Parsley for the winter: harvesting with simple methods

How to prepare parsley

In summer cottages, two types of parsley are usually grown - leaf and root. Greens are harvested from the middle of summer, 3 months after sowing. This is the same time for the beginning of winter harvesting. The roots are picked from the ground in the fall before the onset of frost, along with the carrots. I must say that the roots of all types and varieties are edible, but in leaf parsley they are thin, tough. They are sometimes used as spices, but only the roots of special root varieties are stored.

The greens are completely cut off, the roots are slightly undermined, removed from the ground, sorted. Store the roots in basements by placing them in boxes of sand. Before that, they are sorted out, sorted, dried under a canopy or in ventilated rooms. Whole undamaged specimens are selected for storage. Those that have not been selected can be cleaned, cut, dried and placed in glass jars. If the weather does not allow the pieces to dry completely outside (when drying only outside, they will just be dried), you can dry them using the oven, the main thing is not to let the temperature rise above 70 degrees, and open the oven slightly to ensure air movement. Finely chopped roots can be completely dried in the oven in 5 - 6 hours.

It will not be possible to keep parsley fresh for a long time, so it is salted, pickled, dried or frozen. To salt greens, take 150 g of salt per 1 kg. Parsley needs to be washed, dried, cut with a sharp knife, mixed with salt, put in jars, tamped. More salt is poured on the bottom of the jar and on top of the greens, the jar is closed with parchment paper, tied tightly around the neck, stored in a cool room. This method of harvesting allows you to preserve all the useful properties of greens.

And you can do it differently: keep the parsley in brine. To do this, the chopped greens need to be laid out in jars, filled with hot (70 - 80 degrees) brine, kept at room temperature for several days, removing the resulting foam, then closed with lids, and put in the cold. For brine, take 30 g of salt per 1 liter of water. You can do everything in one go, then the prepared greens with brine just need to be sterilized and rolled up with lids. In this way, a hot seasoning is often prepared, adding other spicy herbs, garlic to parsley. You can pour the herb with marinade from water (1 l), salt (50 g), sugar (50 g), vinegar (200 g).

Storing parsley in oil also perfectly preserves its quality for 3 to 4 months. It is necessary to pour the prepared chopped greens in a jar with hot vegetable oil and close the lid. This method of preparation allows you to preserve not only the taste and smell, but also the appearance of fresh herbs, so it is good to add it to salads.

Video "How to pickle parsley"

A detailed video instruction on how to salt greens.

Freezing

The easiest way is to freeze parsley in small bunches, wrapping them with cling film or placing them in bags. To do this, you need to sort out the greens, leaving only fresh, undamaged, not yellowed branches for storage.Rough petioles must be cut off. In order not to cut frozen greens later in winter, you can grind them beforehand. They do it in different ways.

Some people like to use only the leaves in winter, and the stems can be used for cooking broths separately. In this case, the leaves are torn off, folded in bags and frozen separately from the twigs folded in the same way. And someone just finely cuts the entire twig (bunch) and puts it in the freezer for storage in a bag.

The roots can also be kept frozen. To do this, they need to be washed, peeled, cut, put into bags, then placed in the freezer.

You can make portioned blanks. For this, the parsley is washed, dried, cut and laid out in ice molds. Then a little water is added to them and frozen. You get portioned cubes that can be used to prepare various dishes. Instead of water, you can add vegetable oil, it will also freeze, but the beneficial substances are better preserved in the oil. And if the greens are not cut, but chopped with a blender, then even water is not needed, because you get a juicy gruel that freezes perfectly without water.

Drying

Harvesting dried herbs for the winter is a common thing for a summer resident. They do it whenever there are unused greens left. It is cut, laid out on pallets or clean paper, dried on a shaded veranda or simply on a wardrobe.

It is best to dry large volumes of parsley, like any other greenery, with a dehydrator, that is, an electric dryer. Prepared greens (washed and chopped) should be laid out on pallets, set the temperature to 40-50 degrees - and after 5 hours get evenly dried material, ready for long-term storage. Those who do not have such a convenient dryer can use the oven. You just need to make sure that the temperature does not rise above 50 degrees, keep the door ajar, periodically stir the parsley. It should be noted that dried parsley slightly changes its taste and smell, as opposed to frozen or canned.

Storage rules

You can store fresh parsley at room temperature without loss for no more than 1 week. You can put it in water, like a bouquet, but still after 6 - 8 days it will turn yellow and wither. The refrigerator will cope better with this task if you wrap the herbs in paper or use a vacuum container. But it is hardly worth keeping greens for more than 1 month, even in a special compartment of the refrigerator. If the washed greens are dried very well, folded into a container and filled with vegetable oil, then they will not lose their qualities and appearance for 2 - 3 months. Whatever one may say, but you still have to choose a method of harvesting greens for a long time.

Salted and frozen greens can be used within 6 months without loss of quality. Dried parsley can be stored and used for the longest time - 1 year. Properly dried parsley (herbs and roots) can be folded into jars, special containers, linen bags and stored in a dark, dry place. It will slightly differ from fresh in its taste and smell, but it will retain all its useful qualities, provided that the drying temperature does not exceed 50 degrees. This is perhaps the most traditional harvesting method.

Video "The easiest way to freeze"

Demonstration video on the simplest freezing method.