I’ve made a note to myself so that next year I will plant much, much less cinnamon basil.
It did 10x better than our regular basil, perhaps because it ended up in a prime piece of real estate. It quickly overshadowed everything else in its bed; I found red peppers drying on the plant buried underneath them. The bees loved the beautiful purple flowers and the taste…well, it’s cinnamon basil alright.
I cut the basil off at the base of the stalk, rather than ripping it out. As many leaves as I could harvest are now drying on my countertop, I have a bowl full of seeds and the rest went into the compost. As an experiment, we also hung some of the stalks upside-down to dry, as well.
In it’s place I added some organic amendments to the raised bed and put in some (late) lettuce, spinach and broccoli seeds. None of that indoor seed starting stuff this time since it’s cool and sunny and the ground is staying moist between waterings.
These past few weeks have been crazy hectic, but all in good ways. We’ve been working on the RV and I’ve been working on something else. 
Right now we’re in a mad scramble to pack our things and leave for our annual camping trip with our local unschooling group. And then we’ll be able to relax while we eat, hike and play with friends all weekend!
Have a great weekend!
I'm Tara Wagner, life coach and creator of the Digging Deep process, where I coach women out of survival mode to recreate their lives and families.
Waaaaaa! I wanna go camping with you guys!!!
My word! That is a truly impressive harvest you have there! And I thought I knew a fair bit about herbs, but I have never heard of cinnamon basil! *hangs head in shame*. I’m trying to imagine its flavour. Sounds delightful.
I suppose a large batch of pesto may be on the cards then?
I only planted one small cinnamon basil plant. It did well, but I didn’t use much of it and didn’t bring it in before the frost. BOO for me.
wow! cinnamon basil! here is where i reveal my ignorance…what is cinnamon basil? i;ve never heard of such a thing. is it cinnamon? or basil?
either way sounds yummy.
wishing you continued good luck with the rv “reno” and have a great camping trip!
That is an amazing amount of cinnamon basil! I have been wanting to get out and do some camping myself, enjoy yourselves.
Are you going to use the cinnamon basil? I often find myself enticed by all the wonderful varieties of basil, but with the exception of Thai basil, I don’t know what to do with it (other than admiring it). This year I tried to stick with plain ol’basil–and your post reminds me that I’ve got some serious pesto-making to do!
Barbara, I found when I cook it the cinnamon part is hardly discernible and it just taste like basil.
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docwitch, It tastes like basil with a cinnamon aftertaste. It’s good but I think I prefer the regular basil, at least raw or hardly cooked when you still get the cinnamon taste. Although I was considering making a toothpaste out of it. LOL
Hi Tara,
I was going thru some old stuff on the Freedom Garden site.
I see you three are planning on traveling soon on your spiritual journey. To help you on you travels, look at the following site, it may help you decide where to go…
http://thegreenhorns.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/farmland-seeking-steward-canandaigua-ny/
Occasionally there are posts about farm job openings and so on…
Let me know if this helps you…
Sincerely,
Mike
omg pesto city! I miss my garden! I’m so jealous of your harvest
I’m sniffing the Budweiser pitcher full of cinnamon basil flowers and seeds Justin gave us, right now, trying to decide the best way to separate the seeds out. Smells so wonderful still!