Chocolate Basil? The search continues...

I think we are further seeing two (that's 2 for some) issues here:

1) Those of us who actually think that this is a serious quest; and
2) Those of us who think it is just a joke and worth a cheap profit.

oh guys, I'm sending you both some dmail to clarify. Let's not take this any further on here. This is a FUN quest and thread!

Thanks, Marna!

I'm having a lot of fun with this quest, but I also take my basil seriously! :-)

There cannot be any serious pursuit of any issue if information is not shared.
If Marna has obtained information from us and refuses to share the results :
QED under US copyright law, we are collectively entitled to her $50.00
Like, Big Deal! $50,00 divided by all the people that might have helped her write the article.

Are we not here in search of something else

Or aybe this is a game?

I came here in good faith.
But I am not sure I have been received in good faith.

I have shared all information with you. The list of contacts I am assembling is merely a log of what avenues we have tried from the beginning. Keep in mind that it has almost been a year since Gloria started this in March 2008.

So give me some time and I'll have it together. Maybe Jill can post it in the starting thread and add to it or something.

All I was trying to say was that everyone is finding all these clues so fast that I'm not keeping up with it!

Okay, off I go to my paid job. Why can't I just be paid for surfing Dave's Garden.

I'm looking forward to seeing what response (if any) comes back from KingsFoliage. :-)

Nothing so far from this end. Maybe phone call instead of email. If people are going to have a contact form on their website, WHY can't they answer it in a timely manner? Harumph.

I think we would all love to find Chocolate Basil, but I for one would hate to see what's been a DELIGHTFUL , FUN thread ruined.
And certainly not to cause anyone any serious grief.

Agreed. I think it's all just a misunderstanding.

Onward and upward!

Bonnie Plants has no recall of ever offering Chocolate Basil----

mwahaha. they are evil. why must they torture us such.

How are we going to find it if even the folks who have sold it will not admit to it? We will succeed!

conspiracy!

Jill, You're really on a chocolate kick lol. I enjoyed your article on the chocolate flowers. I can't remember the name of the gentleman who breeds all the different mints, is it Jim somebody? Is there a well known basil breeder? I love the idea of tomato basil. How about bacon basil? Well, I guess I'm just being silly now.

Nothing silly about it. I think bacon basil sounds good and as soon as we find the chocolate we will search for bacon. We can corner the whole diet and vegan markets. Think of the money! A chefs salad with all of the flavor of meats and none of the stuff everyone is objecting to. We need some cheese basil to go with the salad.

There's a Green Pepper Basil!

Jim Westerfield is the breeder of "fancy" mints. I wrote an article about some of the hybrid mints I've grown... http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1354/

That bowl of chefs salad is getting better by the minute. Thanks critter!

Jill, That's it...Jim Somebody Westerfield! I'm sure your article is where I first heard of him.

OMG, bacon basil. Yum. Maybe we can find some bacon chives too.

What's that line from the Beggin Strips commercial"

"Bacon... bacon... bacon... nothing smells like bacon except BACON!!"

Totally unrelated to chocolate basil, but relevant to the bacon...I saw something on Diners, Driveins and Dives where they made bacon-flavored bourbon. Take a bottle of bourbon, pour a couple ounces of melted bacon fat into it and let it sit to infuse. The bacon fat hardens and you can pour the bourbon out. I got the bottle out at Yule. The idea didn't appeal to anyone at first. But, they tasted and liked it, just thought the bacon taste wasn't strong enough. If I do it again, I will put whole, cooked strips into the bourbon and see how that fares.

Well that's just odd. but too funny.

I would think the same conept would work with oil and vinegar. Voila! Bacon dressing.

A RECENT MENTION

NEW YORK TIMES
Friday, February 13, 2009


"The spicy basils, like cinnamon, clove or chocolate basil, tend to have flavors that are fleeting, and need to be eaten fresh."

Oh, well, you know these writers, they make all kind of mistakes...

Lets all email the New York Times and ask them to reveal their source! I smell chocolate basil or maybe it is the box of valentine choclates from my daughter.

You gotta see the email that I received to my query about chocolate basil. I had to copy and paste it here.

Hello
Sorry, we do not carry chocolate basil.
Please check with www.dave'sgarden.com
You may be able to do a search there, to find
out you would carry the seeds.


Sharon Wurst
Burpee Customer Service
1-800-333-5808

hahahahah...........roflmol...............you should send her a link to the thread.............

I can only say that someone here is holding out on us. Apparantly the good folk at Burpee think someone here has it. We need to all follow our nose all over the webiste til we find the hoarder.

You know, after reading the articles this week on Dave's about chocolate flowers and chocolate gardening and no one has mentioned chocolate basil (other than fantasizing about it). Add to that fact that many "chocolate" plants are the color of chocolate, not the smell. I wonder if our mythical chocolate basil was merely a purple basil that some marketing genius decided was "chocolate colored" and named it such. I hate to burst a bubble - our collective chocolate basil bubble - but yeesh, wouldn't we have something more tangible by now?

That would just bite if it was a color not aroma. I sure would like to know!

I thought we had a couple of first hand reports on the previous thread that the flavor/aroma also involved chocolate as well as a bit of darker coloring on the stems (nobody said it was solid purple/chocolate colored).

If it is out there we will find it. With this many people looking and spring supplies coming out I look forward to our success.

Hello, all! I've been peaking at this thread since Marylyn mentioned the chocolate basil in a pepper thread. I am very fond of my herbs, and I couldn't do without them, and I LOVE basil! There's a noble quest going on, and I only regret I've found about it just a few days ago.

Re: Burpee saying that Dave's Garden might know or someone here might have it, it's an "easy" way to find out: a blast dmail to all members? Plus, that Eileen Boyle, the director of horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, what's with her?

Just wanted to say hi! I'll go now
to munch on a few basil leaves,
sow a few basil seeds,
maybe some muse will bow…
And pinch my neuron,
play with my brain a bit...
to think of the uncommon
basil myth!

You have to input every name individually for a Dmail blast... Dave could send a Dmail to all subscribers, but it's unlikely he'd do so for this I think.

Love the verse!

maybe Dave is a silent chocolate basil hunter himself?

Maybe Dave is the chocolate basil hoarder. He may have it all.

yep, that's another possibility... maybe that's what Burpee wanted to say... hmmm

Dave and Burpee want to corner the market on chocolate basil.

Did someone try this? http://www.usna.usda.gov/Gardens/faqs/basilicious.html