Crunch Time
From Stalk to Stock - Cooking with Celery
British celery is not just to keep in your fridge to wilt thinking that your guests may like a bit with their cheese, then what happens to it ? It goes in the bin because it’s gone floppy because you haven’t refreshed it in cold water which will give it a weeks more shelf life. Think about it, it’s in season in extreme cold winter conditions with frost and rain, which it loves then it goes into the supermarket and you take it home, but you don’t take care of it like you would a bunch of flowers with fresh water.
The UK Fenland celery season is from October through December and although it’s January now if shops store it correctly it is good for a few weeks. My head of celery has been in my fridge for three weeks, wrapped in a damp piece of kitchen roll.
I’ve been growing parcel in my garden for years which is a lovely herb which looks like parsley with the taste of celery. It’s great in salads or chopped instead of parsley to use in soups and sauces.
It’s a good value vegetable and forget the cheeseboard there are lots of great things you can do with a well looked after head of leafy head of celery. One thing that upsets me is that you can buy imported celery that’s full of its leaves that can be used in a salad, chopped like parsley or dried to make fresh vibrant green celery salt plus lots more. Often when you buy celery all of the leaves have been chopped off, probably to fit in the packet but why ? And what do they do with the leaves ? They probably end up in the bin.
While I’m on the subject of supermarket waste, I’ve been closely watching the Food Waste Inspector on Instagram and it’s utterly shocking what they are finding in all of the supermarket bins. Food that is in date, sometimes by months and could have been given to food banks or shelters.
It’s not just food waste either, but clothes, toys, crockery etc. What’s the world coming to when poverty and rising prices are constantly in the press and supermarkets are wasting perfectly good stuff.
It’s a disgrace and they should be fined, like it is in other countries, as it’s an offence in my eyes. We are talking M&S, Lidl, Waitrose….they all do it. Take a look at his Instagram. You will be as horrified as I am. We need to do something about this.
