Showing posts with label Dill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dill. Show all posts

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Ghosts of Gardens Past

Nature always finds a way. 

I've spent countless hours and dollars cultivating the ideal environment to grow the veggies and herbs. But sometimes I ask myself if these plants REALLY need the royal treatment.

I bring this up because over the past few weeks, I've noticed a few unexpected additions to the garden. Maybe a better term for them would be "old friends".  They've popped up in the rocks and crevices between my pots. They being tomato and dill plants. My only guess about their emergence can be they grew from seeds of tomatoes dropped by last year's plants. The location of the little plants would suggest so. The dill may have come from the wind blowing seeds off the flowers of last year's dill plant.

Think about it, this is how nature did its thing well before there were any gardens. Tomatoes are simply seed carriers and provide a vehicle to drop those seeds for plants to grow in the future. The dill plant is no different than any dandelion or other weed that uses the wind to spread its offspring.

As cool as this is, I still plucked them with the weeds. Sorry, there's no pension plan or social security in this backyard. I have enough on my plate providing for this year's plants. 

Monday, June 30, 2008

You Can Eat The Flowers?


My Dill-ee-yo


My herbs have done great this year....except for the parsley. One cut of that and it was done. Otherwise, I've gotten a lot of use out of my herb section. My dill, in particular, has been great. But as the summer has gone on, it has gotten taller and less like what we see in the grocery store. Recently, all that was left is long stems and a pretty array of small yellow flowers.

Tonight I wanted to use dill for a tomato, cucumber, feta cheese salad. But could I use the flowers? After a little research, apparently I can. In fact, you can eat a lot of flowers. Here's a link: Edible Flowers List

And the recipe for that salad:
2 Tomatoes, diced
1 Large Cucumber, diced
2/3 cup Feta Cheese
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 tablespoons fresh dill
1 tablespoon of kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and chill in refrigerator for 15-30 minutes before serving.