That proves it is a conspiracy. The government site does not admit there is such a thing as chocolate basil!
Chocolate Basil? The search continues...
Oh, well...the government.
BTW, did anyone catch the "Iron Chef America" last night on Food Network? The "secret" ingredient was basil. No chocolate though.
Darned!----now I wish I had exercised better self control and not eaten the few Chocolate Basils that Big Foot left in my garden.
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, You did What!!!!?????? HOW could you..............NO MORE Chocolate Anything for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, and you should give Bigfoot a link to this thread.............I hate talking about anyone behind their back.
This message was edited Feb 16, 2009 8:04 PM
LOL--mjs
Just found this:
"Chocolate Basil has been proven, without a doubt, to cure cancer, arthritis, lumbago and the vapors. It removes all wrinkles within hours, triples one's income and doubles the life span of Homo Sapiens."
See....the miracle herb...............Bigfoot knew a good thing when he saw it...................
I'll bet critter is exasperated by our nonsense
?? Have I been hiding my silly streak lately or something?
I pounce on new posts to this thread, hoping somebody has a fresh lead... but if I just get a giggle instead, I'm not exasperated. ;-)
Spring plants are starting to arrive all over the country. One of us will stumble across chocolate basil and will break all records getting to a computer to tell everyone.
LOL!! Vort. And, it makes your breath irresistible!
I have a friend who is scouting the Seattle area for us too...
Ok--Found this in a 2004 post on "Mid-West Gardening"
My wife and I saw some chocolate basil at the Missouri Botanical Gardens this summer. It really has the delicious fragrance of chocolate. I made inquiries to the master gardeners there, but no one could tell me how to get the seeds. I've searched five seed catalogs and tried local stores in the St. Louis area. I even called three local herb societies--no help. Does anyone know where I can buy chocolate basil seeds?
I have e-mailed MBG--
How can these people who claimed to have had it not know where they got it?
Conspiracy....................to hide it from us...............must be a government thing.
One of the first posts I found about this from Garden Web included information about Missouri Botanic Gardens. Here was their response (as many of you have probably read).
Quoting:
Hello:
We did, indeed, once display a plant identified as Ocimum basilicum var. 'Chocolate'. A senior staff member recalled that the seeds may have come from either Richter's Seeds or Cook's Garden. Their current catalogues no longer show this variety. We have not been able to identify a current source. If you wish to continue the search, we suggest using the following index: http://www.joeant.com/DIR/cat/1914
Thank you for your interest.
jas
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/sources/msg0516055331829.html
Both of these seed places have been contacted and said they don't have it.
Solved the problem--here is the pic I took in Borneo recently .--The greenery in the pic is all Chocolate Basil--The giant snake of Borneo--"Nabau"--later ate most of it
This scondral ate most of the rest
This critter ate most of what was left
SEE! Toad ya so! Loch-Nestle is not a myth! I bet it only grows in Scottish bogs and is guarded well by the beast. I can find the tartan if anyone can find the plane tickets....
And these criminals finished off the remains. I have never in my life uttered these words before--but "I give up"
I still ROFALMAO--on the "Loch Nestle" "thing"
"Loch Nestle" was definitely my favorite. I will chuckle many times with that one.
Loch Nestle. Okay, that does it, a new theme bed. Chocolate cosmos, chocolate mint, chocolate colored foxglove, chocolate vine (akebia) and a space left blank for the mythical chocolate basil. In the center of it all? One of those cheesy lawn ornaments of a loch ness monster that looks like it is half in/half out of the water. Oh! And mulched with cocoa hulls.
haha. NICE Betty!
I LIKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! May have to steal your idea !!!
Betty that is tooo funny! I have two very small ponds and have one of those floating island things. Guess what the new addition to the pond will be this year? LOL
I might get some edible cocoa body paint and decorate myself and run around, laughing hysterically, "Chocolate basil, do YOU have chocolate basil?"
Be careful herbalbetty---Loch Nestle might get you
I don't know about the company you are keeping V, those last two seemed kina shady to me -------
Response to me from Missouri Botanical Gardens--Regarding 2004 internet post:
Hi Jim, Dr. Page, and Looking...,
These inquiries have taken on a life of their own, and I have yet to get
back to you on that previous chocolate basil message.
Here's what I've found in the interim: several years ago a Kemper
Center volunteer responded to an inquiry that came from our website from
someone stating they had visited the Garden, had seen a "chocolate
basil" plant, and wanted to know where we had obtained it. The
volunteer replied that he had spoken "to a staff member" who said they
thought we had grown one several years prior, but the source was
unknown. It was never established where on the grounds the visitor had
originally seen this plant. Everything was very vague. Staffing has
changed. I suspect that correspondence may be the basis of these
inquiries you're receiving.
We typically grow basil in either of our two herb gardens. One in the
Kemper Center, the other behind Tower Grove house. The garden behind
T.G. house is tended to entirely by volunteers from the local St. Louis
Herb Society. The Kemper herb garden is now tended to by staff, but up
until 2 years ago, it was tended to by volunteers from the St. Louis
Evening Herbalists, a different club. If you walk through those gardens
in summer you rarely see permanent labels for annual herbs. Many are
hand written plastic labels just as they arrived straight from the
nursery where we purchased them. Inquiries that I've made with several
society members have turned up nothing more convincing than vague
recollections of their having once seen chocolate basil somewhere,
sometime over the years, either in a catalog or at an herb sale. These
typically are bronze-leafed forms rather than purple leaf types. No one
can pinpoint for me where they recall these plants originating from.
A search of our extensive Plant Records database reveals that MOBOT has
never made a formal label, such as you typically see identifying our
other plantings, for any Ocimum 'Chocolate' of any species. If we had,
the record would reveal the source.
A search of normally reliable external plant sources turns up no listing
for any Ocimum with "chocolate" in its cultivar name. A search of those
few herb catalogs that I have on hand is equally futile.
Knowing that basils cross readily and are mostly propagated by seeds,
makes me aware of the fact that someplace, somewhere a seedling might
sprout that reminds the nose of some gardener of chocolate. After all,
there already are cinnamon, anise, and lemon-scented cultivars. If a
chocolate-scented seedling were to occur, it would likely have to be
propagated vegetatively rather than by seed. Given the current trendy
popularity of "chocolate" plants, I would imagine the person having
possession of such a plant would not be keeping it all to themselves,
and it would make it into the commercial market.
With all this in mind, and until proven otherwise by an actual specimen
in hand, I have to suspect that the elusive chocolate basil is a bogus
plant.
We have, on the other hand, grown Chocolate mint (Mentha x piperita f.
citrata 'Chocolate') in herb displays from time to time. Having been
involved in so many "mistaken identity" conversations with gardeners
over the years, I have to consider that possibility in this case.
Especially with plants in the same family, it certainly wouldn't be the
first time such a mistake was made.
Hope this helps!
Chip
They are holding out on us until they have propagated vegetatively enough for their own monetary gain!
kathy----such cynacism----Shame on you
Folks there had already admitted once they had it at one time. Now they tell us that some of their areas are tended by volunteers and reports are vague, markers are handwritten, etc. If you went to court with alibis like that you would go straight to jail and not pass go and not collect $200 ROFL.
*nods*
TY Mrs_Ed
Actually, it sounds to me like "Chip" was intrigued enough to undertake a pretty thorough investigation. I'm bummed at his "bogus plant" conclusion!
Yeah, I wonder just how many folks actually asked about the herb. I would have to check into things if there was a sudden interest in something like that. I am bummed also. It is always possible that a nursery propagated chocolate basil for a couple of years and then had trouble doing it for some reason or it did not market well enough to continue. Maybe the creation was an accidental weather fluke or something and it never repeated itself. We know it existed once because too many people claim to have seen it or had it for there not to be some truth to it. Just one of those things. I will pick some up when I see it again, I guarantee it!
I think we should have Loch Nestle go eat No Chocolate "Chip"............;-)...............or better yet....send Bigfoot over to him.
This message was edited Feb 20, 2009 7:49 PM
I need a bumper sticker that reads, "I brake for herbs" cause if I see a stand alongside the highway selling plants I will slamm on the brakes to see their basil collection!
Probem solved!
Latest feedback----->
Dear Vor,
Regarding your recent inquirey
There is indesputable, scientific evidence that Chocolate Basil was once abundent in the fields surrounding the city of Atlantis but, alas, Loch Nestle totally destroyed the crop.
"Stuff Happens" Get over it!