dill, dill stems and dill seeds

[flowerbug]

...

re: peach salsa

Ohh! Okay ... I've wanted to make peach or apricot barbeque sauce but I'm so busy that time of year. A different twist!

it's great, because you don't cook it, meant to be eaten fresh/cold.

 

[Zeedman]

a question on the dill seed, do you remove the chaff? if so how? i have half a yogurt container full and will never need all that for planting.

I break the the seed heads with my hands, then shake the seeds violently to break off the stems. Then I use a couple of screens (one w/holes slightly larger than the seeds, followed by one w/holes slightly smaller) to remove the majority of soil, dust, and chaff. Whats left can be used as is, but you can carefully winnow away some of the stems by pouring the seed into a large bowl, under a light breeze. A little seed might be lost too - so I do this over the lawn, where it is unlikely to cause future problems.

 

[ducks4you]

Dill is one of the main ingredients in the vinegar slaw that I make:
1 cabbage
1 onion
3 large, fat carrots
shred above in your largest bowl
1 cup AC vinegar
1 cup salad oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup dill seed
Mix dressing and heat to rolling bowl. Pour immediately over the cabbage mix. Serve warm or cool. Store in a tight container in the refridgerator. You will end up with some extra dressing when the cabbage mix is eaten. That's ok, just make more and add it to the container.
Best with pork meals or hamburgers.

 

[flowerbug]

I break the the seed heads with my hands, then shake the seeds violently to break off the stems. Then I use a couple of screens (one w/holes slightly larger than the seeds, followed by one w/holes slightly smaller) to remove the majority of soil, dust, and chaff. Whats left can be used as is, but you can carefully winnow away some of the stems by pouring the seed into a large bowl, under a light breeze. A little seed might be lost too - so I do this over the lawn, where it is unlikely to cause future problems.

i have just been using a strainer/screen to get the dirt/dust/stems off that will fall through. i was just curious if what i had left needed further processing or not. just seeds with the cover on them, flat, no chaff now...

 

[digitS']

Cilantro!

Can you imagine?!!

Steve

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i've had dill come back on it's own a couple times. this year i really want to establish an area on this property to let it have it's own space to take root.

i already have chives that i never have to worry about maintaining. and i have that same type of issues with a garlic bed i forgot to harvest the past couple years. now it gets so weedy but i know if i need some garlic or scapes they still come up without me braking my back each summer to dig them out. i just use the tops a lot.

parsley being biennial is another that i sometimes have to replant but i have on occasion found they will self seed in the area they were originally grown in. however, i have a plant in my yard that closely resembles it so i try to keep parsley in pots to be sure i'm picking the right stuff.

this year i want to focus on growing some cilantro for salsa & a few other recipes. i've had issues in the past trying to get it started but i think it might have been old seed that just wouldn't germinate. or is there a trick to getting it started from seed? most herbs i don't have an issue starting, i just throw it on the surface & it grows!

 

[digitS']

is there a trick to getting it started from seed?

Yes.

The seed is in pods. You have to get them out of the pods or their chances to grow are much lower.

Put the seed in a plastic bag and roll over it with your rolling pin. The seeds are double in the pods, so they are pressed against each other. The pod is round, the seeds are not . They will look like you have broken round seeds! You haven't. You have separated conjoined twins! They will grow!

Steve

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

ah! i thought i read something about the having more than 1 seed in the 'seed'. somewhat like beets right?

 

[digitS']

Yep.

That's it. It's just easier to see with beets.

It looks like you have broken the cilantro seed clean in half under the rolling pin. Nope, they just grew tight together and you have separated them.

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

this year i want to focus on growing some cilantro for salsa & a few other recipes. i've had issues in the past trying to get it started but i think it might have been old seed that just wouldn't germinate. or is there a trick to getting it started from seed? most herbs i don't have an issue starting, i just throw it on the surface & it grows!

I don't just throw the seeds on the soil surface and it grows but that probably would work. If I let to go to seed and just leave it, I get volunteers the next year. To get technical, the name of the plant is coriander, the seed is the spice coriander, but the leaves are called cilantro. Somebody on here corrected me when I misused the terms. Until then I'd always called the plant cilantro.

I let the plant go to seed and the seeds pretty much dry on the plant, then cut them off and put them in a brown paper bag in an outbuilding so they finish drying. Then I separate the seeds from the dried plant and try to get rid of the trash. Next, the seeds go into a glass jar until I'm ready to plant them. When I plant them, after the ground has warmed a bit, I dig up an area so I have loose soil and scatter the seeds. Then I stir the soil with my fingers just to mix it up. Some seeds get buried a bit, some are still on top of the surface. I don't know which grow but I usually get great germination. I thin them out and maybe transplant some of the thinnings if I want a few more. They usually transplant really well.

When I harvest the herb cilantro (the leaves) I pretty much cut them back to the ground, leaving just a small bud. That way they don't go to seed an die but keep producing new leaves.