Growing Your Own Celery Leaves

By Phran Novelli

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - I have celery growing on my windowsill. Stick with me. It gets even more fascinating. Why am I growing celery? I wanted the leaves for making chicken soup.

My grandmother taught me to always add celery to a soup stock - especially the LEAVES, because she said they add the most flavor. But over the years, there seemed to be a lot fewer leaves on celery I buy. Why? Mr. Yang our fabulous grocer once said the leaves get chopped off to fit into packing boxes. I got sad imagining all those tasty leaves for soup lying in a field or on a packing room floor.

Then I found out you can regrow celery from the STUMP - cut off the bottom of a stalk of celery and put it in a shallow dish of water on the windowsill. Within a week, leaves grow from top and roots begin at the bottom - then, you can plant it in soil, and later out in the garden if you want. But for now, I'm happy to have a steady supply of free little celery leaves handy by the stove for soup stock.