I wrote about growing parsley from a bought pot of parsley from the supermarket earlier this year HERE and said it was much simpler than sowing from seed and cheaper too. Parsley seeds are notoriously difficult to get going, tradition is that they go down to the devil and don't always come back!
I planned to buy another pot in Spring and divide, which I did and these are the small portions of seedlings that I put in a big pot and a small pot in the green house. The bigger pot full grew rather well! The clump I planted outside is buried under the courgette leaves at the moment hopefully will survive and recover when the courgettes are cleared away.
With such a huge pot full I had enough to try this recipe which I've wanted to have a go at since finding it in the small book "The Shirley Goode Kitchen", a BBC book published in 1986. Shirley did a TV programme about frugal cooking and managing on a tight budget. (I see it's still available cheaply on Amazon) My copy is looking very tatty now but it will see me out.
The recipe sounds improbable - turning parsley, water and sugar into honey?
Anyway I gave it a try.
Parsley Honey
4oz Parsley (leaves and stalks)
1lb Granulated 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.
I presumed it was supposed to set or thicken a little - it didn't look as if it would so I put the jars in the fridge.
When it was cold I poured some - it was still just a liquid - onto a piece of toast. It tastes like honey. Or maybe just sugar/water flavoured with honey! But even after days in the fridge it's still just really thin. Had I have thought about it more I could have used some jam sugar containing pectin which might have helped.
I have an idea that it might be good poured over a plain cake like you do with a Lemon Drizzle cake and it would certainly be nice in hot water for a winter drink but it will have to stay in the fridge taking up space until then as it goes straight through toast!.
According to the book "The Garden Apothecary" there are other uses for parsley apart from the well known. The Romans used it as a breath freshener after a meal rather than in the meal and it was grown as a fodder for horses and only became a culinary herb in the Middle Ages.
Culpepper the C17 herbalist said
The leaves of parsley laid to the eyes that are inflamed with heat, or swollen, doth much help them, if it be used with bread or meal and being fried with butter, and applied to woman's breasts that are hard through the curdling of their milk, it abates the hardness quickly, and also takes away black and blue marks coming of bruises or falls.
I'm glad I finally got to try Shirley Goode's frugal recipe but wish it had worked a bit better.
Back Tomorrow
Sue
I agree with you that buying and dividing a pot of supermarket parsley is the
ReplyDeletemost efficient and easiest way of guaranteeing a supply throughout the year. I love parsley and one of my favourite ways to eat it is 50 percent with the lettuce leaves in a salad
I don't think I've ever come across such a strange recipe. Maybe you could use it in baking where honey is called for? Sounds more like Alchemy to me!
I'm not fond enough of parsley to eat it in a salad - except potato salad with mayo, but it is handy to have growing as it's so hardy.
DeleteI wonder how Shirley Goode got the recipe to work?
Oh, that book brings back memories of watching Shirley on Pebble Mill. She was an inspiration. I read her blogs until she died…they are still available and I re-read them often. My copy of her book is very tatty but still in use! I made the parsley honey once with the same outcome as you….I used it on stewed fruit and porridge. Thank you for the memories! PS….I re-read your blogs, too! Wendy.
ReplyDeleteI'd just started blogging when Shirley Goode died I think . I remember reading her blog for a while.
DeleteThank you for re-reading my posts - that's going over and above the call of duty!!
I hardly ever look at my old posts except when I'm searching for something that I know I've written about. The smallholding ones make me sad for a life that's gone
Like Wendy, I made Shirley Goode's Parsley Honey some years ago. I decided if wasn't worth the effort(or the electricity) I have lots of basil now, after you shared the trick of starting with a supermarket pot. Thank you. I must get some Parsley going too.
ReplyDeleteIt's a strange recipe - I wonder if she ever got it to thicken up a little or maybe it was just meant to be really, really runny
DeleteI've been growing supermarket pots of herbs for years - they survive and thrive. I love them.
ReplyDeleteI started growing herbs to sell so long ago, before ever supermarkets had growing pots of herbs that it just seemed that sowing seeds was the usual way. Now it's such a sensible idea to split a bought pot.
DeleteSplitting up and growing on supermarket herbs is such a good idea. I will get round to trying it.
ReplyDeleteA pot of "growing Parsley" is really just a hundred seedlings!
DeleteI suspect the so called honey is a bit like the honey one buys where the bees are fed on sugar.
ReplyDeleteApart from tasting like honey it isn't much like any honey I've ever bought!
DeleteI always purchase living herbs to grow on, much easier than seeds.
ReplyDeleteI wish I'd known about doing it 10 years ago instead of only finding out a few years ago on someone's blog!
DeleteI've got 3 of Shirley Goode's books and use them often but have not tried that recipe and especially with the cost of energy now its probably not very frugal. It was interesting to read about your experiment though.
ReplyDeleteI had all 4 books but Goode For One disappeared somewhere
DeleteI wonder how the herbs would do on a windowsill all winter?
ReplyDeleteCathy
Lots of people do this - if you have enough light
DeleteIt probably sounds weird but your ‘experiment’ of turning parsley into honey reminds me of caterpillars turning into butterflies.
ReplyDeleteSo these days we use cucumber on sore eyes, cabbages on breasts and comfrey on bruises….wonder when parsley went out of favour
It must have been a popular cure at sometime
DeleteI love parsley and so do the dusky swallowtail butterfly caterpillars. They usually win when I have a pot going.
ReplyDeleteMust be a butterfly we don't have here . I think parsley is a favourite of slugs here!
DeleteOne of the few herbs that I really could do without. It would be ironic if a book of frugal recipes could not be obtained cheaply itself! :)
ReplyDeleteSome Frugal Tips books are quite a rip off
DeleteOn your recommendation, I bought a small parsley plant at a grocery store and re-potted it in a larger pot. Like magic, it is growing beautifully on the sunny patio. This Winter, it will come in to the solarium. I use fresh parsley regularly in my cooking.
ReplyDeleteIt might not last all winter. I shall start with a new pot from the supermarket in October
DeleteI used to have all of Shirley's books, but they literally fell apart. I remember reading on her blog that she wanted to make them as affordable as possible for her readers, so I'm guessing it was cheap paper and glue. I know the pages went a strange shade of brown after only a couple of years. Perhaps using either jam sugar or adding an apple core or two to the mix might have helped it firm up a little bit.
ReplyDeleteI was never able to get parsley to grow from seed for me, so I have always just bought a supermarket pot and then planted it outside after a few days use. It over-wintered really well last year even through the frosts and snow.
I've still got 3 out of her 4 books all very tatty and a strange colour as you say.
DeleteParsley is quite hardy until it runs to seed.
Was it Elizabeth West who dug it from under the snow?
That really is a good idea -- getting them in pots. I'm going to remember that one!
ReplyDeleteThat’s a good idea to pour some of the honey mix over a plain cake. I used to follow Shirley’s blog but don’t remember her books.Catriona
ReplyDeleteI do like the idea of pouring the mixture as a drizzle over cake. I bet that would taste wonderful.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.