Cynthia Ferich

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Spice up your life!

June 8, 2010 By Cynthia Ferich

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Sweet Basil

I love all of the fresh summer herbs.  I love their different flavors, textures, and aromas.  I love their beauty, and their versatility.  My FAVORITE (without a doubt) is BASIL!

I especially love basil because it reminds me of my grandparents during the hot days of summer, as I envision my grandfather in his garden.  As he picked the fresh basil and invited me to take in the aroma, basil infused his garden with all of those plump, ruby red, hot-from-the-sun, ripened tomatoes.  He picked his basil, garlic, and tomatoes by the bushels and delivered them to my grandmother!  She, (and with some help from the family) in turn, would put out dozens of jars of fresh canned tomatoes for pasta sauces.  It was culinary class in the making!

BASIL is an annual herb to be planted each year.  Plant the purple variety (dark opal) for its beauty, as well as the familiar sweet green basil. Both varieties have the same sweet flavor, although differ in appearance.  Other varieties include: anise basil, cinnamon basil, lemon basil, and holy basil.  Note that holy basil is rarely eaten raw, as it is quite pungent.  As with all things living, each has its place. Plant extra bumper crops of basil for pesto sauces, add to fresh canned tomatoes at harvest, include in your salads, pastas, grilling, meat rubs, and, at the end of the season, seeds for the following year.  SOW and REAP this fragrant herb.

Planting basil intensifies the flavor of vegetables, especially tomatoes and lettuces. Basil, as well as Marigolds, are “garden helpers.”  They discourage diseases in plants, and repel insects and small animals.

Today, as I go out to my own herb garden, I take in the sweet basil aroma, see and hear my grandparents, and revisit my childhood culinary lessons. The tomato and pesto sauces, and all ingredients that contain basil, now take on ‘soul’ as the sauces are not only nourishing and satisfying to the palate, but hold my own ‘soulful’ memories within…

~Buon Appetito!

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Filed Under: In The Garden Tagged With: anise, bumper crops, bushels, canned tomatoes, cinnamon basil, dark opal, flavors, herb garden, holy basil, hot days, lemon basil, lettuces, meat rubs, pasta sauces, pesto sauces, purple variety, ruby red, small animals, sweet basil, sweet flavor

About Cynthia Ferich

After writing and self-publishing “MaMa Mia Cucina” in 2007, Cynthia's writing, cooking and culinary teachings evolved into being as an entity surrounding food, fun, family and friends.

In an effort to capture her family’s ‘old world’ Italian recipes for future generations to enjoy, her grandmother, ‘Noni’, and Cynthia joined forces. "She measured, I wrote, and we cooked."

During her grandmother's latter 80 years, she traveled in memory through her life, as they shared in stories of a lifetime and long ago. As they shared this final chapter in her life, what Cynthia soon discovered through all of the measuring, cooking, sharing in the love of a family, and in the love of a friendship, was the passion for cooking, and a love that nourishes us all… It’s all about the FOOD!

Comments

  1. Sherry Jenkins says

    June 8, 2010 at 4:33 pm

    Loved this. Basil is my favorite herb, too. Great minds, huh?

  2. Sandra Duceour says

    June 11, 2010 at 8:42 am

    Cindy:
    This is a great blog.I can just visulaize your memories as I read your words. I am going to pass it along to friends. What a great writer you have become! Thanks for sharing tips! 🙂

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