Plant · P-252

Celeriac

Apium graveolens var rapaceum

Celeriac is a better companion plant than it is a headline vegetable: growing plants repel the cabbage white butterfly, which makes it worth siting right in among a fall brassica bed rather than off in a block of its own. The crop itself is the swollen base of the stem, cooked, best harvested small before it turns woody and stringy, and it stores for months at just above freezing in high humidity, making it a genuine winter root rather than a fresh-use crop. It is the longest-season root in this planting, needing 100 to 120 days or more, and dislikes anything over about 75F, so it goes in as a transplant started well ahead of the heat rather than sown directly. The leaves work as a strong herb, not a green - they are toxic in quantity - and the whole plant doubles as a bitter medicinal tonic, though it should not be used in pregnancy since it stimulates the uterus.