Harvesting Basil Seeds

I’m a little disappointed in myself.  I purchased a basil plant this spring, so that I could have fresh basil.  This wasn’t my first time, so I knew I was supposed to trim the buds off so that the plant would continue nourishing the leaves.  Alas, I failed.  The plant went to seed and I used maybe a handful of my fresh basil leaves before then.  The heat of the summer has dried the blossoms and it occurred to me that I could probably harvest the seeds.  I figured it was the least I could do after my epic failure to tend the basil adequetely. 

So, I set out to harvest the seeds.  If you are interested here is a video explaining how: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEQNDWJeSG4

As I sat at the table picking the seeds out, Hudson came to see what I was doing.  He wanted to help, so I set him up a little napkin and showed him how to remove the seeds.  He helped me for a bit and we talked about seeds, big and small, and what we are going to do with these seeds.  We also talked about the cost of fresh basil vs. basil plants vs. seeds.  I learned how to harvest the seeds, but would probably never do it again since the cost for a package of seeds is less than the amount of time/effort it took to harvest them.  BUT It was an invaluable teachable moment and made the effort all worth it.

The Seeds                                    The Dry Blossoms

The total harvest