brace yourself for cutting celery

I had my first encounter with cutting celery only about two years ago during my tenure as a cook in Innisfree's community kitchen. Trisha brought us, picture this, wheelbarrow load after wheelbarrow load of this delicate leafy celery. The harvest was astounding and as a gathering of extended community members approached, we cooks wracked our brain about how to best showcase our abundance of cutting celery. A cream of celery soup was decided upon which sounded, admittedly, kind of bland. Good thing we were wrong. The soup was a huge hit and is always in the back of my mind when the cutting celery begins turning up in my weekly share. All you need to know is that this in not your grocery store celery. The flavor is pungent, fresh and bracing and it stands up beautifully to a long, slow simmer in a bath of rich flavors. Make some for a rainy day and save some for your freezer. One night in December you will come home damp, chilled to the bone and pleased to find a comforting meal ready to warm on the stove without any added effort.
Wash and roughly chop a large head of celery, including the leaves, a large sweet onion, three cloves of garlic and the tender parts of two leeks. Brown the veggies in three tablespoons of butter over a low flame in a heavy bottomed pot. Add a large pinch of salt to help the aromatics render and deglaze the bottom of the pot with about two cups of dry white wine.
When the celery and onion mixture is tender and slightly browned add two quarts of flavorful stock to the pot along with six gold potatoes, peeled and quartered. Bring the pot to a gentle boil and cooking the potatoes through and reducing the stock by about a quarter.
Remove the soup pot from the heat. Using either an immersion blender or a potato masher blend the potatoes into the soup until thickened. Add to this crushed red and black pepper to taste, a handful of fresh chopped parsley and a  heaped teaspoon of finely tarragon, a generous slosh of heavy whipping cream (do yourself a favor and do not skip the cream it is absolutely worth it) and a couple handfuls of grated parmesan. This recipe is as good as it sounds and begs only for a loaf of rustic, grainy bread and a tableful of hungry people to enjoy it together. My freezer will be full of it before the first snowflakes fall.