Anne, you are right! I had been picking the flowers off the basil
plants, but had stopped doing this in September. The plant was
flowering when I picked the last leaves that had tasted so bitter. I
bet that is why!

Mint in pesto sounds like a great idea! I will try that next year!

Have a great weekend everyone!
Heidi

Anne Lurie wrote:

A few weeks ago, when I was concerned that we might have a frost here, I cut
several stems of basil & stuck them into a vase, thinking I could keep the
basil relatively fresh until we could make pesto.

Although we picked off some leaves, we hadn't pulled the stems themselves
out of the vase, even when changing the water in the vase. We were
surprised to see that the stems had rooted! (And these were cut stems, not
whole plants.) So, today I cut more stems and put them in the vase with a
little MiracleGro to see what happens.

Has anyone else had any experience with something like this? I suppose
basil is among the few tender herbs that would need the help

Anne Lurie
NE Raleigh