Last Hurrah Pesto

Fall is certainly here.  It's 6:00 right now and almost dark!  Today we harvested some lingering greens to make a pesto for tomorrow's Edible Forest Garden Workshop.  I used a variety from the garden: Thai basil, perennial arugula, parsley, and kale.

Thai basil, perennial arugula, parsley, and kale leaves for pesto

I rinsed off the greens and then put them in a plastic bag and beat them with a rolling pin.  I've read that roughing them up like that is a good way to release the cracken.  No, I mean to release the flavor.

Releasing the flavor (how often do you get to hit something with a rolling pin?  Fun!)

Then I combined the greens with some roasted garlic cloves, olive oil, and salt and blended them up, traditional pesto style.  Put the green awesomeness in a bowl and mixed in a healthy dose of parmesan cheese (I do love parmesan, as some of you know.)

Finished product: Last Hurrah Pesto

Tomorrow the guests for our workshop will have this for lunch and we'll find out how it turned out!  It tasted pretty good on a spoon, so I'm expecting good things.