Cool Celery Facts

Ants on a Log is a popular summer snack. It takes just three ingredients to make this tasty treat: celery, peanut butter, and raisins or chocolate chips. But celery has been around long before this snack was created. The veggie was first cultivated in the Mediterranean about 3,000 years ago. With this long history, there is much more to learn about this refreshing veggie.

Celery is native to the Mediterranean region.
The ancient Greeks used the veggies as flowers to reward winners of athletic games.
The veggie is mentioned in Homer’s The Iliad.
It was first used as a food in Italy in the 1500s.
The first record of the veggie was made by the French in 1623.
About 40 years later, the British made a record of the crop. They spelled it “sellery”.
A Scotsman named George Taylor first introduced celery to the United States in 1856.
In the 1800s, celery farmers founded Celeryville, Ohio.
Jell-O created a celery flavor in the 1960s.
The Celery Flats Interpretive Center is a museum about the crop in Portage, Michigan.
All parts of the plant are edible.
A stalk can reach just over 3 feet.
One ounce of seeds can produce on acre of the plant.
Celery can provoke a severe allergic reaction. These allergies are the most common food allergy in Europe.