Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Although the outer leaves of celeriac tend to be tough, they can be used to flavour
stock and soups as a substitute for celery itself, which is out of season in winter. The
tender inner leaves are mild enough to chop straight into salad, and if you keep
removing them the plant should not bolt until late April, making it a useful harvest
for the hungry gap.
Once cut, celeriac root quickly turns brown unless it is cooked immediately or
dipped in water with a splash of lemon juice in it. At this stage it can be stored in
the fridge for two or three weeks. Celeriac also freezes well after blanching for
four minutes in boiling water.
Problems
Celery fly
and
slugs
. Celeriac is a strong and unfussy plant, and is unlikely to
come under significant attacks by pests and diseases once established. The excep-
tion to this is slugs, which create small holes in the young root as it develops.
Woodlice
lack the strong mouth parts to get through the root's tough skin, but
will happily excavate any slug holes into large cavities, which can render large
portions of the root unusable. To reduce these attacks, always remove the leaves
as they collapse and keep the root portion well earthed up from the very start. If
you put copper rings around the plants to keep slugs away, make sure you
remove them before the growing root gets too big to do so easily.
Celery
Varieties:
'Reselected Giant Red' (for overwintering), 'Green Utah', 'Full White'
Although celery is often regarded as a difficult vegetable, modern varieties are
actually easy to grow and very worthwhile contenders for some space in the tun-
nel. A versatile and uniquely flavoured vegetable, celery is eaten raw in salads
and can also be cooked, especially later in the year when the stems are larger and
less tender.
With a polytunnel you can be eating fresh celery from June onwards. Celery can
even stand through the winter and into the following spring, though the stems
may become somewhat stringy as the plant gets older.
