Petroselinum crispum.

The most ubiquitous herb in Western cuisine, and by far one of the most ancient — already cultivated by the Greeks and Romans, it carried considerable symbolic weight in antiquity: crown of the victors at the Isthmian Games, funeral flower associated with Persephone and the kingdom of the dead. Its Latin name Petroselinum means "rock celery," evoking the wild habitat of its Mediterranean ancestor, clinging to the limestone cliffs of southern Europe.

The flat-leaf variety — also called Italian or Neapolitan — is the unanimous choice of professional cooks: broad, flat, glossy dark-green leaves, and above all a sharper, more complex, peppery flavour than curly parsley (which has long served mainly as edible decoration). Chopped raw at the last minute, it is the soul of Milanese gremolata, Lebanese tabbouleh, Provençal persillade, Italian salsa verde, of a thousand soups, of every basil-less pesto. Cooked, it loses a little of its bite but stays indispensable in broths, stews and compound butters. Garden bonus: its second-year flowers attract a crowd of beneficial insects valuable to the vegetable garden — parasitic wasps, hoverflies, ladybugs.

Grower's tip: parsley is famous for its slow germination — an old English saying claims it "goes down to the devil seven times before coming up." To speed things along, soak the seeds 24 hours in warm water before sowing, then keep the soil constantly moist for the three weeks the seedlings take to emerge. Biennial, though most gardeners grow it as an annual; under a good mulch it often survives the Québec winter and starts up vigorously the next spring before bolting in June, completing the cycle for seed saving.

• Open-pollinated. Biennial. Insect-pollinated; crosses with other nearby parsleys — isolate for seed saving.
• Height: 30-45 cm in the first year.
• Maturity: 70-90 days for full harvest; first usable leaves at 6 weeks.
• Exposure: full sun to part shade (appreciates some shade in summer heat).
• Rich, cool, well-drained soil. Space plants 20-25 cm apart.
• Direct-sow as soon as the soil can be worked (April-May in Québec), or start indoors 6-8 weeks before transplanting to compensate for slow germination. Harvest outer stems and leave the heart, as with chard or lettuce.