I don't like celery

A while ago, my nephew had commandeered my phone when an email notification popped up with the subject line You've been paid. Here's how our conversation went:

"Hey, I've been paid!" he announced.
"Oh, good! I like those emails," I replied.
"Who paid me?" he asked.
"No, I've been paid," I said.
"What for?" he wondered.
"It's my salary," I told him.
"You get paid with celery??" He didn't sound impressed.
"No, I get paid with money. But I can buy celery if I want," I explained.
"I don't like celery," he concluded.

That's a pretty fair reaction. While we all like salary of the financial variety, my father in particular is always keen to voice his dislike for celery the vegetable and his mistrust of any food that is calorie neutral - because eating shouldn't require such hard work. I don't mind celery and will add it to soups or keep stalks in the fridge to munch on while trying to distract myself from cheese cravings. It sometimes works.

One of my summer projects has been to plant my first ever vegetable patch - a tiny square metre garden in a sunny spot in the back yard. I planted some seeds for salad greens, beans, cucumber and celery of the vegetable variety. I'll see if anything comes of them in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I'm happy to receive salary to buy celery. But my nephew is still not convinced.