Tall Utah 52/70 Claret Celery - Apium graveolens

The Tall Utah 52/70 Claret Celery is a highly fragrant herbaceous vegetable plant, growing to a height of 40 to 60 cm (16 to 24in), cultivated for its stalks and leaves. Its foliage is compact and vigorous, with a tender green colour. It has wide, fleshy, gutter-shaped green ribs (stalks), which are not fibrous, crunchy, and aromatic. The sowing period extends from February to the end of May for a harvest 6 to 7 months later.

It is a descendant of a plant called Ache des Marais, 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, pot-au-feu, and to flavour certain sauces and stuffings. The raw, tender, finely sliced stalks can be part of the ingredients in compound salads. Celery has many virtues; it is anti-rheumatic, appetising, digestive, and contains vitamins as well as copper, iron, and iodine.

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

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

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

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