Why Is Kalamazoo, Michigan Called ‘The Celery City’?!

You may or may not be a fan of celery.

I typically love celery as a side for my wings or inside of my chicken noodle soup.

No celery juice, though! That is pushing it in my personal opinion.

But did you know that Kalamazoo is known for its celery?

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It is such a part of Kalamazoo history that the city was nicknamed The Celery City.

Why Is Kalamazoo, Michigan Known as the Celery City?

According to Kalamazoo Public Library, there are conflicting stories about how the celery industry started to boom in Kalamazoo.

For the first story, in 1856, George Taylor, a Scotsman, brought celery seeds and planted them in Kalamazoo. He learned about an elite-only ball at the Burdick House. The story goes that Taylor convinced the Burdick House to place celery on the menu free of charge. The elite loved it, so Taylor decided to plant an acre of celery the following year.

By 1910, six and one-half pages in the Kalamazoo City Directory were devoted to celery growers. As late as 1939, there were still more than 1,000 acres of celery beds under cultivation in the Kalamazoo vicinity.

Why Is Kalamazoo celery so different?

Kalamazoo's celery was pretty different than the celery grown in California. It was "white" or "yellow." It was also a lot sweeter than the Californian Pascal celery.

What Happened To The Celery Industry in Kalamazoo?

Apparently, pests and disease caused Michigan's celery industry to decline severely.

WMUK says,

California now grows about nine-tenths of the country's celery. But Michigan is still the second largest U.S. celery producer, with an annual crop worth about $20 million according to the Michigan Celery Cooperative.

So by the 1950s, Kalamazoo, The Celery City, was given a new nickname, The Mall City.