The Garden Buzz

Basil Bonanza? Easy Pesto Recipe

Are you keeping up with your basil, is your pinching on par with the herb's prolific leaves and spiky flowers that seem to appear overnight? Better get going on some pesto.

Now's the time to harvest basil for pesto

 

No longer an exotic condiment, pesto is everywhere, but that's not exactly a good thing. You see good pesto is hard to find. The best pesto happens at home.

There are lots of putzy pesto recipes out there. Many add an ingredient here, an extra step there, in an attempt to disguise the fact that the lovely green stuff is not that complicated. In fact it's dead simple.

I go one further and take out a few steps and leave only the essential elements. 

This pesto is meant to be enjoyed or frozen immediately.

Easy Pesto Recipe

2 cups packed basil leaves

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano (hard parmesan cheese)

1/4 cup pine nuts

At this point many people recommend adding salt, I think the cheese is salty enough. Some suggest lemon juice, I don't see the need. Others add Italian parsley, walnuts, etc. Why fix something that ain't broke?

I put all this into the food processor, I even grate the cheese right into the bowl to save on dirty dishes. I pulse and bounce the mixture until it's a coarse to smooth consistency according to how I like it. 

If I'm serving it right then, I go ahead and add extra virgin olive oil from a mere drizzle to up to a 1/2 cup depending upon the dish. If I'm freezing it, I omit the olive oil. You see I'll add it when it's thawed for serving later. Leaving out the oil it can be frozen in flat plastic freezer bags, none of that fussy freezing into ice cube containers.

I press the air out of the bags until they're relatively flat so they fit into the smallest of nooks and crannies of the freezer. I can then use the entire package for pastas or just break off bits to add to soups and salads.

The best part about this pesto recipe is during the middle of winter when I crave that fresh green fragrance and sharp flavor of pesto and I think I've run out. Somehow, some way one of the slender bags slips down behind the ice cream carton and magically materializes at my moment of need. 

 

 

Bounty of Bells: How to Freeze Bell Peppers

Can you freeze bell peppers? Certainly. There are several ways but I like this quick and easy method I found on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln website. It's the same as the one I use to freeze berries so I savor summer even in the snowy winter. 

 

'Candy Apple' Bell Peppers just starting to turn red, a great variety with thick walls

I've been waiting patiently for my bell peppers to turn that gorgeous shade of red that gives color and sweetness to any recipe. Imagine my disappointment when I noticed that the plant was so weighed down with beautiful bells that a branch split. That meant I had to get in gear to save these veggies. 

Tray freezing is a technique I'm already familiar with, using it for preserving blueberries, strawberries and raspberries from the farmer's market. You freeze the produce on a baking sheet in a single layer. Once frozen you put it in a freezer bag, so the individual pieces or berries don't stick together. It's better for food safety and quality.

Join me on Twitter at #pollin8rchat Tuesdays 8pm CT to learn about pollinator-friendly gardening!

You can cut the peppers in strips or dice, however you'll want to prepare them for the intended dish. To avoid that messy moment when the seeds go everywhere I simply cut around the stem, down all four sides. You are left with the core and most of the seeds, just toss it out. There may be a few seeds to pick out.

I cut my peppers in strips, I can always dice them if needed when I go to use them. Place them in a single layer and let freeze. Once frozen you can pop them into freezer bags. Use within a year from freezing. Easy, huh?

 Follow the pics to see how simple the tray freezing method can be.

Glad I noticed this heavily laden, broken branch when I did

Slice down four sides around the stem

You're left with the core intact and no messy seed explosion

 

 

Cut the pepper into strips and place in a single layer

 

Once frozen, place in freezer bag, make sure to label contents and date, you know you'll forget

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Basil Bonanza? Easy Pesto Recipe

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: August 15, 2014

What's blooming? It's more like what's buzzing, and fluttering for this Garden Bloggers Bloom Day in August 2104!

It's no secret that The Garden Buzz is all about a lively garden. I've always believed a garden isn't really alive unless there are lots of creatures about. Everyone is concerned about pollinators and people are just now coming to realize, what gardeners have known all along, how important a role they play in our gardens and lives.

While I'm at it, I'd love to invite you to join me at #pollin8rchat. It's a Twitter Chat where we bring together people, plants and pollinators. If you're not on Twitter please consider it, it's lots of fun and a fountain of knowledge and knowledgeable people. Join #pollin8rchat to learn lots about how you can attract and support pollinators. Email me if you have questions about how to participate.

Meanwhile enjoy the blooms and the busy bees and butterflies!

 

 

Pollinators love Allium tanguticum

Butterflies love zinnias!

Busy bees on this giant bloom of Angelica gigs

Chocolate Cosmos is a deep wine red color, so is the pollen

Monarch nectaring on zinnia

Echeveria runyonii, 'Topsy Turvy' is so cute

'Mulberry Jam' Salvia is a beautiful, statuesque sage that attracts hummingbirds

I started this Gaillardia 'Sundance Red' from seed

A hummingbird visits this two tone Agastache 'Summer Breeze'

Canna 'Red Futurity' is a deep saturated red

Purple basil blooms are great in bouquets

Painted Lady butterfly works hard on this white Pinwheel zinnia

Dragonflies love to perch atop the purple liatris blooms

Once the blooms open butterflies will land on this Sedum 'Xenox'

 

 

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Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: June 15, 2014

Wildflower or Weed, What's the Difference?

Is it National Pollinator Week Already?

Wildflower or Weed, What's the Difference?

Is it a weed or a wildflower? How do you make the call?

When I'm weeding my yard and I come upon an unfamiliar set of leaves, do you do like me and let it be for a bit? Wondering what this uninvited but determined plant will become? I do like horticultural surprises. Will it be a delightful wildflower blown by the wind only to serendipitously land in your garden? Or will be a seedy, rhizomatous monster set on world domination, taking down your garden with it? How do you handle this gardening dilemma?

We've all seen those cute little quotes about how a weed is a plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered. And I'm the first to tell you, there's almost always two sides to the story. My most common example is the dandelion. While it's a lawn lover's nightmare, bees count on it as a first source of nectar in spring. 

 

Purple wildflower Hoary Vervain

 Weed or wildflower? Hoary Vervain, Verbena Stricta,  just starting to bloom

 This little darling showed up as weeds seem to do, right next to something it resembled. Have you noticed this phenomenon? As a young seedling it sort of looked like the sage it sat next to. So I let it go. As it grew taller I grew more curious and let it bloom. It turned out to be a wildflower called hoary (that refers to the gray fuzz on the young plant) vervain. It's a wildflower that can re-seed and form colonies but is considered pretty harmless. Bonus: It's a larval plant host for Buckeye butterflies.

 

Buckeye Butterfly Attracted to Sedum

Buckeye butterfly nectaring on sedum

 Are you planting for pollinators? Interested in learning more about all of these tiny but important creatures? Consider joining me on #pollin8rchat! I host this Twitter chat every Tuesday at 8pm CT. Don't know how to participate? Email me and I'll run you thru the basics.

 

 

Common Mullein is a striking weed

 

Weed or WIldflower? Verbascum thapsus, or common mullein

And then there's these guys. Mullein. They show up looking like lamb's ears innocent cousin with those cute fuzzy leaves. You see them growing on roadsides or places where the soil has been recently disturbed. Mullein is an introduced species, originally from Europe. Like lots of other "exotic" plants it was brought to America by early settlers who valued it for the herb's medicinal properties. 

 

Fuzzy leaves emerging from mullein

 

The fuzzy leaves aren't as soft as lamb's ears

One single mullein can produce hundreds of thousands of seeds, therefore earning it the title of invasive meaning it can crowd out and displace native plants. Why have I let it grow, in my newly planted landscape, no less?  I actually weeded out all but three of the plants. I like the plant's architectural quality, but it is close to forming seeds so after tomorrow they are on my to-do list. As in to-done!

 

Yellow flowers on mullein bloom at different times

 

 The single buds never bloom at the same time

I've loved watching their candelabra-like stalks reach for the sky. Ants and wasps have scaled and explored the tall spires. The single blooms never bloom all at once, which makes it kind of ornery from a decorative sense. Funny it turns out, they are quite a conversation piece, people walking by always ask...and what are those?

I'm tempted to let them form seeds and watch the birds go after them but I know better. The goldfinches will have to remain content with stripping the petals from my zinnias so they can reach the seeds! 

Have you face a similar quandary with a wildflower/weed? What do you do?

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Join Me For #pollin8rchat!

Foliage in the Time of Flowers