Welcome to a brand new feature.  Here is something interesting that Mike Davies has dug up (please excuse the pun). 

Roman ‘celery’ : Alexander invades

The Romans brought many things with them to Britain - wine, coins, cats, aqueducts and lots of things to eat; asparagus, cabbages, peas, pears, grapes, carrots and Alexanders ‘Smyrnium olusatrum’. A member of the umbellifer family, this cow parsley-looking Mediterranean plant somehow gets through our British winters and can be found growing along our country lanes, a few miles at most from the sea. Plants make massive spring growth and can stand up to 1.5m in height with bright yellow green flowers between March and June that ripen into hard black shiny seeds.’uprooted’ by the poppy.

The plants original name is ‘Parsley of Alexandria’ and its taste lies somewhere in between parsley and celery. The Romans ate its stems, leaves and flowers.