The only thing I have ever really had a serious itch to shoplift is fresh basil.
Basil is one of the select herbs that just doesn’t translate at ALL when forced into dry form. It’s like a really ineffective shape-shifting superhero. Very powerful fresh! Very ineffective when powdered.
Basil seems to only be sold in outsize containers of 50 leaves or more. Here is the number of leaves that I need in order to enjoy fresh basil in my farro: 2. For three servings. Believe me, I try to use the rest of the basil liberally, sprinkling entire leaves will-nilly on whatever I’m eating, or sometimes just holding up a particularly large and lustrous leaf to my face and saying “Mmmmmm.”
Basil does not really keep. I hear that you can extend its life by putting the stems in water, but I’m not really trying to decorate the interior of my fridge with vases of herbs.
So every time I need basil I find myself wishing I could just pocket two medium-to-large leaves.
It’s not that I mind paying $2.50 for basil I’ll only use 1/20 of at best, it’s that I hate wasting it. Nothing that smells so heavenly should go to waste, yet I don’t find myself wanting to make basil sachets to put in my underwear drawer either.
My roommate had the same volume problem with cilantro (gross) when he bought a bushel to make guacamole, but he wasn’t too fussed about about wasting it because “Cilantro is basically a weed.” Is the same true for basil? I haven’t googled to find out. Maybe I don’t want to. Nothing so pure and amazing should be relegated to weed status.
And yes, I have taken the route of buying a basil plant, and it was the most amazing two months of my life before I killed it for a second time (the first time, I resurrected it and enjoyed zombie basil for weeks).
I need a basil time-share. A basil-only mini CSA. If you need basil: come to my house.
