What About The Celery

By VI

Baby it's cold outside.  Around me, there's a limited growing season and no year-round farmer's markets.  Yet, thank you very much, I still manage, some oranges aside, to eat local.  The hardest thing about eating local in Chicago: not managing your stock of root vegetables or wondering where you could put fifty pounds of potatoes. No, it's not having to eat all those root vegetables and potatoes.  While my family and I allow exceptions for things that do not grow around here, those oranges; we will not dabble in stuff that we can get, at least in season.  So, no matter how bad our apricot crop was this year, we will not get an outta region apricot.  Which gets us to the celery.  That's hard.  I got a head of celery this week, and it made me really happy.

Let me say first and foremost that the problem lies in our limited crop of celery, but before I get to that, let me highlight a few other issues with Illinois celery.  It's not really celery.  It's like celery with an extra dose of whatever phylochemicals or neurotoxins that makes celery taste like celery.  Most of the celery available at our farmer's markets taste so much like celery that it's barely palatable on its own.  Even if you can take it as a crudite, Illinois celery mostly lacks another element beloved of this plant.  Our celery is mostly groove-less.  There is no place to put the peanut butter or blue cheese.  In fact, last year my friend Farmer Vicki of Genesis Growers had celery so thin she passed it off as "German cutting celery" (is that real?).  Our intense, stalky celery may have limited utility.

Illinois celery is not a munching thing.  It is still a cooking thing.  How many recipes call for celery.  Nary a braise, broth, soup or stock does not call for a form of mirepoix, where celery plays an equal part.  Celery is key, especially for the winter cooking around here.  You cannot find local celery at the grocer.  Celery is not a crop of the farm stands.  At the farmer's markets, only a few vendors carry it.  If you do not go to the right places, you will find no local celery.  Those few vendors have the celery for about ten weeks starting in late August.  Celery lasts a bit in the fridge, but it does not have the Voldemortish staying power of say, the carrot, its mirepoix friend.  Celery's a watery thing, if Illinois celery has a bit less than supermarket celery, it's still mostly water.  Mostly watery things seldom freeze well.  I have come across one solution to the celery issue.

Celery powder.  Not celery salt or celery seed.  We got the idea from Plum Produce in Boston.  Plum dehydrates seasonal produce then grinds into powders.  I'm not sure if they've done celery.  I'm not sure if localvores in Boston have a celery issue.  But the idea seems like a good one.  I'm not sure if I'll try with my special greenhouse celery I have now.  I'm thinking of perhaps bronzing it.  Next year, however, I am going to powder as much celery as I can.  See, when it comes to eating local, the celery may be the biggest problem I've come across.

Vital Information records our mostly successful efforts at eating local, celery aside.

Comments

[valereee]

When you do find it, freeze it. You can freeze mirepoix, in fact.

Frozen raw celery is no good for eating -- but, as you point out, much of our local celery (I'm in SW OH) isn't really munchie standard celery anyway -- but it will do fine for cooking. Raw celery chopped, frozen, and thawed will have the texture and appearance of celery that has been briefly sweated and will be usable in any recipe which requires further cooking.

Val

[Korinthe]

I'm eating local in Boston, and my biggest celery problem is that my husband hates the taste of it. :)

Freezing mirepoix, not a bad idea at all. Dehydrating-then-freezing may also work all right; I'll try that this summer. Thanks!

[Joanna]

Wow, you're right, Illinois celery is like supermarket celery on steroids. It's SO flavorful that literally 1/3 the amount called for will do it. Like Val, I also freeze my celery. I cut it into small pieces and freeze it on a sheet tray, then scoop it all into a freezer bag. Works great for soups, not so great for peanut butter!

[plentyofmoxie]

if celery powder would yield just the flavor, I wonder if lovage, a celery tasting herb, would grow on the windowsill and serve as stand-in for flavor as well? Some herbs are so good at the windowsill thing, but others, not so much. I don't know about lovage.

[foodtube.net]

foodtube.net "Find a Video Recipe, or Add Your Own!"

Hello,

We would like to introduce our website, http://www.foodtube.net/ It's similiar to youtube except that it's all food videos. You can find video recipes from many countries around the world. You can also add your own video, or star in your own! Thanks for checking out the website. Please spread the word. Have fun!

info@foodtube.net

[Julie]

I'm not a huge fan of celery, so whenever I need aromatics in a recipe (especially at this time of year when there's not much growing outside here in Colorado), I use leeks.

I realize this is not an exact substitution, but you can heel in leeks in the home garden or usually find local ones at the store most of the year.

And OK, you can't put peanut butter on leeks (ewww!), but my kids won't eat celery and peanut butter anyway!

[Kristi]

I dehydrate celery and lovage both for use in any cooking. Works great tastes great. Celery will keep for a while in a bucket of sand in cool place,just pull plant and replant in bucket.Only way to get mellower taste is to blanch it.Hill dirt up around stems. yup there is a cutting celery too, thinner stems, more like parsley, with lots of flavor!

[Kim]

I DID freeze several bags of mirepoix this summer (some with green peppers, as I'm not a huge celery fan), and I am LOVING how easy it makes it to throw into a pan to start a soup. No need to clean the cutting board or knife!

[Lisa Brown]

What the heck is mirepoix? I grow about everything including celery but never heard of mirepoix.
I freeze chopped celery works fine for cooking. Also dry the leaves, crumble them for soups etc...if you want the flavor.
Lisa

[Mirepoix]

Mirepoix is a French preparation that is used in many dishes and is comprised of carrots, onions, and celery sauteed in butter in a specific proportion. It is used as a base for soups, stews, deglazing, and other uses.
Will