On 24/05/2014 8:08 AM, David Hare-Scott wrote:
Todd wrote:
Hi All,

My second year Italian Parsley looks really weird.
Others of my customers, that actually know what they
are doing, showed me theirs, and it looks the same:
big stems, small leaves, flowers (if you can call them
that) at the top.

Pendant alert. It should be 'customers who' not 'customers that'. The
only time it should be 'customers that' would be if the customers were
not live humans.

I'm being a pedant because I've recently noticed that this way of
writing is common amongst USians and the likely outcome of that will be
that it will escape from the US so it will soon hit our shores. That
will cause me and others severe irritation and distress.

Questions:

1) what parts do you eat, just the small leaves?

You can still eat any of it. The purpose for which it would be used (or
at least used by anyone who can, and does, cook) would vary. The leaves
can still be be used in dishes, as a garnish or sprinkled on the top of
soups or used in trbbouli etc (ie a prime use) whilst the stalks and the
flower head would be used in stock pots, stews or casseroles. It's past
it's prime but still useful in many ways but best for seed saving.

2) what do you cut? The stem all the way to the ground?

I'd suggest leaving it to go to seed if you can afford to let it occupy
the space for that long. I do that with all my Italian parsley and then
I drop the seeds all round the garden so that I'm never without several
parsley patches because I do this routinely.