried tomato basil as well.  After the pestos are made, we freeze them in our ice cube trays and put the cubes into freezer bag. Then, throughout the year, we can pull out a cube or two of homemade pesto all year long. This makes my tummy very happy, indeed.

We made a lovely dinner of pesto pasta with fresh garlic bread, salad and copious amounts of wine. Gloria has volunteered to be our "Basil Bitch" every year. In fact, we decided that next year, providing we have another bumper crop, that we'll host a basil harvesting party and invite a few friends over. We'll have them help with the harvesting and for that they'll get a lovely dinner and a jar of pesto to take home. Gloria thought that was a wonderful idea and since our friends tend to love our cooking, it shouldn't take much effort to coax them over.

This is a funny pic of Gloria. Her face looks all squishy but she's standing in our kitchen with a handful of basil and a glass of wine. She was happy!