If you have basil growing, and frost hasn't yet hit, it's time to harvest it and make pesto for freezing or immediate use.

Here's the recipe I used. I did 3 double batches, each filled one of my medium-sized jars. I had planted three basil plants, so basically each plant yielded one jar of pesto. Each jar holds roughly 1-1/3 cups, leaving a little headroom at the top for freezing. Since I had neither parsley nor spinach in my garden, I picked and used pigweed instead (it's a wild spinach, see my post on it here).

BASIL PESTO

• 1 firmly-packed cup fresh basil
• 1/2 cup firmly-packed parsley leaves, fresh spinach, pigweed, dandelion greens or other edible greens
• 1/2 cup freshly-grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
• 1/4 cup pine nuts, walnuts or almonds
• 1 large clove garlic, quartered
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil or cooking oil

Blend all ingredients except the olive oil in a blender until it forms a thick paste. Slowly trickle in the oil while the blender is running, scraping down sides as necessary, until well blended.