Celery

Published at

spring

Celery is a tough thing to grow in Georgia – so getting organic celery in our boxes is such a gift. Conventionally grown celery is one of the dirty dozen fruits and vegetables – pretty heavily chemical-laden. No matter what they do, a Georgia farmer is never going to grow those gigantic stalks of celery we’ve been accustomed to. This little bunch of celery is just what celery should be – and so flavorful! I hope you’re going to use it right away, but if you’re one of those folks who only uses celery once in a while, then dice up what you don’t eat fresh and store it in the freezer. It won’t ever do in place of fresh, but if you’re cooking up a mirepoix (celery, onions, carrots) or a batch of gumbo and need the Cajun trinity (celery, onions, peppers), you’re all set. Plus you’ve got all those great peppers in the box – and maybe a few onions leftover from boxes past …. make up your own mixture and freeze it in recipe-size portions. Done!

(2023) Lentil Soup

We’ve returned from a ten day road trip to the Madawaska Kanu Centre (MKC) in Ontario. In addition to a week full of daily paddling instruction, their kitchen kicks out homecooked meals three times a day. I grabbed some of their recipe cards from the gift store. 

The boys have chosen the following recipe for this week. Looks easy, uses that single old leek, celery, and the tomato from yesterday that was a little bruised, and can get served with leftover rice and pan-fried okra tossed in cornmeal, my favorite okra treatment.

NOTE: The leftover lentils were delicious in a salad with Ceasar dressing, and mixed into ground beef for burgers and meatloaf.

(2023) Corn and Celery Stir-Fry

I am tempted to just chop everything up and make a big salad with a little of everything in it – yes, raw corn, and YES, raw okra. And that will be dinner tonight. But eventually we’ll want something else, so I’ve got three ideas here – two from my go-to New York Times (cold noodles with tomatoes!) but one that was demonstrated at the Decatur Farmers Market. I have to say that I truly miss restaurant chef demos at local farmers markets. At once time that was a mainstay of the markets and always a source of creative inspiration … now they’re extremely rare, but the Community Farmers Market folks have local cooks who do demos most every week, and their recipes are perhaps a bit more practical and maybe easier to pull off.

(2022) Celery Toasts

I think it’s a Riverview record … celery three weeks in a row. Wonder what made this a banner year for celery? I admit, it’s a lot of celery for us since there’s no one here who enjoys Ants on a Log the way I did as a kid – celery sticks filled with peanut butter and dotted with raisins. Wonder when I outgrew that?

So most of this bunch of celery will be chopped and frozen for dishing out when needed in recipes. I did that with the first bunch … and will just keep stocking up.

But I’m saving the inner stalks to make the celery toast (recipe down below) that was published in the New York Times.. Guess I’m on a toast kick …. like the cucumber-ricotta toasts from last week. That comes of having good sourdough bread in the house. (Yes, I’m using sourdough instead of white Pullman bread.) And if you’re not a blue cheese fan (although this is a classic combination like those celery sticks with blue cheese dressing people eat while chowing down on chicken wings), a good cream cheese will do, or I hear the ricotta sold by Gatherings at the Decatur Farmers Market is really delicious. Hope you have a green onion or two left over from last week.

(2021) Speedy Summer Gazpacho

For a recipe that won’t heat up the kitchen, I’m considering this easy gazpacho published in a story called “Eat to Beat Illness” by Rupy Aujla. It calls for a few more tomatoes that were in the box, but …. you could use some cherry tomatoes, you could just cut down on tomatoes, or maybe just like me, you bought some tomatoes last weekend at a farmers market and have a few to spare. The proportion of ingredients is totally up to you and what’s sitting on your counter. The recipe calls for serving right from the food processor, but I’m going to chill mine before serving. Which I guess defeats the “speedy” of the title, but I just like my gazpacho cold!

(2020) Aluma Farm’s Veggie Pickles

Love that the Aluma Farm recipe helps you understand how much brine to make, depending on how many pickles you’re putting up. Really helpful for those of us pickling on the fly.

(2019) Celery and Green Onion Soup

As demonstrated by Chef Ryan Smith at the Freedom Farmers Market. If you have a juicer, then you’re set to make your own celery juice. Otherwise, consider substituting vegetable broth. The resulting soup is way more than the sum of its simple parts.

(2017) Kale Celery and Pineapple Power Juice

This recipe was submitted by CSA subscriber Silvia Medrano-Edelstein, the chef instructor and founder of Word of Mouth Cooking Club specializing in kid’s gourmet meal-kit prepping camps and specialty events like kiddie mocktails and gingerbread houses. Her recipes don’t include exact measurements, but you can figure it out.

(2017) Stir-Fried Beef and Celery

This recipe showed up in my inbox today, sent by the folks at the Splendid Table. It’s from “Malaysian: Recipes From a Family Kitchen” by Ping Coombes. When I saw the first sentence of their description, I thought it was apropos for that beautiful bunch of celery in today’s box: “The star of the dish here is the celery. It’s an undervalued vegetable and often an afterthought thrown into salads or soup stock, or served as crudités, or enjoyed with a Bloody Mary. But I love this vegetable. If I can have it stir-fried with loads of garlic, salt and white rice, I am a happy girl. I find the combination of medium-rare beef and celery divine, so here is my version of Cantonese black bean and beef, given a celery oomph. Serve it with plenty of rice.”

Shaved Fennel, Celery and Blueberry Salad

These days we are seeing lots of kale or spinach and strawberry salads on restaurant menus. A nice pairing of two seasonal ingredients. But why not extend that sort of thinking into early summer with fennel and blueberries? This is a basic idea you can modify by including whatever vegetables you like. And add some of that beautiful local celery. Just be sure to slice it thinly.

Ideas for Kale and Celery

How nice to keep getting kale into July. Kale is definitely the trendy vegetable. They’re even talking about it on the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/drew-ramsey-md/health-benefits-kale_b_3529768.html. I’m including one smoothie recipe here, but check out this Serious Eats post about kale cocktails:http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2013/06/cocktails-with-kale-juice-recipes-green-juice-in-cocktails-rum-drinks-gin-whiskey.html. Did you try last week’s celery? And now another bunch this week. Wonderful! Obviously you noticed Read More…

notes about celery

Celery is a tough thing to grow in Georgia – so getting organic celery in our boxes is such a gift. Conventionally grown celery is one of the dirty dozen fruits and vegetables – pretty heavily chemical-laden. No matter what they do, a Georgia farmer is never going to...