Photo by Rick Gush
turnip-rooted celery may be vile , but it surely is good !
While most other difficult and trade union movement - intensivevegetable crop , such as Belgian escarole and Italian red chicory plant are attractive veg , this workweek ’s discipline is well one of the ugly vegetable around . Celeriac , Apium graveolens rapaceum , is ugly , mostly unknown and has a well - merit report for being difficult . But those who appreciate a horticultural challenge and can get this veg , which is about the eq of a bowling ball , will get it tastes very good .
The reason turnip-rooted celery and its close cousin , celery , are difficult to grow is that weather fluctuations can cause the plant to go to blossom before they have undergone adolescence . Celeriac is a biennial , which means that when things go normally , the works will develop a flower in the summertime of its second year . But if a few cold-blooded 24-hour interval appear after a period of very warm Day , the plants are sometimes fooled into think that it is already wintertime , and their metamorphosis shifts . Then , when the warm weather returns , the plant that think it was just wintertime now cerebrate it is in its second summer and will start bring on a flower stalk .
When the celeriac ’s flower - stalk production starts , the edible tone of the vegetable apace declines . What are desired , on celery and celeriac , are mature teen that have not yet have the adult desire to produce a flower ; that is , plants that went through the summertime without any flower - triggering issue .
Celeriac is a industrial plant from the swamps and treasure a wet office in the garden ; arid grime can also activate previous flowering . surround grow plants in soil with high constitutive capacity and thickmulchhelps keep the wet content high in the get environment . I like to bury some manure orcompostbelow the surface of the bed in the gloaming in preparation for planting celery or celeriac in the previous saltation . There is absolutely no welfare to planting celeriac early ; I discover that growing seedlings inside , and strategically planting them outdoors at a later fourth dimension , is the best plan for these temperamental plant .
When knob celery is planted in April or May , the ancestor boss start to expand in August and will keep growing until there is a really hard frost . A flake of frost seems to make the stem mass a lilliputian sweeter , so the harvest usually occupies that position between the first small-scale frost and the first openhanded frost .
The good growers often harvest the veggie , and then store it in sand - filled box inside a garage , shed or take root cellar . This not only keeps the root protected from a hard freezing but also keep the roots fresh for many month . celery root roots will abide crisp for many months in the refrigerator .
I ’ll wager most referee have never eat root celery . If you’re able to get your hand on some , taste it unsanded or make ; it ’s tasty either way . It ’s sort of like a tater that smack like cultivated celery , and those two vegetables are often cooked together . Just last dark , I had celeriac and white potato vine mashed together , which created an interesting flavor that was like a cheerily alien version of a bake - white potato dish .
