Bye Bye Basil (Freezing basil for the winter)

Bye Bye Basil : (

I just put away enough basil for red sauce in the freezer for the next 7 months and it was not too difficult or time consuming. I like to freeze basil for my sauce in 1 1/2 - 2 tablespoon portions ready to drop in any time I make a pot of sauce. I hate and I mean hate dried basil it tastes like hay to me and turns my sauce bitter but frozen is the next best thing to fresh.
Here is how I do it:
Pick basil leaves in the morning when the weather is still cool, that is when they are sweetest.
Note:  a few stems are okay.
Place the basil in the sink or a  big tub and cover with water. Stir around loosening any bugs or dirt.
Remove basil and clean out sink or tub and repeat until the water is clear.
Now dry it either using a salad spinner or an even better way using a pillow case outdoors swinging in a circle with one arm to release all the water.
In  batches process in your food processor or blender using a little olive oil until it looks kind of like pesto.
Freeze in small portions to use in sauce, on pizza, in marinades for meat, etc....

Basil is clean and ready to go!

Process with olive oil until chopped fine.

Portion into small baggies.

My "stash" for the winter ; )

I smash it all in to a large jar so it doesn't freezer burn and takes up less space and in to the freezer : )

3 Ways to Harvest Basil

Frozen basil in jars and a new basil plant for my winter windowsill!

Freezing Basil

Pull basil from plant early in the morning and lay out on cookie sheet, place in freezer until frozen. Remove and place in glass jar in the freezer. Then just pour from the jar as you need it.

Starting a new Basil Plant
Look for a little shoot near your Mother plant. Pull up with the roots. Plant in a pot with the same soil from the garden. Leave outside in full sun making sure to water every day. Just before it get's cold (frost) bring inside and place in windowsill. Basil needs lot's of sun and a small amount of water but it needs more water in the beginning. If it starts to wilt just water and it usually comes back to life. Only start picking leaves when it is atleast 6 inches tall.

Basil Ice Cubes
Pick basil leaves in the morning. Place in processor and turn on, add olive oil and process smooth. Use just the amount of oil it takes to get it going and keep it going until smooth. Pour into ice cube tray and freeze. Then place cubes in a freezer baggy. Use just like fresh basil adding an ice cube to replace a handful of fresh basil straight into your sauces or pasta.

~My Ode to Basil ~

~Isabella and her Pot of Basil~

Summer is at a end and while I have great affection for Autumn I do suffer one great loss....my most beloved Summer Basil.....and much like Isabella in John Keat's Pot of Basil  I too am pining for my dying basil:

Piteous she look’d on dead and senseless things,
Asking for her lost Basil amorously:
And with melodious chuckle in the strings
Of her lorn voice, she oftentimes would cry
After the Pilgrim in his wanderings,
To ask him where her Basil was; and why
’Twas hid from her: “For cruel ’tis,” said she,
“To steal my Basil-pot away from me.”

But alas no need to fret.......... I have a storage of  that precious green herb in the back of my freezer as well as a new pot of basil for my windowsill. So while Isabella may be sitting drooping by the Basil green I will be cheerfully plucking from my Basil plant and frozen stash all winter long!