HERB - Re: SC - Celery - LONG POST

[RAISYA@aol.com]

I didn't send this to the herbalist originally because I didn't think the 
letter I'm answering had been posted there.  Here's my answer, apologies if 
it's a little stiff, I'm really beat right now.

G. Tacitus Adamantius,

I'm sorry, I thought Christianna was asking only for her own info, and I was 
working on the assumption of existing knowledge on her part.  I'd have given 
a more complete response if I'd realized.  So here goes:

n the 9th century, Walahfrid Strabo wrote a collection of poems on his garden 
called HORTULUS, based on his personal experience.  (I assume Platina did not 
raise bears?)  Strabo was very knowledgeable about gardening and does not 
include gardening superstition.  He was part of the Imperial court of 
Charlemagne's son, Emperor Louis the Pious at Aachen Germany, and later abbot 
of Reichenau monastery in Switzerland.  I think that puts him in the 
mainstream of the most influential culture in western Europe of that period.  
The St. Gall plan was an early 9th century monastery plan, also within the 
Carolingian culture.  Celery appears in Charlemagne's CAPITULARE DE VILLIS 
(ca. 800 AD), a list of crops to be grown on imperial estates.

True, even though this is a mainstream culture, it doesn't prove anything for 
other times and places, but I don't think these can be dismissed as an 
aberration or exception either.  The CAPITULARE had a heavy influence on 
those areas of Europe for centuries, and portions of at least 4 different 
copies of the HORTULUS survive.  I can also point to the TACUINUM SANITATIS, 
14th century Italian, which states:

"Pliny writes of the approval celery has always had when its "stalks are 
swimming in broth."  It is very pleasing in condiments:  By itself, it 
provides only modest nourishment which, nevertheless, because of its hot and 
dry nature, is suited to the winter, no less than to old people and to those 
with cold temperaments.  Choose ortolanum, celery you have carefully grown in 
the garden and which is also attractive to look at.  Its principal benefit is 
that it opens the body's obstructions.  Serve celery with lettuce to prevent 
it from causing headaches.  The pagans offered it up as food for the dead"  
(from the FOUR SEASONS OF THE HOUSE OF CERRUTI translation).

If you aren't familiar with it, the TACUINUM SANITATIS was pretty well known 
and is based on a philosophy of food and health that persisted over hundreds 
of years in much of Europe.  Celery is recommended as a healthful food, but 
so are dozens of others, much like we might recommend lots of oranges for the 
vitamin C.

I'm a gardener, my experience with period cookbooks is mostly searching for 
uses of vegetables, fruits and herbs.  If celery was used in soups, 
condiments and salads, I believe there are very few written salad recipes 
before the Rennaissance, for example.  I had, BTW, understood from some cooks 
that cabbage was not limited mostly to the poor in period and was a common 
vegetable, correct me if I'm wrong.

Evidence of omission has to be treated cautiously.  For example, I'd noticed 
that I had never found a clear period mention of celery by English gardeners. 
 The post I saw from the cook's list, though, gives me concrete evidence to 
the contrary, leaving me with the curious question of why there aren't 
growing instructions for a vegetable that's notoriously tricky to grow.  
Another example of the problems of omission, I've never seen a recipe for 
skirrets, which was quite common.  But it was a "poor man's" food, a 
perennial, multiplying root vegetable.

I appreciate that you qualified your generalization.  And yes, my statement 
was pretty brief and generalized, because I misunderstood who I was 
answering.  But I feel that the concrete evidence supports that celery was 
probably grown and eaten throughout most of the period at least in northern 
and central and possibly southern Europe.  My sources are mainstream rather 
than obscure exceptions.  If you do have concrete evidence, not just the 
evidence of omission, I'd be very glad to see it so I can correct the 
information I've been teaching.  I suspect part of the difficulty is the 
vague line between food and medicine.  But the TACUINUM encouraged a healthy 
lifestyle, ALL period foods were ascribed health effects, good and bad.  
Considering celery primarily medicinal from this philosophy would be like 
considering whole wheat bread primarily medicinal because someone eats it to 
increase dietary fiber.

I'd love to see what could come out of a joint project, combining the 
knowledge, experience and research of cooks, gardeners, and herbalists.  I 
suspect we all hold "pieces of the puzzle" that the others are looking for.

BTW, Walahfrid Strabo was "squint-eyed", and he didn't connect celery to 
eyesight.

This is the info I can put together quickly, I hope it clears up my rather 
brief original post.  I apologize if this is a little formal, but you had a 
serious concern based on what sounds like sincere research, and I felt you 
deserved a serious explanation of my disagreement.  Anything else, please 
attribute to not much sleep because of a sick family member.

Raisya Khorivovna
OL
Shire of the Shadowlands, Ansteorra
Raisya at aol.com

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