swamper
Pro Member
Posts: 208
Joined: March 2011
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Post by swamper on Apr 5, 2015 11:57:22 GMT -5
I grow a patch of parsley every year. It's always a great addition to soups, mediterranean dishes like taboule, potato salads, scampi, etc. My friends of Lebanese origin taught me that lots of parsley is the most important ingredient in taboule, along with fresh spearmint, lemon and olive oil, and that bulghur is just added sparingly. Some say flat leaf version is culinary and curly is more a garnish, but I don't notice a big difference in flavors and tend to get a lot more yield per square foot from curly varieties. I've been back and forth with varieties, Laura is a flat leaved variety that is compact and productive. This year I sowed darki based on trial recommendations at Stokes Seeds. Parsley isn't hard to grow from seed, but seed should be fresh to get good and rapid germination. Parsley is biennial so the early sprouts the second year are a bonus when there's not a lot else ready to harvest. Harvest freely at this point since once it bolts you're done. Plants can also be dug before frost and brought inside to prolong harvest. I haven't done much with preserving parsley, but when it's fresh I never seem to have enough. I have a book on pesto making that suggests making pestos from many different herbs (other than basil) by combining them with parsley. Here's a link to an interesting infographic that details what's in parsley
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Parsley
Apr 5, 2015 20:20:07 GMT -5
Post by Laura_in_FL on Apr 5, 2015 20:20:07 GMT -5
Hmm, I am tempted to grow the Laura parsley just for the name. I have an oddball parsley plant. It bloomed last summer, but did not die. (Every other parsley plant that bloomed last summer promptly died, just as you'd expect.) Instead, it put out new growth after it finished blooming and all through the fall. It tried to bloom during a mild spell during the winter but lost the blooms to a January freeze. It put out new leaves as soon as the weather warmed, and now it has yet more flower buds. I'm sure it's the same plant - it has a tall central stalk from which the blooms arise. That stalk originally formed when it bolted last year, and has just gotten thicker and stronger since then, and it has even developed some branches. I wonder if I have a freak perennial parsley? I'm really interested to see what happens when this new batch of flowers finishes.
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Parsley
Apr 5, 2015 21:10:36 GMT -5
Post by spacecase0 on Apr 5, 2015 21:10:36 GMT -5
sounds like you are the new source for perennial parsley save all the seeds, others will want them !
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aqua
Pro Member
Posts: 295
Zone:: 8b9a
Favorite Vegetable:: all of them
Joined: March 2012
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Parsley
Apr 5, 2015 23:09:57 GMT -5
Post by aqua on Apr 5, 2015 23:09:57 GMT -5
I had a two-year parsley once, Laura, and I pulled it on the third year. It bloomed, it fell over, it re-grew- it did everything but knock on the door. I needed the room, so I pulled it. Well, really dug it out- pulling was not an option. Root was over a foot long!
A good recipe for taboule would be appreciated.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Apr 6, 2015 7:28:47 GMT -5
sounds like you are the new source for perennial parsley save all the seeds, others will want them ! I'll save the seeds, but I will wait and see if it croaks after blooming before I distribute them as anything unusual. Gotta say, it's an ugly plant with that gnarly-looking, leaning stalk. Not for ornamental use to be sure. It sounds like a perennial parsley plant does crop up from time to time, since aqua had a plant like it once. It still might be worth saving seeds and trying to select for the perennial trait. I wonder whether it would kill the plant or make it branch out if I cut the big stalk down - or at least shortened it - at some point? I am not going to experiment with that right now, since I just have one plant. But maybe if I eventually have several of the perennial ones I can try that with some of them. The plant would look much more attractive if I could trim that stalk back after it blooms.
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