Blog article by Lisa Rico
Every summer, I plant too much basil. It’s so prolific. Basil pasta, basil on caprese salads, basil oil, pesto. But how much pesto can two people eat? That doesn’t seem to stop me from making it. I can almost do it in my sleep. Rinse, spin, toss in the blender, puree – repeat all summer long. But recently I came really close to adding an unintended ingredient – a swallowtail chrysalis. Yeah, the idea of that makes me a little ill also. I saw several caterpillars in my nearby parsley patch and had been watching them daily. One by on,e they disappeared. I never thought they would have moved all the way over to my basil patch. I was wrong.
Fortunately, just in the nick of time, I saw the chrysalis on the underside of a basil leaf. Bright green, the exact color of the basil. Quickly, I attached the stem to a chopstick and placed it back in the garden among the basil plants. Then I watched it daily. It slowly started changing color and texture. One morning it was empty and a beautiful swallowtail was fluttering nearby.
The thoughts of “what-if” still flutters in my mind. I’ll never just toss basil in the blender again without close inspection.
Sidebar: I’ve found making basil oil is easier and even more versatile than pesto. It’s just basil and good olive oil with a 2:1 ratio, then a little salt and red pepper flakes. Blend. Store in refrigerator. Drizzle liberally on most everything!
For more information about Swallowtail butterflies:
https://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/family/papilionidae
https://ucanr.edu/blog/under-solano-sun/article/gardening-attract-pollinators