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Basil Everywhere!

While the deer enjoyed a wonderful buffet, feasting on tomatoes, squash, and beans, they practically destroyed my garden. Thankfully, they somehow failed to notice the basil in my little herb corner! Now, I have tons of basil, which I decided to preserve for future use. At first I checked out this neat video on drying basil in the microwave (which works beautifully!):

 

However, I am not a fan of nuking food, so I looked for a method of drying herbs that did not take long, yet did also not use the microwave. Since I don't have a dehydrator (yet!) I decided to use the oven to dry the basil. 
After harvesting the basil, I added it to a bowl full of cold water mixed with one tablespoon of white vinegar to clean the leaves. After letting the basil sit for five minutes, I rinsed off the leaves and set them on paper towels to dry for one hour:
Basil drying
Next, I spread the basil leaves on a rack on a cookie sheet and put this in the oven on 200 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. I checked frequently to make sure not to burn the leaves, something I learned when accidentally overbaking kale chips (burned kale = ugh).

Once completely dry, I crumbled the leaves into a sterilized canning jar. I am storing the jar the freezer to keep the basil tasting fresh longer (of course I totally forgot to add a picture of the finished product, but the dried basil looked exactly like the herbs you buy in a jar at the store).

Of course there are many amazing ways to use fresh basil. After all that "work" drying the basil, I made pesto out of the remaining leaves by chopping basil with olive oil and garlic. This made the perfect topping for this fresh tomato sandwich:


A few of the basil stems are currently growing roots so they can be planted as new basil plants!

It's amazing how easy it is to grow your own herbs and how delicious it is to use them in recipes!


  



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