Celery Tall Utah 52/70 organic seeds - Apium graveolens

Tall Utah 52/70 celery is a vigorous variety of stalk celery, with an upright and compact habit, highly prized for its long, light green, full, crunchy and low-fibre ribs. They bear very aromatic dark green foliage and ribs 25 to 30 cm long, fleshy and juicy. This variety is early and slow to bolt and should be cultivated in deep, humus-rich, moist but well-drained soil, in full sun or partial shade. Sow from February to April under heated cover, then transplant outdoors after the frosts for a staggered harvest from late summer to autumn.

Tall Utah 52/70 celery belongs to the Apiaceae family. The species Apium graveolens is a biennial herb of damp areas, native to the marshes and salt meadows of the Mediterranean basin, the Atlantic coasts of Europe and North Africa, and extending to temperate Europe and Western Asia.
The Tall Utah 52/70 cultivar (sometimes noted as Utah 52-70 in some catalogues) is a non-hybrid selection of stalk celery from the Dulce group, resulting from a breeding programme conducted in the 1950s by the Ferry-Morse Seed Company in California. Introduced to the market around 1953, this line was designed to offer longer, greener and sweeter ribs than the original 'Utah' celery, with better tolerance to common diseases and good field holding. It has been widely distributed worldwide and has received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit, a guarantee of reliability in cultivation.

The plant has an upright and compact habit, with tightly packed petioles (ribs) forming a well-closed heart, with divided leaves at the top. In open ground, it reaches a height of 50 to 70 cm and a width of 25 to 30 cm. The ribs measure 23 to 30 cm long, and they are thick, smooth, gutter-shaped, and light to medium green. The very aromatic, dark green foliage is composed of pinnate leaves with lobed leaflets. The ribs and foliage are harvested in the first year, before winter or severe frosts, which destroy the above ground parts. If the plant is left in place to produce seeds, it regrows the following spring by sending up a taller flower stalk, which can exceed 1 m, topped by compound umbels of small greenish-white flowers. These flowers are grouped in umbels visited by insects (bees, hoverflies, small flies). The fruits are small aromatic ovoid achenes, known as "celery seeds" when used as a spice.
Tall Utah 52/70 has a rather slow growth: germination often takes two to three weeks, the plant first develops a dense rosette, then gradually elongates its ribs. The harvest begins on average 100 to 110 days after planting well-developed young plants, i.e., 4 to 5 months after sowing.

In the kitchen, Tall Utah 52/70 celery is suitable for both raw and cooked dishes: its long, crunchy ribs, with a frank but balanced flavour, are perfect as sticks for appetisers, thinly sliced in mixed salads or grated rémoulade-style to add freshness and texture. Diced with carrot and onion, it forms the ideal aromatic base for soups, stews, tomato sauces and homemade broths. Its ribs can also be braised, used in a gratin with a light béchamel sauce or sautéed in butter with a little garlic and parsley. The fragrant leaves can be chopped like a culinary herb to enhance an omelette, a pasta dish, a velouté or vegetable juices.

In the vegetable garden, plant celery in a sunny or partially shaded spot. It likes moist, light and rich soils. The previous autumn, add well-rotted compost after thoroughly loosening the soil. During cultivation, apply vegetable garden fertiliser, as celery is a hungry crop. 
It pairs very well with colourful leafy vegetables like Rhubarb Chard with red stalks or with a 'Redbor F1' kale, with its deeply cut purple foliage. It can also be associated with a vigorous flat-leaf parsley like 'Giant of Italy' to create a square of herbs and broth vegetables.

The harvest: For stalk celery, pick the stems from 5 to 6 months after sowing. Before the winter frosts, you can remove the entire rootball to store it in a cellar for several weeks.

Storage: The leaves of stalk celery and cutting celery are best consumed fresh to fully enjoy their aroma. However, they can be frozen.

The gardener's little tip: To limit watering, we advise you to mulch the soil with successive thin layers of grass clippings, if possible mixed with dead leaves, from the end of May. This protection helps the soil retain moisture and reduces weeding.