where his civilizations, including our own

That confused me at first too, and is probably why I never bought it before even if I did see it at a store. It's a vegetable that tastes like a fruit. The stalks look like celery, which I hate, and the leaves look like kale, which could be okay but probably not as a dessert, right? (Actually the leaves are poisonous, I'm told.) It doesn't taste anything like either of those things, though. If I had to compare it to anything, it's more like really, really tart cherry. Supposedly some people eat it raw, but that's a little overwhelming for me.