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Old May 13, 2014   #1
Hermitian
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Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Vista, CA
Posts: 1,112
Default Greek Columnar Basil

A beautiful plant, produces dense columns of green spear-shaped leaves about 1-inch in length. It is mostly perennial in USDA zone 10 and above. The plant is originally from Kenya but has been in Greece since Alexandria times -- so I guess that's close enough. Italian Basil by the way is thought to have originated on Reunion Island, which I believe leaves "African Blue Basil" and "Thai Basil" as the only true-named basils with respect to origin.

The taste of Greek Basil is slightly stronger than sweet Italian and it also has a slight taste of black pepper. It's nowhere near the intensity of African Blue. In my opinion its great right off the plant or pretty much with anything.

So with the wind storms we've been having lately, I found a broken column of basil on my shrub with easily a cup worth of leaves. No worries, there's plenty more on the shrub and I started thinking about pesto and pasta. Going into the kitchen I remember there's a bag of authentic chinese dumplings from Ranch 99 Market thawing in the refrigerator. Ah ha! Those two ingredients in the double-broiler on the stove for about 9 minutes made for an amazing meal!
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