Dill (Anethum graveolens) has been a very popular plant for seasoning and natural medicine since ancient times. In order to get the maximum flavor and health potential out of dill, you should harvest the plant parts and seeds properly.

The right time to harvest dill

When it comes to dill harvest time, a distinction must be made between harvesting the tops of dill and harvesting the dill seeds for cooking or re-sowing. Depending on the time of sowing, young dill tips can sometimes be harvested from the herb pot or from outdoor cultivation as early as May. Individual dill tips can be cut into pieces of about 15 to 20 centimeters or whole plants for processing or storage until September.

Harvest dill seeds for use as a spice

If you want to harvest the seeds of the dill for use as a spice, they must be sown outdoors by the end of June at the latest. Then the brown seeds can ripen on the initially yellow flower umbels until autumn. For easy harvesting and processing of dill seeds, it has proven useful to cut off the entire flower umbels when they are fully ripe and to bundle them into small bouquets. Hang the bunches of dill upside down in a well-ventilated place and place clean paper bags over the umbels from below. As the seeds dry, they fall into the paper bags and can easily be filled for further storage.

Harvest and use dill sprigs

When growing dill in smaller pots, the plants can grow rather weakly, as their roots are actually relatively deep. Nevertheless, the amount grown in the pot is often sufficient to use chopped dill tips for the following foods:

  • for a broth for pickling gherkins
  • as part of salads
  • as a spice for fish dishes
  • for dill potatoes as a traditional side dish

The storage of harvested dill

If you harvest the shoot tips of healthy dill plants in a balanced ratio, you can cut and process fresh dill several times if the site conditions are good. If you have particularly vigorously growing dill plants or want to stock up for the winter, the question arises as to the correct storage of dill. The best method of storing dill seeds is to dry them gently and store them in a dry, well-ventilated area. Dill tips, on the other hand, are preferably frozen for better flavor retention. Freshly harvested dill retains its aroma for up to three weeks when stored in the refrigerator.

tips and tricks

If you want to self-seed dill in your garden, you should leave some flower umbels with seeds when harvesting. The chances are then usually good that the dill will look for a new ideal location as a crop rotation plant close to the old place.

WK

Category:

Vegetable garden