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| Photo Credit: The Cook’s Garden |
| Italian Essence parsley is a flat-leaf variety with a higher concentration of the essential oil apiol, which is prized by some chefs for its flavor. |
Parsley’s been enticing people throughout the world for centuries. Found just about everywhere, this vitamin-packed, easy-to-grow, beautiful plant is one of the most versatile of all herbs. Its bright green leaves – either curly or flat – are widely used fresh from the garden.
Historically, Greek soldiers fed parsley to horses for speed and endurance, and Romans chewed it to fend off intoxication. For ages, people have also found a host of culinary uses for parsley – as a garnish, in eggs and sauces, casseroles or meat dishes. This plant is also attractive to beneficial insects, while repelling unwanted garden pests. And it can certainly hold its own as an ornamental, nestled among other perennials, used as a border or as a star in the herb bed. | Add Photo to Journal |  | | Photo Credit: Judith K. Mehl | | These flat-leaf seedlings are 7½ weeks old and already need staking – something that’s worth doing in order to grow an herb chock full of vitamins and flavor. |
Parsley is known botanically as Petroselinum crispum, and there are three common varieties readily available for your garden. The flat-leafed Italian (variety neapolitanum) is favored for its sweet taste, while the curly-leaf kind serves mostly as a garnish and an ornamental. Hamburg parsley (variety tuberosum) is grown for its edible turnip-like root, which has a similar taste to the leaf. Most parsley plants grow 8-20 inches tall. The tiny flowers form flat-topped clusters in an umbrella shape, and they’re a gorgeous chartreuse.
A hardy plant, parsley can be grown from seed or as starter plants (both indoors and out). Once established, it often reseeds itself. The herb is a biennial, producing foliage the first year, with the flowers coming the second year to produce seed, but most people grow it as an annual. (It’s a perennial only in USDA hardiness Zone 9 and higher.) Increasingly, gardeners are using parsley as an ornamental, reminiscent of ages past when the curly-leaf type was used in the symmetrical scrollwork in knot gardens and to encircle or highlight favored plant specimens. While it’s easy to grow, parsley does have some needs, including rich, moist, slightly acidic, well-drained soil. The herb also likes sun, but even in the North it requires some shade at the height of the day.
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| Warnings |
- While parsley grows just about everywhere, don’t go picking it just anywhere. The edible herb closely resembles fool’s parsley (Anthriscus cynapium), a noxious and poisonous weed! Its leaves emit an unpleasant odor very different from parsley. If you always buy your seeds and starter plants from a reputable source and don’t go picking parsley in the wild, you won’t be fooled.
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| Facts |
- Parsley packs a healthy punch! The roots and seeds are strong in essential oils. The leaves also have some essential oils and lots of vitamins A and C (even more than oranges), calcium, potassium, thiamin, niacin, riboflavin and many minerals. The leaves also contain an abundance of chlorophyll, which is a good antiseptic – meaning parsley is great to ease small cuts and works as a breath freshener.
- When grown for culinary use, only use the parsley leaves in the plant’s first year because the foliage turns tough and bitter in the second. But if the herb overwinters in your neck of the woods, don’t be in a rush to replace it with a new plant – swallowtail caterpillars and ladybugs do love their parsley, too!
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| Tips |
- Parsley loses flavor when dried, but it freezes well. Chop up a handful and mix it with some broth and freeze in small quantities (ice cube trays work well). They’ll keep for 6 months and can be used in soups and stews, pesto sauce or dip.
- Heat destroys parsley’s vitamins and minerals, so don’t cook it for long. Chop it just before using and add at the last minute to hot dishes to retain the herb’s health benefits.
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