In the summer, I have several herbs growing in a couple pots on my front porch. I clip just what I need and move on. But now, we are getting into fall (praise be) and I will be buying more fresh herbs from the grocery store. Here is the best way to clean parsley. It really will last for quite a while in your fridge if you do this.

I fully admit I have a little OCD when it comes to cleaning parsley. You can cut out one or two of these steps if you want but if you follow all the steps it will always be ready to go.

1. Fill your clean sink or a large bowl with cold water (whatever size vessel you need for all your parsley to be fully submerged and have some room to float).
2. Pinch the parsley leaves off the stems and add them to the bowl.
   (This is my OCD kicking in. I do this by hand, getting each leaf. You can just cut the large stems from the bottom, you can “scrape” the leaves off with a knife, you can leave everything fully intact. I use my fingers and pull each leaf off because I have issues.)
3. Put your hand in the bowl and swirl everything around.
4. Let it sit there for a few minutes; all the dirt will all fall to the bottom of the bowl.
5. Gently lift the parsley out of the bowl and place it on a clean kitchen towel. (If you want you can also put a paper towel on top of the kitchen towel first for extra absorption.)
6. Place a paper towel on top of the parsley.
7. Begin to roll the towel all the way up.
8. Unroll the towel.
9. “Fluff” the parsley and let it dry there for at least 30 minutes.
10. Get a new paper towel and put all the parsley on that dry paper towel.
11. Gather up the four corners of the paper towel, fold in half or gently roll and put the “parsley package” in a Ziploc bag.
12. Store in the fridge.

Your parsley will be clean and ready for chopping. Keeping it in the paper towel, in the Ziplock, in the fridge is key for lasting freshness. It will last at least a week if not longer.