REAL Celery

My parents came up to Baltimore tonight for an early dinner and to meet Cambia (she was of course very shy but eventually warmed up).  I made yet another slow- cooker chicken soup, very similar to one of my earlier recipes (HERE), but with barley instead of rice, FRESH local celery, carrots and onions from the farmers' market, and lots of herbs. Slow-Cooker Soup Sunday... nothing better than putting a pot of soup on in the morning, catching up on work all day while smelling the wonderful aromas of the soup cooking, and then sitting down to a nice Sunday supper ready to go when you are.  Add some bread, cheese and wine and surround yourself with your family and/or closest friends and you've got a wonderful Sunday and lots to be thankful for :-)

I'm not gonna post the recipe of this soup again because it was so similar to my last soup, but I did want to post a picture of this celery I bought from the farmers' market.  The farmer was announcing to the passing crowd how fantastic his celery is compared to the pale, tasteless crap they grow in tubes that you buy from a grocery store.  I've never had farm fresh local celery before, so I just had to give it a try. Look how gorgeous this celery is:

The stalks aren't quite as big as those you find in a grocery store, but the taste of this celery is galaxies better and you can't beat the freshness. Seriously- I'd never thought one could be this excited about celery, but it happened.  I'm hooked. This celery is incomparably full of real, complex celery flavor, and even the leaves are bursting with flavor. I chopped up a few stalks along with the leaves to add to my soup and it made the world of difference. I've also added some of the chopped up leaves to a salad and on a veggie wrap, and both were fantastic. I even gave almost half of this bunch to my mom to add to her stuffing for our Thanksgiving dinner. The possibilities are endless! If you ever get a chance to buy fresh celery from a farm market instead of from a grocery store, you have to try it and I promise you won't be disappointed!