Harvesting Basil and Mowing Down Cover Crops
August 25th, 2021
We have an abundance of basil on the farm at the moment from lettuce leaf to lemon to Thai and Italian varieties. We’ll be offering larger “pesto-sized” bags of fresh basil at the farm stand so that you can enjoy this delicious culinary herb. But, if pesto isn’t your thing, you can always dry the basil for long term storage to use in your favorite recipes! Or, you can blend it with other dried herbs like mint for a delicious herbal tea blend. Here’s an article on a few different ways you can dry your herbs at home.
After fixing plenty of beneficial nitrogen to the soil, our cover crop of cowpeas in the high tunnel has been mown down. We’re leaving the plant matter in place so that it can double as “green manure” and a weed suppressant. This will help in the bed renovation process before this area can be planted with melons. We made sure to save plenty of seed from these cowpeas for sowing next year!
Moving over to our most recent succession of cowpeas outside of the high tunnel, they’re just beginning to flower! We have Lady Southern, Queen Anne, and Black Crowder cowpea varieties growing. We’ll be using this succession as both a food crop and cover crop. Our plan is to harvest the pods (and peas) fresh rather than dried. We’ll also be able to harvest the young greens of our cowpeas as a late summer/early fall leafy green option.
