Parsley

Each year I grow parsley. It does such a nice job of lightly flavoring many of my dishes. This year though I thought it had died. I looked for it and never could find it. On Sunday, I was cutting back the dead stems from my daisy patch and there was a parsley plant that was still green and healthy. I quickly pulled the plant as we were supposed to have a hard freeze last night. Parsley will survive some frost but not when it gets down below freezing for a long period of time. I cut off the leaves that were still good and put them on the dehydrator. The rest of the leaves went to our rabbits who enjoyed it immensely. We will now have fresh, dried parsley all winter. Yum!

Parsley is an easy plant to grow and preserve. It is a biennial which means it dies back the first year and then blooms and goes to seed the second year. After that the plant has completed its cycle and will die. It can be grown from seed but I usually get plants because I can easily plant them in my flower beds and one or two go along way. I cut fresh parsley off of it all summer. When winter approaches, I harvest the plants, take off the leaves and dehydrate them. They then can be stored in an airtight container and used. I put mine in a baggie and store in freezer upstairs because I have more room in there versus shelf space. I would not let them grow the second year unless I was going to store seed from them. They quickly go to seed.

I would encourage you to try to grow parsley this year. It is a great herb to use and full of vitamin C.