DILL
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CULTIVATION:
Dill is a aromatic annual with finely divided leaves to 2-3 feet high,
on spindle-shaped roots, bearing umbels of yellow flowers.

Dill prefers full sun, and needs protection from wind. Soil should be
rich, and well drained, but tolerates most other soil. Sow in ground
from spring to midsummer. Do not plant near fennel as they
cross-pollinate. Dill self-seeds, and seeds remain viable for 3-10
years. Germination time is about 21 days, foliage is ready for use in 70
days, and seeds are ripe in about 100 days. Grows in zone 3-10. Thin
and transplant 9-12 inches apart. Can also be grown indoors.

Gather leaves when young. Pick flowering tops just as fruits begin to
form. Dry or freeze leaves, dry ripe seeds. Leaves do not dry well, and
the only way to preserve them is to freeze dill in small batches.


CULINARY USES:
Sometimes described as similar in flavor to caraway, aniseed, and
fennel. Dried leaves retain only a little flavor. When cooking use
generously, and add at last minute.

The dill leaves go well with fish, cream cheese, and cucumber. Add one
flower head per jar to pickled gherkins, cucumbers, and cauliflowers, or
ground up seeds and add to herb butter, mayonnaise, and mustard.

Add whole seeds to potato salad, pickles, bean soups, salmon dishes and
apple pies. The longer you cook dill leaves, the less flavor they have.
Add dill the last minute, just before you serve the food. Dill is most
commonly used to give dill pickles their characteristic aromatic flavor.


MEDICAL USES:
Excellent as dill water for digestive problems in children, especially
flatulence. Seeds contain Slilicic acid, calcium, phosphorus, and other
valuable minerals salts, and can be used in a salt-free diet. This is
also good for the digestive system.

The herb relaxes the smooth muscle of the digestive tract. One study
showed it's also anti-foaming agent, meaning it helps prevent the
formation of intestinal gas bubbles. Dill seed oil inhibits the growth
of several bacteria that attack the intestinal tract, suggesting it may
help prevent infectious diarrhea caused by these microorganisms.

Urinary tract infection are usually caused by one of the bacteria
inhibited by dill. Add up to 1 teaspoon of dill seed oil to your bath.
It just might help.

Make your own dill water. Crush 1 ounce of ripe dill seeds with a pestle
and mortar and soak for 3-4 hours in 1/2 pint of hot water. Strain and
sweeten with 1 tablespoon of honey. This will help with digestive
problems.

WARNING:
Generally regarded as safe, for healthy non-pregnant, non-nursing adults

COSMETIC USES:
Dill is particularly good for strengthening the nails, because it is
full of silicid acid which assists nail grows. Chew a few dill seeds
regularly if you have problems with brittle nails.

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Dill~ Anethum graveolens

Positive Qualities: Experiencing and absorbing the fullness of life,
especially its sensory aspects.

Patterns of Imbalance: Overwhelm due to overstimulation,
hypersensitivity to environment or to outer activity, sensory congestion.

The cacophony of modern living conditions can stun, and even stifle, the
sensory capacities of most persons. With the advent of the technological
age, the soul is literally bombarded with countless sense impressions -
what one sees, hears, tastes, smells and touches in the course of a day
can be quite staggering. Soul hygiene requires that these sensorial
impressions be assimilated; otherwise psychic indigestion and nervous
overwhelm result. In prior times, those who wished to develop
spirituality sought remote environments and ascetic living conditions
which diminished sensorial stimulation and freed the soul for higher
spiritual work. Dill flower essence helps to harmonize the psychic life
within the context of daily work and modern living. Through the dill
flower, the soul not only learns to discriminate and regulate sense
experience, but even more importantly to allow the sens life itself to
become a vehicle for enlightenment. Rather than being dulled and
subdued, the senses can be refined and clarified, becoming ever more
luminous and transparent. By consciously encountering sensory
experience, a new kind of clairvoyance and clairsentience arise in the
modern soul. Dill flower essence assists the soul in transforming
sensory overwhelm into an ability to perceive the sense world as a
manifestation of spiritual archetypes.

From the Flower Essence Reperatory by Patricia Kaminski and Richard Katz

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Dill: You can easily grow Dill at home on your windowsill. It thrives on
full sun and doesn't like to be overwatered so keep the soil semi-dry.
You can pull off a bit of dill anytime you want to add it to your
cooking. Magickally, it is associated with protection, general good
fortune and monetary gain.

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Dill - Protection, Money, Lust, Luck
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DILL (antethum graveolens)
COMMON NAMES: Dilly, garden dill
MEDICINAL PART: Fruit
DESCRIPTION: Dill is an annual plant widely cultivated as a spice but
also found growing wild in North and South America and in Europe. The
hollow, finely grooved stem grows 1 to 3 feet high and is striped dark
green and white with bluish spots. The leaves are bluish-green,
bipinnate with filiform leaflets; the base dilates into a sheath
surround the stem. Flat, compound umbels of yellow flowers appear from
July to September, producing eventually the oval, ribbed dill seeds.

PROPERTIES AND USES: Antispasmodic, calmative, carminative, diuretic,
galactagogue, stomachic. Dill tea, made with water or white wine, is a
popular remedy for upset stomach. Dill also helps stimulate appetite,
and a decoction of the seed may be helpful for insomnia as well as for
pains due to flatulence. Nursing mothers can use dill to promote the
flow of milk, particularly in combination with anise, coriander, fennel,
and caraway. Try chewing the seeds to clear up halitosis.

PREPARATION AND DOSAGE: Steep 2 tsp seeds in 1 cup water for 10 to 15
minutes. Take 1/2 cup at time, 1 to 2 cups a day.

(from "The Herb Book" by John Lust)

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DILL (anethum graveolens)
Generally considered safe
FOLK NAMES: Aneton, Dill Weed, Dilly, Garden Dill, Chebbit, Sowa,
Keper, Hulwa, Buzzalchippet
GENDER: Masculine
PLANET: Mercury
ELEMENT: Fire
POWERS: Protection, money, lust, love

MAGICAL USES: The herb is protective when hung at the door and carried
in protective sachets. Placed in the cradle it protects children. And
if it is placed over the door, no one ill-disposed or envious of you can
enter your house.

Dill, owing to the number of seeds the plant produces, is used in money
spells.

Added to the bath, it makes the bather irresistible, and dill stimulates
lust if eaten or smelled (which is why dill pickles are so
popular).

Smell dill to cure hiccoughs.

(from "Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs" by Scott Cunningham)

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DILL

Other than for relieving stomach gas, Dill is used primarily for its
aromatic properties, in flavoring pickles and the like. The green,
ground, is excellent in salads, but it has a more interesting history as
a Magickal Herbe. As such, it is a good choice for kitchen magick, to
bring an air or well-being to your guests.

Dill is an Herbe of Protection. It has been used to repel negative
energies and black magic. It keeps one's mind clear, and gives strength
to reason. It has been used to protect the user from falling prey to
the results of the belief in superstition.

Dill is also an herbe used in blessings, particularly those for the home
and the kitchen.

(from "The Master Book of Herbalism" by Paul Beyerl)

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compiled by pianogirl...