summer freshness of newly picked basil

Ring… ring… huh? what? I opened my eyes and made a grab for the phone. I was not fully awake when I heard Trudie’s voice at the other end of the line - I was supposed to go to her place on Saturday to pick basil. It was now Monday… Oh dear. “Could I come now?”. I staggered out of bed into the bathroom. The visage in the mirror was barely recognizable: bed head was out of control. A few splashes of water and it was somewhat flattened.

No coffee for me, instead I headed directly out the door and into the truck. It isn’t far to Trudie’s, maybe a km or two (she’s our neighbor on one side) so I barely had time to wake up.

I should mention that Trudie has the energy of a manic person and I’m pretty sure she has never had a bleary moment, so I sucked it up and pretended I was bright and chipper.

I received instruction on how she wanted the basil picked and got to work. The ‘trug’ that I had brought to put everything in was full to the brim with the summer freshness of newly picked basil. I could almost taste the pesto.

A pile of freshly picked garlic was wrapped into a bag and away I went home. There was work to do.

First a swim though ;-) and that cup of coffee.

I picked through the giant bin of basil and soon I had a mountain of leaves with a tower of stems beside it. Carm peeled a bunch of garlic, then the food processor got to work chopping the basil and spinning it with garlic. I don’t put the cheese in until I’m using it as many times I just want basil and garlic.

I think I did four full bowls in the food processor before I had several baggies and two small containers ready to freeze. I kept some aside to use tonight (fresh zucchini from Trudie’s garden in the actifry and tossed with pesto - my mouth is watering just thinking about it.)

It is a summer day again today - hot with a little cool in the shade. This morning was cloudless, but some are moving in this afternoon. Yesterday was nice too and Graham came out for a visit. We sat on the swing enjoying an afternoon in the country.

Four years ago today we had already been in Medicine Hat for a day. I was happy to re-read the blog entries for that day - a little reminder of how wonderful that trip was. We’ve had a few fantastic trips in the last few years and I would be hard pressed to choose a favorite, but if I had to, I think it would be our Alberta adventure. Almost everything about that trip was a journey home to the happiest times of my youth. So many memories were revisited and relived. The west is my heart’s true home.

“I was merely looking at the prairie as a human being, savouring it for its beauty which engaged all the senses and brought with it a feeling of well-being, contentment and often even joy.”
~Sharon Butala - The Perfection of the Morning