How to store leaf celery in winter. Petiole celery: when to harvest and how to store Storing celery stalks for the winter

Celery is one of the healthiest vegetables. Birch grass is squeezed from the petioles, which promotes weight loss, strengthens the nervous system and improves skin color. Useful amino acids, trace elements, carotene and other elements saturate the green vegetable. Beginners need to know when to collect grown celery and how to store it so that any of its properties do not disappear after time.

Harvest crowd

A gardener will grow large, sweet stalks of celery unless he follows all the rules when planting. It is necessary to find out what harvest dates this crop has.

Celery is painfully sensitive to negative temperatures. This is especially true for self-bleaching varieties, as they are not buried in the soil and not mulched. What can you do to cut them off before the onset of cold weather, no later than September. If you have insulation, you can postpone collection for 2 weeks.

The entire celery is dug up from the soil, the roots are removed, and in this state they are sent to rest. Ant. spending. For varieties that need growing, do not interrupt the roots, sprinkle them with damp sand and place them in a cellar or greenhouse.

Storage and processing contract

There are 5 ways to store celery roots:

Northern cellar - beneficial features and appearance are fully preserved, however, for a short period - no more than 2 months.
Refrigerator - suitable for trimmed roots, for up to 3 weeks.
Freezing - after such storage, shredding the salad or extracting juice will not work; the shelf life is up to 1 age.
Drying - most of the beneficial properties are preserved, but the cuttings are only suitable as seasonings for the main dish; dried celery can be stored for more than a year.
Pickling - vegetables are covered with a large amount of salt and stored in the refrigerator all winter.

Experienced housewives use several methods at once so that they can prepare the vegetable at whatever time of year comes to hand.

Fridge

Celery purchased or taken from the cellar is stored in the refrigerator before the next preparation. It is necessary to maintain the elasticity of the stems and prevent rotting. Celery is washed, dried and packaged in one of the following ways:

swaddling in foil;
wrapping with a paper towel and placing in a plastic bag;
exhaustion of cling film.

Before cooking, the dried parts are trimmed off. Celery retains a large portion of useful elements.

Cellar

This is the most effective method storage of cuttings. The leaves of celery are cut off, the rhizome is left at 3 cm. All cuttings are placed vertically in a prepared box and covered with sand before half the height of the container. Some specimens can be covered with wet sand, or peat. If there is no basement, celery can be stored on a cold balcony, veranda or loggia. The main condition is that the temperature should not be below 0 degrees.

Freezing

A very common method. Despite similar storage conditions, there is a significant difference: the presence or absence of heat treatment.

Good. Ant. Blanching cannot be used. The process is similar to processing Brussels sprouts. The action plan is composed as follows:

Wash the cuttings, cut out the hard fibers, cut into small or medium-sized pieces.
Place the chopped vegetable in boiling water for 2-3 minutes.
Remove celery from boiling water and plunge into ice water to cool quickly.
Place the pieces on fabric or other cloth in 1 layer, wait for the moisture to evaporate and soak them on a baking sheet with parchment.
Place the baking sheet in the freezer.
After freezing, transfer the celery into a tight container.

Blanch celery freely; just put the chopped vegetables in a bag and put it in the freezer. Although the shelf life will be reduced to 3 months.

Drying

The method has been tested for years. Celery stalks are rinsed with running water, particles of soil, sand and other contaminants are removed, and wiped with a towel. Whole chopped vegetables are placed on parchment and covered with a sheet of paper on top. Celery should be left to dry at room temperature (side by side for 1 month). Dried cuttings are stored in glass containers. If necessary, it is taken out and prepared. The tomato can be crushed in a blender, minced in a meat grinder, ground in a mortar, or used as a seasoning.

To speed up the process, it is not forbidden to use an oven or electronic dryer. Coarsely chopped pieces are placed on a baking sheet and dried at a temperature of 50-60 degrees. If you are using an oven, you need to open the door slightly for good air circulation, otherwise the celery will be baked and not dried.

Pickling

This method has been used since ancient times, but at the moment it is not particularly popular. Chopped pieces of celery are placed in a glass jar and covered with salt. Ratio: 1 kg of vegetables requires 200 grams of salt. Then pickling celery is added to hot meat dishes and sauces to add flavor.

2 weeks before treatment, the crisis has passed and the stems are subjected to bleaching - the petioles are collected together and wrapped underneath with breathable material. This will make the celery more tender and remove the bitter taste.
It is important to research the variety of the vegetable: green is recommended to be bleached, yellow requires gentle care and needs this procedure, pink and red varieties can be arranged later, they are more resistant to cold weather.
The cuttings can be used to prepare small dietary snacks. Celery is boiled and frozen without pre-cutting. Suitable fillings include curd mass, grated cheese, sweet peppers, herbs and minced chicken. Unless you show your imagination, you will get a tasty and healthy dish, rich in microelements.

Video: how to preserve stalked celery

Petiole celery - when to harvest and what to store? - useful tips for every day on this site

Only the lazy don’t talk about the benefits of celery. Freshly squeezed juice from the petioles is rich in vitamins and promotes weight loss, improves complexion, and has a calming effect on the nervous system. The vegetable contains carotene and is rich in valuable amino acids and microelements. If you managed to grow this crop on your plot, the question arises of when to harvest and how to store petiole celery so that it retains its healing properties and brings maximum benefits.

Juicy stems are good in fresh salads, soups, side dishes, they are used to prepare vitamin cocktails

Time to harvest

A gardener's dream is large, juicy, bleached celery stalks, sweet, with a spicy aroma, without bitterness. For it to be realized, it is necessary to observe not only the technology of planting and caring for the crop, but also the timing of harvesting petiole celery.

This vegetable crop, unlike the root variety, is more delicate, sensitive to temperatures below 0⁰ C. First of all, this applies to self-bleaching varieties that are grown without burying the stems in the soil or mulching material. They are cut no later than September, before the first frost. If the plant was grown in a trench method or it is possible to use covering material, the time for harvesting petiole celery can be delayed by 3–4 weeks.

Advice! Experienced gardeners recommend subjecting the rosette of stems to a special procedure - bleaching - 2-3 weeks before harvesting. The petioles are collected in a bunch and the lower part is wrapped in burlap, paper, or other opaque but breathable material. This way they will be more tender and without bitterness.

One more tip. You cannot keep the plant in the garden longer than recommended by agricultural practices; as a rule, this is from 11 to 16 weeks. Otherwise, the petioles become rough, fibrous, and taste worse.

Petiole celery is completely dug out of the ground; during harvesting, only the roots are cut off and then sent for storage. In plants intended for more long-term storage or growing, the roots are left and then buried in wet sand in a cellar or greenhouse.

Note! Celery varieties can have different petiole colors. Green stems are recommended to be bleached, yellow stems are more delicate, self-bleaching, pink (red) varieties are the most resistant to frost. They can be removed later.

Storage and processing methods

There are several ways to store and process stalked celery for the winter. Each of them has its own pros and cons.

In a cold cellar, vegetables lie without loss appearance and nutrients, but not for long - up to 2 months.

The advantage of the refrigerator is the ability to store trimmed petioles, ready for use, but the period is even shorter (2-3 weeks).

Frozen celery lasts up to a year, but you can’t make a fresh salad from it or squeeze out juice.

Dried petioles have an even longer shelf life. They retain a lot of useful substances, but are only suitable as an aromatic additive to dishes.

Thrifty housewives use different variants storing and processing petiole celery and providing the family with a healthy vegetable throughout the winter.

In a refrigerator

Vegetables purchased or picked up from the cellar for current consumption are stored in the refrigerator. The task at hand is to ensure that the stems retain their elasticity and juiciness, but do not begin to rot. Before putting them in the refrigerator, they are washed, dried, then one of the packaging options is used:

wrapped in foil;

wrap the bundle with a paper towel and place it in a plastic bag;

dry product can be wrapped in cling film.

Before consumption, the dried edges of the petioles are cut off; otherwise, they retain their original quality.

Cellar

As practice shows, it is best to store the grown crop of petiole celery in the cellar.

Before lowering it into the basement, the foliage of a dug plant is cut off, and a small piece of rhizome (2–3 cm) is left at the bottom. The sockets are placed vertically in a box, half covered with sand. Alternatively, individual specimens with roots can be buried in damp sand (peat). Instead of a basement, an unheated balcony, a cold veranda, or a glazed loggia will do, but only if the air temperature there does not drop to 0⁰ C.

Options for freezing petioles

A popular storage method is freezing stalked celery for the winter. Despite the abundance of recipes, the fundamental difference is one thing - whether to heat-treat the vegetable before freezing or not.

The first option is freezing and blanching the product. The scheme is similar to preparing Brussels sprouts, step by step it looks like this.

The petioles are washed, hard fibers (veins) are removed, and cut into small pieces.

The crushed mass is immersed in boiling water for 2-3 minutes.

Remove with a slotted spoon into a bowl with cold water or pieces of ice - for quick cooling.

Before freezing petiole celery, lay it out in one layer on a cloth napkin, and after draining excess moisture, place it on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.

Sent to the freezer.

Once frozen, transfer to a sealed bag.

The chopped stems can not be blanched, but immediately placed in bags or containers, and then frozen. But in this case, the shelf life of the workpiece is reduced to 2–3 months.

Advice! If you boil and freeze whole stalks, they can be used to make light stuffed appetizers. Cottage cheese with raisins, cheese with bell pepper and herbs, minced chicken with Parmesan.

Drying and seasoning

A time-tested way to store spices is by drying stalked celery. Selected stems are washed under running water, carefully removing sand and pieces of soil, and blotted with a cloth. Whole or cut into large pieces, lay out on a clean sheet of parchment paper, cover with another layer of paper on top and leave at room temperature until completely dry. Taking into account the juiciness of the stems, this will take about a month. Dried petioles are stored in a glass container and crushed as needed. You can immediately grind them in a mortar, grind them in a blender or twist them through a meat grinder, and use them as a seasoning.

To speed up the process, petiole celery is dried in an oven or electric dryer. The principle is the same - large pieces (2–3 cm) are placed on a wire rack and kept at a temperature of 50–60⁰ C. When dealing with the oven, do not forget to keep the door ajar so that air circulates and the product dries and does not bake.

Pickling

Our grandmothers used salt to store stalked celery. The stems, cut into pieces, were placed in glass jars and generously sprinkled with salt. It takes about 200 g for 1 kg of petioles. This preparation is used to flavor first and meat dishes, and added to hot sauces.

Harvesting and storing petiole celery:

Ingredients:

Large bunches of celery;
freezer bags;
cling film or polyethylene;
food container (optional).

We untie the bunches and immediately separate the leaves from the stems. We will freeze everything separately, in different bags.

Rinse the leaves with tap water or put them in a bowl of water, then rinse. Shake the colander and lightly tap it to dry the greens faster.

Place the leaves in one layer on a towel. To speed up drying, you can roll it up and press it. Or leave to air dry for 30-40 minutes, turning over several times.

Before slicing, check how dry the greens are; if they are wet, they will stick together when frozen. We cut the leaves into thin strips, as we usually do for seasoning soups and main courses.

Leaf celery has a very strong, long-lasting flavor, so it is best to freeze and store it in a resealable container or sealed bag. Pour the chopped leaves into a package and put them in the freezer. They freeze quickly and will be hard in two hours.

The culture from the umbrella family has been known for a very long time. If you believe Greek myths, celery was used by Aphrodite, who was striking in her beauty. The plant gave strength to the courageous Hippocrates; Cleopatra knew about the amazing properties of the leaves and roots. Now the vegetable is included in the composition cosmetics, it is used to prevent diseases.

During the winter months, the umbrella crop, which has a unique composition, is not always sold in stores. Many housewives have learned to harvest leaves, petioles, and root vegetables on their own, which allows them to preserve essential oils, amino acids, vitamins and other components until the beginning of summer.

The greens are chopped with a knife, ground with a glass of salt and placed in glass jars.

Some gardeners have been harvesting different vegetables to put them in borscht in winter and eat them fresh. Following the recipe, use:

carrots, tomatoes and onions – 1 kilogram each;
dill, parsley, celery - a bunch each;
pepper – 300 grams.

The greens and tomatoes need to be chopped, the remaining vegetables should be chopped. The workpiece is mixed with a spoon of salt and placed in jars in the refrigerator.

Celery is a healthy vegetable that doctors and nutritionists recommend adding to your diet as often as possible. Especially in winter, when the body lacks vitamins. But buying it in the cold season is not so easy. Therefore, it is important to know how to preserve celery for the winter at home.

The uniqueness of this vegetable is that the leaf, petiole, and root parts can be eaten. Both of them contain a large amount of microelements useful for the body. To enjoy dishes with this vegetable, you need to know when to remove celery and how to store it so that it does not lose its beneficial properties.

Harvesting celery for the winter is not too troublesome. Basically, the following storage methods are used:

drying;
freezing;
salting or pickling.

Which one to choose is up to you. Let's look at each method to make it easier for you to make your choice.

Root celery should be harvested in a timely manner, and there is no need to rush into harvesting; the longer the roots are in the ground, the larger and more mature they will be.

Under conditions of long-term cultivation, the skin of the rhizome thickens and can serve as protection against damage and preservation of the useful substances of the vegetable during harvesting, transportation and storage.

But you shouldn’t wait until the first frost either; in this case, celery may not tolerate storage well.

On average, the optimal time for cleaning is the end of September, but it is worth considering the weather forecast. As a rule, a month before harvesting, the lower shoots and branches are cut off so that the root crop ripens and acquires a more rounded shape.

When digging the root out of the soil, you need to do it very carefully so as not to damage the peel. It is advisable not to use any tools, but simply pull the tops with force.

To make it easier to get the root out of the ground, you should first fill it with plenty of water a few days before.

To check the quality of the tubers, before harvesting you need to carefully inspect it; if it is soft, it means it has begun to rot, and if you hear a ringing sound when you tap, it means that the tuber has grown somewhat dry and is empty inside. Such parts are not suitable for harvesting.

To harvest the roots, cut off the tops, leaving stumps a few centimeters high, remove thin roots and clean off adhering pieces of soil.

And if you want greens to grow in your home, plant small roots in a flower pot and enjoy your own grown fragrant and healthy greens all winter. Young shoots will look like indoor flowers and will serve as a beautiful interior decoration. Thus, you can grow healthy greens at home even in winter.

From the video you will learn how to properly store leaf celery.

How to store celery root in an apartment? This vegetable is not very capricious in storage; it can be stored for a long time until summer, but still under certain conditions. Tubers can be kept in the refrigerator, in the vegetable compartment. Before placing root vegetables in the refrigerator, they are thoroughly washed, dried and packaged in plastic.

Root vegetables prepared in this way can be consumed at any time, preparing salads from them, adding them to soups and vegetable stews.

This type of storage is certainly very convenient, but if there are much more root vegetables than the vegetable compartment in the refrigerator can accommodate, then you need to resort to other storage methods.

Then you need to bring root vegetables from the cellar in portions.

But the rule remains the same before immersion in the refrigerator; in order to avoid various unsanitary measures, each root is thoroughly washed and wrapped in plastic.

Even if your apartment has a large freezer, it is not suitable for storing celery roots.

Root vegetables that will be placed in the freezer will only be suitable for heat treatment, that is, they cannot be used fresh.

Thus, in the freezer you can make a preparation of celery tubers, which will be added exclusively for cooking, and subjected to heat treatment.

In fact, preserving celery root crops in the winter is not so difficult, and there are a great many known methods. And there are many answers to the question of how to store celery. Each of them is effective, choose any of them, but remember, the temperature in the room where the vegetable will be stored should be in the range from 0° to 1°, and the humidity – 90% or more.

How to store celery for the winter? Since ancient times, there have been known ways to prepare celery for wintering in cellars, basements, garages, and at the dacha.

One of them is storage in a box with sand. To use this method of harvesting root crops in winter, you will need a box and wet sand. The root crop is buried in the sand as if in a garden bed, and remains in this form for the winter. This method will perfectly keep the tubers in excellent shape.

In the southern regions, with not very severe winters and where the ground freezes shallowly, the tubers are placed in prepared trenches, covering each layer with sand. The vegetables, folded and sprinkled with sand, are covered with straw and then with a layer of earth of at least 20 cm.

Since celery is an integral part of many vegetable seasonings, if you wish, you can prepare such a spicy additive yourself. To do this, you should prepare its leaves and petioles: wash, dry and chop.

Then spread them between two layers of natural fabric or paper towel and leave to dry in a dry place. On average, leafy greens will take about a month to dry. After a month, the dried herbs are ground in a blender, coffee grinder, or by hand (the dry parts will easily grind into dust).

It is advisable to store the resulting aromatic mixture in a glass container with a lid.

Celery leaves and stalks are also used to make a roll with salt. For such a preparation you will need 100 g of salt per 0.5 kg of celery stalks and leaves. The stems with leaves are crushed, tightly placed in jars, each layer is sprinkled with salt, which will act as a preservative, and the lids are rolled up. Such preparations should be stored in a dark and cool place.

Using various ways storage, you can prepare delicious and healthy dishes with the addition of various parts of celery (tubers, leaves, petioles). And if the plant is grown independently, then you can be completely sure that the prepared dishes will contain many vitamins and microelements.

When large and beautiful tubers are already ready for storage for the winter, and there are parts of the plant unsuitable (small, rotten, smallish, half-empty) for this type of storage, you still should not rush to throw them away. From them you can prepare very useful vitamin supplements for main dishes in winter.

Storing root, petiole and leaf celery or how to prepare celery for the winter

Freezing, a common method for storing herbs and vegetables, is undoubtedly applicable for celery.

cut (stalks) into large pieces, blanch, put into portioned bags and put in the freezer. This celery is convenient to use as an additive for soups and main courses;
chop the leaves or grind them using a blender, pour them into ice cube trays. Pour water on top and carefully place in the freezer. After complete freezing, the celery cubes are placed in a plastic bag or container and placed in the same freezer. Frozen greens are ideal for making sauces.

Leaf and petiole celery is frozen whole: the stems with leaves are packed in a container and tightly closed. The container is placed in the freezer.

Such packaging will facilitate the use of defrosted celery in one go.

Celery keeps well until spring.

Since ancient times, people have known several types of celery: leaf, which is used as a seasoning, stalk, whose stems are eaten raw and boiled, and root. The latter is a small root vegetable from which you can prepare main courses, or add it to soups, stews and salads.

There are several options for storing celery at home all winter. Most often, drying, salting or freezing are used; thanks to these methods, leaf or root celery lasts the longest. Fresh celery can be kept for two to three weeks, but for both long-term and short-term storage it is necessary to choose the right place and take care of suitable conditions.

Root vegetables and celery greens cannot be found in every store, but this vegetable plant contains so many vitamins and nutrients that it would be a good idea to eat it every day. It is especially important to add celery to the diet in winter, when the body lacks nutrients, so it is better to prepare celery for the winter yourself in advance so that you can eat it whenever you want and use the product beneficially.

Root vegetables and celery greens cannot be found in every store, but this vegetable plant contains so many vitamins and nutrients that it would be a good idea to eat it every day.

It is especially important to add celery to the diet in winter, when the body lacks nutrients, so it is better to prepare celery for the winter yourself in advance so that you can eat it whenever you want and use the product beneficially.

If you grow this most useful vegetable plant in your garden, you will find it even more useful to know how to store celery root or its greens throughout the winter.

No matter how much celery you plant, you can always find a use for it: when you add frozen or dried herbs, soups acquire a special aroma, grated frozen root vegetables add a piquant taste to dishes, celery is also good in a marinade with tomatoes or on its own.

It turned out to be difficult to grow aromatic herbs in my garden: dry summers and acidic soil are not very suitable for them. But there is an unexpected, but pleasant exception: this culture has taken root well and pleases with a large harvest, so the relevant question for me is when to harvest stalked celery and how to store it in the winter.

In general, celery is a herbaceous plant, but in agriculture it is usually called a vegetable. Petioles are good to use in soups, sauces, side dishes, salads, especially in the winter months, when you really want fresh, aromatic herbs. To pamper yourself all year round, you need to harvest the harvest correctly and know how to preserve it for a long time.

If you need celery greens, then you can collect them at any time, until the branches wilt; the rhizomes are dug up in late October-November. But the petioles are the most tender honor; they are collected before anyone else. If you leave it in the garden for too long, the pulp will become hard and begin to taste bitter.

The best time to harvest will vary depending on the climate. In most of Russia, the accepted time is at the end of September, but the main rule is to do this before the first frost, while the temperature remains above zero even at night.

It is also important to consider the plant variety. Self-bleaching ones are the most sensitive to cold and should be removed earlier. Green varieties have a harder skin, and the most resistant to low temperatures is red celery.

The method of cultivation is also important. If vegetables grow in open ground, stalked celery must be harvested in advance; in greenhouses and under covering material they can remain in the beds longer.

It is important to remember: it is better to clean after rain or heavy watering, in cloudy weather. It is best to pull out the bushes by hand to avoid damage.

How to bleach celery stalks

Another factor that influences when to harvest stalked celery is bleaching. It is only necessary for green and red varieties to make the skin thinner and softer. Self-bleaching types, as the name implies, do not require additional procedures.

Bleaching begins when the bush grows above 30 centimeters, but no later than 20-30 days before harvest. To remove bitterness from the petioles, they are tightly covered with a material that is breathable but protects from the sun: for example, burlap or paper.

In this case, the tops are tied into a bundle, the wrapper is also tied with thread or twine so that it fits tightly to the trunks. The material should cover the entire petiole from the very surface of the ground to the beginning of the leaves; only greenery can peek out from above. Thus, by the time of harvesting, the edible part will be more tender, juicy, and without bitterness.

How to store celery in winter

If the harvest turns out to be more than you can eat in a week, it makes sense to think about how to store celery in the winter. The question is relevant, so several methods have been invented, depending on the purpose of the petioles and the period for which they need to be preserved.

Cellar storage

It is best to keep celery in the cellar: in the dark, at a stable temperature of +2-4 ⁰C. An unheated balcony or enclosed terrace is suitable until the temperature on them becomes negative. If stored properly, the vegetable will remain fresh for up to 2-3 months.

To put them in the cellar, the petioles are cleared of soil, the tops and most of the rhizome are cut off, leaving only a piece of it a couple of centimeters. The bushes are placed vertically in a box with the tops up and covered with sand to the middle. You can even bury them with the remains of the root in wet peat.

Cold storage

In the refrigerator, greens spoil faster - in 2 weeks, maximum - a month. Therefore, it should be placed there shortly before cooking. You can combine it: store the main supply of celery in the cellar in winter, and take it into the refrigerator in portions for quick use.

Before putting the petioles on the shelf, they must be washed and dried thoroughly, because dampness promotes rotting. But even without moisture, the vegetable will lose its juiciness, so the rosettes are wrapped in foil or a bag.

If you are using a plastic bag or film, first wrap the petioles in a paper towel.

Drying celery

Drying is best for long-term storage. Of course, you cannot cook soup or make a salad from dried crushed petioles, but they are great as a spicy seasoning.

Before drying, the stems are thoroughly washed and cut into pieces. After this, place on a baking sheet on parchment paper, covering with the same layer on top. At room temperature it takes about a month to prepare. You can speed up the procedure by using an oven or dryer.

If you want to dry celery for the winter in the oven, set it at a temperature of 50-60 ⁰C and be sure to leave the door ajar.

Freezing

Another long-term storage method is freezing. You can put in the refrigerator either fresh celery, pre-washed, dried, chopped and portioned, or heat-treated.

When blanching, the product is first immersed in boiling water for a couple of minutes, then quickly cooled. This procedure makes the petioles softer, removes bitterness and disinfects, making celery easier and safer to use in the future.

Canning

In this form, they can remain fresh for up to a year if you keep the preparation in the cellar or refrigerator. Canned celery can be used in soups and to add flavor to sauces and meat dishes. It is no longer necessary to salt such dishes.

Brief recap of key findings

The petioles are the most tender part of celery and react most acutely to frost. Therefore, they must be collected before the temperature exceeds 0 ⁰C. In a temperate climate, the best time is the end of September. If you keep them in the cold, this will affect the taste of the finished product.
There are additional subtleties: self-bleaching celery reacts most sensitively to cold. Green and red varieties are more resistant. Vegetables can be left under the covering material for a longer time if you have not had time to carry out all the necessary procedures or want to grow it further.
Usually 20-30 days are allowed for bleaching before assembly. This procedure allows you to make the skin thinner, softer and remove excess bitterness and astringency from it. In this procedure, the petioles are tightly wrapped in an opaque but air-permeable material.
Fresh celery is best stored in the cellar in winter. To do this, the bushes are trimmed with greenery and part of the rhizome and placed in boxes, sprinkled with sand. In this form they can easily remain for several months.
Fresh petioles can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a month. So that they do not start to rot, but remain juicy, they are washed, thoroughly dried and wrapped in foil or polyethylene.
Freezing allows you to keep celery fresh throughout the winter. In order for the petioles to be softer and without excess bitterness, they are first blanched - dipped in boiling water for 2-3 minutes.
Canning and drying allow celery to be used throughout the year, although its role is limited to seasoning. When canning, chopped petioles are sprinkled with salt. You can dry it at room temperature, in an oven or in a specialized device.

There are several main varieties of celery suitable for long-term storage:

Pascal. It has a dark green color and reaches up to 25 cm in length. It takes a little over 100 days to fully ripen.
Malachite. The most common type of celery, the vegetative period of which is 80 days. Malachite leaves are dark green, and the petioles are thick and juicy.
Tango. This variety has a bluish-green tint. Ripening time is about 180 days. This species is most valued among gardeners because it is very aromatic and tasty.
Gold. To obtain juicy petioles, 150 days must pass. One of the main advantages of this variety is that it bleaches on its own.
Triumph. The growing season is 130 days. This type of celery can be grown both in open ground and at home. Triumph grows up to 60 cm in length.

Preparation for the procedure

When harvesting, it is necessary to prevent physical damage to the fruit, since the petiole vegetable will quickly rot and it will not be possible to preserve the harvest. Therefore, cleaning must be done as carefully as possible. After the celery has been collected and all the tops have been cut off, it is necessary to sort out damaged and rotten specimens.

Before choosing the most suitable storage method, the vegetable should be thoroughly washed and left to dry on a napkin or towel.

Do not forget that well-dried celery is the key to longer and proper storage.

Selecting suitable instances

When choosing celery, you need to pay attention to its color: it should be bright light green, and the stems should be elastic and brittle. If the stems bend easily, it means that the plant is stale and is not suitable for long-term storage. Besides, the presence of a seed shoot will mean that the stems will taste bitter and tough.

How to save?

There are many recipes for storing celery - frozen, pickled, frozen or dried. When choosing a storage location healthy vegetable rely on the availability freezer, cellar or balcony. Of course, the choice of storage location plays an important role in influencing how long the vegetable will be stored, because celery will stay fresh longer in the refrigerator than at room temperature.

In the freezer

pros:

At any time you can take out a frozen product and add it to the desired dish.
At sub-zero temperatures, almost all beneficial properties are preserved.

Minuses: Frozen celery cannot be made into a fresh salad or juiced.

Shelf life: Depends on the cooking method.

How to store:

Once the stems have been washed and dried, they should be cut and placed in bags or plastic containers. This method allows you to store celery for 2-3 months.
The second method of freezing a product can be divided into the following stages:
1. The petioles are washed and hard fibers are removed.
2. Small pieces are cut.
3. The crushed mass is immersed in boiling water for 2-3 minutes.
4. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the celery from the boiling water into a bowl of cold water.
5. Before freezing, the vegetable is laid out on a cloth napkin and, after complete drying, goes into the freezer. The shelf life will be 12-18 months.

Attention!

If you boil the petioles whole, they are suitable for light snacks with cheese, bell peppers and herbs.

We invite you to watch a video on how to properly freeze stalked celery:

In a refrigerator

pros: possibility of storing trimmed petioles, ready for use.
Minuses: short storage of the product.

Shelf life: 2-3 weeks.

How to store:

You need to thoroughly rinse the celery under running water to remove all dirt and damaged parts.
After this, you need to spread the petioles on a napkin and let them dry.
To maintain the required level of humidity, you need to wrap the celery in foil or put it in a regular plastic bag.

At room temperature

pros:

If necessary, the vegetable does not need to be searched for or defrosted for a long time.
Suitable for salad or other fresh dishes.

Minuses: Not best condition storing celery, since the vegetable will quickly lose its beneficial properties, and the taste and appearance will also deteriorate.

Shelf life: 2-5 days.

How to store:

Rinse the celery thoroughly and place it in a jar of cold water.
The jar should be placed out of the sun and the water should be changed daily.

In the basement

pros:

The vegetable does not lose its appearance.
All beneficial properties are preserved.

Minuses: short shelf life.

Shelf life: 2 months.

How to store:

Before lowering a vegetable into the basement, you need to cut off its foliage and leave a small piece of rhizome (2 cm).
Place the sockets vertically in the box and fill them halfway with sand.
The temperature must be maintained from 0 to 10 degrees.

On the balcony

pros: for those who do not have a pantry or cellar, this is a great option to preserve fresh vegetables for as long as possible.
Minuses: It is necessary to protect celery from sunlight.

Shelf life: up to two months.

How to store: Storing celery on the balcony is identical to storing it in the basement. However, you need to take into account that the balcony should not be heated, because otherwise the plant will quickly deteriorate and it will not be possible to make tasty preparations for the winter from it.

Dried

pros: retain a lot of useful properties.
Minuses: Suitable only as a flavoring addition to dishes.

Shelf life: up to two years.

How to store: Drying stalked celery is a long-proven method of storing spices. It is carried out in several stages:

The petioles and leaves of the plant are thoroughly washed with water.
The stems are peeled and cut into small strips.
Leaves and stems are laid out on a dry cloth until completely dry.
Celery is placed in a cool, dry place for several weeks, and then stored in a bag or container.

To save time, you can dry celery in the oven, however, you should make sure that the temperature does not exceed 60 degrees. The drying time in this case will be three hours.

When drying celery in the oven, you should leave the door slightly open so that the resulting moisture does not increase the drying time.

Pickling

In addition to such common types of storage as drying or freezing, celery can be preserved by salting. It will retain its beneficial properties for a long time, and in winter it will also serve as an excellent addition to many dishes.

The process of pickling celery:

For one kg of celery you need to take 200-250 g of salt. Before salting, remove all yellowed parts from the vegetable and chop finely.
In a large bowl, mix the greens with salt and place tightly in a three-liter jar that can be sealed airtight. It is important to leave room for the juice.

The container with pickling must be well closed to limit air access. A jar with a tin lid can be stored in a cellar or pantry, but one with a nylon lid must be stored in the refrigerator, otherwise the pickling will spoil.

For the winter

You can prepare petiole celery for the winter using the methods indicated above. However, there are still a large number of options for preparing this vegetable. Consider the most classic recipe:

Ingredients:

0.5 kg of celery;
5 cloves of garlic;
30 g parsley;
7 g salt;
8 peppers;
10 g sesame seeds;
50 ml lemon juice;
30 ml vinegar;
20 ml olive oil (can be replaced with vegetable oil).

Cooking method:

Sterilize jars.
Wash the vegetables well and dry.
Cut the celery into pieces and pour boiling water over it for 3 minutes.
Divide into jars and add remaining ingredients.
Close the lids and stir the contents.
Place in a water bath for 25 minutes.
Turn the workpieces over, wrap them in a towel or other cloth and leave for 15 hours.
Place in a cool place.

What is petiole bleaching and how is it done?

Attention!

After the harvest is harvested, the shoots of the vegetable may become dull and lose their natural color, which means there is a greater possibility of bitterness and overly spicy notes appearing in the taste.

How can we ensure that the harvest remains tasty and fresh for as long as possible? First of all, it is necessary to block access to sunlight when the plant stems reach 30 cm in height.

As a rule, bleaching of petioles is carried out in early autumn, since celery ripens quite late.

To begin with, the leaves are collected into a “bun”, which needs to be tied with thread or a piece of fabric.
Next, the sheets are wrapped in thick paper or any other material and tied again. In this case, the height of the material should be such that the leaves themselves do not fit into it.
You can secure the material with regular tape or twine. After bleaching, the petioles will become tender and tasty.
After three weeks, the vegetable can be removed by the roots and, if possible, bury the celery in damp sand in the basement.

How can you tell if a product is spoiled?

The key to long-term storage is proper preparation celery. However, everything has its own expiration date, after which the products should be replaced with newer ones. If the shelf life is fine, then how can you tell if the celery is spoiled?:

If mold is found in dried seasoning, it must be immediately thrown away and the container thoroughly washed.
If frozen celery begins to darken, then its shelf life has come to an end or all preparation rules before storage were not followed.
A spoiled product will begin to taste bitter and smell unpleasant.

If there is any doubt about the freshness of a vegetable, it is better not to eat it or add it to prepared dishes.

Possible problems and ways to solve them

Problems with celery during storage can arise if the cooking sequence is not followed or if the vegetables are of poor quality.

If the celery is still fresh and has just begun to spoil, then it can be frozen, pickled or salted according to the recommendations indicated above. It is important to process the celery, discard rotten stems and leaves, and rinse the vegetable thoroughly.
If problems arose on the balcony and the sun’s rays damaged the plant, causing it to turn yellow, then it is also worth changing the storage method, removing all damaged components of the plant. To avoid exposure to sunlight, you need to place the celery in a dark corner or make a small canopy that will hide it from the sun.

To avoid problems when freezing and drying celery, you need to let the vegetable dry thoroughly. so that in the future this does not affect its shelf life and quality.

If you follow all the recommendations for proper storage of celery, you can make delicious preparations for the winter and add this to cooked dishes throughout the cold season. useful product. Preparing petiole celery for storage will not take much time and will not require much effort, however, in winter, it will be an excellent source of vitamins.

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