Celery
is native to the Mediterranean region and was cultivated there for over 3,000 years. In its wild form celery is called smallage, and is grown to this day for the flavoring of its seeds. The ancient Greeks called it selinon and regarded it as a holy plant. As such it is mentioned in Homer's Odyssey, dating from 850 BCE.
Less known is that celery leaves were worn by the winners of the Nemean Games (just as bay leaves were worn by winning athletes at the Olympic and Pythian games): these games began in 573 BCE and were held every second year in the small southern city of Nemea in the Peloponnes, where Hercules achieved one of his great labors by killing the Nemean lion. The Romans, however, preferred eating sedano to using it ceremonially.
The oldest record of the word celeri is in a 9th-century poem written in France or Italy, giving the medicinal uses and merits of the plant. When its culture in gardens was begun in the 16th century in Italy and northern Europe, it was still a primitive plant, like smallage, and was used for medicinal purposes only. Celery is first recorded as a plant in France in 1623. For about a hundred years thereafter its food use was confined to flavorings.
In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Italian, French, and English botanists began to evolve wild celery into common celery. Gardeners found that wild celery’s potent flavor could be tamed by growing the plants in late summer and fall, then keeping them into the winter, making the stalks better for snacks or salads. By the mid-18th century in Sweden, the wealthier families were enjoying the wintertime luxury of celery that had been stored in cellars. From that time on, its use as we know it today spread rapidly.
Its seed was brought to Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the 1850s from Scotland, and it later became a commercial crop in the United States. It is a biennial vegetable plant that belongs to the Umbelliferae family whose other members include carrots, fennel, parsley and dill. While most people associate celery with its prized stalks, - the leaves, roots and seeds can also be used as a food and seasoning, as well as a natural medicinal remedy.
Celery maintains body fluids and electrolytes, has been used since the ancient Greeks to cure headaches, and can help cleanse air pollution from the body. Celery also cools the body in the summer, curbs the appetite, and eases aches, cramps, and muscle tension -especially those related to excercise/workouts. For nutritional purposes, it is best to juice celery with the leaves left on at the end of the stalks. (This is also true for carrots and beets).
The seeds of celery are a different story altogether. They are the dried fruit of that wild smallage, and they are so small that it takes some 760,000 to make just one pound. But they make up in punch what they lack in size: they are intensely aromatic and strongly flavored with an oil made up of the glucoside apiin, with lemony limonene, and other bitter compounds. Scientists have found that celery seed may also protect against cancer, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
If you'd like to try celery seed for yourself, you can prepare a tea by pouring boiling water over one teaspoon of freshly crushed seeds. Let it steep for 10 to 20 minutes before drinking.
significant nutritional content:
vitamins A, C, calcium, sodium, magnesium, iron, chlorophyll, fiber, -and in the seeds: sedanolide and butyl phthalide (anti-cancer compounds) |
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FRUITS
Apples
Bananas
Coconut
Mango
Oranges
Peaches
Strawberries
VEGETABLES
Beets
Carrots
Celery
Cucumber
Garlic
Ginger
Parsley
Spinach
Spirulina
Wheatgrass |
