All About Parsley

If you’re wanting to start gardening, then you can’t go past parsley to start with. It’s easy to grow in a pot, can grow outside or in, and almost any dish in the kitchen can benefit from the addition of some fresh parsley.

Varieties

The two popular types of parsley include curly leaf parsley and Italian flat leaf parsley (see photo).

Growing

Parsley is a biennial herb, although it is often treated as an annual and planted anew each year. It often tastes better in it’s first year. It grows all year round in subtropical regions, and during the warmer months in cooler regions.

Parsley likes well draining soil, but doesn’t like to dry out between watering so it needs regular watering. It benefits from partial shade. Give it a feed a couple of times throughout the growing season with some natural liquid fertiliser for best results.

Parsley can be grown inside, in a sunny position.

Growing parsley from seed is a little notorious. It can take up to a month to germinate. Soaking the seeds overnight in warm water can hasten germination, or alternatively plant the seeds in a deep pot filled with potting mix and a little seed raising mix on top and water them in with hot water that has just come off the boil. Thin the seeds out as they germinate, to give adequate room for growth.

Parsley can also be purchased cheaply as seedlings.

Parsley makes a good companion plant to tomatoes, protecting the tomatoes from common pests and increasing the yield of both plants.

Harvesting

The best way to harvest is to cut a few sprigs off each plant as you need them, cutting them from around the outside bottom of the plant. Cut the whole stalks not just the tips as this encourages new growth.

If you harvest a whole plant at once, then store as below.

Storage

Keep parsley stalks in a glass of water in the fridge, or wrap the end of the stems in a piece of moist paper towel and store in a plastic bag.

Parsley can also be dried or frozen, although the flavour won’t be the same as fresh.

Eating

Parsley is most commonly recognised as a garnish, but can flavour just about any dish in the kitchen. Parsley provides flavour for soups, stock, stews, stuffing, scrambled eggs and mash potato and herb butter, just to name a few uses.

Parsley is one of the main ingredients in tabouleh and chermoula.

Other Information

Parsley is also well known for its medicinal qualities.

Due to it’s high level of chlorophyll, parsley is often recommended as a breath freshener.

In traditional medicines, parsley has been used as a diuretic, and to help with digestive disorders, urinary tract problems and bronchitis and menstrual problems. Modern science has confirmed many of the medicinal claims made by traditional medicines about parsley.

Parsley is rich in vitamins and minerals including iron, calcium and Vitamins A, B and C. Due to it’s high levels of Vitamin C (more per gram than an orange), it is used to treat inflammation problems such as arthritis.

Concentrated extracts should be avoided by people with kidney problems as it can increase inflammation and should also be avoided by women who are pregnant as it can cause miscarriage.