Greetings and Salutations to all you intrepid gardeners out there, welcome back to another installment of the Forage Foods series on Lost In The Farmer’s Market. As you might already know the current Geo-Political situation coupled with inflation and supply shortages has prompted a series on foods you can forage for just in case things go sideways. Even if they don’t, forage foods may have added nutritional benefits and may also have medicinal benefits that can help you out.
This is what Parsley-piert looks like after it's gotten it's first few true leaves. The plant is compared for scale against the tip of a standard aluminum garden trowel. 
This is a big cluster of Parsley-piert, now some might mistake it for German Knotweed but if you look carefully at the lobed leaves you can see it's the Piert. This plant was found in a kids park and has been scalped by a lawnmower a few times which is why it looks this way. It is also a cluster of plants not a single specimen and note the very sandy soil.
Common Name: Parsley-piert
Other Common Names: Field Parsley Piert, Parsley Breakstone, Parsley Piercestone, Field Lady’s Mantle.
Botanical Family: Rosaceae (The X/X Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Alchemilla arvensis (Formerly known as Aphanes arvensis)
Season to Harvest: Spring to early summer.
Habitat: This winter-annual is commonly found in lawns but is not very big and thus is often hard to spot. It seems to prefer sandy soils in the southeast that see modest amounts of foot traffic but not too much. It grows in full sun exposure and seems to be modestly drought-resistant.
Parts to Harvest: The leaf tips are what you are after, but given the plant’s average size it may be difficult to harvest enough of this plant to make a meal of it so it will have to be added withy other leaf greens.
Poisonous Lookalikes: None known or listed in references be careful.
Related Edible Species: None currently known.
Description: Parsley-piert is a freely branching low-growing winter annual with somewhat fuzzy lobed leaves that kind of resemble a mix of flat-leaved and curled parsley. The plant as a whole almost looks like something that’s been partially chewed by a grazing animal. Most specimens I’ve seen are on the small size with none individually being taller than two inches or wider than three inches however clusters of plants can seem like they are one bigger plant. This plant can be found ranging from Maryland into Georgia, and it’s fairly common in the Sandhills of North Carolina. The scientific name Aphanes comes from a Greek root word which means ‘Unseen’ or ‘Unnoticed’ which kind of fits these little plants.
How to Harvest: Stem tips with leaves can be harvested manually. I do suspect this plant would be more productive if actually cultivated.
Recipe: While there are no flat out recipes for Parsley-piert, as I noted earlier it can be used in forage salads, but the individual plants are a bit small to make up the bulk of a forage salad. A number of references indicate that Parsley-piert can be pickled which makes for a great option for making it a storage food. There is some suggestive information hat this plant can be used for clearing kidney stones, and it is suggested that it is a powerful diuretic and a soothing demulcent for the urinary tract.
A special note: The title of this page is a flat reference to Reet Petite by Jackie Wilson go give it a listen, I promise after you do you wont quite look at a certain newer song the same way ever again. But putting plagiarism in the music industry aside, yes Reet Petite is definitely this plants theme song.
With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.
For those of you wondering what plants are going to be at the market this weekend here is the list.
Garden Stuff: ($3.00)
Tomato – Sungold
Tomato – Chocolate Cherry
Tomato – Glacier
Tomato – Mountain Pride
Tomato – Paul Robeson
Tomato – Purple Cherokee
Tomato – Black Krim
Peppers – Carolina Reaper (limited item)
Peppers – Trinidad Scorpion (limited item)
Peppers – Ghost
Peppers – Cayenne
Peppers – Anaheim
Peppers – Bell
Okra – Red Burgundy
Okra – Jing Orange
Basil – Rutgers DMR Devotion
Sage – White (VERY limited Item, $9.00)
Marigolds – Strawberry Blonde
Amaranth – Early Splendor
Cock’s Comb – Scarlet
Castor Bean – Zanzibar
Roselle
Marshmallow
Ground Cherries
Wonderberry
Coming Soon:
More TBA!
How to stay in Contact with Us!
Our group’s online presence has migrated to Nextdoor.com. All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.
Also please take a gander at the Youtube version of this blog:
The Videos: Look Here
>Newest videos (2): - Beets, Purple Heart
Meetings still going on! We now meet at LeClairs General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next meeting is on June 2nd between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.
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