F LAT-LEAF, OR ITALIAN, PARSLEY IS MACHO COMPARED TO CURLY-LEAF, particularly the selection called (grrrr!) ‘Gigante.’ I like my parsley big and strong, and I get just that by growing my own, and stashing it away for year-round use with two easy freezer tactics. No $1.99-a-bunch stuff for me except in recipes when only fresh will do, and no dried parsley for me, ever: insipid! Welcome to Week 1 of Summer Fest, our Herb Week, the kickoff to a four-Tuesday-long cross-blog celebration of garden-fresh foods and flavors.
Curly-leaf parsley is great for edging borders, and for planting as a “ruff” around the feet of bigger plants in pots, where it will be beautiful all season, even after substantial frost. But if you want to cook, go ‘Gigante,’ or ‘Giant of Italy.’ Flat-leaf parsley has more parsley flavor.
All parsley is extremely high in nutrients, particularly Vitamin C, folates and Potassium, as well as beta carotene. In fact, a quarter-cup of raw chopped parsley has about as much C as a quarter-cup of orange juice and double the folates (more that one and a half times those, even, of raw spinach). I include raw leaflets in salads, greatly boosting the nutritional value of every bowlful, and you could put some in these rice-paper rolls from White on Rice Couple, one of my Summer Fest collaborators.
Parsley, a biennial, is easy to grow from seed, despite being ultra-slow and taking two weeks to a month to germinate. Don’t give up on it. I start a 6-pack in the house in early spring, tucking the just-moist cellpack into a slightly ajar plastic bag in a warm spot, then moving to the sunniest windowsill once I see signs of life.
The baby plants, which will look like not so much, quickly put down tap roots and settle in outdoors, shaping up by summer into bushy things. Unlike many vegetable- and herb-garden residents, parsley will manage in part shade, so the north side of your tomatoes (which basil might resent) is fine, for instance, and it does well even spilling out of beds, planted near the edge.
Parsley will technically survive most winters here, but what a mess it will be. To continue to harvest fresh leaves as long as possible into the cold months, tuck one plant in extra-snugly at frost, perhaps with an upside-down bushel basket over it, and with dry oak leaves or another insulating material stuffed inside that. The plant will send up its flower stalk to set seed in spring, compost it, and start the process over.
It’s hard to get to my vegetable garden in the worst winters, so I freeze my year’s supply: some as “pesto” cubes, others in “logs” of leaflets pressure-rolled tightly inside freezer bags (above). The log technique (so easy, and probably the only cooking Good Thing I contributed to “Martha Stewart Living,” though my record with gardening ideas was better!) is illustrated below in the slideshow below; many herbs freeze well this way, such as chives, and when you need some, you just slice a disc from one end of the log.
Parsley pesto (shown frozen as cubes, above), great as an ingredient in soup or stew or defrosted and spooned on top of a bowl of minestrone with a drizzle of olive oil and some cheese, is the same theory as with my basil pesto. When I say “recipe,” I mean “guidelines,” not “roadmap.”
Your pesto style may simply be a thick slurry of parsley blended (or food-processor-ed) in a tiny bit of water, or prepared similarly in olive oil, or you can go all the way and add raw garlic or nuts (pine or walnuts, perhaps?) or parmesan-type cheese, before freezing as cubes that are then knocked out into double freezer bags, with the air expressed. (A very different pesto, involving peanuts, is one of the other entries into today’s Fest–and a recipe I plan to try.)
A similar process, with water or oil or more, can also be used to store many herbs like sage, chives or garlic scapes, or rosemary, I recalled, reading this entry at the Gluten-Free Girl blog; use your imagination, and stash what’s in your garden for later. If made with the extras like cheese and garlic, herb pesto cubes are a real treat on crackers on a frigid day, or tossed into pasta: a mouthful of summer, just when you’re most in need.
Making Parsley “Logs:” Click the first thumbnail to begin the slideshow, then use the arrows beside each caption to toggle from frame to frame. I know, it looks like some Cheech and Chong stash of weed, but what would I know about that?
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HOW OUR CROSS-BLOG SUMMER FEST WORKS:
Summer Fest 2009 is a four-week, cross-blog celebration co-created by A Way to Garden, Matt Armendariz of Mattbites, Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen, and Todd and Diane of White on Rice Couple, with guest appearances from Shauna and Daniel Ahern of Gluten-Free Girl, Simmer Till Done’s Marilyn Pollack Naron, and Paige Smith Orloff of The Sister Project. And from you—that’s critical. Your contributions are desired, and needed.
HOW YOU CAN JOIN IN:
So now it’s your turn: Have a recipe or tip that fits any of our weekly themes? Starting today, with the subject of herbs, you can contribute in various ways, big or small. Contribute a whole post, or a comment—whatever you wish. It’s meant to be fun, viral, fluid. No pressure, just delicious. The possibilities:
Simply leave your tip or recipe or favorite links in the comments below a Summer Fest post on my blog, and then go visit my collaborators and do the same.
The cross-blog event idea works best when you leave your recipe or favorite links (whether to your own blog or someone else’s) at all the host blogs. That way, they are likely to be seen by the widest audience. Everyone benefits, and some pretty great dialog starts simmering.
Or think bigger: Publish entire entire posts of your own, if you wish, and grab the juicy Summer Fest 2009 tomato badge (illustrated by Matt of Mattbites, who by the way is boozing with his herbs today to kick off the event–yes, herb-laced cocktails).
THE 2009 SCHEDULE:
- Tuesday, July 28: HERBS. Any and all.
- Tuesday, August 4: FRUITS FROM TREES (also known as stone fruits, but we won’t scream if you toss in a berry or another fruit, promise).
- Tuesday, August 11: BEANS-AND-GREENS WEEK (either or both, your choice).
- Tuesday, August 18: TOMATO WEEK. How do you like them love apples?
And in case I forget what week it is, won’t somebody remind me on Twitter? Thanks. We’ll be talking it up there, too.
That’s how a Summer Fest works (and the way that Food Fest 2008 worked, too, remember?). See you next week.
I freeze just the stems by putting them in a zip lock bag. It is easy to grab a hand full when making chicken stock.
Besides all the good nutrients, parsley has oxalic acid which is on the list of foods to avoid if one gets those kind of kidney stones.
Love it! Margaret rolls herbs! ;-)
Oh, not those type of herbs.
Fantastic tip to freeze the leaves rolled up.
LOVE THIS! And yea, I can see why it might remind someone of, um, the other herb. Yowza.
When my days are long and my garden is wild I turn straight to booze. (wow, I didn’t beat around the bush on that one did I…) I decided to review some of my favorite uses for herbs and cocktails and I’m looking forward to finding tons more through other summer fest contributors. My goal is to be wasted by 1:15pm. Yay!
http://mattbites.com/2009/07/28/yo-party-people-summer-fest-is-in-the-house/
Wow, Margaret this is great! Had no idea parsley could be frozen in this manner. Thank you, thank you!
Here is a favorite herb recipe that I made this year if you are looking for a dessert, from David Lebovitz. Yum!
http://fromgarden2table.com/2009/07/14/104-degrees-ice-cream/ and for yet another pesto http://fromgarden2table.com/2009/07/08/presto-pesto/
Love mattbites’s contribution. Cocktails. Brilliant.
Margaret, it’s the parsley that launched a thousand Cheech & Chong jokes! That aside, what a fabulous method. Can’t wait to see what else you’ve cooked up for the Summer Fest.
Thank you for thinking ahead and reminding us of how to enjoy Summer’s bounty in the winter! Your thriving and beautiful parsley is so deserving of enjoyment during the cold season, we can already see a big bowl of warm pasta comfort in our future.
Your fabulous step by step guide and informative tips are simply awesome, just perfect to help us all plan ahead to fall/winter.
Our contribution is a platefull of Herb & Vegetable Rice Paper spring rolls: http://tinyurl.com/nujsfz
Thank you for Summer Fest 2009!
hugs,
diane and todd
Our parsley did well over the winter, kept growing and we had fresh parsley even with snow on the ground. We didn’t think it would weather that well here in Northern Virginia, but it did. Had to replant after the bushes flowered, but hopefully the new parsley will be big and bushy soon so we can make tabouleh.
http://www.andreasrecipes.com/2008/07/21/tabouleh-aka-tabbouleh-tabouli/
Thanks for doing the Summer Fest again this year!
Wow, what a great kick-off to Summer Fest 2009! Parsley is certainly the workhorse of herbs, and
Can’t do a full post right now (something about my regular job needing some attention) but I would like to contribute something! I wrote a quick post about how to “chiffonade” basil recently.
http://penandfork.wordpress.com/2009/06/06/chiffonade/
Welcome, Tammy. You know, I am so grateful to hear this is helpful, as I was worried it was too simple/silly, but most of the really useful things *are* simple, no? I love household tips; can’t get enough of those little “aha’s,” and this has been one for me since I learned it in an old canning and preserving book or somewhere. See you soon again.
http://edgehillherbfarmer.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B892B2F03E01EEC8!1148.entry
I put up a recipe on my blog for a tomato pie. Tomorrow I am putting up “breakfast of the year!” Intriguing? Good! Gosh, I love this Summer Fest and love being a part of it! THANK YOU. Now, if iIcan only figure out how to do it correctly…I am a blog fiasco.
Welcome, Karen. Fiascos (and tomato pies!) always welcome in Margaret’s House of Chaos. Don’t ever feel shy. :) I am all about WordPress (as I have often said here before) and that makes my blogging less of a fiasco than it would otherwise be, at least. See you soon again, and thanks for the great recipe.
What a great idea! As my contribution for the first week of Summer Fest 2009, I would like share my recipe for Aïoli with fresh garden herbs that I just recently posted on my blog – http://www.thecooksatelier.com.
The weather in the Bay Area is a bit cooler, and we’re lucky enough to have fresh herbs most of the year. I have basil and oregano growing right now, and just finished up the cilantro and parsley.
I put fresh parsley in almost everything. It really is a cornerstone of Italian cooking. I just posted a fresh ravioli recipe, where I stuffed the pasta with fresh vegetables, goat cheese and parsley. mmm, so good!
http://locallemons.com/local_lemons/2009/07/garden-vegetable-ravioli-in-tomato-brodo.html
Welcome, Marjorie. The aioli looks delicious. So glad you came to the event and shared it with us. What a great crop of recipes we are already accumulating. See you next time!
Welcome, Allison. I have an issue with ravioli…as in I can’t stop eating them if I start, particularly if they’re as tender as those look on your site. Thank you, and don’t be a stranger.
My favorite herb is now parsley. It looks beautiful in the garden with its dark green leaves. A salad without a healthy dose of flat-leaves just isn’t a salad. Love the tips on freezing. Parsley in the market just doesn’t taste the same.
Welcome, Nicole. Glad to know there’s another parsley-in-the-salad gardener out there. Strong flavor, but so good for you and I love the taste. See you soon again, I hope.
Thanks for the wonderful tips! I’m always looking for great ways to store herbs. I’d never heard of the log idea – except perhaps for cookie dough. This sounds so much better than dried.
Have you ever grown garlic chives, also known as Chinese chives? They’re quite decorative with their pretty white flowers (don’t ever let them go to seed). The flavor is sort of sweet and hot. I put them in chicken salad last week and my husband loved it.
Margaret – What a fun idea to share “garden fresh” info among blogger friends. Love it!
I did an entire post about another powerhouse in the kitchen…MINT! I think it is very under appreciated in the kitchen and yet, it has so many culinary possibilities (both sweet and savory).
http://www.gardenfreshliving.com/2009/07/cooking-with-marvelous-mint.html
The recipes I included in my post are: Simple Minted Corn-on-the-cob, Spearmint Limeade (a nice change from lemonade), Summer Punch with mint.
Thanks for letting all of us participate in this!
Welcome, Theresa, and yes: mint. I know my friends at White on Rice blog and that boozhound Matt at MattBites are all about the mint. Thank you so much for these recipes with your powerhouse herb. See you soon!
@Deirdre: I have garlic chives, yes, but (funny) have never eaten them. Great idea! Thank you.
Thanks Margaret.
I almost forgot…One of my favorite herbal recipes is Lavender Biscotti! The lavender has nice floral flavor and of course everyone loves biscotti!
Here is a link to my recipe…great with tea!
http://www.gardenfreshliving.com/2008/10/lavender-biscot.html
All of the recipes sound delicious! I like to use fresh herbs to make my Lemon Herb Salt for Roasted Potatoes, http://www.thenaptimechef.com/2009/02/napping-with-spud.html
And to add to my Baked Tomato & Zucchini Gratin: http://www.thenaptimechef.com/2009/07/napping-with-edible-vineyard-sunday.html
Not to mention homemade pesto – so simple and delicious! http://www.thenaptimechef.com/2009/06/napping-with-perfect-pesto.html
I can’t wait to make the lavender biscotti!!
Welcome, Kelsey. All I can say is, there’s a lot of good-sounding food here (and yes, those biscotti got me going, too). Gratins have to be one of the best inventions ever, so thanks for adding one to the mix. See you soon again, I hope.
Love this! I’m going to freeze my herbs this year for the first time:)
Pictures certainly ARE worth a thousand words. Never under-estimate the power of a photo!! I loved this slideshow – yes, I’m a fairly experienced cook, and yes, I’m a fairly experienced gardener. But this tip is just awesome!! I love learning new things – thanks!!!
Some of my friends last year made mint infused vodka. I haven’t worked out the details yet (I’ll post it when I do) but you basically put fresh mint in (cheap) vodka and let it sit for a month or so.
They made us the most AMAZING bloody mary’s with the vodka: Fresh tomato juice from their own tomatoes, fresh horseradish, lemons and garnished with home-made dill beans (pickled beans). A different yet oddly familiar and really refreshing.
Kim, I have tried that mint vodka and let me tell you…It works!
My favorite though is steeping lemon slices and lemon verbena in vodka. It is so delicious. And if you use a high quality vodka, it is even good all by itself over ice. I swear! Just run a lemon slice around the glass first and dip the glass rim in sugar. Then pour in the lemon vodka over ice. Don’t drink too much though or you won’t be able to work in the garden in the morning!
Rosemary Alert: Shauna at Gluten-Free Girl is seeing optimism (not the typical “remembrance”) in her crop of rosemary out in Seattle, where the heat has got everybody positively down (humans and other plants alike). Have a read. And yes, you can freeze tightly packed rosemary leaves (SO much better than dried, ugh) or make a “pesto” and freeze that, too.
Welcome, Tweetiejen. You don’t know how happy that makes me, to share a funny little tip. Thanks for visiting, and commenting. It keeps me going! See you soon again.
Welcome, Rebecca, and ditto. As I said up higher in comments, I always worry, “Am I talking down to people, do they already know all this stuff?” but the truth is, as Martha always said as her personal motto and is now ingrained in me, “Learn something new every day.” No matter how much we know on a topic, there is always a new tip, trick, hint, better way. It’s why I love this medium of the internet: because (FINALLY) we can share them with one another. See you soon, too, I hope.
Welcome, Kim. Well, I hope you have been over to Mr. Cocktail Himself’s post today for the Fest, where booze is the subject. But yes, making flavored vodkas is so wonderful, and I will eagerly await news of your experiments. I know Martha Stewart made lemon-flavored (with lemon peel, white pitch and all) and chili-flavored I think, too, if my memory serves, on her show. Keep us posted!
This is such a fantastic idea! Now, if only my cilantro actually survived the summer, I could have tried it out…
@OrchidHunter: The best way to have cilantro (which is inclined to quickly live out its life cycle and set seed) is to plant a little amount every 10 days or 2 weeks. The first crop will never survive long enough to keep you happy if you like cilantro. You may need to shade it a bit in hottest summer as well, to keep the plants coming.
Hey Margaret, I love this Summer Fest idea. Great way to get us all to interact. My wife and I grow pretty much all our own herbs and friends in our tiny backyard from Cilantro to Mint to Thai basil and a few in between, including peppers and strawberries. It’s really easy to do and just being able to go out and pick fresh herbs is great.
Here’s one of my recipes where I did just that.
http://thehealthyirishman.com/2009/07/mango-jalapeno-crabcakes-gluten-free/
Parsley is definitely one of those universal herbs so it’s a great way to start the fest.
Looking forward to the next few weeks.
I love the Gigante variety of parsley – it’s fairly winter hardy where I live and every year I let it flower and go to seed. The beneficial insects love it and I’ve got parsley plants that come up everywhere – in the yard, the cracks in the concrete, some even drifted across the street over in my neighbor’s yard!
Here’s my submission for this week:
Chilled Curried Yellow Squash Soup with Cilantro-Lime Puree
http://tnlocavore.typepad.com/tennessee_locavore/2009/06/one-local-summer-week-three.html
Margaret, your parsley is gorgeous! And in fact, our parsley is only slightly wilted in this heat. It’s such a hardy herb. And endlessly useful.
(we have a recipe for polenta fries with parsley pesto in our cookbook.)
we use it almost as often as we use rosemary:
http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/2009/07/rosemary.html
Mom gave me her Foodsaver machine and tons of new bags. Can I store the parsley that way and freeze it?
I’m very excited to learn that I can sow cilantro again and have it all summer! Mine always peters out right about now. I never thought of just starting some more. Glad to have the parsely tips too. I’m growing some new herbs this year – Cuban oregano, Vietnamese cilantro (much more pest and heat tolerant). I posted about them here with a few cooking suggestions, too.
http://nyackbackyard.blogspot.com/2009/07/few-new-to-me-herbs.html
@Martina: Yes, the Foodsaver would be great. Lucky you!
Welcome, Kristina. Oh, I love the idea of parsley growing in all the cracks! You are so right, beneficial insects love this plant, and so do I. Thank you for the great recipe link, as well, and see you soon again.
Brilliant tips, and easy to navigate photo slideshow. Thank you!
Welcome, Janna. Love the encouragement, and glad to help. Hope you will come back for more goodies as the series progresses, or anytime. :)
Thanks, Jen, for reminding me: I wrote about Oregano last year, and tried to “demystify” this mysterious herb (or actually these mysterious herbs, all called oregano but not). It’s here, enjoy.
Great tips everyone! Here’s another use for cilantro: Wash, save, and freeze the biggest roots as the plants peter out. It’s used in Thai cooking, such as Larb. Yum.
I am not the world’s biggest fan of parsley, but I used some in salsa verde the other day and it was really good!
My favorite herb recipes for Summer Fest are:
Pesto (with and immersion blender): http://catesworldkitchen.com/2008/11/pesto/
and
Dill and Feta Stuffed Chicken Breasts
http://catesworldkitchen.com/2008/09/dill-and-feta-stuffed-chicken-breasts/
I am just realizing we do not have parsley in the garden yet! It’s one of the herbs we use a lot of and I totally love parsley, but haven’t gotten around to sowing them. Great tips on freezing them too. That will definitely come in handy when I get the chance to grow some… :)
Awesome tip about the parsley! I would go right out to the garden and harvest the parsley I lovingly planted and tended……if the rats with hooves, I mean the deer, hadn’t devastated it about a week ago. However, they never touch any of the other herbs so I am going to be freezing chives today that is for sure.
Welcome, Cate. The salsa verde sounds like a treat (and how could anything *not* taste good w/feta cheese?). Thanks, and hope to see you again for the next round, or sooner.
Welcome, DebbieQ. Yes, large rats. You know how I feel about deer. Depending where you live you might score some young parsley at the garden center still…I am about to have a do-over with my basil, which has hated the cold weather we’ve had (until now), so I never give up! See you soon.
Hi Margaret,
I have never sent anything back but I want you to know I love the e-mails and the website. I love reading the blogs. I don’t blog because I guess I’m still dragging my feet into this generation. I do have a recipe I would like to summit for the Summer Fest Food Event. It’s very simple and may already be out there in some version but everyone I make it for loves it.
Pasta Primavera
Ingredients:
Bow tie pasta 1 Box
2 medium yellow squash
2 zucchini squash
1 large purple onion or you can use vadalia
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper 1 cup baby carrots
1 jar of sundried tomatoes with herbs and olive oil ( I found these at Walmart and local grocery stores)
First slice all the veggies, I usually do the squash in circles 1/4″ but it doesn’t really matter just don’t cut them so small you can’t taste the veggies. Then saute veggies in one skillet and boil the noodles in a large pot. When noodles are done, drain them and leave in pot, then put all the veggies in with the noodles and the whole jar of tomatoes and herb/oil mixture and stir being careful not to break all the veggies up. Serve hot with salad as main meal or side dish.
Welcome, Melissa. Thanks for your first submission, which sounds so simple and tasty. Of course I would add lots of herbs…tee hee. See you soon again.
Thank you, Margaret, for this great post. Another ‘herb’ fancier here (can’t live without them … parsley ‘the king’ … plant lots since it’s a wonderful host plant for butterflies). An avid cook since childhood, my site is filled with many ‘herb studded’ seasonal recipes, too many to mention. My life mission … to encourage all to plant a simple herb garden, a must for every cook.
Hi Margaret – Thanks so much for putting this together, and for the very useful parsley primer! I use it in quantity year-round, so this post is extremely helpful.
I decided to play along, too, and my herb post is here:
http://www.lastnightsdinner.net/2009/07/29/dill-icious/
Cheers!
Not having a big garden or a lot of mouths to feed, I refuse to give up on my herbs, every year, and bring them all inside to see what I can keep going until it’s time to head out again in the spring. I can’t be burdened with rules and schedules. Is that a recipe for disaster?
The parsley pot is a multigenerational thing I sprinkle with seeds around February when I’m fidgety for spring. Last year, I let my oregano bloom with abandon (mostly because the great black wasps wouldn’t let me near it in daylight), and it only started to rebound a few weeks ago. But it’s even stronger now. My rosemary bloomed last spring, and this year it’s just putting on tons of green growth – same with the thyme and sage, although one of the sages didn’t make it. The basil always dies in late winter, but baby basil and arugula fill the gap. Maybe if I feed the basil around xmas…keep them on a heat mat …
I’m so loving reading all the new comments. And thanks to Theresa at Garden Fresh Living, I’m going to have a blast using some of my prolific spearmint in her Spearmint Limeade.