DryStoneGarden

We grow a lot of basil for pesto, freezing large batches using the ice cube tray method (a revelation when I heard about it: ice cube trays to make the perfect serving size, leave out the cheese, store the cubes in ziplocks, then defrost a cube at a time and serve, preferably on a baguette with a poached egg and cheese), but we like parsley pesto just as well or even better than the basil stuff and we’re able to have it fresh year-round. I used to deride the parsley batches (2 cups parsley, 1 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup walnuts, 2 cloves of garlic, salt, pepper in a blender) as poor-man’s-pesto, but it tastes really fresh and green, and it’s much easier for us to grow, not caring about our weak summer heat. Last year’s parsley plants are starting to bolt, so I planted the next batch this past week, six plants. With any luck we can keep production going without any significant lag.

ryan 2/13

Our garden is smack in the middle of the Bay Area fog belt, so we are marginal for every heat-loving plant. We don’t even try to grow bell peppers, but we get good harvests of poblanos every year. We grow it with an ugly blue plastic bag and bottles of water around it to give it as much heat as possible. I’m not sure how much it helps, but we harvested a fistful of small peppers on New Year’s Day, so I’ll be putting the bag and bottles out next year too.

ryan 1/2