saving dill for later use

15 years ago

I thought I saw a post on here about harvesting dill and saving it in vinegar in the fridge to use in pickle-making later in the summer. However, a search failed to turn it up, so perhaps it was elsewhere. Anyway, my dill liberally reseeded, and I'm pulling a bunch of plants from my garden. I'm torn whether to stick it in a couple of 1/2 gallon jars and cover with vinegar (warmed?) or whether to make a dill pickle brine and store THAT in the fridge. My cuke plants are just sprouting, so it's going to be a while before I can make pickles. What would you expert picklers recommend? :)

Thanks,

Amy

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Comments (5)

dgkritch
15 years ago
I have just tossed the heads in a brown grocer bag and let them dry (the bag keeps light and dust out). Then use the dried dill in your pickles later.

I have also flattened them and froze, but they can get kind of "slippery". Not slimey, exactly but 'not right'.

The fern-y leaf part can be dried too.

Deanna
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ksrogers
15 years ago
When I want to keep dill weed, I dry it in a dehydrator and thencrumble it up and place in quart canning jars. They get a vacuum seal by using the Food Saver canning jar adapter, and stadard canning lid. The last batch I did was two summers ago and its still as strong and bright green as if it was done last week. Adding teh dill to a vinegar broine, will sofen it greatly and by then the flavor is also lost a little, unless your tightly packing a jar full with dill weed and adding some vinegar, then refrigerate. When I make dill pickles its usually timed about the same time as the cukes ripening. I use both the leaves and some of the green seed heads (a little immature), which seem to have a bit more flavor than the tan color seed heads.
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lizgross144, In response to your question "Can I leave the now headless dill in the garden and harvest the fronds as I need to use them, or will it get woody?" I can relate my experience doing that. Success seems to depend on the stage the seed heads are when I harvest them. If they've already made seeds, usually the fronds don't grow much, if at all, and the plant doesn't seem to survive very long. The fronds don't get woody, but the stem usually dies back. I'm assuming the plant is thinking "My work is done - I made seeds." If I harvest them while they are still flowers and not quite into seed production, often I will get a new flush of growth and occasionally another seed head. Anyway, that's what my self-seeding dill does.
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desertmarcy
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I trimmed all the ferny parts off the big stems and put it in the freezer. It stayed a lot tastier that way versus dried. My dried dill loses it's flavor, but I'm still using a big batch I froze several years ago and it is still good.
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ksrogers
15 years ago
As mentioned before, if you have a FoodSaver and the attachment for canning jars, you can seal the dried dill weed in a vacuum by using a canning lid. Once under vacuum it doesn't lose all the delicate flavor. The dried I have, filled two quart canning jars, and that was from two years ago. It has been quite gteen and still has plenty of flavor. I just used a bunch when I made some potato salad. I also add a small amount of dried ground mustard to the potato salad.
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mom2wildboys
Original Author
15 years ago
I don't currently have a dehydrator, though I will be getting one soon (purchasing through a group buy, so I have to wait for all that to be sorted out). I do have a Food Saver and the canning jar attachment, so I will keep that in mind for later in the year. One bunch of dill that I pulled and stuck in a glass of water is now home to a swallowtail caterpillar who hitched a ride from my garden! He's getting bigger each day and I hope will provide a good "lifecycle of the butterfly" lesson for my homeschooled 8 year old. :)
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saving dill for later use

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saving dill for later use

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