Parsley

This is a biennial plant, which means it grows leaves in the first year and flowers in the second, and it's said to be the only herb that people in 1970s Britain ate on a regular basis!

The wild variety has flat deep green leaves, the cultivated variety has been selected over generations of breeding to produce highly folded and deeply cut ones – but the curative properties of both plants are much the same.

Cultivation

They say parsley 'goes to the devil' before it germinates, because it takes so long to appear after being sown. You can help it along by sowing it in drills and watering it in with boiling water! After that, once it finally appears, parsley is a pest resistant and easy to grow here.

Parts Used

Dried leaves, dried roots and fruits and fresh leaves for cooking and garnishing food.

Uses

First year leaves are collected in the summer of the first year, second year leaves in the following spring until the plant begins to flower, roots are collected in October and November from first year plants. Any collected material should be dried at less than 40 degrees C. In small doses parsley stimulates the appetite which is why we use it as a garnish. In larger doses it has diuretic properties and increases the flow of blood to the digestive tract and womb. In very large doses it is poisonous, causing vertigo and haemorrhages. Use as an infusion – 1 tablespoon chopped leaves to 1 pint of water for diuretic conditions.

Parsley photograph by GlennFleishman from flickr under a creative commons attribution licence.