Bumper Crop
A delay in harvesting basil yields a bigger batch of pesto.
Andrew Aasen
7/1/20261 min read
A week ago, I was looking at my basil and thinking I should really harvest it. Good airflow, low branching, room for transplanting—the usual reasons. Life had other plans, so the harvest waited.
The basil did not mind.
Over the weekend, the plants seemed to double in size. By Sunday night, I finally made time to harvest and ended up with nearly twelve cups of Genovese basil leaves.
Harvest days always surprise me. The plants never look quite as large as the pile of leaves they become. A popcorn bowl overflowed. The four-cup measuring cup was filled multiple times. Every time I thought I was getting close to the bottom of the pile, there was another armful waiting.
When I needed a little more to top off a measuring cup, I grabbed a leaf from one of the lettuce leaf basil plants. It was nearly as long as my forearm. That plant was getting its first harvest too, and it certainly made an entrance.
Mom kept commenting on the aroma while we worked. Fresh basil has a way of filling the whole room. We used everything: large four-inch leaves, tiny new leaves from the growing tips, and even flower buds that had appeared while I was postponing the harvest.
What impressed me most was how little waste there was. After stripping leaves from stems and sorting everything for pesto, the giant pile of basil was reduced to barely a handful of straw-like stems. Almost everything the plants had grown was useful.
The best part is that this is not the end of the season. The plants are healthy, actively growing, and already pushing new shoots. If all goes well, I'll be back in about two weeks harvesting an even larger crop.
Sometimes gardening rewards careful planning. Sometimes it rewards being too busy to follow the plan exactly. This harvest may have started later than intended, but the basil clearly didn't hold it against me.
