Here in West Texas, the seasons here are a bit different than in some other parts of the United States. Since we have had seven days in a row where the highs were 80F or less, I have declared that FallWinSpri has arrived. FallWinSpri is my favorite season. Where I live, FallWinSpri usually starts sometime between mid-October and November 1st, and usually ends sometime between the end of February and mid-March. As the name implies, FallWinSpri is my term for the seasons of Fall, Winter, and Spring. It is the portion of the year in West Texas where the majority of daytime highs are 80F or less. You might get a little snow and ice before it's over, but you should never bet on a white Christmas. When FallWinSpri ends, you transition into Almost Summer, followed by Summer, and then Still Summer.

Anyhoo, Mr. Cartmann99 brought me something from the garden last week:

He's a little on the puny side, but look at the beautiful greens on top! I stood there admiring the green carrot top and hating the idea of chopping that off for the compost pile. So, I Googled and found out that the tops are edible, and one way to eat them is to make pesto out of them. Mr. Cartmann99 thought this was funny because he has a thing for basil, we have an abundant supply in our backyard and here I am talking about making pesto out of carrot tops.  

Seriously, meet the section of the garden devoted to basil:

If I stand behind the tallest plant next to the fence, the basil comes up to my waist. The two smaller plants on the left are lemon basil. You don't want to know how much basil pesto, basil salt, and dried basil Mr. Cartmann99 has made this year. 

So, I gave Mr. Carrot a nice bath, ate the carrot like a ravenous rabbit, and chopped off the greens. You only want the leaves, but the little stems the leaves are attached to are fine, just cut right below where the leaves begin and then follow your favorite pesto recipe. 

I prefer fettucine over linguini for pesto, so that's what I used for this. Since the tomato plants are still producing, I mixed them in with the hot pasta and put more Parmesan on top. 

He brought me another carrot and a French Breakfast radish later in the week, and I made more pesto from those leaves. I think a pesto of just the radish leaves would be too hot for me, but a small amount mixed in with the carrot leaves was quite nice.