Can you store celery?

I have beautiful celery in the garden that I'm not using just now. Does it freeze for winter use?

NHGardener wrote:I have beautiful celery in the garden that I'm not using just now. Does it freeze for winter use?

I don't know about freezing it, but dehydrating works pretty darned well and takes up less space. to store.

NHGardener wrote:I have beautiful celery in the garden that I'm not using just now. Does it freeze for winter use?

I run mine through the food processor and freeze the puree.  I don't like the regular texture of celery, so this gives me the flavor without the texture that sets my teeth on edge.  However, MARK the bags if you do this with more than one green veggie.  Used cuke puree in a chowder once, instead of celery.  It was delicious but that may not work with every dish!!!

GG

One of these days I'm springing for a dehydrator. I'll bet that's the best way.

Guess you can chop and freeze celery if you only use it in cooking. For soup stock, it may be better than pureeing. 

Thanks!

So if one were to dehydrate celery, how would it be used later?

martha wrote:So if one were to dehydrate celery, how would it be used later?

Just like any other dehydrated vegetable. Toss into soup or rehydrate in hot water for use. Well, that's what I would do.  

I experimented with dehydrating last summer.  I made a complete soup-mix, just add water and meat.  [The ants found the dehydrated seasoned chicken strips within an hour of bringing them inside!!}  I found it took a long time for the veggies to rehydrate.  It was better the second day when the veggies were fully rehydrated and the flavors had mixed.  But if you have a crook pot, it may be perfect by dinner time.

I think celery has a lot of moisture so it will shrink down quite a bit when dehydrating.  I bet the flavor would be wonderful.   http://foodstorageandsurvival.com/dehydrating-celery/

That looks like a great dehydrator Sanderson and the food looks amazing!

Tricia, Thanks. I design and my husband builds, usually with scrap from his wood shop.

NHGardener wrote:I have beautiful celery in the garden that I'm not using just now. Does it freeze for winter use?

Cover it with a thick blanket of straw just before your first hard frost then you  leave it in the ground . Dig it out for eating on 26 Dec " Boxing Day "  with a ham salad tea .

 My old uncle Jack used to be the talk of the tiny village & always won any gardening competition held there because of his celery .

He'd set the seedling out after the second potting on when they were five inches tall  in a well prepared deep manured trench of about 1 foot in depth . He planted on the floor of the trench ...one plant every foot  and carefully earthed them up as they grew just before the first frost he'd tuck the tops into six inches of clean unused straw and continue to earth up till the row was about three feet wide by 2 feet high .

 He used to use seven year weathered old chimney soot from a coal fired chimney  to sprinkle round the earthing up to deter slugs ..it worked well... consuming the toxins in the celery from the soot finally killed him when he was around 84 yrs. old  .
The actual stalks were a good 18 inches of sweet crisp very light green/yellow celery.

 You can also freeze 1" sections of celery in your home freezer if you only want to use them is stews  .

 If you want to keep celery in the fridge for 9 days or so at 3 oC , wash , top and tail the sticks to about 10 inches long  and slip them in a sealable bag that has a few table spoons of ice cold water in it, keep the bag stood up in the tall bottle section so the foot of the celery can drink that ice cold water.

 To store even longer use the same method but this time use a little less water & put them in heat sealed vacuum bags .This time it does not matter to stand the heat sealed bag upright  Done this way the celery is usually good for at least 14 days and is still better than shop purchased stuff.

 You can also fresh store lots different kinds of your own self prepared veg in the vacuum heat sealed bags in the fridge as the air is excluded and any decay is slowed down for several days
 I've done carrots , parsnips , beet root , thick sliced tomatoes ( no water in these ) , all sorts of brassica & new potatoes in this manner