Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

Latest post from MARKSVEGPLOT – a blog about food and gardening in England”

Yesterday I harvested a huge batch of Parsley:

I usually pick Parsley a few sprigs at a time, whenever it is required in the kitchen, but this was different. I needed to get my Brassicas planted, and the Parsley was in the bed where I had planned to plant them. My initial intention had been to cut as much useable Parsley as possible and then dig up the plants, but in the end I decided to leave the Parsley in place and plant around it. It seemed a shame to dig it up when it was doing so well.

So, the Parsley plants got only a severe trim, and I packed the crop into a couple of plastic “Stayfresh” bags and stored it in the fridge, where it will keep for a couple of weeks if necessary. I know that Jane is planning to cook Ham with Parsley Sauce, Tabbouleh, and various other dishes than need a lot of Parsley, so it probably won’t hang around for long.

In keeping with the title of today’s post, I would like to show you some photos of other herbs too…

This is Sage, just about to flower.

The young leaves are bright green at present. As they age they turn a greyer green colour.

This is Rosemary, which I have written about recently, but it needs to be shown in order to fit the rhyme!

And this is the Thyme. I bought these two pots of it at Morrisons, priced at a mere £1.20 each, which I think is really good value.

I have transplanted the Thyme into some larger terracotta pots, in which they will have room to expand a bit. Although they were sold as flowers, these plants are definitely going to be treated as culinary ingredients and cut as required, because we use lots of Thyme in our cooking.

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