Persilja - Parsley

Per­sil­ja – Pars­ley
Pet­ro­se­li­num cris­pum

Api­a­ce­ae -hei­mo, sar­ja­kuk­kais­kas­vit

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Per­sil­ja on kak­si­vuo­ti­nen yrt­ti. Sitä on kol­mea eri tyyp­piä. Kä­hä­rä­per­sil­ja on sam­mal­poi­mui­nen ja meil­lä Suo­mes­sa tun­ne­tuin per­sil­ja­tyyp­pi. Si­lo­per­sil­ja muis­tut­taa kä­hä­rä­per­sil­jaa, mut­ta sen leh­det ovat si­lei­tä ja se on kä­hä­rä­per­sil­jan ta­voin leh­ti­per­sil­ja. Juu­ri­per­sil­ja kas­vat­taa pork­ka­nan muo­toi­sia, pit­kiä ja ka­pei­ta juu­res­ten ta­paan hyö­dyn­net­tä­viä juu­ria. Per­sil­jan leh­ti on voi­mak­kaan kes­ki­vih­re­än vä­ri­nen.

Per­sil­jan alku­pe­räs­tä ei ole var­maa tie­toa, mut­ta sen ole­te­taan ole­van ko­toi­sin Väli­me­ren itä­o­sis­ta tai Aa­si­an län­si­o­sis­ta. An­tii­kin kreik­ka­lai­set pi­ti­vät per­sil­jaa ja sel­le­riä sa­ma­na kas­vi­na.

Per­sil­jan tuo­ret­ta leh­teä käy­te­tään ko­ris­tee­na voi­lei­pä­ka­kuis­sa, juus­to­lau­ta­sis­sa ja voi­lei­vis­sä. Per­sil­jaa käy­te­tään maus­tee­na kei­tois­sa, pas­tois­sa, kas­tik­keis­sa ja liha-, kala-, kas­vis- sekä lin­tu­ruois­sa. Per­sil­ja si­säl­tää huo­mat­ta­vas­ti C-vi­ta­mii­nia, ka­ro­tee­nia ja fo­laat­tia. Yrt­ti­lää­kin­näs­sä per­sil­jaa käy­te­tään reu­man, virt­sa- ja kuu­kau­tis­oi­rei­den hoi­toon. Per­sil­jan pu­res­ke­lun myös sa­no­taan rai­kas­ta­van hen­gi­tys­tä.

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Pars­ley
Pet­ro­se­li­num cris­pum

Pars­ley has been se­lec­ted to pro­du­ce three dif­fe­rent ty­pes, Cur­ley leaf (var. cris­pum), flat leaf (var.ne­a­po­li­ta­num) and root (var.tu­be­ro­sum). All pars­leys pre­fer a warm sun­ny lo­ca­ti­on to avoid ´leg­gi­ness` and grow into com­pact pro­duc­ti­ve plants, ger­mi­na­ti­on is of­ten ir­re­gu­lar and slow ta­king from three to eight weeks. It is best to start with transp­lants by ´pric­king out` the seed­lings as they ap­pe­ar in a ger­mi­na­ti­on tray, trans­fer­ring them to small pots or cells, and al­lo­wing them to grow on for three to four weeks be­fo­re plan­ting out. This gi­ves a more even crop and avoids ear­ly com­pe­ti­ti­on from weeds. When transp­lants have es­tab­lis­hed out­doors, they grow with few prob­lems, har­ves­ting be­gins by gra­du­al­ly ta­king in­di­vi­du­al sprigs, this gi­ves spa­ce and sti­mu­la­tes the plant pro­du­ce new shoots. The young shoots at the cen­ter of the plant are the most frag­rant and ten­der.

Alt­hough flat and cur­ly pars­ley are very si­mi­lar, the flat va­rie­ties tend to grow lar­ger, their le­a­ves of­ten re­main ten­der for lon­ger and it may have a slight­ly stron­ger fla­vour. The more com­pact cur­ly va­rie­ties have de­co­ra­ti­ve ap­pe­al and ol­der le­a­ves will need fi­ner chop­ping. The dif­fe­ren­ces are small, but Chefs of­ten choo­se the flat va­rie­ties. Root pars­ley looks like a small pars­nip but has the pars­ley fla­vour, it is still rat­her rare in our cui­si­ne.

Pars­ley is an ex­cel­lent sour­ce of va­ri­ous es­sen­ti­al nut­rients and when used re­gu­lar­ly in small amounts be­co­mes an ext­re­me­ly va­lu­ab­le part of a he­alt­hy diet. It is used in le­a­fy sa­lads, fi­ne­ly chop­ped in sand­wic­hes, it works well with egg dis­hes and in soups, and with fish and po­ta­to­es. A po­pu­lar meal in Wa­les is gam­mon, pars­ley sau­ce, peas and po­ta­to­es.

Le­a­fy pars­ley sto­res qui­te well for a few days if kept cool and moist af­ter har­vest, it is best to har­vest ear­ly in the mor­ning up un­til the late Au­gust. Qu­a­li­ty prob­lems ari­se from too much stem on the sprigs, le­a­ves that have be­co­me too co­ar­se and wil­ting and yel­lo­wing when sto­red in­cor­rect­ly.