Why we grow six kinds of basil

The kitchen garden sits between the pergola and the oven, and in August most of it is basil.

Genovese goes on the Margherita. Lemon basil goes into the limonata. Purple basil is mostly for looking at. The sixth came from a neighbour’s cutting years ago, and nobody knows what it is called.

“Basil hates the fridge. Treat it like a bunch of flowers.”

We pick it in the evening, when the leaves are cool, and keep it in water like flowers rather than in the fridge.