The Man Who Made Kalamazoo Crisp: George “Celery” Taylor’s Legacy

August 21, 1891

My dearest garden companions, it was on this glorious day that the remarkable botanist George Taylor bid farewell to this earthly garden in 1891, leaving behind a legacy as crisp and enduring as his beloved celery stalks.

Our dear "Celery" Taylor, as you darling soil-tenders might already know, had immigrated from the misty hills of Scotland at the rather mature age of 53. He transplanted his family to American soil, taking root in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1855. His brothers had already established themselves there, making it a natural choice for our botanical pioneer.

Once settled, my fellow green-thumbed confidantes, George earned his delicious moniker "Celery" after pioneering the commercial cultivation of that most elegant of stalks. Kalamazoo possessed what was lovingly called "muckland" – terrain that was allegedly "valueless for anything other than growing celery."

Can you imagine such nonsense? One visiting botanist, with far more sense than most, declared the area's black muckland of a peaty nature absolutely perfect for celery cultivation.

In Kalamazoo, a modest plaque stands in tribute to our George "Celery" Taylor – a small token for a man who forever changed a landscape and a palate!

Thanks to Taylor, Kalamazoo became known as the Celery City or Celeryville

My cherished garden enthusiasts, in 1880, the Detroit Free Press published an utterly enchanting article about the expanding celery beds. It painted this verdant picture:

"Driving north from Kalamazoo, through the country, one passes great 100-acre farms devoted to the sweet-scented celery, reminding one of that Methodist hymn:

'Sweet fields beyond stand dressed in living green.'

One would never forget a drive through the celery gardens in any direction from Kalamazoo; the long rows keeping their bright green till November, as crop follows crop; and the fields being unmarred by fences or anything except the cozy cottages of the thrifty Hollanders."

And oh! My darling she-shed besties, you'll simply adore this delectable morsel published in The Herald Press from St Joseph, Michigan, in 1956.

It reminisced about the early celery-growing days with this particularly charming anecdote about our George "Celery" Taylor:

"In the fall of 1856, a big party was going to be held at the Burdock House Hotel on December 19.

It was going to be a big gathering with many people from all over, and Mr. Taylor thought it would be a good opportunity to advertise celery.

As the unknown vegetable, [Taylor] persuaded the hotel's owner to put celery on his menu, and the people were curious about it.

They asked, "How do you eat this?" "Is it grown from seed?"

It just grew in popularity from there."

Can you imagine, dear dirt-dabblers, a time when celery was an exotic mystery?

What audacity and vision our Mr. Taylor possessed! By the 1870s, the celery growers employed children to sell their crisp wares on the streets, cultivating demand as skillfully as they cultivated their crops. These enterprising souls met every train arriving in town, pressing bunches of their prized stalks into the hands of New York train conductors with requests to carry them eastward.

And just like that, my beloved garden confidantes, the market for celery sprinted forward like morning glory vines in July sunshine!

One man's passion for an underappreciated vegetable transformed not only a city's identity but America's dining tables forevermore.

Is that not the dream of every true gardener – to change the world one seed, one stalk, one harvest at a time?