Do people really grow celery at home? I'm still blown away by this.We spent most of the summer simply trimming stalks off our bunches as needed, and letting the remaining stalks grow. It worked fine.
But the other day we had a hankering for a deep, dark bowl of celery soup (the second this season, sue me). And it seemed to make most sense just to hoist up an entire head.
Gah! It was hard to pull out of the ground. Those roots, man. They're twisty and tenacious. They glom onto the dirt in a way you couldn't imagine. I tried to unweave some of the roots, but there was so much dirt in there, it wasn't worth it.
So we hacked off the roots and made the delirious soup. You must try it. Next time I might even add potatoes.
I'm saving one of the celery bunches (still in the ground) for a brunch party next month. They'll be great in Bloody Marys. I've even offered to bring tomato juice from the garden.
Now, I'm off to the kitchen to juice the tomatoes. (And into the freezer. Can't wait. The tomatoes need to be used.)
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11 comments:
i hope i manage to get back in time for my brunch party. Right now I am having an American embassy visa nightmare and I am stuck in the UK. Thankfully my mum will let me stay here for ever if needs be.
....
sam
ps the last thing i did in the US was to make pear sorbet with the ripest of yours trulies...
Can't say that I ever thought of growing celery. I'm assuming that you grew it from seed and that may be why I never considered it. I've never had much luck germinating seeds. *pout* If I could have ...
man, I am dying to grow celery! you make it seem so...cool! I do love the digging up of veggies. I love to unearth potatoes, you never know whats there until you dig in!
Ack, I've had no luck with the stuff, even though now that I live a scant 35 miles from the place where the stuff was first massively cultivated in this country. Yep: the good Dr. Kellogg, he of cereal fame, first tried to get us all to eat celery. Kind of a Road to Wellville moment. (I swear I'm really not a repository of arcania about foodstuffs, but CC you keep pitching me these softballs!)
Anyway, every time I have grown the stuff, it's been mealy skinny overly stringy stuff. I guess it just needs much more moisture than I can give it. SO I envy your soup and bloody mary stirrers. Pinkies up!
wow - i love this photo.
Er, we grow some. The big problem is keeping those snails out of it! Even copper tape around the bed doesn't always stop them - they sneak in via a hanging-over plant branch.
Wow. I heard that these grow tall - is that true?? Soup sounds yummy!
Sam: What the heck is going on? I got nervous when I read about this on your mum's blog.
Sorbet... you are a kitchen goddess.
Dagny: Not from seed. No, not me. Not brave enough. We found this cute little six-pack at the nursery, and... it worked!
Stacie: Try it. It seems to be a late-season crop. Earlier in the summer we were just robbing tiny ribs off the plants, but they finally look like "real" celery now.
El: I've had such WEIRD good luck this summer. I can only assume it will all turn black and moldy next time I try.
As for moisture, we catch the water in our shower in a bucket while waiting for it to warm up (long way from water heater). And it always gets dumped on the celery.
Jen: I get lucky once in a while. :) Thanks.
Jack: I'm pretty sure we have snails here, and I know we have slugs... But! No problems. Maybe because we have more sunlight than you?
Anna: They're actually not tall. Not even as tall as grocery-store celery. But the flavor is awesome.
Those are some sexy roots BABY!
Steamy: Yep, sometimes it's *good* when your roots show. ;)
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