Herbs, Sweat, and Pesto

Today I had to trim the basil back. For once is it growing very enthusiastically.  Since there was so much of it, I decided to  make a batch of my infamous pesto. 
Photos of the process to follow.

To start, you need to harvest enough fresh basil leaves, oregano leaves, and garlic chives to be sure you have sufficient greens for the pesto. 

 

Then you have to wash everything well.

 

You need 3 cups of basil leaves, 1 cup of oregano leaves, and 1/2 cup of garlic chives, cut into 1/4" pieces.

 

You also need 12 Tablespoons of Olive Oil (I Use extra virgin), 6 Tablespoons of herb vinegar (I use Salata), 6 Tablespoons of pine nuts or walnuts, 4 large cloves of garlic, sliced, 1 teaspoon of salt,  1/2 teaspoon of pepper, 1/2 or a little less, teaspoon of cayenne, and 2 cups of grated Parmesan cheese.

You start with the oil, vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper,and cayenne.  

Blend until is looks uniform and creamy, like the picture just above.  Then add the herbs and blend until smooth and creamy.  Add the cheese, blend well.

 I had a few issues with that ginormous food processor, so no pictures of the herbs awhirl, I'm afraid.  Here's the finished product, all packed in containers to freeze.

Now you know how to make my pesto sauce.  I got the recipe from a book called Herbal Treasures by Phyllis V. Shaudys.  The book is choc full of things to do with the herbs from your garden.  It would be worth a Google search to see if it's still available if you love herbs.  

I also made a paste of parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme and a tiny bit of lavender for a poultry seasoning.  Haven't tried it yet.  Going to see how it works tomorrow, perhaps.  

The gardens this year have been lovely.  It has been a lot of work, producing much perspiration in this humid Spring and Summer we've had.  It has also been rather expensive buying plants, potting mix, fertilizer, and the water to keep it all growing.  So far the weather has been reasonable.  Here's hoping it doesn't get so stinking hot and fry my poor gardens alive like it did year before last.  Got so discouraged that year, I didn't even try last year.  

Here are some reasons I'm glad I got the gardens going this year:

Sorry they won't line up for me.  Never could get the knack of that on this blog software.  Maybe someday.  For now, this will have to do.