Harvesting Dill Seed

Dill like most fresh herbs has many health benefits. One of the great things about fresh dill is that it is excellent source of vitamin C.  Both the leaves and the seeds from dill can be utilized. I have been enjoying the leaves from my dill all winter long and now as the temperatures have warmed up my dill has finally gone to seed. So it is time to harvest the seed.


 Dill is very easy to grow. I remember as a kid my mom always talking about how hard it was to get rid of dill once you got it growing. I really don't know why she wanted to get rid of her dill, maybe she didn't like the location it was in. I was thrilled to see my dill go to seed in anticipation of bottling pickles in a couple of months.

A very easy way to harvest dill is to wait until the the stems have dried and mostly turned brown. Cut each stem off and place it seed side down inside a large paper bag.  After cutting all of your dill you may want to let it dry for several more days inside the paper bag before removing the seeds.
 




You can shake the bag to remove some of the seed, but I found that a lot of the seed still doesn't come off.  Instead pinch each stem between your fingers and just gently remove all of the seeds.

 I had my little guy help me out and we worked over a large bowl pulling all of our dill seed off.

We had quite the harvest in the end we have nearly 2 oz. of Dill Seed. Now I can hardly wait to make pickles.

This small bottle of dill seed (0.85oz.) cost me upwards of $3.00. I harvested twice that much off my dill plant this year. I won't have to buy dill seed ever again.