Basil and/or Tulsi as it travels from east to the west

I am not a herb grower but I love their flavours in my salads, dressings and appetizers. Interestingly, I bumped into growing them by chance.  I always loved the aroma found in coriander and mint from our Indian subcontinent, then got introduced to the 'basil' belonging also to the mint family found and other myriads of herbs used in the mediterranean cuisine from the regions of the Tuscan countryside in Italy and Provence in the south of France, when I visited those places. These wonderful array of herbs mixed with fresh tomatoes, roasted garlic and cheese in olive oil are mouth watering delights and so are similar such appetizers and dressings made of mint, fresh cucumber and yogart  or roasted shrimp, garlic and coriander mixed together in a mortar and pestle with mustard oil from our part of the world, the tropics. Now, I suddenly got some basil from a local gardener and it was wonderful to find them freshly available, pluck them and and have them straight into my pasta sauce or dressings or adding them to the final touches of a just ready chicken. The sweet clove-like or strong pungent aroma are best found in the leaves of the non flowering plants, that's when the leaves should be plucked. Also, deep freezing is a good way to preserve them.


Looking into 'basil' I learnt that this species, Ocimum basilicum has many varieties, as many hybrids are found between species, all of which belong to the Lamiaceae (mint) family, such as the sweet thai basil, lemon basil, african basil and of course the mediterranean basil. Its has actually been grown in the Indian subcontinent for more than few thousand years and travelled to the west. The variety,  Ocimum tenuiflorum, the sacred or holy basil of which both dark or purple and a green variety exits, is what we call the 'tulsi' or the holy Indian basil. It has been common to have a small tulsi plant, so I had them both green and purple varierty, since its been long used as a holy plant in India particularly for its tremendous medicinal values, today known more clearly as great antioxidant properties. Natives simply easily chew their leaves straightaway or use the leaves for preparing the wonder tea. After growing the basil for the first time, I saw they grew fast as a seasonal variety. I am sure that now I will delve more into this interesting area and make few more easy encounters into the world of green culinary herbs. The pictures show the basil I grew on the top and the tulsi/ holy basil, both green and dark purple variety I already had, on the side. The tulsi will grow through out the hot summer months loosing their leaves in the winter. So its available most of the year round.