In early spring, before my basil plants have grown big enough to harvest, I usually buy them as “living herbs” in the supermarket. You’ve seen them in the produce aisle: the fresh herbs in little pots with their roots still attached.
The logic behind these living herbs is they stay fresher longer than the cut sprigs sold in clamshells. I’ll sometimes keep mine on the windowsill for up to three weeks, pinching off a stem here and there while I’m cooking.
For most people, however, the herbs have already keeled over by this point. Living herbs are produced with the ordinary consumer in mind, so they aren’t meant to last more than a week or two.
So maybe it’s the gardener in me who can’t resist “saving” an herb. Since I continually pinch off the basil each week, it keeps growing and growing until it’s obviously unhappy in its tiny plastic pot.
Rather than composting the tired, overgrown basil, I usually try to extend its life by transplanting it in the garden. I can raise several new basil plants this way and get more bang for the buck out of something that’s supposed to be disposable.