General Gardening

Harvest and Store Celeriac

Harvested Celeriac
Harvested Celeriac

Harvesting celeriac in the Fall is so easy.  You just loosen the soil around the roots and pull it.  Celeriac does take 100 to 120 days to mature so you will have to wait until Fall to harvest.

If you plant quite a few celeriac plants, you can leave some in the ground to harvest in the winter.   You will need to bury them in a bed of straw about 12 inches high and cover it with a hoop tunnel.

This year I just planted two so I could see if I even liked this vegetable.   I harvested one this week and will harvest the next one in a few weeks.  The verdict is that I like celeriac and wish I had grown more.

Keep in mind that the root is NOT a very attractive veggie.   While the root looks gnarly and tough, the inside flesh is very tender and has a subtle flavor.  The stems look like celery.

Before storing, you will need to trim off the green stems down to 1 inch above the stems, rinse the dirt from the root and let it dry.  As for keeping it indoors, you will want to keep it in a cool area around 32% with high humidity such as your crisper drawer in your refrigerator and it should keep for a quite few months.  Don’t throw the stems and leaves away because you can eat them.  Put them in a plastic container and store in your crisper drawer for a short while.

Celeriac Root
Celeriac Root

If you are not storing it, you can always go directly to eating it.  I took my grater and put some shredded celeriac root along with some carrot on my salad.  You can cook celeriac root to include with your potatoes or you can slice and sautee them – yum!  As for the greens (the stems and leaves), you can include in your salad or use them in soup like you would celery.

In case you missed my prior post of how to sow and grow celeriac, please click on the green link.

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