Celery

History

Celery has a long and fascinating history that begins not as a food, but as medicine. Wild celery (Apium graveolens) grows in marshy areas throughout Europe, the Mediterranean, and parts of Asia, where ancient peoples used it primarily for medicinal purposes—the ancient Greeks awarded celery leaves to victorious athletes and used them to make garlands for the dead, while Hippocrates prescribed celery as a nerve tonic. The Romans used it as a seasoning, but primarily the leaves and seeds; the fibrous stalks were considered too bitter and tough to eat. The transformation of celery from medicinal herb to vegetable crop began in Italy during the Renaissance (16th-17th centuries), where Italian gardeners in the Po River valley bred wild celery for less bitterness, thicker stalks, and better texture. They developed the technique of "blanching"—mounding soil or wrapping the stalks to exclude light—which produces milder, more tender celery by preventing chlorophyll formation. This blanched celery became fashionable in France and England by the 1700s and was considered a luxury vegetable, often presented in ornate celery vases at Victorian dinner tables. Celery arrived in North America with European colonists and by the 1850s had become a commercial crop, particularly in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which became known as "Celery City" and dominated U.S. celery production in the late 1800s. The development of self-blanching varieties in the 20th century, along with mechanical harvesting and refrigerated transportation, transformed celery from an expensive delicacy to an everyday staple. Today, celery is the second most popular vegetable in the United States after lettuce, with California's Salinas Valley producing most of the commercial crop.