In October last year I bought a pot of growing parsley from Aldi for around a £1. When these are bought they are not really plants but more a collection of seedlings.
I split all the growth into 3 clumps and potted up two. One was kept indoors on the window sill and lasted several weeks, one planted out, but it got eaten by something and one put in a pot in the greenhouse. This was all so easy I won't bother to grow from seed again but just buy a pot and divide and transplant in spring and another in October again.
Parsley is quite hardy and the greenhouse pot has kept going all winter and now looks like this.
This is what I wrote several years ago for the Suffolk Smallholders Newsletter about growing parsley. Pots of parsley were something I grew every year to sell at the gate.
Parsley
Slow to get going from seed, it's the one thing that I make sure to buy a new packet of seed each year. It can be sown quite early and there are all sorts of old wives tales about the best methods of getting it to germinate. I usually pour really hot water over the compost before sowing ( the old way was to pee on it!).Sow quite thickly and cover with a plastic lid then keep it in a warm place.
Somewhere in my books I'd seen a curious recipe for Parsley Honey, I thought it might have been in one of the Hovel books but eventually found it in The Goode Kitchen by Shirley Goode, a small recipe book of budget recipes dating from 1986. Wonder if anyone has tried it, I haven't. Apparently it makes about 1½ lbs of something that looks and tastes exactly like clear honey.
Parsley Honey
4oz Parsley (leaves and stalks)
1lb Gran sugar
1 heaped tablespoon thick honey
Wash the parsley and put in a big pan with 1½ pints water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain through a sieve into a measuring jug and if necessary add more water to make 1 pint. Return liquid to pan. Add the sugar and bring to boil stirring all the time, then leave at a rolling boil for 20 minutes. Add the honey and stir until it dissolves. Remove from heat and pot into small, hot, sterilised jars.
My first father in law always grew a long row of parsley along the edge of the garden. It wasn't for eating but used for lining the box of vegetables when entering the "Collection of Vegetables " class in the village flower shows. He usually won!
Back Tomorrow
Sue
I used to put out a pot of parsley for the caterpillars of the beautiful dusky swallow tail butterfly. They eat only a couple of items, don't bother any other vegetables. So I was glad to share.
ReplyDeleteThat's a butterfly we don't have here.I shall google to see what they like
DeleteI mean what they Look like
DeleteYour parsley looks excellent. It is a large healthy plant. Based on your recommendation, I will buy a pot of parsley and try to grow it as successfully as you. The parsley honey sounds interesting. The recipe calls for lots of sugar and it might be to much sweetness for me.
ReplyDeleteHope it works well for you
DeleteDespite our climate, I have clumps of parsley come up each Spring in my vegetable patch. I think it reseeds rather just dying back as the clumps are not always in the same place..
ReplyDeleteIt will usually last the winter here outside and has new growth in spring but then it runs to seed
DeleteThere are many superstitions surrounding the growing of parsley. Not just relating to the germination.
ReplyDeleteIt goes down to the devil before it grows!
DeleteI love parsley but find it very difficult to keep alive. Yours looks so healthy!
ReplyDeletexx
I could have divide it up even more and had a dozen pots but thought this was enough!
DeleteYes, I made Shirley Goode's Parsley Honey back in the 80s. But it was quite a faff. You can currently buy a jar of clear honey for 75p in Sainsbury's. My time, effort, ingredients and electricity are worth more than that. I'll save my Parsley to eat in its green herby state! (but some of Shirley's other recipes were very good)
ReplyDeleteOh I'm so pleased to find someone who actually made the Parsley Honey! Like you I reckon its more useful green and fresh.
DeleteI wouldn't ever buy that supermarket honey as it isn't real honey at all but I like to buy local from someone in Stowmarket although it's £6 a jar now!
Not a big fan of curly parsley but flat leaved in moderation. I steep garlic in honey as it helps ease morning nausea which I get sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI've tried growing both over the years - always a test to get it going but I reckon the curly has more flavour
DeleteI only grew it from seed once, and it did well. It's not something I use really, so absent from my garden. I could help the whole town out with Marjoram though as someone in the past planted it and divided it and it grows everywhere.
ReplyDeleteIt was always hit and miss to sow and grow but it made something else to sell and always sold easily
DeleteI have parsley most of the year, it's outside in a huge pot, I can't get it to winter in the ground, but the pot works well.
ReplyDeleteIt tends to run to seed here if kept too long
DeleteParsley seems to look after itself in my garden too. I grow the flat-leaf sort and mulch with pebbles so it doesn’t get too rain-splashed. Will be making stuffing on Sunday to have with roast leg of pork (our first roast pork dinner of the year - we knew the pig!) using parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano and chives all growing in different spots around the garden. I agree with you about honey and buy local honey at £6/lb jar. We have a beekeeper in the village who supplies the village shop. Sarah in Sussex
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time at the smallholding I grew about 20 different herbs - some were like weeds!
DeleteI shall do that with a couple of pots of parsley.
ReplyDeleteI buy a pot of basil, snip off the first 3 or 4 inches, bung in water to root and then plant. For me, way easier than growing from seed.
That's my basil plan for summer too every year now
DeleteI grew some a couple of years ago and it dried very well to use all winter.
ReplyDeleteCathy
I'm not keen on dried parsley.
DeleteI remember Parsley the lion.
ReplyDeleteI'm too old!
DeleteI have parsley in the garden. When it gets going i shall try parsley honey
ReplyDeleteLet us know how you get on
DeleteParsley used to self seed in the garden in NZ, but we have never been that lucky in our Hampshire garden - we struggle every year to get some established from packet seed only to have it bolt and the seed produce nothing for the next year. Maybe we should be peeing on it.
ReplyDeleteSorry Tigger it's not for you to pee on!
DeleteI have just bought two packets of parsley seeds - one flat leaf and one curly. I shall try the hot water trick with the compost. Thanks, Sue.
ReplyDeleteWorth a try. It's a pain to get going sometimes
DeleteParsley - such a useful herb isn't it? I'm going to try your method, I usually grow from seed but it is a faff!
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
Seems a much easier and quicker method to me now and takes up less room to do now I have space shortage for young plants
DeleteParsley is a herb I always like to have in the garden, it is so useful. My mother used to be adamant that one NEVER gave away a parsley plant to another person, but I don't ever recall her saying why! Another one of those funny superstitions, I suppose :)
ReplyDeleteI did make a lot of Shirley's recipes and had all her books but I never gave the Parsley Honey ago, I wouldn't have been able to afford to use that much sugar in one go back in the day.
ReplyDeleteThe parsley that I bought from Aldi last Autumn and which was a sickly yellowing plant indoors, was planted outside in my tin bath with the other herbs, somehow it has survived all frosts and is still green and very healthy looking.
I've never grown parsley before and I love using it. Maybe I'll try your method this year!
ReplyDeleteI was so happy this year to see my parsley coming up in my hot bed. It took a while to get it started but worth it. Have a great day!
ReplyDelete