Celery
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A chthonian symbol, celery was said to have sprouted from the blood of Kadmilos, father of the Cabers, chthonian divinities celebrated in Samothrace, Lemnos and Thebes. The spicy odour and dark leaf colour encouraged this association with the cult of death. In classical Greece celery leaves were used as garlands for the dead, and the wreaths of the winners at the Isthmian Games were first made of celery before being replaced by crowns made of pine. According to Pliny the Elder (Natural History XIX.46), in Archaia the garland worn by the winners of the sacred contest at Nemea was also made of celery.[8]
- In the popular television show, Doctor Who, the fifth Doctor, played by Peter Davison, often wore a piece of celery on his lapel.
- The Class B Michigan-Ontario League, a minor league baseball league from the early 20th century, included a team called the Kalamazoo Celery Pickers.
- Dr. Brown's makes a celery-flavoured soft drink called Cel-Ray.
- Foley artists break stalks of celery into a microphone to simulate the sound of breaking bones.
- Fans of Chelsea Football Club, Adelaide United, and Central District Bulldogs have been known to sing a saucy song in which they suggest they might use a "lump of celery" in order to tickle a lady's behind: "Celery, Celery, If she don't come, we'll tickle her bum with a lump of celery"[citation needed].
- There is a small farming community with the name Celeryville outside Willard, Ohio once known for its large yield of celery.
- Mr. Celery is one of the mascots for the Wilmington Blue Rocks.
- In the popular Nickelodeon series, Wonder Pets,on TVOKids. The Celery is eaten at the end of each episode by Linny the Guinea Pig, Tuck the Turtle, and Ming-Ming Duckling and shown as a healthy snack. One pet will usually end up suggesting "celery tastes good after...". In some episodes, the celery can be seen eaten after using the cooking methods of the place they had visited.
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Cultivation
Apium graveolens grows to 1 m (3 ft) tall. The leaves are pinnate to bipinnate leaves with rhombic leaflets 3-6 cm long and 2-4 cm broad. The flowers are creamy-white, 2-3 mm diameter, produced in dense compound umbels. The seeds are broad ovoid to globose, 1.5-2 mm long and wide.
In North America, commercial production of celery is dominated by a variety called Pascal celery. Gardeners can grow a range of cultivars, many of which differ little from the wild species, mainly in having stouter leaf stems. They are ranged under two classes, white and red; the white cultivars being generally the best flavoured, and the most crisp and tender.
The wild form of celery is known as smallage. It has a furrowed stalk with wedge-shaped leaves, the whole plant having a coarse, earthy taste, and a distinctive smell. With cultivation and blanching, the stalks lose their acidic qualities and assume the mild, sweetish, aromatic taste particular to celery as a salad plant.
The plants are raised from seed, sown either in a hot bed or in the open garden according to the season of the year, and after one or two thinnings out and transplantings they are, on attaining a height of 15-20 cm, planted out in deep trenches for convenience of blanching, which is affected by earthing up to exclude light from the stems.
In the past, celery was grown as a vegetable for winter and early spring; because of its antitoxic properties, it was perceived as a cleansing tonic, welcomed after the stagnation of winter.
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Harvesting and storage
Harvesting occurs when the average size of celery in a field is marketable; due to extremely uniform crop growth, fields are harvested only once. Petioles and leaves are removed and harvested celery are packed by size and quality (determined by color, shape, straightness and thickness of petiole, stalk and midrib length and absence of disease, cracks, splits, insect damage and rot). When properly stored in optimal conditions, celery can be stored for up to seven weeks between 0 to 2°C (32 to 36°F). Inner stalks may continue growing if kept at temperatures above 0°C (32°F). Freshly-cut petioles of celery are prone to decay, which can be prevented or reduced through the use of sharp blades during processing, gentle handling and proper sanitation.[9]
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See also
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References
- ^ Daniel Zohary and Maria Hopf, Domestication of plants in the Old World, third edition (Oxford: University Press, 2000), p.202.
- ^ (Latin) Linnaeus, C (1753). Species Plantarum: Tomus I. Holmiae. (Laurentii Salvii)..
- ^ Celsus, de Medicina, Thayer translation [1]
- ^ Teng CM, Lee LG, Ko SN, et al., (1985) Inhibition of platelet aggregation by apigenin from Apium graveolens. Asia Pacific Journal of Pharmacology 3:85
- ^ Celestin J, Heiner DC. West J, Allergy and Immunology: Food-Induced Anaphylaxis. West. J. Med. 1993 Jun; 158(6): 610-611.
- ^ Bublin M, Radauer C, Wilson IBH, Kraft D, Scheiner O, Breiteneder H and Hoffmann-Sommergruber K Cross-reactive N-glycans of Api g 5, a high molecular weight glycoprotein allergen from celery, are required for immunoglobulin E binding and activation of effector cells from allergic patients The FASEB Journal. 2003;17:1697-1699.
- ^ Zohary and Hopf, Domestication, p.202
- ^ a b Fragiska, M. (2005). Wild and Cultivated Vegetables, Herbs and Spices in Greek Antiquity. Environmental Archaeology 10 (1): 73-82.
- ^ Cantwell, M; Suslow, T. (2002-06-10). Celery: Recommendations for Maintaining Postharvest Quality. Post-harvest technology research and information center. Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
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External links
- Barbagallo, Tricia (June 01, 2005). Black Beach: The Mucklands of Canastota, New York. Retrieved on 2008-06-04.
- PROTAbase on Apium graveolens
- Quality standards (in PDF format), from the USDA website
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