Melba's Jammin' wrote:
> �Goomba wrote:
> >
> > I'm so annoyed. The Kroger near me keeps foisting off celery with all
> > the leaves cut off. Not just the trimmed "celery hearts" but the regular
> > celery stalks too. �I asked the produce man (not the manager) what
> > happened and he replied that they cut them off cause "no one wants to
> > pay for the leaves" or something along that line and some comment
> > implying they're useless. �What?! �I tried to explain to him that
> > they're very important, very flavorful and almost a must for my stock.
>
> > Is this a new trend? I need to make it a point to speak to the manager
> > about this.
>
>
> Never thought much about it, but now that you mention it. . . .
> I don't think I get much in the way of tops until I'm in a layer or so. �
> Are your stalks bagged or nekkid? �If they're bagged, 10:1 they're
> coming from the supplier that way. �


This is true... most celery in the US comes from CA. Years go they
were shipped whole in nice wooden crates (very valuable when I was a
kid), but of late they've been trimmed more and more each year to save
on shipping costs, and they use much less expensive and lighter
cardboard cartons... celery is shipped refrigerated, they can fit a
lot more into those refrigerated RR cars and semi trailers after
trimming, and trimmed and in cartons they weigh far less which also
requires less energy to ship... in fact years ago, way before the
energy crunch, celery was shipped iced. When you find celery with
tops they are more locally grown. And still you hardly ever get all
the tops because anyone who has seen celery growing would know that
more than half the height of the plant is tops.... I've grown celery,
they get about three feet tall... you really don't want the very top
portion anyway because the outter leaves are dark green and extremely
bitter, you want the interior lighter green leaves that were protected
from the sun so that they are naturally blanched, they are more mild
and sweeter. If you got the entire celery with all it's leaves you'd
throw away most of the tops anyway... if you used those bitter leaves
for stock it would be ruined. Most green grocers know how much to
trim celery so that the remaining tops are actually usable, they don't
purposely trim away the tops, and in fact the tops are the last part
to rot, they typically trim only the very bottoms... when they trim
some of the outter ribs fall off, those are used to make up soup
greens. Those very topmost leaves are so bitter even the rabbits and
deer won't eat them, I've tossed them out over the fence of my garden
like I do with all produce I can't use for various reasons, the
critters won't eat the very tops.

Learn he
http://www.dole5aday.com/html/kids/N...harvested.html