Yesterday we harvested the celery from our garden. Ever the one to research and be informed, the boys and I watched this video.

It made the whole process seem so simple that to call it a process seemed silly. What could go wrong?

Here is our video.

So much went wrong.

After much digging and root snapping and pulling – soil up to our elbows – we pried the celery from the earth.

There was much celebration. We washed and chopped

And then we tasted, and it was awful! True to my research, the research beyond the harvesting celery video, celery that stays in the ground too long becomes bitter and very fibrous.

We went through the motions of collecting some of the leaves for a salad and some of the smaller stalks for eating. We put the rest into our compost bin. Cody pointed out that at least our garden was giving back to us in the form of compost.

The inedible leaves and stalks remain in their respective bowls on our kitchen counter, a reminder of the bitter truth. We are green when it comes to gardening and not in the good way.