Parsley is one of the herbs that we always have growing. Sometimes it’s planted in the vegetable garden and other times it’s planted with the herbs along the walkway. You’ll need growing space of at least 1 sq. ft. for one parsley plant.
Parsley is a biennial plant, one that grows for two years, flowering in the second year. It will overwinter here at Zone 6, but I’m not sure how far north you can go and still get the second year crop. Further north parsley is probably treated as an annual by planting it each year. To protect it over the winter, we pile up leaves all around the parsley plants and perennial herbs.
The first year is pure vegetative growth. The plant will get larger and bushier. When the stems are too long they won’t remain erect and droop out to the sides, making the parsley plant into a large round shape.
Parsley second year right after overwintering.
Second year growth is primarily involved with sending up a flower stalk. Biennials require some sort of winter period of dormancy before they can flower. During the second year you should harvest as early in the year as possible because the plant will put most of its energy into creating the flower stalk, flowers and seeds, not in producing more parsley leaves.
Bolting is the term given to the rapid growth of the flower stalk in the second year. Once the plant has bolted, you might as well find another parsley to transplant. After bolting and setting seed the parsley plant dies.
Harvest any of the parsley as it grows. You can use scissors or just your fingers. The stems are pliable enough to let you just pinch off a piece. Snip off a sprig here and there for garnishes.
Before the flower stalk gets too tall, we usually harvest most of the parsley and put it in freezer bags, as is. Once frozen, you can use scissors to snip off some parsley for your soup or potatoes when ever you need it, and re-freeze the remaining parsley.
Went grocery shopping just the other day and looked for the licorice root and ginseng herbal tea that I liked so much. I was delighted to find out that Celestial Seasonings still makes this “Tension Tamer” herbal tea. I was attracted to the smell of this tea, even though what I had was an admittedly old box of tea.
The packaging has been updated to emphasize that this herbal tea is 100% natural, an herbal tea, and caffeine free. All good selling points.
If the addition of B vitamins was a (weak?) selling point and if it doesn’t change the taste of the tea if not added, then why is it added? I also wonder if Celestial Seasonings studied how long you have to soak your one teabag to get all the vitamins they claim on the Nutrition Facts panel. By putting a value on this Food and Drug Administration required panel the intention is to show consumers what and how much of what they are consuming. We have no way of knowing how much vitamin B will be consumed by drinking of cup of tea. Don’t bank on this tea for providing your daily intake of B vitamins. Eat something multi-grain!
The ingredients appear to be about the same as before. A few ingredient names are slightly changed, like eleuthero ginseng root has become eleuthero, and peppermint leaves has become peppermint. The order of the contents is the same, which means that these ingredients are in the same relative quantities as before. Doesn’t seem like the tea blend has been changed, except to not specify whether it is the root or leaves used for most ingredients.
Ingredients of Tension Tamer Herbal Tea
eleuthero
peppermint
cinnamon
ginger
chamomile
West Indian lemongrass
licorice
catnip
tilia flowers
natural lemon flavor with other natural flavors (contains soy lecithin)
hops
Vitamins B6 and B12
I could smell the tea right after taking off the clear plastic wrap. Opening the cardboard box showed a heat-sealed inner liner made of waxed- or parchment-type paper to hold the teabags. The tea smelled like American pennyroyal, a menthol-smelling cousin of the mints. Opening the bag brought out an even stronger minty smell.
Tension Tamer’s taste is like before, only with a stronger flavor and more tones of mint. On steeping the tea you could smell mint at first and then pick up the citrus overtones. Tasting it after a 4-6 minute steep and removing the bag – as the directions suggest – gave a minty lemon taste, very pleasing to the tongue and not too bitter, balanced with sweetness and finished off with slight licorice tones. Feels clean in my mouth!
I’ve always liked lemon and citrus flavors and licorice, so I found Tension Tamers herbal tea a refreshing cup.
I didn’t really taste the ginger to say Hey, there’s ginger in there, but I’ll bet that your taste buds will come to attention with this tea. There is a little snap to it! No need for sugar or honey, in my opinion.
Might be nice to use a bag or two of Tension Tamers tea in a glass jug for sun tea. I’d mix a black or green tea with it to give that a sweet lemony touch.
I do love a company who takes on the view of a world in harmony. I get that feeling from Celestial Seasonings. The bottom of the tea box emphasizes that the company is environmentally aware by using recycled paperboard in their packaging and by supporting sustainable harvesting in many countries. Makes sense to do that last part – if your commodity is grown halfway around the world and you rely on long-distance transport to receive your product – you better help take care of the people harvesting your product in the first place, right? Ethical trade, Rock On!
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