I've also read that you can add a vitamin C tablet when you grind it, and that will keep it from turning brown.

And pesto freezes really well too, in case you didn't already know. (I don't add the cheese before freezing it, though, because the texture can tend to get a little weird.)

Vitamin C makes sense since it is citric acid. It does freeze well, but everything in it is a healthy food for the heart-impaired. With walnuts and on salmon, it is healthy food squared, so it doesn't last long around me.

Where on earth are you that you are getting fresh basil? That is a distant dream of summer up here...

That Vitamin C thing is a restaurant trick. But you have to be careful, because if it's too strong, you'll catch an astringent flavor.

It's actually ascorbic acid, not citric acid, but works in a similar way.

Miko, I was walking through a local Italian market yesterday when I caught the scent of basil on the air. They had an big cardboard box stuffed with generous basil bouquets, each in a plastic cup cradled in a plastic bag, the top rolled down to let the leaves breathe. They were big, satiny leaves, too, not the wizened specimens I see at the big-box grocery.

It was gorgeous.

I used to employ this trick I learned in a restaurant kitchen: dunk the basil in boiling waterfor just one minute, and immediately scoop it out into an ice-water bath. Pat it dry and proceed as usual.

The resulting pesto is, indeed, bright green for a long time. These days, though, I tend to grind up leftover basil with just a splash of olive oil and freeze it. That way, I'm not limited to pesto.

Trader Joes has organic Mexican basil almost year-round.

Now, the question is, do you want to buy it, knowing that there are human beings growing, picking, packaging, etc., that are not very well paid, or treated.

And I realize that not everyone has Trader Joes.

But still. . .basil can be had.

Heh, danf. 'Basil can be had....for a price."

Elsa, that's neat...hothouse-grown, I guess? Good blanching trick, too.

I had already checked out and was eager to get home (and not eager to see if I could resist buying it), so I didn't even stop to check the origin --- just stood there a moment a few feet from the box, eyes slitted, inhaling deeply, then sailed out the door on a cloud of basil ecstasy.

The price, at Trader Joes, is about $1.69 for enough to make a good batch of pesto out of.

Now, the karmic price is a horse of another color.

There is nothing like the aroma of basil - nothing. Fresh sage, fresh lavender, fresh thyme: they all have their allure. But basil makes the knees buckle.

The karmic price is something always on my mind, too, danf. And then, too, there's something just oddly out-of-season about basil flavor and scent in December. Kind of like the smell of Coppertone on Santa.

We still have basil growing in our porch, but I am afraid this will be the last bunch when we pick it in the next few days.

Here in Vegas, if the casino restaurants don't buy up a wholesaler's stock, it often winds up in the grocery stores. Fresh herbs are flown in from South America almost daily. Chicken breast, steak and shrimp are perpetually on sale here.

I'd be very grateful if you could send me one of those sandwiches (or two, but really, I have to think of myself first here) and a bowl of the pasta.

Please forgive my ignorance but why is the "karmic price" of basil different than any other herb?

And yes, please share the chicken/pesto/onion sammiches.