Shucking basil
It was the first early morning after time changed. I arose at 6:30 a.m. which 24 hours previous would have been 7:30 a.m. It made good sense to some folks (not all) 110 years ago to switch time around periodically, and some of us (not all) still do. Does it matter? I’m still going to take a nap this afternoon, maybe an hour earlier (or later).
To get what you want from an ear of corn, you need to remove the part you don’t want. We call that shucking. I started my CST morning (which was new and different in every way now that time had changed) by retiring to the herb preservation laboratory. It was time to shuck basil. Two plants had been drying in a heap for a while, so sipped coffee, donned lab apparel, set to work.
My crew and I looked down upon a small heap of the two recently harvested basil plants, leaves and seed heads still attached. A healthy basil plant can easily command a square foot of a garden bed – a short, important herbaceous shrub with many branches.
The first step for the crew in shucking the basil was addressing the well-intentioned, pleasant-smelling but neglected assemblage by snipping the dried stems into manageable pieces. If a section had only leaves, leaves were shucked onto the cookie sheet, stems went into the extra bowl. Be sure to write this down – it will be on the test.
If a section had a seed cluster, the stem with cluster went into the extra bowl, also. Seeds were already falling. The purpose of the extra bowl was to make sure every basil part was used to its fullest extent. Seeds were sifted out of the chaff and stored in an envelope in a dark, dry location called my office, the intent being to continue the lineage of those seeds right where they grew.
But there’s more… basil stems are full of woody basil goodness. They delivered sustenance to basil leaves all summer, so they get to continue their basil legacy by being mulch over winter. I snip the basil sticks into small pieces. The woody nature of the pieces helps aerate the soil which makes worms and things happy. It matters if you have happy worms… think about it… worms want a gardener who considers their needs just like we want politicians who pay attention to our needs and not their own. But I digress.
My lab crew and I agree it is better to prepare the plants for dehydration soon after harvest by snipping stems and branches into shorter sections so they can stack comfortably on the cookie sheet just like experts on YouTube. Rearrange them daily for airflow. If you don’t have a cookie sheet, there’s a website that can help.
I still have jars of basil from two years ago plus even more from last year. I use it regularly, but a respectful suggestion for the gardener in charge: next year maybe less basil and more flowers and okra. Respectful response: basil is delightful in a garden, its neighbors like it, I have basil seeds I saved which must be planted so they can continue their family tradition on this hillside, and there’s always room for a plant here and there.
I was able to shuck basil in November because October was so mild. Two more healthy basil plants remain in the garden. My phone claims no frost for at least another ten nights, so there is no hurry for further shucking though I will anyway because it’s basil-shucking time.
Speaking of time, it’s never too late to be early. And, yes, after the shucking, I took the best nap in the whole wide world, and it was right on time.