Last night Farmer No. 1 went out to pick up a slice of pizza. She ran into Nick the Farmer who gave her a bunch of his fresh basil for the pizza. Now, we grow our own basil but when we saw his… that's his basil on the right… we know there is no doubt that we are making more
mistakes. A taste test confirms, Nick's basil is soft and tastes like basil. The little leaf on the left that at one point was basil smells nice but has a tough texture and it tastes of air.
How hard can it be to grow basil? It's not difficult to grow, it can survive mediocre conditions, but to make the leaves taste better the plant requires maintenance. It is important to limit the height of the plant by regularly pinching off branch tips and cutting off the top of the main stem before it flowers. The flowering screws up the oil content in the leaves so a bushy basil plant is happier than tall leggy one. This image shows post grooming.
Farmer No. 2 lobbed off a good 8 inches and turned it into a big green bouquet. The grooming should probably go down even further but it already might be too late for the plants. Nick the Farmer said he'd give us some of his.
How hard can it be to grow basil? It's not difficult to grow, it can survive mediocre conditions, but to make the leaves taste better the plant requires maintenance. It is important to limit the height of the plant by regularly pinching off branch tips and cutting off the top of the main stem before it flowers. The flowering screws up the oil content in the leaves so a bushy basil plant is happier than tall leggy one. This image shows post grooming. 
Farmer No. 2 lobbed off a good 8 inches and turned it into a big green bouquet. The grooming should probably go down even further but it already might be too late for the plants. Nick the Farmer said he'd give us some of his.
1 comment:
Thanks for the tips on basil. Our leaves are tiny still, but I have already cut off many of them and used in salad and spaghetti sauce. When i was growing basil before, I would cut if off kind of early and hang it upside down in the shed. I got a lot of jars of basil from just wacking it off early and drying it. I didn't know it was a good idea to cut it early. good to know Thanks!!
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