How to Grow Celery at Home

   Though I’m really good at using things up before they go bad, there is one thing that always goes to waste. Celery. I try to use it all up I swear, but when you’re cooking for two it’s tough sometimes. On a good week, I’ll use up maybe half of it, and sure enough, months later, I’ll find it on the bottom of the veggie bin all rotten and usually just starting to leak onto the bottom of the bin. I hate that, I hate that more than anything. It’s the one single worst thing to have to clean. Not to mention having to throw the celery out. I don’t need a guilt complex over celery. I read awhile back, that you can actually grow celery from the root end of a store-bought stalk. Well, this I had to try! How simple would it be to just be able to cut what you need?! For once, I was actually excited to buy my next stalk of celery! (*Note to self. Get out more. I’m scaring myself when buying celery becomes “exciting”.)

   I just took the freshly bought celery, cut off the bottom 2″ from the base, plopped it into a shallow Chinese take-out container, and crossed my fingers! Within the very next morning, I could see little green leaves already poking up out of the middle. I was shocked. It actually worked!! I changed the water faithfully every morning, and how fast it grew was almost scary! You can almost WATCH it grow! After about a month, I finally saw a root coming out of the base. I let the roots get a decent start, then planted it in a 2 qt. ice cream container. I planted the whole 2″ base into the dirt so that the new stalks were level with the surface. Then it REALLY took off. I’m very surprised at the root system. TONS of roots! The photo is about 2 1/2 – 3 months after starting it. And I’d say, it’s ready to be transplanted outside! A must-try at home, folks!

*Note: The starter next to the celery plant is the base of  purple-edged lettuce. Seeing if this will work, too!