Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Celery

Bloody Mary shared amongst farm friends, photo by Perla Batalla

Aside from kids' affinity with ants on a log and mine with a home grown bloody mary, celery is one of those backstage vegetables (or rather, back of the bottom drawer). Is it because celery is ubiquitous- a staple food in the household, a knee jerk item in the grocery shop, easy to enjoy raw- that it is so often overlooked?
We've been celebrating celery for the past few months at Rio Gozo Farm, it's the first year we added celery to the expanding list of vegetables for Rio Gozo's Ventura CSA. Since Ventura County is the largest grower of celery in California, why haven't we grown it before?
Celery is a high value, high cost crop. Large scale celery production takes a lot of water, fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides; and it requires hand harvesting and careful packing. See the link for a list of chemicals used on celery. http://www.pesticideinfo.org/DS.jsp?sk=29113#TopChems
Frankly, we were intimidated. Our celery is organically grown and John discovered if we hand pick the stalks- picking from the original plants for the season as opposed to cutting out the whole plant- hooray! we have celery for all of December, January, and February. Are you running out of ideas on what to do with your celery?

The first thing that comes to mind is stock. Celery is part of the holy trinity in mirepoix, a diced vegetable medley to start all stocks, soups, stews, and sauces. You can substitute ingredients such as fennel, leeks, and garlic. The ingredients are sauteéd in either butter or olive oil depending on if you're heritage is french or italian.
Here's a video on how to make it.


And of course don't forget those ants on a log and Bloody Mary.
Enjoy.


http://ucanr.org/freepubs/docs/7220.pdf
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-04-19/news/vl-1941_1_celery-crop

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Community Supported Agriculture

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There is plenty of gozo at Rio Gozo Farm. That is JOY in Spanish and joy is one of the most dependable products we have. Gozo is commonly found in gardens and farms. Once you get a little gozo up and going it is very tolerant of most pests, withstands dry periods, and grows with a modicum of fertilizer. After gozo becomes a staple of one's diet, it goes with about anything. Actually folks crave it so much it is a wonder everyone does not have a patch of it growing close at hand. Grab up some gozo and get with the flow.