Thursday, July 8, 2010

Pesto season starts today

Every year since we moved here we have grown basil to make pesto,  A food that once upon a time I wouldn't even eat.  I remember the first time I saw  it was at my friend Joe's house and at the time it did not sound good, but since then I have become a big fan.  Seriously big, I'm fat as a house for those who don't know me.  Anyway even when we didn't have the garden there has been containers growing on the front porch.  Being that we are up for saving a buck or two we buy our seeds at the Wal-mart for a a buck.  This year my friend Chris sent me some Basil seeds from Burpee.  They took a little longer to take off, but the pot in the middle is one planted with those seeds and the one's on each side are planted with Wal-mart seeds.  The Burpee seeds were planted a couple weeks after the others in the same soil.  They have have had exactly the same amount of water and sunlight as the others.  The Burpee plant is almost twice the size with larger leaves and a much darker green color.  Of course we haven't had the all important taste test, but I think I can guess how that will turn out.  This has sparked my interest in seed catalogs and I have been looking on-line all week.  I would never have guessed that there purple carrots and all sorts of freakish looking things to grow.  This year we have also grown the garlic for the pesto and bought nuts from a local grower. 

Luci's Pesto Recipe:
Basil, Garlic, Walnuts (we skip the pine nuts), Parmesan Cheese and Olive oil.  

3 comments:

  1. I thought there would be more basil. What were your results with the tomato seeds? http://www.nativeseeds.org/ is down the street from our Tucson rental. I thought about sending you Tobacco seeds but I did not know if they were strictly a high desert seed bank. I am glad the seeds are working out. All the best Chris Heather and the Boys

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  2. The basil will put out more and more as we use it. This will end up making a lot of pesto. I have been wanting to try tobacco, but i don't know if it will grow here. The tomato seeds i didn't get started soon enough and we planted starter plants. I bought little trays to start them in because i want to see if I can grow them in a little hot house when it gets colder.

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  3. Have you heard of the Territorial Seed Company? I have ordered from them a couple of times (the company is in Oregon) and their seeds do really well. I looked at Burpee for a lot of years but they always seemed expensive, but Territorial is definitely reasonable and you can often buy seeds in bulk if you need to, and the prices in my opinion are very reasonable. I think they may be organic as well, but don't quote me on that. You can request a free catalog from their website: http://www.territorialseed.com/

    So if you are looking into mail order seeds they are the one I would suggest.

    Sincerely,
    A Washington country girl trapped in the city

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