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| Photo credit: www.seedaholic.com |
Think "Tastes like celery, looks like Flat-leaf Parsley"...
To be honest, I was only vaguely aware of it until recently. As regular readers will know, I have recently written several times about the Mesclun I have been growing, and the fact that one of its elements is a Celery of some sort. Those little leaves are so strongly flavoured! One tiny leaf seems to have all the flavour of a huge stalk of Celery. It is because of this that I resolved to grow some myself for use as a salad ingredient.
The other day, when I was at the Hampshire Potato Day I approached one of the seed stalls asking for Celery seeds, and got talking with the stallholder. Once she knew why I wanted the seeds she advised me not to buy Celery or Celeriac, but to opt for Leaf Celery instead, which is what I did.
I must say I'm very pleased to have been able to buy a pack with LOADS of seeds in it for only £1.50! Following advice on the packet, I have kept the seeds in the fridge, fooling them into thinking they are experiencing a severe Winter! Hopefully this will make them all the more keen to germinate...
The seeds of Leaf Celery are very tiny, and having read that they need light to germinate, I used the sowing technique of scattering them on top of some moist compost, without covering them. I have put the seed-tray inside a plastic bag to increase humidity and it is now sitting under the lights in my Growlight House.
My plan is to use most of the plants as microgreens, but to let a few grow on so that I can transplant them outdoors when (if) the weather improves, with a view to establishing a self-seeding clump which will always be there to provide a few leaves when we need to add some oomph to a soup or stew.
I'll let you know how I get on, but don't hold your breath because even germination is said to take 2 - 3 weeks, and after that the plant "...grows somewhat slowly"!
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P.S. The new blue cast-iron saute pan had an outing on Valentine's Day. Jane made a Greek-style meal which included chicken breasts beaten out thin, marinated with lemon juice, garlic and herbs and then sauteed (of course!)
Jane said the pan was great because it was big enough to allow lots of room to manoeuvre, and the heat-retention properties of the cast-iron mean that the pan does not lose too much heat when the food goes into it.
Leaf celery seems like an interesting one to grow. This year I'm trying celeriac for the first time.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the Celeriac. It's not an easy vegetable to grow well!
Deleteleaf celery & cilantro or chinese parsley, is it the same? I always use them in my cooking especially chicken soup (Malaysian style)
ReplyDeleteNo, Leaf Celery and Coriander (Cilantro) are very different. I know, because I am very allergic to Coriander!
DeleteI have never heard of leaf celery but I am already running through the ways it would be useful. I usually end up sacrificing some of my celery plants for cutting early in the season and using them more as an herb.
ReplyDeleteI've never grown celery or celeriac, and have never heard of leaf celery before. It will be interesting to see if it's worth growing instead of the other two.
ReplyDeleteI hope the leaf celery is a good celery substitute as we have had total failures with both celery and celeriac, Not that it doesn't grow but neither developed the bits that they should i.e. stalk or root.
ReplyDeleteI grew something one year that was like that. I can't remember what it was called now. I do remember it was great because Phil hates celery and I can put the leaves of celery in my dishes any time and he doesn't know.
ReplyDeleteI really like your new pan!
I bought some in my last seed order, I' hoping for a clump of it myself.
ReplyDelete