HARVESTING FRESH BASIL

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! We finally had almost a full day yesterday of "off and on" rain which we badly needed. But we still need much more really. It has and will help finish off the summer gardening, helping some tomatoes linger a bit longer here at the urban farm. The bell peppers and eggplant hopefully will get another surge of production I hope from this rain. I am almost ready to put in fall greens over at the community garden, hopefully later this very week.
I was out today here at the urban farm, gathering what few tomatoes there are now, even though they are very small. While out, I also picked some hot Cayenne peppers and two eggplant. I gave most of the tomatoes and Cayenne peppers to a neighbor to share what I had but I was also able to harvest some pretty good Basil for this time of year I feel. It has not been a good year here for me as usual in the Basil and herb area. I think the tremendously long heat wave we had along with the humidity just harmed so much of the entire plan and attempt here to have the usual over abundant garden I normally have had in years past. The Basil was a bit small where usually the leaves have been really huge and it did not take many to make a very nice Basil and Tomato salad, which I love greatly, adding some red onion and either Greek or Italian dressing or just vinegar and olive oil or other sort of vinaigrette-type dressing as well as some Feta cheese and maybe some good olives. But I got enough I plan to let it dry a little more after washing and have laid between some paper towels to take up more water then I will put in the food processor, add a little drizzle of olive oil and about 2-tablespoons of lemon juice (this acts as a preservative actually) and then put in small containers and freeze. You can do most any herb this way that you would normally put in cooked, hot dishes. If you plan to use it for anything other than as in a cooked dish it is better to dry it first, store in airtight containers and then crush just before using it. This is very similar to a pesto sauce but not really. I will leave the Basil in oil in rather larger pieces, not making it completely blended to the point of a paste, but more of a chunkier if you please type of cooking additive for sauces, soups or other such winter time feasting. This can even be thawed and added to a cut up baguette with a tomato slice and some cheese and then either toasted under the broiler or eaten with some paper thin smoked Salmon or with something you like for your own taste and recipe mix.
I leave you then this lite-harvesting day, steeping a pot of afternoon hot Black Indian tea, with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind & waiting on the next egg(s): "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"