How to Harvest Parsley so the Plant Keeps Producing

Cut outer stalks at the base, not leaf tips

Parsley grows from a central crown, pushing new leaves up through the middle of the rosette while the oldest stalks sit on the outside. Picking individual leaflets off the top leaves the old stalks in place, shading the crown and doing nothing to encourage new growth. Cutting whole stalks from the outside at soil level does the opposite: it opens the plant up and pulls new leaves through.

Use scissors or snap the stalk off low, right at the base. A stub left standing rots back into the crown and is a common entry point for the crown rot that kills over-wintering plants. Work around the plant rather than taking one side, so the rosette stays balanced.

Never cut into the tight cluster of small pale leaves at the center. That is the growing point, and a plant that loses it produces nothing more of use.

The outer stalks are also the oldest and coarsest. Taking them first means you are picking in the right order for flavor as well as for the plant.

How much, and how often

The rule that keeps a plant productive is to take no more than a third of the stalks in one go, and to give it two to three weeks before you go back to the same plant. Strip a plant bare and it will regrow, but slowly and with smaller leaves, and it becomes far more likely to bolt.

Grow more plants than you think you need rather than picking each one harder. Six plants lightly cut give far more over a season than three cut hard.

Flat leaf and curled behave differently once cut

Flat-leaved parsley has longer, thinner stalks and wilts noticeably faster after cutting, but it holds its flavor through cooking better and is much quicker to wash and chop. Cut it in the morning when the stalks are turgid and get it into water within a few minutes if you are not using it straight away.

Curled parsley has stiffer stalks and stays presentable for longer out of water, which is why it survives being used as a garnish. The crinkles trap soil and the occasional aphid, so it needs a proper wash in a bowl of water rather than a rinse under the tap. Its flavor is milder and fades more in long cooking, so add it near the end.

Storing what you cannot use fresh

Parsley keeps far better than most soft herbs if you treat the cut stalks like flowers. Everything below assumes stalks cut whole rather than loose leaves, which collapse within a day whatever you do with them.

1. A jar of water in the fridge Stand the stalks in an inch (2.5 cm) of water, cover loosely with a bag and refrigerate. Change the water every two or three days and it stays usable for two weeks.
2. Wrapped in a damp cloth Roll unwashed stalks in a barely damp cloth or paper and keep them in the fridge drawer. Good for about a week, and it takes up less room than a jar.
3. Chopped and frozen in oil Pack chopped parsley into an ice cube tray, top with olive oil and freeze. The oil keeps the color and much of the aroma, and a cube goes straight into a hot pan.
4. Frozen whole on a tray Freeze whole stalks flat on a tray, then bag them. They crumble in the hand straight from the freezer, which is ideal for soups and stocks.
5. Dried, with lowered expectations Parsley loses most of its aroma on drying, curled types slightly less than flat. Dry it fast in a warm airy place out of sun and use it in bulk where it is doing a background job.

Picking through winter and into the second spring

A first-year plant that goes into winter healthy will give you leaves all through the cold months in most temperate gardens, just very slowly. Cut sparingly, rotate between plants, and expect the leaves to be darker, thicker and stronger in flavor than summer growth. A cloche or a layer of row cover keeps the leaves undamaged and makes the winter picking far more pleasant.

In the second spring those plants will put on a burst of good growth before the flower stem rises. That flush is the best parsley of the year and it lasts a few weeks, so use it hard. Once you see the center of the rosette lengthening, cut everything worth having and clear the plant.

What to record about harvests

Note the date of the first worthwhile cut from each batch and roughly how much each plant gave. Over two seasons that turns a vague sense of having too little parsley into a number of plants, which is the only thing that actually fixes it.

Also record the date each plant recovered enough to cut again. Recovery time is the figure that tells you how many plants a household needs, and it changes a great deal between summer and winter.