Our Young Basil Family

Today we would like to feature our Basil seedlings. As well as the common or Sweet Basil we have its distant cousin the Japanese Shiso or Perilla. 

They're all members of the Mint family - Lamiaceae

In Japan they used the Shiso variety with Spaghetti for many years before gradually switching to the more Mediterranean version. It's still used in traditional dishes, I like Shiso with Sushi, the leaves can grow quite big, they look like nettles!

Meanwhile the first batch of Cress has been devoured and more seeds sown.

The Rocket Takes Off!

After only a couple of days the rocket seeds are already growing tall. Will need to pot up very soon.

As well as a few Tomato seeds we also planted some Japanese Basil (Shiso or Perilla) which we have grown successfully on a window sill in the past - looking forward to harvesting that in the Summer, it's delicious in Tempura :)

So the desktop is starting to fill up already. We realised we forgot to get labels to put in the pots, we need to get some soon before we lose track.