Lesson Learned from my Lazy Work

Sometimes we learn lessons because we want to. Other times we learn lessons because we have to. But then there’s the times we learn lessons because we can. It’s all in the way you think about it.

This lesson is one of those “can” times.

Last year instead of pulling the basil out of the garden or at least nipping the flower buds, I got lazy. I just left it alone. The basil plants didn’t get pulled out until they were good and done, some may call that dead. So this year I ended up having little baby basil plants growing in a 10ft radius from last years basil bed. They looked so healthy I couldn’t just compost them. So I dug up the cute little baby basil plants sprawled all over and transplanted them into the basil bed.

I wasn’t sure if the transplanted basil would survive or not. But there wasn’t any harm in trying. Thankfully most of the transplants survived. Or at least what did survive covered the whole bed anyways.

Now, basil is one of my top five spices I love and use. But when the homestead gives you an overabundance of something what do you do?…Learn a new way to use it!

I already had a stockpile of dried basil so I didn’t want to dehydrate it. I wanted to be a little more creative.

So, we made Pesto!

Then we made pesto pizza. Oh my gosh that was so good!

I had never made pesto before. But I learned how.

And I can now say, it’s a new favorite.

We did blanch the basil to make sure it kept it’s pretty green color.

It’s an awesome feeling when you preserve food for yourself. But an even more awesome feeling when you can preserve the food from learning something new from a lazy mistake.

Some folks say “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” but I say “When the homestead gives you basil, make Pesto!”

Next time I make pesto, instead of using pine nuts I may try using our own hazelnuts.

If you’ve made pesto with other nuts let me know how you liked it.