DILL IN A MIST

I am still not recovered from the trauma of the server going down for ten hours yesterday so I had a lot of trouble with this pic. I waited and waited for the rain to stop but finally took this one of dill in the rain. Now, of course, the sun is shining.

Never mind, this is dill, often called dill weed in the UK. The word comes from the Norse meaning to soothe. (Hah, not soothing today what with bobbing and weaving in the wind.!) I know people who drink dill tea at bedtime because it is meant to help insomniacs get to sleep. (Maybe I should try it.)

Many young mothers swear by "gripe water" for infants suffering colic or teething problems. One of the main ingredients of gripe water is dill. Make of it what you will.

I use it in cooking. I toss it into poached baby zucchini at the last minute. Cooking destroys the flavour. I use it in cucumber, potato and green salads. I even sprinkle boiled potatoes with chopped dill instead of parsley. I know it is used in Scandinavian cured salmon, gravilax, and I believe it is used in sauerkraut and borscht. My mother used to make heavenly dill pickles but I am not that industrious.

It looks very like fennel and it will cross pollinate with it although they are from entirely different plant families. The results are disastrous. This may or may not be a known fact but I learned it from personal experience.

Fennel is used a lot in Italian cooking but, so far as I know, dill is not used at all. Fennel is most often used in bean soup and in cooking dried and soaked beans. It is said, how shall I put this, to make them easier to digest.

And this is the picture Himself wanted me to use: Pretty caterpillar I found him on a stem of the dill.