12th March: Parsley

The French Revolutionary Calendar celebrates parsley on this date. Here are some things you might not know about this herb:

1. Parsley is a member of the Umbelliferae family, which also includes Celery, Carrots, dill, cilantro, caraway, cumin, and hemlock.
2. It is native to the central Mediterranean region (southern Italy, Algeria, and Tunisia), but has spread to the rest of Europe.
3. While it is usually cultivated for its leaves, there is a variety common in Eastern and Central Europe which is grown as a root vegetable. People there put it in soups and stews, or eat it raw as a snack. It's said to have a nutty taste, with a hint of celery.
4. The curly leaf variety is usually used as a garnish and often isn't eaten, which is a shame because two tablespoons of parsley contain 153% of the Recommended Daily Value of Vitamin K.
5. The use of parsley as a garnish came about because people believed that chewing the leaves got rid of bad breath and the odour of Garlic.
6. Two tablespoons of parsley contain about three calories.
7. It's quite difficult to grow and takes a long time to germinate and this has resulted in a certain amount of bad press - an old superstition says parsley goes seven times to the Devil and back before it germinates. Because it was hard to grow successfully, people also believed only Witches or evil people could grow it.
8. Nevertheless, it has not been without its historical fans. Pliny wrote that no salad or sauce should be served without parsley. He also wrote that all classes of people loved it. 9th century Emperor Charlemange loved Cheese flavoured with parsley seeds and had two cases sent to him each year.
9. The ancient Greeks used parsley in funeral wreaths, which no doubt derived from an ancient practice of sprinkling parsley on corpses to get rid of the smell. They also planted the herb on graves, and to say that someone was "in need of parsley” meant that they weren't long for this world.
10. Other superstitions connected with parsley are that it is unlucky to transplant it from one garden to another, and if you spoke the name of your enemy while plucking a sprig of parsley, that enemy would die.