Yes.. Today Nov 6th I headed out to harvest the last 5 celery plants growing in Kitchen Garden Plot 1.. way back in the very early spring..
we started so many celery seeds.. that grew into a tray with so many celery babies.. they were used small and fresh, they were given in sets of 4 to 6 to fellow gardeners local to me.. those wee celery babies have grown into healthy leafy celery that has added intense flavour to many dishes.
Got to love with you can share the bounty.. I have never harvest Celery this last in the year before but it was holding and I was just going out and cutting what I needed for cooking fresh.. still even with the extra microzone cover from other plants it was reaching with the harder frost we were getting.. the outer thick leaves were solid heavy frosted in the morning but was still shaking it off and the densely covered tight packed bottoms suffered very little damage and they seemed to just shed a layer like a birch tree would and the rest was perfect under it..
Anyone that has grown Celery at home knows that its intense stuff.. that sweet, watery big thick stemmed celery we get at the store is nothing like the brighter rich green insanely intense CELERY you get on home grown.. and I always get at least as much green leaves tops as I do stalk..
I had done a quick little video or so I thought to show you in the garden.. turns out I didn’t in fact take it.. opps.. I took my pocket instead lol..
after a bottom trim, and a dirt off wash.. everything was cut into 3rds and into a cold, cold salt water bath/soak for 10 min for bugs and so on.. then stacked to drain for 5 min before being chopped..
Now you can use it for canning at that point if you wanted, you can lay it out flat on trays and freeze it then break it into chunks and double freezer bag it for future soup/stew use.. or you can be like me.. chop, chop, chop.. and into the dryer it goes.. trays worth.. I will dry it down and use the leaves in crumble form and the stalk dried.. sure a space saver and a little goes a long way..
Is there anything you are harvesting really late this year?
Oh, the video of your pocket sentence made me laugh XD
My Swiss chard is still out there, amazingly, though I should harvest it soon….
What is your favorite way to use it? I have some big ones in the garden that are still doing great as well.. and I just kind of look at them as I go for the cabbage family lol
I like them in a stir fry, or wilt them down a little bit in a frying pan, almost like spinach. Though I would say stir fry is how I like them best (mine aren’t that big either so take very little time to cook)