Celery/Celeriac

This page is an open source resource guide for celery. It is for growing and maintaining the most bio-diverse, delicious, and broadly applicable celery selection possible. It contains cultural considerations, planting guidelines, descriptions, and the best places we’ve found for purchasing the species we’ve listed. As part of the One Community Highest Good food component of global transformation, this page will continue to evolve indefinitely to contain maintenance and care tips, accessioning and plant breeding and sharing information as part of the One Community open source botanical garden model, and even recipe’s, preparations, and preservation methods used on the property.

SUGGESTIONS     ●     CONSULTING     ●     MEMBERSHIP     ●     OTHER OPTIONS

Click these links to be taken directly to the relevant sections on this page:

• Celery Overview
• Cultural Considerations
• Planting Guidelines
• Specific Varieties
• Plant Material/Seed Providers
• Other Celery Resources
• Celery as Part of the Botanical Garden Model
• Celery Preparation, Preservation, and Recipes
• Links to Other Edible Plant Pages

PAGES RELATED TO THIS PAGE (click icons for complete pages)

CLICK THESE ICONS TO JOIN US THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

CELERY/CELERIAC

(Click here for celery/celeriac purchase details)

Celery/Celeriac (Apium graveolens)

Celery stems are fibrous, juicy, and eaten, cooked, dried, pickled, and canned; while the leafy tops are consumed as spicy greens. Whole plants with roots can be root cellared in moist sawdust for forcing in spring like endive. Tuberous-rooted forms known as celeriac also produce crisp flavorful roots for soups and stews. Celery comes in two primary types: traditional trench celery and self-blanching celery. Learn the difference HERE.

CULTURAL CONSIDERATIONS

• The plants like humus and good drainage
• Celeriac gets “black heart” disease if the soil is deficient in calcium
• Avoid excess nitrogen especially with Celeriac or roots will be small
• Whole plants can be blanched in paper tubes to increase tenderness
• Plants require steady moisture for best results, mulch helps with this

PLANTING GUIDELINES

Celery and celeriac are usually grown from transplants in spring, set out 8-12 inches apart. Mulch immediately and water in well. Lightly fertilize every 2-3 weeks with compost tea or worm casting tea.

VIDEO COMING: Planting tutorial followed by timelapse growth videos

SEE OUR HOW TO HELP AND/OR CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN PAGE IF YOU’D LIKE TO GET INVOLVED AND/OR SUPPORT ONE COMMUNITY’S DEVELOPMENT PROCESS.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Wikipedia – Celery/Celeriac

GCe#1 :: Hopkins Fenlander Celery/Celeriac Hopkins Fenlander a trench type celery that is hardy and grows within ten months from sowing. This celery has dark green leaves and many petioles that average about 4.5 inches long and 7.2 inches wide. The petioles rarely split, creating a moderately erect growth habit. GCe#2 :: Pascal Giant Celery/Celeriac The Pascal Giant is a French variety of celery also known as Winter King. It’s a biennial that grows best over a period of two years and produces crisp and flavorful 2 feet tall stalks that are surprisingly not stringy. It has large ribs, 2-inch thick stems, and a rich nutty taste. This celery blanches easily and is great in salads, soups, and chutneys also. It is suitable for gardens and market growers and stays fresh for a long time while retaining its color. For best results, this celery requires deep, well drained soil, a continuous supply of water, and plenty of organic matter to produce a soil pH between 6.5 and 7.5. GCe#3 :: Red Celery/Celeriac Red celery is a sturdy and bushy 18 inch plant with slender stalks that have a deep to lighter red/green color (depending on soil) and dark green leaves. The flavor of this celery is considered by most to be quite intense with a rich walnut like taste. It also holds its color when cooked, is great in soups because it does not cook soft, and provides leaves that substitute nicely for Italian parsley.  It is very cold hardy with most plants overwintering even in Vermont. GCe#4 :: Brilliant Celery/Celeriac The variety of celery called “Brilliant” provides 3-5 inch diameter round and hardy roots with baseball-sized white flesh, a curly top, and a nutty aromatic smoother-skinned celery that is pale green in color. It is an excellent keeper and great for soups, stews and especially tasty shredded in salads. GCe#5 :: Diamant Celery/Celeriac Diamant celery is creamy white on the inside and has leaves that grow up from the center. It has a delicate flavor that goes well shredded into salads, or slaw, or when used to flavor soups and stews. A cool weather vegetable that is difficult to grow and doesn’t like heat or humidity. However, once you succeed in growing and harvesting it, it has a good storage quality. GCe#6 :: Dolvi Celery/Celeriac Dolvi celery is a turnip rooted celery used most commonly as a vegetable in soups and stews. It is smooth tasting, fine grained, flavorful, and a good keeper. The large roots are harvestable in 120 days and do well when companion planted with spinach and tomatoes. GCe#7 :: Kornevoy Gribovskiy Celery/Celeriac Kornevoy Gribovskiy produces 3-5 ounce (5-6 cm in diameter and 80-150 gram) rounded grey-white root crops with lateral root branches in 115-165 days. This vegetable is aromatic, delicious, a good keeper, and commonly used fresh in soups and dried as a spice. It was first bred in the 1960s. GCe#8 :: Large Smooth Prague Celery/Celeriac Large Smooth Prague is a vegetable that is from the pre-1870s. It takes approximately 110 days to produce 2-4 inch roots with a flavor that is starchier and sweeter and celery with overtones of parsley. This celery is used in soups, fresh in salads, boiled, fried, or mashed with potatoes & served in cheese dishes. The roots store well in winter and the leaves are dried and used as spice. Another name for Large Smooth Prague is “turnip-rooted celery.” The culture is the same as for celery but the leaves are not edible (other than as a spice). GCe#9 :: Monstorpolgi Celery/Celeriac Monstorpolgi was first recorded as a food plant in France in 1623 and became common in Europe by the end of the 17th century. It takes 100 days to produce large firm round roots with few side roots. It is an excellent keeper and can be used as an alternative to potatoes in the winter. A rare variety with small roots, Monstorpolgi is delicious when added to stews and soups.

We will also be growing the following additional celery/celeriac:

Celery/Celeriac :: GCe#10 -GCe#18

10. Brydon’s Prize 11. Hollow Pipe of Malines 12. Red Venture 13. Solid Red  14. Solid White 15. Superadora 16. Tehama Sunrise 17. Ventura 18. Utah 52-70R

Celery/Celeriac Plant Material/Seed Providers:

• SSE = Seed Savers Exchange http://www.seedsavers.org

Celery/Celeriac Purchase Details

OTHER CELERY/CELERIAC RESOURCES

We are seeking awesome celery resources. If you know of one, please click here to share it with us so we can make this page better.

• Health Benefits of Celery
• Nutrition and Analysis of Celery
• What is Celery and How to Cook It
• How to Care for Celery
• Growing Celery Indoors, Never Buy Celery Again
• All About Growing Celery, Outdoors
• The 7 Most Alkaline Foods
• Regrowing Celery from Cuttings
• The Magic of Celery for Weight Loss
• Celery Seed Essential Oil Soothes Discomforts

CELERY/CELERIAC AS PART OF THE BOTANICAL GARDEN MODEL

This section will evolve to include accessioning and plant breeding and sharing information as part of the One Community open source botanical garden model.

CELERY/CELERIAC PREPARATION, PRESERVATION, AND RECIPES

This section will evolve to include testimonials, recipe’s, preparations, and preservation methods used on the property first, and then later with additional information from other Highest Good collaborators and teacher/demonstration hubs.

• Spicy Shrimp, Celery and Cashew Stir-Fry
• Cream of Celery Soup Recipe
• Celery, Pear and Hazelnut Salad
• Celery and Celery Root Salad
• Best Way to Store Celery
• Tomato Celery Mince Stew
• How to Use Up Celery

Vegan Stuffed Celery

Recipe courtesy of: Garden & Sea Salt Blog

Celery Sunomono

Recipe courtesy of: Japanese Cooking 101

LINKS TO OTHER EDIBLE PLANT PAGES