First Basil!

   Yesterday the basil in the flats begged to be snipped, and I was more than happy to oblige. Mmmmm. There's nothing that smells more like summer to me than the heavy fragrance of freshly picked basil. When I was little (probably around nine or ten), I tried to cook a blue gill on my slide with onion soup mix and basil. Years later, I grew a couple of thousand plants to supply restaurants in the Flathead Valley with fresh basil. Imagine counter tops and tables spread with basil a half-foot thick. The entire house smelled heavenly.

   The beauty of basil is it responds well to pruning. The more you pinch, the more it grows. I prefer the "Lettuce Leaf" variety, which is exceptional in pesto, but also doesn't bolt as quickly as other Genovese varieties. And keeping the plants happy in the hot frame pays off even before July!