How to Harvest Basil and Keep It Fresh

Cut shoots, not individual leaves

Picking leaf by leaf spoils the shape of the plant and produces no new shoots. Cut the end of a shoot above a joint and two side shoots grow from below the cut, setting up the next picking. On basil, harvesting and pinching are the same job.

Take no more than a third of the plant at a time. Beyond that there is not enough leaf left and the next shoots take longer to come. Little and often gives you far more over the season.

1. Cut above a joint Find a joint with a pair of leaves and cut just above it. Cut between joints and the remaining stub dies back.
2. Work from the top down Take shoots from the upper part of the plant and leave the lower leaves. Stripping the bottom first cuts the photosynthesis and the whole plant loses vigor.
3. Cut in the morning Before the sun is high the plant is full of water and the scent is strongest. Cut in the afternoon and it wilts fast and does not keep.
4. A third at a time Cut more and the remaining leaves cannot support the plant, so the next shoots come thin. Judge the amount by the size of the plant.

Picking runs from early summer to mid autumn. Cutting every fortnight, which doubles as pinching, keeps the plant in shape and producing.

Stand it in water or wrap it straight away

Basil starts wilting the moment it is cut, and it is sensitive to cold: put it in the direct draft of a fridge and black spots appear within hours. Keep it from getting too cold and it stays usable for several days.

Black spots are cold damage. One spoiled leaf spreads to the ones around it, so pick out any you find.

Wash it only just before you use it

Washed straight after cutting, the water left on the leaves turns them black. Do not wash before storing: just brush off any soil or insects. Rinse briefly in cold water when you come to use it and dry it well before chopping.

1. Rinse, do not soak Soaking in a bowl lets the aroma leach into the water. Rinse briefly under running water and lift it straight out.
2. Dry it properly Press it dry with a cloth or kitchen paper. Chopped while still wet, it darkens and tastes watery.
3. Chop at the last moment The scent escapes from the cut surfaces, so use it as soon as it is chopped. Left standing, chopped basil discolors within half an hour.

Freeze a glut as a paste

At the peak you will cut more than you can use. Basil freezes well, and blended with oil it keeps its scent for about six months. Frozen plain it goes black as it thaws, so coating the leaves in oil is the trick.

1. Use leaves only Stems leave a fibrous texture. Strip the leaves off and use the soft ones rather than the large tough ones.
2. Blend with oil Blend the leaves with oil and salt. The oil coats the leaves and keeps the air off, which is what stops them blackening.
3. Freeze in portions Freeze in an ice cube tray or small bags, one portion at a time. A single large block means thawing and refreezing, which costs you the scent.

Frozen paste keeps about six months. Adding it straight to a hot dish without thawing loses the least aroma.

Drying does not suit basil

Basil's scent is mostly volatile compounds, so a large part of it is lost during drying. Dried basil smells like a different herb and the fresh flavor never comes back. For long term storage, freeze rather than dry.

If you must dry it, driving the moisture off quickly in a microwave keeps more of the scent than anything else. Dried slowly in the sun the color bleaches brown and almost no aroma survives.

It will not overwinter outdoors

Basil is a perennial in its native range, but growth stops below 50F (10C) and a frost kills it overnight. In most temperate gardens it cannot survive outside, so treat it as an annual and grow it fresh each year.

Overwintering indoors is possible but rarely worthwhile: without enough light the shoots stretch, and what you pick in spring falls short of a freshly sown plant. Saving seed in autumn, or sowing again in spring, gives better results than keeping the old plant.

1. If you do bring one in Pot it up in mid autumn and put it in a south facing window. Waiting until after a frost is too late: a damaged plant does not recover.
2. Water sparingly in winter With growth stopped, water only when dry and only a little. Watering as you would in summer rots the roots.
3. Cut back in spring Cut the stretched shoots back in early spring. Left as they are, the shape never recovers and the new leaves stay tough.

Saved seed is a more reliable way to secure next year than an overwintered plant.

When the scent is weak

Weak scent comes from the plant, the way you picked, or the way you stored it. Rub a leaf between your fingers the moment you pick it: if the scent is there, the problem is in the storage rather than the plant.

The aromatic compounds sit close to the leaf surface. Scrubbing, long soaking and crushing all drive them off.