Chocolate Basil? The search continues...

The search for the elusive chocolate basil continues... We've got a lot of enthusiastic gardeners on the prowl for it, and some have come close to tracking it down, but so far I don't think anybody has put their hands on one.

If anybody does find a plant, please please keep it isolated from other basils (in space or in time, by pruning off flower buds of others so they can't cross) and SAVE SEEDS! :-)

We came from here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/825643/#new

I actually contacted Ball Horticulture and their horticulturist was "not familiar" with it. I also asked if there was some database out there that listed failed species, or "every species ever developed". They said they had discussed how that would be very helpful, but so far, nothing like that exists.

LOL....and I do have dial up....living out in the sticks ...and still hoping for a chocolate basil fix........

and you rhyme!

hahahah................and I didn't even mean too!!!

You see, my friends, that chocolate's nice
Although sweet basil's a "common" spice
If ever the 'lusive cross is found,
The entire world will hear the sound
Of mj's ponies and their happy snickers
From way out there in the DeLand stickers!

~Anon.

Ahhhh, Potagere,
You did it this time.
You used chocolate and snickers in the same thought.
Now I have a raving craving for a Snickers bar!

Yeah, I know! And all the shops are closed here on Sundays!
Didn't Aunt Bett pass any of this herb on to you?

Nope...don't think it was invented way back then. ^_^

Haven't you found it in your travels?

I think I heard about it a few times, but it was always located in one of those places that was "Closed to Foreigners".

Jim, LOL! Okay, I think cabin fever and chocolate basil lust has set in big time around here.

LoL...now we need 'Snickers Basil" !!!!

Potagere..........I think that's the appropriate discription to put in my notes in my journal for "wanted" chocolate basil!!!!!!!!!!

And I won't let my ponies anywhere near it.........they like to sample mom's herbs...so have to keep them beyond reach!!


This message was edited Feb 8, 2009 7:00 PM

I think I saw the elusive Chocolate Basil at Home Depot last year. I didn't buy it, but I did sniff it and it didn't smell like chocolate to me.

Most reports of chocolate basil last year were really chocolate mint. Through extensive googling, I'm finding that the basil was around in 2004.

OK, Mrs_Ed, I've tried extensive Internet searching with no luck at all, so you have clearly hit on something. At what url did you find a lead? Where was it in 2004? Who had or claimed to have it? With us all branching out from your lead, maybe we can get somewhere!

Well, there were sightings in 2004 from various people, claiming seeing it at Home Depot. There was also a sighting at Missouri Botanic garden where it had been planted. Volunteers there "thought" that perhaps the seeds came from two places. Neither places have heard of that.

There was also an article about a chef at a place who used it from his kitchen garden. That Chef is no longer there and the staff at the inn does not know.

Reports of it being at the Union Square Farmer's market in NYC as well.

etc. etc.

But also several who say it was here or there and then it was confirmed that it was chocolate mint.

I've contacted ball and burpee, a couple other seed companies, the inn. I'd like to contact the buying team at Home Depot, but the likelihood of the same people being there since 2004 is slim.

It certainly sounds as if you are doing a very thorough job. I'd guess you're right about Home Depot, but who knows? I used to know someone who worked for K-Mart for almost 25 years!

Would be a real bummer if it just all turned out to be "chocolate mint"!

But, then, I wonder what the parentage of "chocolate" mint is? We may have to produce our OWN chocolate basil in the end!

I've got chocolate mint coming in a trade........
But replace chocolate basil it won't I'm afraid........

;-)..........couldn't resist
mj

haha. too funny MJ

Potagere, I think it is common for people to still be at Home depot, but it is my experience with retail that they move around alot within the organization. We'll see.

I also think I might have a line on the Chef from that Inn.

A high school friend of mine in NYC said that they bought the stuff before. I've queried him to see if he remembers which vendor at the market. He's not responding though. :(

Stay tuned.

"Chocolate is chocolate", my pony would say!
"If you try to hide it, I'll buck & I'll neigh!"
(Better fence in that garden, methinks, huh, mj?)

Sounds like you have some good leads, Mrs_Ed (YOU'RE not a talking horse, are you?).
If they don't lead anywhere, I may have to yield to my wife's entreaties to accompany her to NYC later this Spring, and see what I can see.

You Longellows are cracking me up.

Ooo, NYC Sleuthing! Sounds promising.

When in the course of human events,
It becomes necessary to record the time we have spent,
The clues we have followed, the feints we've unbent
All to restore to the gardens of men
(And of women, of course, my error, Ahem)
That magical herb of Brownies and such:
The chocolate basil for which we all lust,
These rhymical words, the icons we clutch,
We'll publish anon our own "Chocolate Raves"
As a "Piece of the Day" in the Garden of Dave's

Oh Aragon, my trusty steed
What did he say to me?
But, MOM, I'll leave you some mint for your tea!
And the chives, Oh Yum, I hope they don't give me hives!!
Parsley, Fennel and Dill she grows for herself and the butterlies,
But I myself do not despise.
While I am Dutch and don't read French,
I think I heard the rumors of a fence !
That has been on the list of " To Do's",
But I'm hoping she forgets..
From "You know who"

LOL. Chocolate Basil Poetry Slam!

In the dark of the night at the dark of the moon
in the light of the sun at the height of noon
by the fairy's house near the toadling's hole
under leaves that spread or ruffle and roll
across the creek by the bubbling spring
will someone find this herb of which we sing
Let the day dawn early and the night come late
I will have this upon my plate!


sorry, couldn't resist

edited to correct a typo

This message was edited Feb 9, 2009 5:48 PM

Bravo Kathleen!!!!!!!!!!!
That's wonderful............
I really need to get back to work but this is too much fun!

bravo you three!

who else?

How wonderful!

BTW, anybody who wants Chocolate Mint can Dmail me this summer... I've got it growing along one edge of my driveway, and it can always use a bit of thinning! (But let's not derail this thread by talking about it here.)

Funny, no mention of Chocolate Geranium?

Jerry

AAAHHGG

No. Think Basil, Basil, Basil.

no need to confuse things more. ;-)

I've grown a chocolate peppermint geranium, hmm, not sure if I still have that one... and I have 'Cocoa Mint Rose' geranium also...

but on this thread we're questing for Chocolate Basil!

:-)

I had a whole raised bed of choclate mint.




Unfortunately Big foot snuck in the garden and ate it all :)

Oooooh, I just found this thread and thought you were talking about dark chocolate-covered basil leaves, so I had to come in and look. With the health and emotional benefits of dark chocolate being lauded by chefs, candy makers, and the medical community alike, images of chocolate in every form have driven me to search the internet for the unusual...but chocolate basil and Odes to Chocolate were totally unanticipated. How timely...wouldn't it be romantic to be gifted with a lush and aromatic Chocolate Basil plant accompanied by one of our poets' odes on Valentine's Day!

Pam

critter, trg and Vortrekker :
I think that you are just trying to derail and discombobulate us.
In fact, I would NOT be surprised if Vortrekker has this very plant
in his gardens and is holding out on us!
I mean, does ANYONE (other than Bigfoot) believe his tale of his
"loss" of his chocolate mint?
Consequences could be DIRE!
What goes around, comes around!

And critter, . . .
She does seem to keep contributing to confusion here, does she not?

I do think that a trip to Alabama [where IS that exactly?] and to Maryland
may be required to closely inspect these garden holdings (assuming that
these Spice Spies are even revealing their true locations!) and to report on
their contents. Should such an investigator be sent out by this thread and
never heard from again, the suspects are limited.

Jerry, we'll get to you in good time.

Pamgarden : If a tri-colour Corgi shows up on your doorstep next Saturday with a box of
chocolate anything, just take the box and send him on his way. DO NOT listen to his attempts
to recite Odes to Anything and DO NOT feed him chocolate. It could kill him, but, just like
most of us, knowing that fact does not stop him from WANTING it!

Potagere

Pot, Promise not to feed the Corgi chocolate, but your description makes him sound very alluring. Will he be speaking French or Welsh? Pam

rofl.

I heart this thread.

French! Or English (U.S.)
Just give him a quick kick in the butt and say "Home!"

If the REWARDS were great enough I might be tempted to ride out on my trusty steed to inspect the above scoundrels holdings. Besides my steed who is quite fond of herbs, I would be accompanied by my trusty Beagle. While his given name is "Kobe" is nickname is "Sooner" cause he'd sooner eat than anything else. He talents for sniffing are renowned. He's been know to sniff out a cookie crumb from the far reaches of our 11 acre farm. Doesn't matter to him...if he smelled chocolate, he'd find it.
I was born and grew up in Maryland, so know where that is. I think I can find Alabama...that's West of Florida isn't it?
Once in Alabama, I'd search the compound for the "supposed raised bed" and be on the look out for large footprints. If nothing was found there I'd continue to Maryland...on the way I procure a bushel of Chesapeake Bay Steamed Crabs and Eastern Shore Corn On the Cob....and offer them as a swap. NO TRUE Maryland'er could resist such an offering. The Corgi would be welcome to join me and my steed and Beagle, he could keep us company with his ode's of love for chocolate.
Upon returning....I would expect a hero's welcome ( well, that is if I found the Chocolate Basil).......

It's always on my list, but does chocolate basil exist?
Could it be that someone saw a chocolate mint or three?

It could have been the equally elusive "Echinacea chocloateadiarrea"