April this year brings us many events such as April Fool’s Day, Passover and Administrative Professionals Day. There is one honor this month that you won’t find listed on a calendar; it’s National Fresh Celery Month.
Celery, available year around and used in the culinary world in many, many different ways, is a food we perhaps take for granted. After all, it is always on the produce shelf. But that hasn’t always been the norm.
Believed to have originated in the Mediterranean Basin, celery or a similar plant form was first cultivated for medicinal purposes before 850 B.C. During those ancient times physicians used the seeds to treat many ailments. In the Greek Classical period celery was considered a holy food; the Romans valued it more for cooking than for religion. It took the Italians to domesticate celery as a vegetable in the 17th century resulting in selections with solid stems; early celery had a tendency to produce hollow stalks.
George Taylor brought the...