Spring is most definitely in the air, and and the great outdoors is calling us to get out and about, whether it is in our gardens or taking in the spring scenery.

• Food of the month: Parsley
• Parsley recipes
• Also in season
• In the garden

© NTPL / Rupert Truman

About parsley

Five things you probably didn't know about this versatile herb.

• Parsley contains three times more vitamin C than an orange.
• The Ancient Greeks believed that parsley grew from the blood of a slain hero, Archemorus.
• Parsley was used to mask the smell of the dead.
• Parsley is the most commonly used herb in America.
• The BBC children's show 'The Herbs' featured a friendly green lion called Parsley.

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Recipes

Chicken and Parsley Pie
A traditional dish found in both Devon and Cornwall. Delicious eaten both hot and cold.

Ingredients:

• 2 Chickens - meat cut off. Use the bones and skin to make stock
• Salt, pepper and nutmeg
• Flour for dusting
• 1 large bunch of parsley picked off the stems and chopped
• 4 shallots, finely chopped
• 100g cooked ham or bacon, diced
• 250ml chicken stock
• Shortcrust pastry
• 250ml double cream

Method:

• Season chicken with pepper, salt and a scrape of nutmeg. Then dust with flour.
• Place layer of parsley and shallot in bottom of a pie dish and cover with chicken pieces.
• Scatter ham, remaining parsley and shallots on top.
• Fill up dish with rest of chicken.
• Insert pie funnel in middle of the pie.
• Add stock to fill half the pie dish.
• Roll out pastry and cover the pie (cut hole for the funnel).
• Bake at 220^oc for 20 minutes, then lower to 170^oc for a further 60-70 minutes.
• Heat cream to boiling, then pour into cooked pie.
• Serve very hot or chilled.

From 'Farmhouse Cookery' Laura Mason

Perfect parsley sauce
An essential for any white or smoked fish, salmon or sea trout.

Ingredients (makes 1 1/2 pints):

• 1/2 pint milk
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 blade of mace
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 25g butter
• 25g plain flour
• 25g fresh parsley, chopped
• Lemon juice

Method:

• Put milk, bay leaf, parsley, mace and shallot in small pan and bring to boil.
• Remove from heat and allow to infuse for 20 minutes.
• Strain milk into a jug.
• Melt butter into a small pan, remove from heat and stir in flour.
• Return pan to heat and add milk a little at a time.
• When all milk is added, turn heat to low and let sauce cook for 20 minutes.
• Season to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

From 'Fish: Recipes from a busy island' by Sara Paston Williams

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Also in season

As spring has sprung, we see that there are increasingly more local, seasonal foods available to you - both in the shops and in your own vegetable plot. Here are some of the seasonal highlights.

Vegetables: Broccoli, cauliflower, celeriac, chicory, leeks, radishes, spring onions, beetroot, carrots, mint, sorrel.

Fruit: Rhubarb, some apples.

In the garden

You can get cracking with sowing this month. Broadbeans, brussels, cabbages, leeks and beetroots can all be sown outdoors if the ground is warm enough. Early varieties of potatoes can be planted out in March, as can shallots. You can start tomato seeds and celery off this month indoors in preparation for later in the year.

• Find out more about food and farming with the National Trust.