Basil Pesto, Dried Herbs, Garden Delights

       Ah, Summer. Summer. Summer. For folks in the upper parts of the country this is a good one – temperate, sunny, and bountiful, so bountiful. Whether you have your own garden or use one of the fine local

Marjorie of Stone Cloud Gardens at Meridian Farmers Market

farmer’s markets, I hope you enjoy the color, shapes, smells and glorious beauty of it all (Marjorie, pictured here, has a versatile product line for the farm markets in mid-Michigan, we love her soaps).

       Over the years of our homestead days I learned a few tricks about the garden’s savory flavors. Here are a few ways that taste wonderful now and once dried will last well into winter:

A quick basil pesto:

One bunch of dark green lush leaves from a bouquet, 4 or 5 stems, of sweet basil

One garlic clove, (a teaspoon of dried garlic granules can substitute)

About one and a half tablespoons of ground parmesan cheese

¼ cup of good olive oil

Put all of these ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth.

Store the spread in a small glass jar and refrigerate. The spread will last a few days before turning brown.

You can freeze some pesto in small containers. I even heard of some folks freezing ice cubes of pesto for future use.

Pesto is deliciously flavorful in salads, sandwiches, mixed with other compatible spreads such as cream cheese or mayonnaise. Mmm this stuff is great. You will find a lot of other recipes for other leaf pesto such as mint (without the garlic or cheese, for recipes go to our friend who was not around during our homestead decade – google.com). Some pesto recipes include chopped pine nuts, cashews or walnuts. This is a fine summer treat, so easy to make.

Dried herbs:

All leaves of selected herbs can be dried and stored individually, but you might find mixing some dried leaves for special dishes such as Italian Spices can be ground in a mortar bowl and stored together in a spice jar:

Basil, Oregano, rosemary, and I like to add dried mint leaves.

I also have a jar of celery leaves dried which adds good flavor to winter soups and stew when I don’t have any celery. 

I dry small amounts of herb leaves in a dish on the window sill for a few days before crunching them down. For a bigger project I bind the stems of herbs like Oregano upside down to dry then pull the leaves over paper later. Drying to preserve is easy and lasts a long time in glass containers.

One more: if you love the smell of lavender and you have a nice piece of this heavenly plant in your landscaping or garden, you may want to gather the dried on-the-stem blossoms and store them in small decorative gauze bags (see hobby stores wedding section) to adorn holiday packages or other gift use.

Summer is such a good time to prepare foods without much fuss. I hope you enjoy these. If you are in need of a good laugh and an interesting story, please check out A Homestead Decade – How Crunchy Granola Changed My Life, 2.99, Amazon e-book for kindle or most other electronic devices. If you really enjoy it, please let other folks know about the book. Thanks so much.

Best wishes, 

Helene