Basil: an essentual herb

Do you do basil? I love the stuff. I have grown it off and on over the years with varying results. In the past, I have never had a place to properly dry herbs: a dry, warm place with air circulation. This year we installed a Tuff Shed because we needed to get a lot of things out of the garage so CarGuy could work on the latest car. Yipee! I finally have a place to store all my tools and what-not. Plus it has the added benefit of being a drying shed.

Back to basil. I know that basil is best used fresh, but let's get real: I live in Colorado. Basil is an annual and it really only grows here for the months of July and August. June is a chancy month because of hail storms. I have made fresh pesto and I love to take a few leaves and chop them up into a green salad. Mmmm... But I have too much basil to use so I am drying it. Do you know how good that shed smells? Heaven!

I pull the plant out of the ground and rinse both it and the roots well. I then I tye a string around a bundle of plants just above the roots using a slip knot. To tighten it well, I swing it in a circle over my head which has the added benefit of flinging the water off the leaves. I then hang it from a nail in the shed.

You know, this reminds me of when I was a child. There was an old Victorian house in my grandfather's neighborhood. A pretty yellow house with white gingerbread trim. The old lady who lived there used to dry things on a string strung between the pillars on the front porch. I'm thinking that this lady was probably about the age I am now and not really an old lady. Every time I dry herbs or use my dehydrator to make fruit leather I think of this lady and the things she used to dry. I remember one thing that looked like human ears. Scared the daylights out of this 10 year old girl, I tell you. I wonder what it was she was drying that looked like ears? Any ideas?

Paula's Pesto
4 cups tightly packed basil leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup pine nuts, walnuts or almonds
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
6 sprigs parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Place the basil in a food blender, not a food processor. (Don't try this with dried basil, it won't work.) Add the oil, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper and nuts. Blend until all are chopped very fine but not smooth. Remove from the blender and stir in the grated cheese.

Use in soups and on pasta.