Hello all!
I have a question about cow parsley (wild chervil.) There's an absolute abundance of it growing beside my house (although it has flowered now, so rather past its initial best - still plenty of leaves under the flower-heads though.)
Firstly does anyone know whether more than a handful for each rabbit is too much cow parsley? I can't find anything that would indicate it's an "only in moderation" sort of food, so while it is there and happily growing like well... a weed... I'd quite like to take advantage of it, but want to check that no-one knows of a reason why not to first!
Secondly, has anyone had any experience of trying to dry it for overwinter use, and if so how successful was it? There's just masses of it out there. I have inspected it all closely enough to be sure it is definitely cow parsley and not fool's parsley (or worse, hemlock
) but if I were to go out there with my clippers and start hacking down swathes of it I would of course be extra careful to make sure there wasn't a single sneaky hemlock plant nestled amongst the tasty parsley that would rather ruin the whole operation :x
Essentially, I don't want to hang up a bunch of it to try and dry it for "storage" and have it end up spoiling/being wasted, when it could've just been eaten here and now. I very much want to take advantage of the great big pile o'free food in the area just outside my garden wall, but I also don't want to throw great handfuls of the one plant at my buns alongside their dandelions and dock leaves and fresh grass and hay (and pellets) when it isn't the best thing to give them lots of.
Does anyone have any thoughts? Thanks in advance
(I posted this over on another forum but I think their "rabbit section" is rather empty so I followed some signature links to here - much more likely to find knowledgeable folks here I think)
I have a question about cow parsley (wild chervil.) There's an absolute abundance of it growing beside my house (although it has flowered now, so rather past its initial best - still plenty of leaves under the flower-heads though.)
Firstly does anyone know whether more than a handful for each rabbit is too much cow parsley? I can't find anything that would indicate it's an "only in moderation" sort of food, so while it is there and happily growing like well... a weed... I'd quite like to take advantage of it, but want to check that no-one knows of a reason why not to first!
Secondly, has anyone had any experience of trying to dry it for overwinter use, and if so how successful was it? There's just masses of it out there. I have inspected it all closely enough to be sure it is definitely cow parsley and not fool's parsley (or worse, hemlock
) but if I were to go out there with my clippers and start hacking down swathes of it I would of course be extra careful to make sure there wasn't a single sneaky hemlock plant nestled amongst the tasty parsley that would rather ruin the whole operation :x Essentially, I don't want to hang up a bunch of it to try and dry it for "storage" and have it end up spoiling/being wasted, when it could've just been eaten here and now. I very much want to take advantage of the great big pile o'free food in the area just outside my garden wall, but I also don't want to throw great handfuls of the one plant at my buns alongside their dandelions and dock leaves and fresh grass and hay (and pellets) when it isn't the best thing to give them lots of.
Does anyone have any thoughts? Thanks in advance
(I posted this over on another forum but I think their "rabbit section" is rather empty so I followed some signature links to here - much more likely to find knowledgeable folks here I think
)
