Similar to the basil, I am experimenting with celery this year. I’ve never grown celery before; I’m not quite sure why I’ve thought it was tricky to grow. I am lucky though to not have slugs or snails, maybe they are hard on celery. I love celery –and the more celery-ish the flavor the better. The celery from the garden is much stronger than what I get from the store. I started seeds (in late February) and, not trusting my seedlings, I also bought a little four pack of celery from the greenhouse.

I planted the seedlings I grew from seed in this bed and they were much smaller than the ones I purchased. I sort of hardened them off –if putting them out for a couple of days before sticking them in the ground counts (but since I wasn’t bringing them in at night I don’t think that really counts). Anyway, here are the stalks I started from seed.

There are three short rows here (celery, zinnias, and bull’s blood beets).

Here are the ones I bought as seedlings. They are in a different bed between some basil and parsnips.

I’ve started cutting some of it to eat (more than just munching a stalk or two while in the garden).

I cooked this celery with shallots and tarragon from the garden. The shallots are a bit of a disappointment. Perhaps I ought to have planted them deeper. I’ve never grown them before and didn’t look up much information.

The tarragon is a massive bushy plant that I planted from seed years ago, and it comes back every year.

I added some cream, blue cheese, and walnuts with the celery. Because the celery is kind of young and has so many leaves, I baked these as a bed of chopped celery leaves with the stalks on top.