Preserve the ends of celery (5)
I believe the answer is:
candy
This clue could be a double definition.
'preserve' is the first definition.
(thesaurus)
'ends of celery' is the second definition.
The answer and definition can be both things that one consumes for nourishment as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'the' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for candy that I've seen before include "American confectionary" , "American sweets" , "Girl's name (diminutive)" , "Sugary sweet" , "Crystallised sugar; US sweets" .)