Growing South... Notes from Plot 14
Celery Stick… or Twist?
Jane
Wilbraham
Jane Wilbraham is a multi-disciplinary artist, proud plotholder of Plot 14 and committee member for the Longton Nursery Allotments Association.
The self-managed Longton Nursery Allotments, a 2-minute walk over the road from us here in Sydenham is one of the joys of our neighbourhood.
Much-deserved winners of the Lewisham Best Allotment Site 2019!
We love being able to use Jane's produce from Plot 14 in our menus, and as she's taught us all such a great deal we thought it was time to start sharing Jane's green-thumbed notes from the allotment with you all.
This week Jane is being cautious with celery, hopefully propagating an entire Bloody Mary production line from plot 14.
BW
Celery Stick… or Twist?
Decisions, decisions. It’s reached that time when Istart assessing the performance of the crops I’ve grown this year, whilst thinking about next year’s selection.
There’s still a lot of veg on plot 14,waiting for the first frost to deliver up an extra dimension of flavour, and if I find myself getting gloomy about the failure of French beans that succumbed to blackfly, or summer cabbages massacred by mealy bugs I cheer myself up with the knowledge that I have enough ‘Eskimo’ and ‘Manchester Table’ carrots in the ground to last until well into the new year.
Together with Solid Pink Celery and Rose de Roscoff onions, the humble holy trinity mirepoix of all the best winter dishes is secure.
I was going to give celery a miss this year, but some free ‘Solid Pink’ seed courtesy of the Heritage Seed Library meant that a few plants made it onto plot 14. The red varieties have been bred in Britain since the mid 1800’s for their vigorous habit, ability to stand well in the winter and their stronger flavour for cooking, which I was keen to try.
It’s a tricky crop to grow well at the best of times though, and true to its wild origins as a plant of boggy ground (still available as ‘smallage’), celery needs warmth to get going and lots and lots and lots of water.
Warmth we had this year, but water…well, I see that is all arriving right now.
Jane Grigson in ‘Good Things’ notes that celery is in season in November and December, its flavour improving with that first frost I mentioned earlier, but I’m not sure many people appreciate this now, or have actually tasted frosted celery.
I intend to give this a try though, and as winter approaches I’m only picking a few stems as I need them rather than harvesting the whole plant. I’m also considering allowing at least one plant to flower, so that I can save some seed to grow next year and to make some of my own celery salt for a properly home-grown Bloody Mary. I suppose that’s ‘yes’ to Solid Pink for 2021?!
Jane Wilbraham, 29th Oct 2020
@lnallotmentsse26
Longton Nursery Allotments
