Herbs for the Kitchen. Little, Brown and Company, boston. Apium graveolens - Biennial America eats its head celery religiously, and likes it. But leaf celery, as seasoning, is almost unknown.
Some books give directions for drying celery tops for use in soup.
But no one tells the secret of reveling in the spiced pungency that fresh celery leaves give salads and cooked dishes. In the Italian quarter of any American city that secret is open for all to read. In the tiny kitchen gardens, green plots literally snatched from encroaching pavements, one finds beds of unbanked, leafing celery plants, ready for the knife of the cook. For such a bed celery is sown each spring, and is allowed to grow without hilling or thinning. It will grow about eight or ten inches tall, with tender leaves.