Preserving Celery...

I purchased a 2.5 pound bag of celery sticks the last time I went to the big city. It's cheap. Plus, they no longer carry the celery I used to buy that still had the bottom attached to the stalks. Celery in that form lasts a long time in my refrigerator. Celery sticks do not last very long at all. I was able to extend the life and crunch of the sticks by storing them in water. Here is how I did it...    

I got out my cutting board and a knife.

I prepared a bowl of filtered water to preserve and store the celery in in the fridge.

I put a large bowl in the sink and washed the stalks very well. They looked clean,

But they were all kinds of dirty...

I cut the ends off and any blemishes. I only used the very best ones.

I made a stock pile and a chicken pile.

Chicken pile.

I cut the stalks down to size to fit in my containers.

I added them to the filtered water.

Poured myself a cup of hot tea that turned cold before I drank it.

I topped off the water to make sure all the celery was submerged.

I put the lid on and put it in the fridge.

This is the jar that I used for storage. I did purchase 2.5 pounds. I wanted to show that you could easily store them in small and large quantities.

I packed the celery in and topped it off with filtered water.

These are the stalks that I had leftover. I used these to see which ones lasted the longest. The water processed ones lasted longer.

I had to use these up pretty fast.

This is how they were stored.

I have a regular head of celery in the fridge that I have done absolutely nothing to except put it in the crisper. It was purchased over a month ago. It is the best way that I have found to store celery. The celery sticks in the fridge are almost two weeks old and they are still crisp, but I will have to use them up or chop them and put them in the freezer in the next week or so. I have changed out the water once. I used quite a lot of them in a stir fry Yesterday. They were crunchy and the water smelled absolutely delicious. 

 

This is how much That I have left.

The true test was when I made chicken salad. The celery leaves on the left are from my window garden. Celery leaves really make chicken salad pop. It turned out wonderful. I test the preserved celery about every three days or so to determine when I need to use it up or freeze it to use in soups.

Enjoy,

Mrs. Smith