Bluebird CSA

Wednesday, December 12, 2012


December Winter Orders and Family Pork Pack sale!


Order your Family Pork Pack or pork by the cut now on our Online Farm store and pickup this Saturday in Morganton, Hickory, or Conover. This is your only opportunity to order Bluebird Farm Pastured Pork in December! Last chance before the holidays.  You can order Family Pork Packs or even just a few pounds of our wonderful pork on our Online Farm Store. We won’t have another winter order until February, so stock up now.  We also have a limited amount of our lean pastured beef.

We are excited to announce our winter Family Pork Pack sale! 
Family Pork Packs are a great way to try all our delicious pork cuts-delicious thick pork chops, finger lickin’ ribs, amazing pork roasts, fresh bacon, and of course all of our lean flavor-full sausages.  We offer two sizes of packs to suit your family’s needs-large and small Pork Packs.  Receive a 5% discount on your pork pack when you order one for pick up this weekend!
·        Small Family Pork Pack
·        Large Family Pork Pack
·        Sausage Sampler
See Family Pork Pack descriptions below. Pickup Details below.

Why does our pastured pork taste so good?
                                     
     Bluebird Farm pigs are raised outside rooting freely in the woods or in the pasture.  Happy and healthy pigs produce the best meat you can find.  They also eat a diverse, certified organic grain diet that is 100% GMO-free.  Instead of just corn and soy, Bluebird Farm pigs eat a ground mixture that contains barley, peas, alfalfa, oats, and many other grains.  We buy certified organic grain from Reedy Fork Farm in Elon, NC.
     When we purchase organic feed we are support other organic farmers.  These organic grain farmers grow large fields of amber waves of grain in diverse, soil building crop rotations that leave the land better than it started.  Organic practices prevent the use of dangerous chemicals, protect water quality, encourage biodiversity, and develop soil health.
     Most grain in this country is genetically modified, engineered to produce their own pesticides and resist powerful herbicides.  Broad spectrum us of herbicides and pesticides are used on thousands of acres of monoculture fields (think Iowa) polluting ground water, killing all insects (most of which are beneficial), and degrading soil health.   Crops produced on degraded soil are frequently less nutritious than those grown on healthy soil.
Remember we are what we eat-and our animals are too!
In addition, we raise our pigs so that they benefit our farm ecosystem instead of creating problems, like most industrial pigs.  At Bluebird Farm they help provide fertilizer for vegetables, protect our layer hens, clear underbrush in our woods.  Industrial production overcrowds pigs, creating problems instead of solutions.
When you buy Bluebird Farm pastured pork, you are buying local, sustainable agriculture!


Small Family Pack  (Approx. 20 lbs)
6  Chops (3 pack of 2 each)
1  Roast: Shoulder or Fresh Ham  (approx 3.5 lb each)
4  Country Sausage (ground,1 lb each)
4  Italian Sausage or Bratwurst 1 lb each
4  Packs of Spare Ribs 1 lb each
1  Pack fresh bacon 1 lb each

Contains a variety of cuts totaling approximately 20 pounds* of pork.    Stock up and “shop” from your freezer-you’ll have all the great cuts of pork to make delicious meals.  Try the pork chops for grilling, roasts for hearty dinners, ground country sausage for quick savory meals.  The Small Family Pack will fit in your refrigerator’s freezer with plenty of room to spare!  Approx. $175


Large Family Pack  (Approx. 40 lbs)
12  Chops (3 pack of 2 each)
2  Roast: Shoulder or Fresh Ham  (approx 3.5 lb each)
8  Country Sausage (ground,1 lb each)
8  Italian Sausage or Bratwurst 1 lb each
2  Packs of Spare Ribs 1 lb each
1  Pack fresh bacon 1 lb each
Stock up on a variety of cuts totaling about 40 pounds* of meat.  A great variety pack with all the common cuts including more sausage and pork chops! If you have a little more space in your freezer this is a great way to stock up and “shop” from your freezer.  Approx. $340

Sausage Sampler
3  Country Sausage (ground,1 lb each)
3  Italian Sausage
3  Bratwurst 1 lb each
Contains a sampling of all our delicious pork sausages!   Includes our popular Country Sausage, Bratwurst, plus your choice of links or ground Sweet Italian.

Pickup Locations
Saturday December 15th
Morganton
noon-3pm
111 N. Green St. (Uptown Wed Mini Market location, across from CVS)
Conover
            10am-11am
            Conover Hardware, 101 2nd St SW
Hickory
                noon- 1pm
            Youssef 242 Restaurant, 242 11nd Ave NE
                              

                                 

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Last Youssef 242 Market, Sausage and Kale Soup, and Winter Pork Orders

     
   11am -2pm   Shop during lunch hours at Youssef 242 in Hickory this Wednesday November 28th. 
   This is our last Youssef 242 market, so stop by for some winter greens and lettuce.
   This is some of the last vegetables our garden has to offer for the winter- we've harvested almost all of them over the last 2 months.
   
   We will have some eggs for sale! 
   Farm Fact  The hens laid enough to bring fresh eggs to market, even though it is winter! Remember hens don't lay very often in the winter because of the lack of sunshine and cold temperatures. And remember our freshly laid eggs last for weeks, so buy a couple of dozen if you are lucky enough to come to market while the eggs are still around. (no advance orders of eggs, please)

·               December Orders
Order our amazing pastured pork on our Online Farm Store, and pick it up in Conover or Hickory on Saturday December 15th. We'll send out an reminder email to our newsletter subscribers in 2 weeks.
     January-March Orders…
Order our amazing pastured pork on our Online Farm Store in January, February, and March this winter. We’ll meet in Conover or Hickory once a month on a Saturday.
                        January 26th- Saturday
                        February- DATE T.B.A.
                        March- DATE T.B.A.

Youssef 242 market Wednesday 11-28-12, 11 am-2pm
Take home some great pastured pork tomorrow- we have a great selection.  We’ll have a great selection all winter and spring, so you can order pork all winter.

The last of the garden harvest- Remember our vegetables are grown using 100% organic methods-no chemical fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides. 
This week’s vegetables are our hardy greens like kale and Swiss chard and lettuce from our covered frost blanket garden beds. 
No more collards-The collards are hardy winter greens, but we harvested the last of them already.
Kale- heirloom lacinato (dinosaur kale)
Kale- curly kale
Swiss Chard- We’ll have loose leaf chard this week.
Head Lettuce- beautiful green and red head lettuce, tasty and tender



Yummy Kale

Sausage and Kale Soup
Ingredients
·         1 tablespoon olive oil
·         1 onion, diced
·         2 garlic cloves, minced
·         1/4 teaspoon crushed red-pepper flakes
·         5 waxy potatoes (1 1/2 pounds), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
·         Approx 6 cups chicken broth
·         1 bunch kale (12 ounces), stemmed and shredded
·         1 lb ground Italian Sausage
Directions
1.     In a large pot (6 to 8 quarts), heat oil over medium. Add onion and sausage- cook sausage halfway through, about 8 minutes (sausage will still be pink). Add garlic and red-pepper flakes; cook until fragrant, 1 minute.  Remove sausage and onion mixture and set aside on plate.
2.     Add potatoes and broth to pot; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer until potatoes are tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
3.     In a blender, puree half the soup. Return to pot; add kale and sausage. Simmer until kale is wilted and sausage is cooked through, 10 to 15 minutes.

·         






Tuesday, October 30, 2012

 More farm fresh food for your table in November!


Greetings from Bluebird Farm,
See you at the Hickory Market tomorrow the 31st from 10 am til 3 pm. 
This is the last regular Hickory Market this fall....but.. we will be back to Hickory next week on the 7th at Youssef 242 Restaurant
We will be in Conover this Saturday the 3rd from 10-noon at the Conover Hardware Store!
..please see our Farmers' Market Page to view all of the different special markets and special order market dates through November and December in Morganton, Hickory, and Conover.  Check out our Farmers’ Market webpage to see theNovember/December Schedule.

Wednesdays in November in Hickory: We will bring our pastured pork, pastured beef, and yummy organic (not certified) vegetables to Hickory in November...Meet us at the Special Fall/Winter  Farmers' Market at Youssef 242 Restaurant on Wednesdays from 1-4 pm in Hickory. 

Special Order Markets…Come meet us this winter in Hickory, Conover, or Morganton. It’s easy....  1.  You make a special order on our Online Farm Store. 2. We meet you in Hickory,Conover, or Morganton with your order on our special order market date!  You can order 2 pounds or you could order 40 pounds, you choose exactly what you’d like from what we have available!




Fresh vegetables- We'll have collards, radiant kale, green tomatoes, Swiss Chard, and butter crunch lettuce on select Wednesdays in Hickory and Fridays in Morganton, and Conover in November!

We now have plenty of delicious pastured pork now, and we will have our pastured pork all winter.  We have plenty of beef through the fall season- until at least Thanksgiving or Christmas!  After we run out of beef, we won’t have it again until early next fall.






Pastured, free range hogs rooting it up! (Free-range behind a fence of course.)  
No concrete, overcrowded factory pens in sight!



Friday, October 26, 2012


October 26, 2012  Wonderful Endless Fall
Sneak peak...
Broccoli. This fresh cut wonder is broccoli like you’ve never had it before! Juicy, succulent stems are the delicacy here…the florets are yummy, but garden fresh broccoli stems are amazing and full of sweet juice! Hurry, there might be broccoli monsters waiting at the market tomorrow.
Head lettuce is at its prime…and so are the radiant Swiss Chard bunches. 
Thick Pork Chops- Try baking apples and serving with grilled chops.  Or try my favorite Honey Roasted Pork Chops recipe. 
Chorizo Sausage is back! It comes in link sausages now too.

This is the last regular Morganton market this fall. We have lots of beautiful veggies and tasty pastured pork for you tomorrow morning. My family will be at the market for me.  William and I are presenting in a forum at Carolina Farm Stewardship’s Sustainable Agriculture conference.
~~~Farmer Fridays at the Brewery in Morganton on Fridays from 5-6:30pm. November 2nd, 10th, and 17th.  That is next Friday. We have a garden full of veggies on the farm still!~~~

Pastured Pork: We have our delicious pastured pork again! We’d like to thank our wonderful hogs for providing high quality meat for all of us. Thick pork chops, chorizo sausage, Italian sausage, Bratwurst, Country Sausage, shoulder roasts, ham roasts, fresh bacon, ribs, and ground pork.









Fall and Winter Markets:


~~~Find us at the brewery in Morganton on Fridays from 5-6:30pm. November 2nd, 10th, and 17th.
There are still several fall and holiday markets in November and December, and we will be at several Special Order Markets from November- March! Place your advance special orders on our Online Farm Store.


                  This week’s garden harvest-raised using 100% organic methods-no chemical fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides.  Hooray for garden delight!
Broccoli- Can you believe I never really enjoyed broccoli until I grew my own garden delight broccoli? It is so good! Did you know that most U.S. broccoli is shipped from California? This is because the East Coast doesn’t have a broccoli trade association that deals with the grocery stores.  What a shame, because freshly harvested broccoli is tastier than the older shipped crowns of broccoli.
Kale- We have been sautéing the kale with red peppers.  Served with some sausage or mmmmm…  This week we have all three of our favorite types of kale, tender red Russian, heirloom lacinato (dinosaur kale) and traditional full bodied curly kale.
Swiss Chard- a great addition to late summer mixed vegetable dishes.  Use in place of spinach for spinach and rice stuffed sweet peppers or in a tomato sauce served with pasta.
Collards- Baby collards, broad tender leaves
Head Lettuce- beautiful green and red head lettuce, tasty buttercrunch variety
Arugula- Fresh salads! How about some red bell pepper with the peppery arugula?
Sweet Hakurei turnip- pronounced “Hawk-er-rye”.  These pure white sweet things are sweet, crisp, and crunchy. These tender turnips aren’t cooked- they are eaten raw.  Eat them raw in salads with greens or shredded into a slaw with carrots. Don’t like radishes? Try these sweet turnips.
Daikon radish- this giant white Asian radish looks like a white carrot.  These tender crispy roots are grown in the fall.  We shred and salt it and add it into salads. 
Baby Lettuce Mix- Tender and buttery baby lettuce mix. Mix with arugula and apples for a delicious fall salad.
Cherry tomatoes- little gems of sunshine. Intense flavors.  Get them while they are still here!
Tomatoes- Just a few tomatoes- ripe from the vine.  Our plants are still out there, producing a few tomatoes here and there.
Bell Peppers, Sweet Bell and Italian Frying Peppers- no synthetic chemicals.  Red and ripe! So sweet and ripe. Amazing raw or cooked.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Fall greens are back!


Freshly harvested vegetables and pastured pork for you.  See you at market in Morganton and Conover today!

This week’s garden harvest-raised using 100% organic methods-no chemical fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides.  Hooray for poison free food!

The cooler weather has brought the return of crops that we haven’t enjoyed since spring.  Kale, swiss chard, arugula and baby lettuce mix are back!  But now we get to enjoy these same greens with some of the lingering flavors of summer-red peppers, basil and tomatoes are still around!

Kale- We have been sautéing the kale with red peppers.  Served with some sausage or bratwurst mmmmm…  This week we have all three of our favorite types of kale, tender red Russian, heirloom lacinato (dinosaur kale) and traditional full bodied curly kale.

A tender favorite-red russian kale

Swiss Chard- a great addition to late summer mixed vegetable dishes.  Use in place of spinach for spinach and rice stuffed sweet peppers or in a tomato sauce served with pasta.

Swiss chard in neat rows.  Quick get a photo before the weeds take over!


Arugula- Fresh salads! How about some red pepper with the peppery arugula?

Radishes-delicious, crisp, and with the right amount of bite French breakfast radishes (sorry a smaller harvest means they will only be available in Morganton this week-more to come though)

Lettuce Mix- Tender and buttery baby lettuce mix. Mix with arugula.

Cherry tomatoes- little gems of sunshine. Intense flavors.  Yellow, red, gold, black-purple tomatoes.

Basil! Time to make pesto. The clock towards the frost is ticking. Only 3 more weekends til a frost is likely. I like to freeze my pesto in pint freezer bags.  You can also freeze it in ice cube trays and then store in a freezer bag. Oh, the basil. The aroma of summer! 

Bell Peppers, Sweet Bell and Italian Frying Peppers- no synthetic chemicals.  Red and ripe! So sweet and ripe. Amazing raw or cooked.

The fall garden area with the tomato hoops in the background


Pasture Raised Pork:

Remember, hiding in our coolers are all cuts of our delicious forest/pasture raised pork.  We feed the hogs certified organic grain so you know that not only is the animal healthy and happy but it is also eating a chemical free, GMO-free diet.  Why should we feed our animals something we would rather not eat?  By feeding only certified organic grains to all our animals, hogs, layer hens, and meat chickens we help to support more diverse, environmentally sustainable organic farms.

Try the sausages: This week we recommend any of our sausages Italian, Bratwurst, or Country Sausage, as a great pairing with the fresh greens coming into season.  Or perhaps you need to get out to the grill just a few more times this fall with some Spare ribs, or Pork Chops.  

A pictures worth a thousand words

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Wet, rainy greens harvesting


The greens are officially here!  The past few weeks we've had a little bit of arugula at market.  But this Saturday we'll have a more full selection.  Kale, Swiss Chard, Arugula, and baby Lettuce mix.  Hooray for fall greens!

Back when it was sunny-some pretty new hens!


Rain, eh? I’m sure you know that nice gentle rain once a week is preferred over 5 inches of rain in 3 days.  The fields are flooded with standing water.  The animals are hunkered down to stay dry and warm. The pathways in the garden are filled with slurpy mud that sticks to your boots.  Sheets of rain approached the vegetable field this morning. I saw (Marie) the solid sheet of rain hit the far hill and ran for cover, abandoning the Swiss Chard.  Stubborn ole’ William kept harvesting, thinking it would let up. Nope. The rain got harder.  So while I was harvesting cherry tomatoes inside the cozy, dry hoophouse, William was outside in the rain.  People live in monsoons all over the world right? When we went to the other farm to harvest the much needed vegetables for your boxes, we both thought that the rain would let up for a few hours.  When the rain didn’t let up, we kept harvesting.  We needed the veggies for tomorrow, so slogging in the muddy field it was.
And through all of that, my feet stayed dry in my wonderful Muck boots.  It wasn’t until I got into town and walked through several inches of water that one of my feet got a little soggy.  Apparently one of my boots has a giant 3 inch crack in the sole that only leaks when I step in standing water, not when I stand in mud.
Nothing like strong monsoon days to help you remember to be thankful for dry roofs and clothing!

It all comes together, sheep and chickens grazing cover crop in a fallow vegetable area.  Food, fertilizer, and multi-species grazing!  All under the watchful eye of our livestock guard-Tazzy

Friday, September 7, 2012

Greetings from Bluebird Farm,
See you at the Morganton and Conover Farmers’ Markets tomorrow (Saturday) until noon.

Attention! Attention! We have baskets of freshly harvested yummy arugula!  I think it is time for arugula, watermelon chunks, chopped red peppers, and a drizzle of sweet white balsamic vinegar...Cheers to green salads once again!

Sweet Red Peppers, 
These peppers want to be served with our Sweet Italian sausage, basil, fresh cherry tomatoes, and a nice pasta or polenta!


Pastured Pork- We have a good supply of pastured pork…
Mild Country Sausage, Hot Country Sausage, Sweet Italian Sausage, Bratwurst Sausage, Ground Pork, Thick Pork Chops, Spare Ribs, fresh bacon(uncured.)
Limited supply of boneless ham roasts and shoulder roasts.

This week’s garden harvest
Arugula- fresh greens again
Cherry tomatoes- little gems of sunshine. Intense flavors.  Yellow, red, gold, black-purple tomatoes.
Basil! Time to make pesto. The clock towards the frost is ticking. Only 5 more weekends til a frost is likely. I  like to freeze my pesto in pint freezer bags.  You can also freeze it in ice cube trays and then store in a freezer bag. Oh, the basil. The aroma of summer! 
Bell Peppers, Sweet Bell and Italian Frying Peppers- no synthetic chemicals.  Red and ripe! So sweet and ripe. Amazing raw or cooked.
Jalapenos and Hungarian Hot Peppers- Spice it up.

Hot Jalapeno pepper time!


Pastured Chicken- Free range on grass pastures, fed certified organic grains. Flavorful and tender.
-Packs of 2 leg quarters and 2 wings
-We won’t have more whole chickens until our next flock is ready on October 10th. Stock up at in October; it will be the last flock of the year, and we won’t have any of our chicken in our freezer this winter.  We will take orders for chickens in mid September. (next week)
Pastured Free Range Eggs- The hens will soon be back in the bottomland pasture with their sheep friends and guard dog.  The littlest piggys will have to say goodbye for now to their old friends the hens.
All our animals are fed certified organic grains.



Sweet Italian Basil- It's time to make pesto.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Summertime Sunflowers and Veggies


 Summertime Sunflowers and Veggies
Sunflowers with tomato hoophouse in background

Marie with sunflowers at Silver Creek


This week on the Farm

Bluebird Farm was a happening place this past week. 

In the vegetable field:
                The dry weather is making it difficult to germinate seedlings.  Beets, carrots, and lettuce mix are all struggling to crack through the dry crusty ground.  The good news in the fall garden is the transplants.  Weeds had started to grow in the vegetable field.  But it isn’t very hard to kill them when the sun is beating down.  Just a little disturbance with the tractor and they’re dead.  After preparing the beds we had two big work evenings to plant all the babies (one good thing about earlier evenings is that when we work to dark its only 9 pm instead of 10 pm!).  12 rows of chard, 12 kale, and 4 each of collards and broccoli are now happily growing away. 



 
Baby kale, Swiss chard, and collards before planting

 
William and baby kale plants after planting


In the pastures:
                On Sunday it was time to move the sheep.  Normally it’s a short easy move from one paddock to the next.  But this time it was a big move.  They’d been happily grazing on the hillside for the last two months or so.  But they had reached the end of the grass.  So we had to move them back down to the bottom land across from the vegetable field.  Luckily for us we had some out of town friends visiting so we put them to work (they may not have thought themselves so lucky!).  The sheep behaved pretty well on the move.  But they did miss one turn.  They didn’t want to walk into the tall unmowed grass so they ran the entire length of the field down the nicely cut road-they thought it was the best race track ever.  So I had to run all the way around them and get them turned around in the right direction.  Fortunately, after their long run they were too tire to misbehave anymore.

 Big pigs get a summer treat! The ground is very hard, so we let them gallivant around in the lush sheep and chicken grass pasture. 


                Today we opened up some piglets onto our pastures.  The ground is hard from the dry weather so they can’t turn the soil over too much.  We just want them to munch on the grass and other plants growing in the pasture, not rip the whole thing up.  It took the pigs a few minutes to cross their old electric fence (they think its still there and really don’t want to get shocked).    But once they were across into the green grass they had a blast running around and grazing. 

Enjoy the food!

William and Marie






Animals around Bluebird Farm
Cattle in the high pasture.
Hens enjoying the shade in empty veggie field with hoophouse in background

Wheee...baby pigs running!

Baby pigs and hens


Friday, August 24, 2012


Greetings from Bluebird Farm,
See you at the Morganton and Conover Farmers’ Markets tomorrow (Saturday) until noon.

Pastured Pork- My oh my, what tasty pork chops you have!
Have you been dreaming about our pastured pork? Even our personal freezer has been empty, but now we have a full offering of wonderful pork for you.
Mild Country Sausage, Hot Country Sausage, Sweet Italian Sausage, Bratwurst Sausage, Ground Pork, Thick Pork Chops,  Spare Ribs, Boneless Ham Roasts, Shoulder Roasts, Fresh Bacon (uncured.)  
Get the roasts and pork chops while they last.  We should have a good supple of everything else until our next hogs are ready in mid October.

This week’s garden harvest, grown with organic methods, of course

Yard Long Red Noodle Beans- Meaty and sweet.  Chop these very long beans (almost a yard long) into bite sized pieces and sauté. 
Cherry tomatoes- little gems of sunshine. Intense flavors.  Yellow, red, gold, black-purple tomatoes.
Slicing tomatoes- The season is winding down; get them while they’re ripe! There are not as many ripe tomatoes.  Can the tomato glory days really only be 1 month long?
Basil! Oh, the basil. The aroma of summer!  Pesto? I love pesto on pizzas. See pesto recipe below.
Bell peppers, Sweet Bell and Italian Frying Peppers- no synthetic chemicals.  Red and ripe!
So sweet and ripe. Amazing raw or cooked.
Cucumbers- Just a few cukes still coming in from the last plants of the year.  Sweet crisp summer flavor.
Summer Squash and Zucchini-They are all gone! Done for the year.


Pastured Chicken- Free range on grass pastures, fed certified organic grains. Flavorful and tender.
-Packs of 2 leg quarters and 2 wings
-We won’t have more whole chickens until our next flock is ready on October 10th. Stock up at in October; it will be the last flock of the year, and we won’t have any of our chicken in our freezer this winter.  We will take orders for chickens in mid September.

Pastured Free Range Eggs- The hens have new friends! They welcomed 12 small piglets in their pasture.  Little do they know…those piglets will be 250 pounds in no time!  Multi-species grazing is a unique part of our farm.  All our animals are fed certified organic grains.

Pesto version 1
This version is very thick! Great for spreading.

Ingredients
1 big cup of basil leaves
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 ½ tablespoons of roasted pine nuts or walnuts
3 tablespoons of original parmesan cheese
1 ½ medium sized garlic cloves

Directions

Carefully wash the basil leaves and pat excess water from them.  Finely puree the garlic in a food processor or mince by hand if you are using a blender.  Add the basil and olive oil and puree for a minute or two. When it starts to look like a paste add the pine nuts,and continue pureeing. After you obtain a nice puree, add the parmesan cheese, season with salt and pepper and continue mixing for another 2-3 minutes.  Let the pesto rest before you use it, so the flavor will unfold. 10 minutes should be enough. Use it with your favorite pasta dish or try another dish, such as pesto chicken.

Pesto version 2- This version is thinner and more sauce-like than version 1.  Great for drizzling over a large sauté of mixed summer vegetables and pasta.

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic
½ cup fresh basil
½ cup olive oil, approx
¼ cup roasted walnuts or pine nuts
Salt to taste
Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions same as version 1.  Add Parmesan cheese if desired.

Pesto Tips

Pesto can be made with almost any nut. I have had excellent pistachio pestos as well as roasted almond, pecan, cashew, or walnut pesto.

A homemade pesto sauce should be kept in the fridge if you don’t use everything in the same day. You can store homemade pesto for about 1 week, if you store it in an airtight jar or container and cover the top of the pesto with a thin layer of olive oil.

To freeze pesto, leave out the parmesan cheese. You can add the cheese after thawing. Divide pesto into meal size portions. Freeze in freezer bags.