Florida Herb Society: Oh How I've Missed You!

I finally go to go to an Herb Society meeting this month!  I haven't been since October because I keep getting scheduled to work on the night of the meeting.  I've missed seeing everyone & just being at the meeting so much!  The herb of the month is parsley, so there was all kinds of yummy foods at the tasting table & the guest speaker featured it in her healthy cooking with herbs demonstration.

Did you know that parsley is associated with death?  Apparently, the ancient Greeks placed it on corpses to control the smell.  If someone said that a person was in need of parsley, it meant that they were close to death.  Hemlock is very similar looking to Italian or flat leaf parsley and toxic, so the people of the Middles Ages preferred to use curly leaf instead so that they knew what they were eating.  The Romans would use parsley in baths for purification.  The English believed that parsley grows only for the wicked, not the just.  I find herbal folklore fascinating!

If you soak your head in a parsley tea, it will combat head lice.  Parsley is one of the top seven disease fighting herbs.  Parley tea can be used for UTI's: since it's a diuretic, it will tone the linings and purify the infection.  There really are so many more medicinal uses for this very tasty herb!

Personally, I just love using the fresh leaves in cooking (especially soups!).  You can't even come close to comparing it's flavor to dried.  Do you have any favorite parsley recipes or medicinal uses for the plant?

I also picked up a celery plant at the meeting!  One of the women there said that her husband called it a Bloody Mary swizzle stick plant.  I love that.