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Wednesday, Juvenal Solano drove slowly along the cracked roads that border the fields of strawberry and celery that cloak this fertile expanse of Ventura County, his eyes peeled for signs of trouble.

His answer was lucid as a fog bank and inspiring as a stalk of celery.

Celeriac — the knobby, subterranean root of the celery plant — makes an especially luxurious purée after a simmer in stock and dairy.

Serve on sliced baguette, sliced tomatoes, endive, radishes, celery sticks, and other prepared raw vegetables.

But if you’ve got room in the basket, go ahead and lay some onions, carrots or celery under the bird or even stuff the cavity with some halved lemons, grapes, garlic and herbs, ala Colwin.