Mia's Garden

I finally got out to Mia's community garden in Queens, and it was all that I expected! The whole garden is beautiful, tall sunflowers, tomato plants heavy with fruit, colorful patches of red beets, and fragrant mint and lemon verbena. Mia's plot was full of cucumbers, zucchini, basil, and a few melons. Her tomato plants, while they have grown tall are not bearing fruit yet.


Upon returning from the garden, we turned our huge pile of basil into pesto. Turns out you don't need a cuisinart, but some patience and a sharp knife.
We chopped everything by hand: garlic, we choose walnuts instead of pinenuts and the basil.
Also, pesto freezes well so instead of adding the oil or cheese to this chopped mixture wait to add it before eating, and freeze as is. Just add enough oil to moisten the basil to keep it paste like.