Lathom Self Blanching Celery - Apium graveolens

The 'Lathom Self Blanching' celery is a herbaceous vegetable plant, highly fragrant, reaching a height of 50 to 70 cm (20 to 28in), cultivated for its petioles and leaves. This variety is productive and self-blanching. The foliage is compact, vigorous, and pale green with golden reflections. It has broad, fleshy, gutter-shaped ribs (petioles). The sowing period extends from February to the end of May for a harvest 6 to 7 months later.

Celery is a descendant of a plant called Marsh Ache, native to the Mediterranean. This vegetable plant was not considered a vegetable but a medicinal plant until the Renaissance.

Celery leaves are used as a condiment in soups and stews and to flavour certain sauces and stuffings. Raw, tender, finely sliced ribs can be part of composed salads. Celery has many virtues: anti-rheumatic, delicious, digestive, and remineralising, and contains vitamins and copper, iron, and iodine.

Celery will require a significant supply of well-rotted compost or manure (5 kg per m²) and potassium in the form of, for example, wood ash.

Harvest: Celery is harvested by cutting entire plants at ground level as needed. This celery is sensitive to frost.

Storage: Before frosts, from late October, plants are uprooted with their roots, stored in trenches, or kept in a cellar in sand.

The gardener's tip: Celery is particularly demanding regarding water and nutrients. Provide a good mulch to maintain moisture at the base of the plant and a good supply of organic matter.