SC - Celery, was Citron and Potato)

[Philip & Susan Troy]

LYN M PARKINSON wrote:
> 
> Stefan, I noticed that Ann Hagen mentioned celery in her Anglo-Saxon
> food.  If it's that early in England, it was probably everywhere, but I'd
> bet it wasn't a whole lot like our celery.  Probably smaller stalks, and
> a bit bitter.  Making candy with it would definately improve most wild
> veggies.

Celery as we know it seems to have been developed more recently than the
middle ages, but the wild proto-celery was probably pretty much like
lovage, with thin, tough, fibrous stems, much less succulent than modern
celery, and, as you suggest, stronger-tasting leaves. 

If you've ever seen Chinese celery, it also is pretty much like lovage.

I suspect that celery may have been seen mostly as a medicinal herb,
rather than as a vegetable, but then candying such an herb would be a
fairly likely method of preserving it and maximizing its medicinal
qualities. Many candies were developed, essentially, as pills and lozenges.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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