Celery is a vegetable with long petioles, meaty and succulent that are known by the name of stalks. They may be eaten raw in salads or alone, fried, boiled, with sauces and as a condiment for soups, stews, etc. It can also be used as an aromatic and besides the stalks, the leaves and seeds of the plant are used. In the food and agricultural industry, celery is used in many, different ways: such as conserved celery, dehydrated celery and even an oil extraction.

It is a source of vitamins, above all vitamins A and C. Two stalks of celery provide approximately 15% of the recommended daily intake of each of these vitamins. Although white celery doesn’t contain much vitamin A. Vitamin C has anti-oxidant properties and protects against many types of cancer. Celery also contains significant quantities of folic acid.

Celery has a bitter taste and a strong smell, and because of this besides consumption of the stalks, it is also used as an aromatic.

Celery is a vegetable with long petioles, meaty and succulent that are known as stalks. These may be eaten raw in salads or alone, fried, boiled, with sauces and as a condiment for soups, stews, etc. It may also be used as an aromatic, and besides the stalk, the leaves and the seeds are used. In the food and agriculture industry, celery is used in many different ways: such as preserved celery, dehydrated celery or even celery oil.

Celery is a source of vitamins B, C and A and two stems provide approximately 15% of the recommended daily intake of vitamins A and C. The bitter taste and strong smell is due to different components such as a glucose called apiina and an oil called apiol, although in modern varieties this bitter taste has been greatly reduced.

Celery consists of hollow shoots that are cylindrical, angular, sliced and small from which comes a rosette of alternate leaves, whose meaty petioles are the aforementioned stalks. There are different varieties according to their edible part and the white or green colour.

Harvesting dates can be between summer and mid-autumn, although it depends on the variety, the date of sowing and transplanting and of course, the climate in the region.

It can be preserved for two or three months in conditions with low temperatures (0.5-1ºC) and relative humidity between 90-95%.

The plant is herbaceous and consists of a hollow shoot, fluted, cylindrical and branched from which sprout the large leaves whose petioles are the edible stalks.

Celery is an herbaceous plant belonging to the same family as parsley, carrots and turnips: the Umbellifera.

The shoots that lengthen in normal conditions during the second year are quite branched, hollow and fluted, and can reach from 30 to 80cm high and even up to 1m. The principal root is pivotal and deep and the secondary one are superficial.

The leaves sprout in the shape of a crown and are large with the tip of the limb dentate; the petiole is called ‘stalk’, and is thick and meaty and is the principal edible part.

During the second year of growth, the shoot grows more and the white or purple flowers emerge. The fruits are quite small and brown, rounded, flattened on one side and curved on the other, and are usually considered seeds.