What a harvest. I wonder if I could still plant basil. Usually it self seeds here, but didn't this year, only the Queen of Siam, not the best culinary variety.

You should be set for anything requiring basil this winter.

Jo,
I have a bit of basil harvesting to do (though probably not as much as you did, it sounds!).

Question: Do the leaves need to be harvested individually or can you cut off the tops of the plants? I'm not suggesting all of the plant, but does it make a difference whether or not you leave a bare stalk?

(BTW, your pesto pasta is great! That's what I'm eating for dinner, as a matter of fact!)

Way to go! Don't you just love it! The prices they charge in store for fresh (and they're not as fresh as yours!) herbs are outrageous.

I always grow 6 or 8 or 10 herbs and preserve all of them that I can. Don't forget that you can raise and dry many of the herbs they sell dried in cannisters in the stores....and you can grow them for next to nothing and you can dry them without a dehydrator. I save and reuse herb bottles by refilling them with my own dried herbs.

If you raise lots of peppers, you can dry them, grind them up and make your own pepper powders.....I do it with jalapenos, habaneros and cayennes.

I know I won't remember all the herbs I'm growing, but I've got several kids of basil, lemon balm, lemon verbena, Mexican Marigold Mint (aka Texas Tarragon), pineapple sage, lavender, rosemary, sage, several kinds of mint including spearmint and orange mint, chamomile, parsley and borage. Earlier I had dill, but it is a cool-season plant and goes to seed pretty early.

You can make your own tea from the leaves of many of those herbs or can use their leaves to add flavor to iced tea or lemonade.

Once you become a gardener, you can really cut back on how many herbs, both fresh and dried, that you purchase.

I have been growing herbs for years, they are the first thing I ever grew (in containers on my patio at my old house). It just now occurred to me to try to preserve them! DOH!

I will have to start drying them, too. I have a zillion herbs. We do cook a lot, and most of the recipes I use call for fresh herbs, so in off-seasons, we spend a fortune.

The only basils I grew this year were sweet basil (regular everyday basil), lemon basil (which self-seeds EVERYWHERE), and cinnamon basil, that smells fantastic, but I don't know what to do with it.

Kelley, I cut off about 2/3 of my plants. I left a few inches and several sets of leaves. They grow back.

Once you cut them off, bring them into the kitchen, pull the leaves off, throw the stems away, and wash. Preserve as you wish!

I am glad you liked the pesto. I don't think it was up your Dad's alley.

Jo

Yeah he wasn't a huge fan, but that is no fault of yours. He has very limited taste buds! Oh well, more for me!

joellenh, what about sharing your pesto recipe with us newbies that didn't get it!? I love homemade pesto, can't stand the store bought!

k101,

I found it on the internet. The stellar 5 star reviews sold me. I hate spending a million dollars on pine nuts too, and this was a really great alternative.

Jo

Here is a link that might be useful: Walnut Pesto

Another ? please! What is the best time of day to harvest basil? I know the oils are most fragrant at certain times of day and want to get them at there peak! I haven't harvested my basil before and sure want to for this year, it is sooo expensive to buy in winter, it just makes me mad so don't buy, just do without!

What beautiful basil. Great job. This is my first year to start plants from seeds and I had no idea about germination rates so I ended up with 89 basil seedlings! lol I gave away probably half but planted the rest in every nook and cranny. So we've also been blessed with a great harvest.

We bought an Excaliber dehydrator earlier this spring so I've been dehydrating like a maniac and have already filled one 16 oz. glass jar and will start another this week. I've also made several pasta pesto dishes and really enjoyed them. You just can't beat fresh goodness from the garden.

Lynn

P.S. Kelly, I try to cut 1/2 to 2/3 their plant height when harvesting. They get much fuller since you're halting their ability to get tall and leggy.

I have a wait high basil plant that I was trying to figure out how to preserve what I can.

How do you freeze in ziplock bags? wash, dry, freeze? Doesn't it come out wilted when you unthaw it?

k101 I just harvest whenever I want some basil. ;) It always smells great to me.

Ezzirah, I found instructions somewhere online. This is my first year doing it, so I am unsure if it will wilt. Strip the leaves from the stems, wash, and dry completely. Make sure they are bone dry. Then freeze. I might try vac sealing some too.

Jo

I got a quart-size bag full of basil tonight! It's happily in the freezer. I could have picked some more, but I'd already been outside for a while, and I was getting HOT!

By the way, I love the presentation of your basil in the colander. It's like you have a wreath of basil!

Nice pictures! Somehow I never thought of using my salad spinner when cleaning a bunch of herbs! Why wasn't I thinking????

Thanks for showing me. :)

I dry my herbs in a dehydrator. Haven't bought much in herbs in years. Sometimes I just bunch them and hang them, but mostly I pull the leaves off and put them in the dehydrator. I store mine in glass jars.

Lavender, rosemary, basil, parsley, chives, and garlic chives are my staples.

Moni

I use flat (Italian) parsley, chives (regular and garlic), oregano, dill, sage, and cilantro a ton. My dill and cilantro are more or less done in the heat though,so I need to start some more. I've been experimenting with growing the cool season herbs and greens inside.

I also have tarragon, rosemary, and mint growing but I don't use them as much. I have a packet of Borage that I can't remember buying and have no idea what to do with it. I think I might have heard it's a good companion plant/insect repellent.

Jo

Do you sterilize the jars you store your dried basil in? I have tons of basil and need to get with it!

On drying your leaves, do you leave them out on the counter on paper towels to dry and if so, how long does it take?

Gonna try that Walnut Pesto recipe for sure. I am a HUGE pesto fan. Gotta be sure to use fresh parmesan, not the stuff in the round boxes - yuck!

Thanks so much.

Susan

Hello everyone!
I make tons of pesto all summer long; freeze it; and enjoy all winter. It is often the base for my pizza. But I do one thing that is different and that we love - I add jalapenos. Usually 6 to 8 to a large batch, depending on the heat. It is terrific!
Bella

Those of you who have and use dehydrators, what brand(s) do you have? What would be the best things to look for in a dehydrator? I think I'd like to find one to use for herbs and garden produce and maybe even jerky, but I know practically nothing about them. Would you have a recommendation for one under $100? Even less would be better if it works well.

Debra

Debra,

In my humble experience, dehydrators are cheap. They are just a small heat source, some trays, and a fan. We got ours at Walmart many years ago in the $20 range and it has seen us through a lot of beef jerky and "sun dried" tomatoes (back when we container gardened under lights and had a surplus).

I did just look and it seems the prices have come up some..the really basic model like we have now goes for $35, and GEE! There are some really fancy looking machines out there for a ton of money. I wonder if and why they are better, and if it's enough to warrant the huge price jumps?

Jo

Jo,

Borage makes a great companion plant for tomatoes. It also has beautiful (and edible) blue flowers which are just gorgeous in the garden. There's also a white-flowered borage available. The flowers and young leaves have a mild flavor similar to that of a cucumber.

Debra,

My first food dehydrator was a Nesco. They have a wide variety of food dehydrators available at very reasonable prices.

My current food dehydrator is my convection oven. It has a 'Dehydrate' cooking mode that lets me set the temperature wherever I want it between 100 and 160 degrees. I use it a lot and can dry six medium-sized cookie sheets of stuff at once (or three large cookie sheets of stuff).

If I ever buy another non-convection-oven dehydrator, I'll get an Excaliber. The people I know who have them love them, although they are higher priced than most other brands. They are very good quality.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Nesco Dehydrators

Wow! How many plants do you have?
I wish I'd have planted more basil this year!
We picked the first of ours yesterday for a salad, but only four of my little seedlings survived all of the hail and rain.

About drying:
I have an Excalibur and love it, though it has been packed away for almost a year, since the move. Now that the tomatoes are finally pouring in and the peaches are ripe, I'm so glad to have a reason to be unboxing it. I started with a little Ronco dehydrator from a garage sale, but wasn't really happy with it, so I didn't dry as much as I wanted to. The reviews of the Excalibur were amazing and it was a great size, so we saved up money for a long time and finally got one last summer--only to use it for a few months before having to box it up and haul it up here. I used it for berries and fruit leather, mostly.

For someone looking for something less expensive, a solar dryer might be a good choice. There are tons of plans for them online. We're thinking about building one to do sun dried tomatoes next year.

Gorgeous basil! Mine hasn't taken off yet. I think I should have planted more. When I remember, I like to puree the leaves and freeze them in ice cube trays. Then store the cubes in zip lock bags in the freezer. That way you have just what you need to pull out of the freezer and drop into soups or spaghetti sauce or whatever. A great taste of summer in the middle of winter.

Lapasturas, I don't know precisely how many plants. I just threw some seeds in. I have a square foot garden, and about 8 of my squares are full of basil (8 square feet). Some squares have just one plant, some have several. If I had to estimate, I'd say I have 20 or so plants. Herbs for me have always been crazy easy to grow. It's the other stuff that I find challenging!

Jo

I love basil and this year, I put 4 plants in a 10 gallon pot. They really took off and are huge now. They do like to be watered frequently. I just put the pot between a couple of my tomato plants in containers. But they are all flowering now, which means they are in decline. so I'm gonna throw some seed around and see if I can get more to grow.

Have you ever tried to STOP basil from flowering? Next to impossible. I pinched and pinched and pinched those flower buds off, but the blooms just keep coming on stronger and stronger, until it gets to where I am finding it futile to keep pinching them off.

You can dry basil leaves in your car, too. Just put the dried leaves in a single layer on a baking sheet or tray in your car which is sitting in the sun (on a day when you don't plan to use the car, preferably. An extra benefit of doing this is the fresh basil smell in your car - cheap incense ala basil.

Susan

I harvest basil until it goes to seed, and then I let it go to seed in the garden since it always is so determined to do so. I am rewarded with tiny basil seedlings popping up everywhere. I pull up the ones I don't want, leave the rest, and have a continual supply of basil. Often, I have volunteer basil seedlings pop up in the garden even before I've planted new seeds in the spring.

Thanks, Dawn! So you think it is too strong flavored to harvest after it has set seed? I am going to collect seed when it's ripe and sow in some other spots or in other pots to keep it going, too.

Susan

I often just cut it way down, once it got ahead of me and made seed heads. but usually I can stay on top of it.

My dehydrator is old. My mother in law got it about 30 years ago, and I got it from her about 25 years ago. :)

Moni

Susan,

I think that sometimes the flavor of basil changes later in the season after it has gone to seed and you've then removed the flower stalks, cut the plant back hard and let it regrow. It varies from variety to variety and even from plant to plant or year to year. Sometimes I find the flavor lessens or weakens or develops some sort of "off" taste in that situation and sometimes not. I haven't noticed it gets stronger.

The conventional wisdom is that you should not let your basil flower, or at least you should stop harvesting it after it flowers because the flavor changes, but I don't think that is true in every case. Some people feel like they cannot taste a difference in basil leaves harvested before the plant flowers versus those harvested after. So, I think you just have to try it and see what works for you with your plants as grown in your garden conditions and with your taste buds.

I always let my basil (and other herbs) flower at some point because herb flowers are bee and pollinator magnets. I have found that basil, catnip and lemon balm, when in bloom, attract every beneficial insect around to the garden. I'd grow them for that reason alone even if they weren't 'useful' in some other way.

Dawn

I have lemon and lime basil that I don't love the taste of (they smell great, though!), so I let them flower to attract the pollinators. Then, I try to keep the sweet basil from going to seed and prolong the harvest.

I just went looking for this thread because I pulled out my old $20 WM dehydrator and found it had died. I finally have a large surplus of tomatoes and am ready to start drying!

I don't think I dehydrate enough to warrant the price tag on the excalibur...so I am considering two Nesco models FD-75pr, and FD80, which are $45 and $55 respectively on Amazon (free shipping). Can't decide!

Jo

Jo, Walmart also has the Nesco 75PR for just under $45; free shipping.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Nesco Dehydrator

Yeah but Walmart charges sales tax, which adds over $4...and Walmart is slow slow slow. Amazon ships all of my oders in 2 days (Prime).

I am leaning toward the square model because it SAYS that it has 44% more drying capacity than the round ones of similar size. I like the fact that it's small and compact. Still, those Excaliburs are gorgeous and are singing a siren song to me. "Buy me"! "BUY ME"!

Jo

PS Susan thank you! I love a fellow bargain-hunter.

Jo

I bought the Nesco FD-61 at Amazon. It's a lot larger than it looked in the pictures! It arrived in time for me to take it on a test drive last weekend. Saturday I tried a recipe in the book that came with it for cat treats made from canned tiny shrimp and catnip flowers. Only took two hours to dry and seemed to come out pretty good, but the cats didn't care much for the shrimp. I gave each one a shrimp piece once they'd cooled, and most of them pretty much turned up their noses at them. Sunday I tried pouring the stuff onto a small plate to serve to them. This worked better as they were all very interested in the catnip part and ended up eating the shrimp trying to get all the catnip. LOL I'm thinking of trying to modify the recipe to maybe marinate the shrimp in catnip somehow so more of the catnip flavor gets imparted to the shrimp.

Sunday I made beef jerky using the seasoning mix that came with the unit and a rump roast. This turned out very good. Even the cats liked it! I made the mistake of putting the jerky into a freezer bag and leaving it on the kitchen counter. Some kitty got hold of the bag overnight and tore it open to get out some jerky. Guess I'll have to keep it in the fridge from now on. Going to make more this coming weekend. Got another roast at Homeland and this time had the butcher slice it up for me. I had some trouble slicing it and getting all the slices a consistent thickness.

I've ordered the screens for it which should arrive, hopefully, next week. Then I'm going to try some drying some basil. So far, I really, really like my new toy! Thanks to everyone in this thread for the idea of getting one and all the advice. I'm so glad I read this forum!

Debra

Debra,

My mom has an awesome jerky recipe which we used to make all the time. You have to slice the beef very thin though (an electric knife is helpful). I'm going to email her and ask for it: I have lost my copy.

I wound up getting the square model FD-80 for $55 shipped. I suspect we will need some add on trays, and this made me consider the Excalibur...once I add 2-4 trays ($13-$26) I'm at $68 to $81...so it wasn't THAT huge of a price jump to the basic Excalibur unit

...But still too big of a jump for me.

I decided to go with my Nesco for now and revisit the situation in a few years if I find I need more.

Jo

PS Debra

I read this hint on Amazon in the reviews for the model I bought

"Now for the hint that Nesco doesn't want me to share :)

for fruit, you really need to use the Clean Screens, but at 8 bucks for a pair, you'll spend $32.00 (plus any shipping) to get enough for all 8 trays. I went to my local craft store (you know the one owned by Michael) and bought 16 sheets of plastic embroidery mesh (7 square mesh) that were 14" X 10" (the ones you would use to make those awful square Kleenex box covers). Take two sheets per tray and cut them out yourself with kitchen shears. Put them together butted up on the long side and then cut the perimeter to fit the tray and cut out the hole (1/2 of the hole in each sheet where they are butted up) for the center and then lay the two pieces into the tray. The sheets were $0.33 each, so 16 sheets only cost $5.28 and a bit of time to cut them out. Didn't really need them for the cantaloupe, but I'd still be cleaning kiwi and bananas off the trays if I hadn't used them. I throw them into the dishwasher with the trays and just run the whole load at once".

Jo

Joellen, I saw that when I was reading reviews and trying to decide on a model. I did go ahead and order one set of the screens but more for herbs and small things than fruit. The shrimp cat treats were so small that they kept falling through the tray at the outside edges. I also ordered one set (which contains two) of additional trays. So far I have only filled two trays at most when I've used it, and that was for the jerky, but the instruction book says to operate the unit with at least 4 trays even if they're empty so I figured I'd get a couple extras to have as replacements in case I break a tray.

I still have one more packet of jerky seasoning that came with the dehydrator so I will use that this weekend. I would like to find or devise a recipe of my own mostly because I think it could be cheaper than buying them. A lot of the recipes I've seen call for teriyaki sauce which tastes sweet to me, and I'm not fond of sweet jerky. The Nesco seasoning was really pretty good although I did add one capful of Wright's Liquid Smoke to it when I mixed it up.

The only fruit I'm growing is strawberries, and I know so many ways to use them fresh (and absolutely LOVE fresh strawberries) that I'm not sure I will ever want to dry any. One of my co-workers asked if I'd be willing to try drying some of her figs for her. She's supposed to bring some next Friday for me to try next weekend.

Debra

There is a smaller model Excalibur for around $110 with 4 shelves. It has fewer bells and whistles, like you have to plug in and unplug - no automatic timer. You might be able to get a timer set up for it yourself, tho. The cool thing is they let you do layaway with them, with 20% down. I may get the Nesco, which also comes highly recommended BTW, and put an Excalibur on layaway.
You can also purchase a refurbished Model #3900, for $170. New they are $219, so a $50 discount. The refurbished model still has the 10 year free warranty on it, is a 10-tray model, etc. "Refurbushed" means "new" in that they were only used as a models used as a display, those returned by customers, cancelled orders, or exchanges, but they are fully restored to exact manufacturer specififications. 50% shipping discount. However, the brand spankin' new models have free shipping on all 5 and 9 tray models right now, with a few extra perks thrown in (web specials).

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Excalubur

Hi Jo- This post caught my eye b/c my basil is growing enormously. I use mine for pesto and other recipes. I am curious what you do with the basil and olive oil in the cubes? I would love to hear what you put those in. Thank you in advance.

I have two fig trees and just this past week dried some of the fruit using the Nesco, sorry don't know what model it is, I've had it several years. Has the fan unit of top tho. Anyway the figs turned out great! I have two trees that are loaded this year so needed some way to save the fruit. The dried fruit reminded a friend and myself of dried dates so I plan to use them in place of dates this Christmas for candy and breads. I just gently washed them, cut in half and dried them. Googled and found out you really should freeze them for awhile after drying to kill, "insects" that are inherent to the figs. Doesn't that sound good! Anyway they are in the freezer for a while.

Ewwwww - I did not know that about figs - are you serious? Scrap the thought about planting a fig tree!

I think I'm just going to get the Nesco for now, and go for the Excalibur this winter when I have time to pay it off via layaway.

Susan

P.S. Has anyone made Jerky with one? I've heard it takes a whole lot of meat to get just a little bit of jerky.

What is making you scrap the idea of planting a fig? We love the fresh figs and use them in a lot of ways. I really don't believe that about the "inherent insects," otherwise we couldn't eat them fresh!

I usually get about 6-9 ounces of jerky per 4 pounds of meat. Depends on how dry you like it and the water content when you start drying.