In a rare mood of deciding to part with at least some of the ever-growing pile of gardening books in our house, I came across a couple small books called "The Cook's Garden: Seeds and Supplies for the New American Kitchen Garden". These seed catalogues dated back to 1996. At first, I tossed them on the "recycle" pile, but then retrieved them. Does this ever happen to you? I'm glad I did, because they are delightful little books with all kinds of interesting tidbits of information.
For example: there was a short column about celeriac. Have you ever grown celeriac? Celeriac is a cousin to the celery family, and is grown for the edible root. If you are not familiar with celeriac, the only way I can describe it is that it looks like a turnip that has health issues. It is bumpy and gnarled, not enjoying the smooth-skin uniformity of other root vegetables. But what it lacks in looks, it makes up for in delicious taste. While I was doing some further homework about celeriac, I found a recipe for "Smashed Celeriac" from one of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks, and this is what he says about celeriac: "What a surprisingly simple and comforting veg dish. Unfortunately everyone seems to be completely baffled by celeriac, but it's beautiful in soups or thinly sliced into salads. When roasted it goes sweet and when mixed with potato and mashed it's a complete joy."
In "The Cook's Garden" catalogue, it said that "In our opinion, the very best way to eat celeriac is raw, marinated with a well-seasoned dressing." In her ever- adventurous garden, my sweet Mom grew celeriac, and that is exactly how she served it. And in my mind's eye, I can picture a soft summer evening, and our family eating our supper outside, as we often did. I can see Daddy munching that salad made of sliced celeriac, and mopping up the dressing with homemade buns slathered in butter. Mm, I can taste it now! "The Cook's Garden" also said that celeriac is delicious sautéed in butter with leeks and potatoes to make a soup or stew.
So if we were going to plant celeriac in our gardens this spring, we probably should have started a few seeds by now, timing them out to about 8 to 12 weeks before the last frost (and the way the year has been, who knows when that will be!). Celeriac is not a high-maintenance vegetable, but it does take time to grow, maturing in about 110 days. But why not be adventurous and try planting the seeds directly into the garden? Our celeriac might not be as big as one started in the house, but at least we could try it! My homework said that celeriac likes full sun, well-drained soil, and that we should watch for aphids and cutworms. I don't recall that celeriac ever demanded any special treatment in Mom's garden, so I'm sure it wouldn't in ours, either!
There, another new thing for us to try! Or maybe it's another "new" old thing that we have just forgotten about! But either way, it sounds like a delicious addition to our garden menu!
The next meeting of the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society will be on Thursday, May 16 at 7:00 p.m. in the Sunshine Room at SIGN on North Street. Our special guest will be Russ Brunt, Leprechaun Taps, Kamsack, speaking to us about "Producing Maple Syrup in Saskatchewan". I'm sure we'll learn a lot about the process! That's Thursday, May 16.
The days are longer, the sun is stronger, and even though the temps haven't been that high, the snow is going down! Keep the faith that spring is coming, and have a great week!
