A Basil Family Reunion

Hi Folks: It looks like a Basil family reunion in the field below our house. Like any vast, rich family that lives sprawled across 6 continents, not every basil family member could make it, but we at Mariquita Farm are playing host to at least seven of their “biggest names.”

“Basil,” in Greek, means “King.”  So-called “Holy Basil” is considered a manifestation of the Goddess Tulsi. Basils come to us with a lot of attitude.  Basilico Piccolo Fino Verde has the tiniest of leaves but she arrives with one of the strongest, sweetest scents of any basil. The plant makes a tiny, tidy, fashion forward little pom-pom of a plant. There is a lot of variety in this clan with plenty of variation in leaf color, size and shape.

Greek basil – “Greco a palla”- presents a larger leaf than the Piccolo types, and it hits with much more of a clove spice than does its smaller and sweeter leafed cousin. The plant will form a compact ball, somewhat a bit taller and more erect than the Piccolo types. In my experience both the Piccolo and Greek basils are quite resistant to disease. It’s just an opinion, but Greek basil is my favorite for pesto.

Genovese basil is the market’s choice to be the most popular basil. The broader leaves make stripping the plants easier and the flavor is a rich mix of both sweet and spice. I’m a farmer, so I’m going to have a more nuanced appreciation for a plant than some consumers. Genovese basil IS GREAT, and I love it, and so do the bugs. Genovese basil also seems sensitive to airborn mildews and other fungal attacks. For a while it seemed as though we couldn’t  hardly ever get a good, disease-free  Genovese basil crop, so I began experimenting with other varieties, but so far, this year, things in Genoa seem great. The Purple basil that we grow is a purple Genovese type.

Tuscan basil has the largest leaf of any of our basils, with one of the mildest flavors. As a grower I have to say that it is one of the most difficult basils to grow easily because its wide leaves are easily damaged by the sun, the wind, the birds, the bugs, the snails, etc. When they’re nice the big leaves make nice wrapper leaves for hors d’oeuvres.

There are many branches of the Basil family in Thailand. This year I grew the Thai Sweet basil. Our Lemon basil is another form of Thai basil. In the past I’ve grown Thai Anise basil and Thai Cinnamon basil.

Tulsi is an Avatar of Lakshmi, consort to Vishnu, and the Tulsi basil is a manifestation of her presence. Tulsi is “Holy basil” but , as with Thai basil, there are many forms. I’m growing 2 kinds and I have been informed that they are both “Ram Tulsi” plants, not “Krishna Tulsi.” I will be bringing a few bunches of each kind to the pop-up in case you want to pop in and give the herbs a look.

Besides the basils, we’ll be coming to SF with Dry-Farmed Early Girl tomatoes, Sungold cherry tomatoes, a rainbow mix of cherry toms, Heirlooms, tomatillos, Piennolos, jalapeños, limes, lemons, and cut flowers. We are not pre-selling yet, as we’re not 100% sure on yields, but we’ll have plenty of stuff on a first come-first serve basis. We take cash, but Venmo and Zelle work too. We can’t take credit cards, I’m sorry. I hope we see you in front of Piccino at 1001 Minnesota Street, San Francisco, Sunday morning, July 26th, from 9:30 am to 12:30. Thank you, Andy & Starr.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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