LEAVES AND STEMS WE EAT 



137 



PARSLEY 



Wherever we go, the parsley plant is there to 

 welcome us, as we sit down, hungry as a bear, 

 to a good, square meal. The soup and the fish 

 are seasoned with a sprinkle of minced pars- 

 ley. Its curly leaves garnish the steak or the 

 omelette, and the salad is seasoned and adorned 

 by the same fern-like leaves. And we do not 

 tire of it, morning, noon, and night. It is known 

 to everybody and it has real food value; it 

 is not merely an accessory to the essential 

 foods. 



It is a pity that parsley is not grown in every 

 garden for we need more green food than most of 

 us eat, and the commonest dishes are improved 

 by it. The reason may be that people get dis- 

 couraged waiting for the seeds to sprout, or forget 

 where they were planted. It takes a month to 

 six weeks for the little plants to show themselves 

 and they are feeble until they have attained some 

 size. If the soil is kept loose and free from weeds, 

 a few plants will soon furnish all the parsley the 

 cook can ask, and the bed will be a beautiful green 

 pillow until frost comes. 



The fore-handed gardener pots some little 

 plants, and when winter comes has parsley to 



