The eagle-eyed amongst you may have wondered at the photo accompanying the post on my three favourite ways to use pesto. Instead of flowers, I have a bunch of basil in a vase.

While I’ve always liked basil, I used to rarely buy it because it goes off so quickly. After just 24 hours in the fridge my basil would start turning black and slimy and I’d end up chucking out half of the bunch.

But then Mr and Mrs Cheap Date Sydney told me how they store basil, I tried out their method and found it works really well.

The trick is to treat the basil like you would a bunch of flowers. Remove the tie or elastic band which holds the bunch together and put it in water. Then once a day, trim the ends of the stalks and change the water. If you do this every day and your basil is fresh, it will keep for at least a week. I've even had a bunch which lasted 12 days.

Which means I now happily buy basil whenever I feel like it.