Time to Make the Dill Pickles

In the garden we had a dill forest about 4-5 weeks ago. I wish I got a picture of how nice the tall herb looked before that storm blew through here. All the seed heads now lay on the ground or each other, strewn every which way. That area of the garden looks a mess, but it’s the flavors that count.

Dill forest about 4 feet tall in the garden.
Dill forest about 4 feet tall in the garden.

There’s still a lot of dill in the garden even though we used quite a bit for making dill pickles. One head per jar is enough dill weed or dill seed to flavor the cucumbers. We found out we could use the green seed heads just as well as the brown seed heads for flavoring the pickles.

Pickle ingredients of cucumbers, dill and garlic.
Pickle ingredients of cucumbers, dill and garlic.

After another day or two of sunshine we’ll harvest some of the dill seed and dill weed for the pantry and let other stalks release their seeds into the garden. That way, we’ll be guaranteed more dill herb for next year’s fun. Some of the seed that falls to the ground now will be able to germinate and grow a little bit into September, but the small sprouts will die off after the weather freezes. They won’t survive in a hot box for very long into the Autumn.