by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | Last week we talked about harvesting flowers from garden greens that had gone to seed, so this week we’re talking about getting even more out of our garden greens by preservation. We at Victory Gardens just harvested a ton of arugula at our headquarters, and Scout’s own Michelle Sproule kindly offered some of hers that we harvested together from her garden over the weekend. And what did we do with all that arugula? We made pesto! Arugula pesto is one of the best culinary staples imaginable. A lot of it is needed to make a batch, but it’s worth it, because it can be frozen and/or preserved in mason jars. Have a look at our recipe after the leap…

Victory Gardens Arugula Pesto

Yields just over 2 cups, about 750 ml (it goes a looong way)

5 cups packed arugula
6 garlic scapes, or 2 tbsp chopped
2 tbsp toasted walnuts, crushed
1 tbsp fresh walnuts, crushed
½ cup chopped olives
1.5 cups olive oil
S&P to taste

Blend (or pestle and mortar) all the chopped goodies with a tiny bit of the olive oil and set aside in a large bowl. Quickly blanche arugula, and blend with the rest of the olive oil. Add all ingredients and mix well. If you have a food processor, just throw it all in at once and watch the magic happen. We will further cover garlic scapes soon, as the first ones of the season are appearing, and they are coveted treasures. Arugula and garlic scapes – combined green goodness!

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Victory Gardens is a team of local urban farmers for hire. Lisa, Sandra and Sam help transform tired or underused residential and commercial green spaces into food producing gardens. Their goal is to challenge the way communities use space and to participate in the change needed to consume food more sustainably. For the rest of the growing season, they’ve hooked up with Scout to share some cool tips and tricks on how to get the best from of our own backyards.