End of this year's basil season

December 29, 2006

Here's the last photo of my basil plants before I cut them down. They aren't quite as green as they used to be--even though it's been a very sunny winter, the days are still shorter and I'm sure that's affecting the plants.



Since they're starting to get more yellow than green and showing more signs of insect visits, I decided to cut down the plants and make pesto with them. I couldn't bring myself to cut them all down so I left the strongest one up for now.



Here you can see where a bunch of new leaves would normally be starting to grow, but they don't seem to be growing anymore. You can also see on the larger leaves where insects have visited the plant. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to affect the flavor and they're still suitable for grinding up for pesto, but I wouldn't be able to use them in a dish where the presentation of the leaves was important.

I'm looking forward to planting more basil next summer!