Sunday, July 15, 2012

Celeriac - harvest time

Celeriac is a form of celery that is grown for its swollen root. It needs to be grown in fertile rich soil 45 - 80 cms apart. It needs to be watered generously. It may be ready for harvest in 14 to 28 weeks. That was the theory. Here is the reality.

Above ground a fully grown Celeriac looks like a dark-green Celery with thin stems.  Below ground, well, here is what I dug up.  It is not the prettiest of roots:


And here is what the root looks like once the thin roots and foliage have been removed:


The size of this root was 'somewhat bigger than a tennis ball'.  You could allow the root to become larger than this, but it may become stringy and (Marg reports) it may go hollow.

The not very large Celeriacs I have dug up so far are just fine.  They have a nice 'Celery-kind-of' taste and can be cut and sliced like a potato.  I used Celeriac, sliced to thin chips, in a stir-fry and on another occasion, sliced like potatoes and with potatoes and a bit of salt, just fried them in a pan.

There are plenty of other uses for Celeriac.
One of our readers (thank you, Rosanne) forwarded a recipe for Celeriac puree.  It can be found at http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipe/98/Celeriac_puree
I found a recipe for a Tasmanian leek and celeriac soup at http://www.foodtourist.com/ftguide/Content/I6949.htm

The timeline for these Celeriacs was:
Sown:           mid December
Planted out:  mid February
Harvested:    mid July
That makes 7 months from sowing to harvest.
Results may vary as a result of your garden's micro climate and soil.