Growing reyhan has been one of the most joyful and satisfying experiences of my first year farming. This plant is so missed and beloved by Iranian friends and family and strangers here in the Bay Area. Reyhan Sabz means green basil in Persian, and I’m using that name to refer to this particular variety of green basil, although I’m sure there are many variations of it in the SSWANA region. This particular version has a smaller, slightly succulent leaf with a mild basil flavor that lends itself to being eaten fresh and in high quantities.

I started the first round of reyhan sabz on April 17th in my greenhouse, and they had started germinating 9 days later. Basil seeds do better with some heat. They grow a white, gelatinous coating when they get moist, like chia seeds. I found that they were ready to transplant outside (at the farm) a month later on May 26th.

Basil plants will cross-pollinate with each other, which means that seeds can be pollinated by other varieties of basil if they are planted near each other and allowed to flower. You can avoid this by planting this basil variety at least 150ft away from other varieties (learn more about isolation here).

These plants stayed in the ground all summer and we ate so much from them. Once the frost hit them in late October, they turned brown and dried within a day or two. Leaving the plants to grow as much as possible means as many seeds as possible grow to maturity. Unlike other plants, I’m not worried about the seeds falling off the plant because they are very well protected in the calyxes. Also in our climate, I don’t really have to worry about rain ruining a seed crop [bezanam be takhteh/knock on wood], but that might not be the same for you!

Speaking of those protective, hairy calyxes, it was more difficult to remove reyhan seeds from the plants than most of the other sabzi. In addition to threshing them by stepping on them. we also ground up the seed heads before winnowing.