The History of Stuff: Parsley

Ever wonder about the history of things most people wouldn’t give two craps about? No? Ok, well I do. This is the first in a series of occasional blog posts helping clear up where some of that miscellaneous stuff comes from.

The History of Parsley

It is that green leafy plant used as a decoration on food in restaurants. Some people will actually eat it, like old fogies who lived through the Depression and still waste nothing today. They will eat the leather of their shoes instead of throwing them away because people starved back in the 1930’s.

But did you know parsley was the driving force behind US western expansion?

Back when there were just thirteen colonies there was a massive parsley shortage. While war never broke out, tensions were high among the citizens. Good news arrived when the Lewis and Clark expedition revealed vast fields of parsley in what is now the Great Plains. Well, I guess that is was it was called back then but they didn’t have a fancy name for it like we do now. The Indians probably called it ‘Green Bush on Food Field’ or something like that.

So everyone flocked west and fought the natives off, taking their bounty of parsley crops from the previous summer as well as their fertile land. It wouldn’t be until the Gold Rush in 1824 when the growing United States of America would again see such intense migration.

This is also why there are no Native American cuisine restaurants.

Next time on ‘The History of Stuff’…The History of Naming the Great Plains.

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