Celery is one of those things that I would dehydrate first and then freeze (if I had that much), the texture is better. It's all that water in the cells of celery that turns it all to mush when you freeze it.

Nancy

Here are a few options...

You need to blanch celery for 3 minutes in boiling water, then chill in ice water. Drain and freeze. I toss it on a cookie sheet lined with a Silpat and allow it to quick-freeze. Roll up the Silpat along with the chopped celery and use it as a funnel to fill your FoodSaver bags (in a single layer so you can rap the bag, loosen the celery, and remove a measured amount and reseal the bag). I've included a link below from the National Center for Home Food Preservation that may be helpful.

I would coarsely-chop the leaves and freeze them in water (ice cube trays), much like I do some herbs, and then add the cubes to foods.

I agree with Nancy - dehydrate it, which is something I do to celery on a regular basis, and that includes dehydrating the leaves. I use dried celery leaves like I would dried parsley.

There is a method that might work well for your celery called dehydrofreezing, that may improve the texture. Dehydrofreezing is where you only partially dehydrate your food item, then you MUST freeze it to prevent bacteria growth. Normally we remove about 90% of the moisture in vegetables (80% in fruits), but when you dehydrofreeze you remove only 70% of the moisture. The food will have better flavor and color. It also reconstitutes in about one-half the time it takes for traditionally dried foods; and takes up less freezer space than raw food does.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Food Preservation - celery

Thanks for all of the help! I will try that method with both varieties I have. I have a food dehydrator. But my mom has had great success dehydrating at very low temps in the oven. I will try it both ways. I don't have a big floor freezer - just the one in my fridge so your suggestions for the method that is space saving is fabulous. Thank you so much!

Hey T!

Welcome to the Cooking Forum! Yep - the CFers are just as friendly and helpful as the Hosta folks. Hope we see a lot more of you here -

Alexa

BTW - I still have a bit of your salsa seasoning left. It is awesome in Pico de Gallo!

Welcome to the Cooking Forum, Teresa.

I also dehydrate celery, simply because I don't have enough freezer room to keep it. I'm also glad to see this thread because I've only managed to get mushy celery when I freeze it and canning is worse.

Annie

Thanks Alexa and Annie. I am looking forward to many great ideas from this forum.

Teresa

A little OT, but still about keeping celery around to cook with....

Does anyone replant the base of their celery? I just read about it on a blog (Chickens in the Road) and am trying it.
I use a lot of celery and it would be awesome to be able to just keep replanting it.

I'm also wondering if it could be grown indoors in the winter. Mine was just planted a couple of days ago, but I'll update IF it starts growing. If I could just snip the outer stalks or have several in rotation, I might never have to buy it again! And always have it on hand, stored in a pretty planter or two!! OK, maybe I'm dreaming, but figure it's worth a shot for something that was just going to be compost or chicken feed anyway!

Deanna

Deanna, I tried replanting the base once. It made three babies and grew for awhile, but if I remember, we stuck them in the garden and they didn't make it...if plants aren't low maintenance, I usually kill them. I don't know why it wouldn't grow in a pot.

I blanch my celery for a couple of minutes and dehydrate it. Once it's in soup, no one can tell it was dehydrated. I do can some, but it's always mixed with potatoes and other vegies. We didn't like it frozen, either, but I'm going to try dehydrofreezing some (I love that word).

I'm bringing this to the top with a celery update.

First of all I grew two varieties. The first grew rapidly to 2.5 ft tall and after cutting it off at the base it went on to grow new a whole new bunch. The second is dark green, more leaves than stalks and the thin stalks appear to freeze well. I've also dried some really thin stalks and leaves.

I used a tied bundle of the frozen thin stalks in a turkey soup today. The flavor and smell is unbelievable. I removed the bundles and cut some of the larger fresh stalks to put in the soup with the carrots. Yum!