Hi guys! I am again looking for your collective expertise. We use a lot of dill, both seeds and "weed" in cooking. My favorite flavor, I guess. I have (gasp!) bought it from Penzeys, a very fine purveyor of spices, and that product is indeed very good. However, I planted a lot in my keeping with having enough to feed the caterpillars of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly. I am a little bummed out in that the swallowtails were very sparse this year. Nonetheless, I have a lot of dill. Saving/drying/preserving the seed is no problem. But how do you preserve the "weed" or stalks/stalklets? The commercial stuff is chopped very fine, but not powdery. Any idea how they do this? As an aside, I am very optimistic about having CRUNCHY dill pickles this year. I have 4 batches, totaling @ 60 quarts, and initial results look very promising. I used info from Lesley, Tracy, and my nearly 90 year old neighbor. Thanks to all. I will post the results when the votes are in. Thanks to all and GL!

-- Brad (Homefixer@SacoRiver.net), August 17, 2000

Answers

I grow different dill for seed and weed. The weed I end up hanging on the clothesline till it's dry and crushing inside a paper bag...not high tech....but it works :)

-- Sue (sulandherb@aol.com), August 17, 2000.

Brad -- I freeze it in about 6 inch lengths in freezer bags. When I need some, I just snip it off and use.

-- Tracy (trimmer@westzone.com), August 20, 2000.

We snip off small pieces, put them in the dehydrator, then rub off the weed. Great herb!

-- Jd (belanger@tds.net), August 20, 2000.