What have you found to be the best way to store fresh Basil? It starts to go black after a few days once it’s been opened.
I’ve tried putting it in a glass jar but it doesn’t help much. Should it be kept in the fridge or not? Are the pots better? Should you water them?
Have you tried any of those Rox? Removing the leaves and putting them in water? Sounds like they’d lose flavour 
I needed fresh basil for a recipe and was going to buy a pack of leaves until I saw a basil plant being sold off cheaply in Waitrose because it was wilting. I still have it on my windowsill several weeks later after watering it regularly and just taking off leaves as I need them. So maybe a plant is the way to go Azz.
Basil can be a fragile herb, you’ve actually caused me to thing about buying a packet of seeds and growing a fair quantity on a couple of sunny window sills Azz, I don’t think it stores particularly well unfortunately.
pestle and mortar leaves & stems, add a little olive oil, store in fridge.
I buy it growing in a pot and keep it on the kitchen windowsill
If you keep it watered it lasts for ages, even grows 
Doesn’t Basil grow like a weed all year round? I used to grow it under my fence and it always had leaves as I remember. Unfortunately I killed it by over enthusiastic use of glyphosate and haven’t bothered planting it again
Basil loves sunshine and hates the cold, it certainly isn’t rampant over here with our climate. If I remember you can get some interesting varieties from seed merchants. After a couple more coffees I’ll have a Google 
I have never found that Basil leaves store well after they have been picked.
If I want to use Basil in Winter (in U.K.) I just buy a growing pot of Basil when I want to use it.
If I don’t use it all, I keep the plant going as long as possible and keep pinching out and using the growing tips to encourage fresh growth. I put it on the kitchen windowsill during the daytime and move it onto the worktop at night, so it doesn’t get too cold.
I put the plastic pot into a ceramic plant pot holder with a bit of gravel in the bottom and water it only when the soil feels dry - Basil does not like to have its roots standing in water and soon dies off if the soil is too cold and damp.
Even with a bit of TLC, I never find that those commercially grown small pots of Basil thrive for more than a few weeks. They are cultivated for a quick harvest and not produced to grow for a whole season - with so many small seedlings densely packed into a small pot, their roots will never have the space and nutrients to develop enough to support a mature plant.
In the past, I have transplanted one of those supermarket pots of Basil into a larger pot outdoors in the Summertime and it has thrived all Summer when the roots have more space and nutrient-rich compost.
I started growing my own Basil plants a few years ago, for use during the Summer months. I first tried it when shopping got difficult during “Covid LockDown” and I got hooked on the fabulous flavour of freshly made pesto from home grown basil, so I’ve grown it every year since then.
It tastes so much better when it is grown outdoors and the young leaves are freshly harvested.
I start the seeds off in Spring using seed trays in a small windowsill propagator indoors, then pot them on and move them to a “temporary mini-greenhouse” outside when it is warm enough, then pot up into larger patio pots after the last frosts are over.
I sow the seeds in batches, 3 or 4 weeks apart, so I have a fresh supply of young plants ready when I have picked the best leaves from the early plants.
At the end of the season, I don’t bother trying to overwinter the plants - eventually, the older leaves get tough and if you stop picking off the tender tips, the plant will start to flower, so once the next batch of plants is ready for harvesting, I leave the older plants to flower for the bees to feed on, then the plants die off when the first frosts come in Autumn.
