DILL DOES IT ALL
The tension builds as the announcement nears. Will the 2010 Herb of the Year be mint or another perennial favorite? Has garlic — not really an herb, but a contender nonetheless — sufficiently ramped up its campaign?
The envelope from the Missouri Botanical Garden arrives. The winner is ... dill!
But dill's ascension really isn't a surprise.
"Actually, we chose it about 2007," said Chuck Voigt, a vegetable and herb specialist in the department of crop sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Voigt is a member of the board of directors of the International Herb Association, which names the Herb of the Year. "We've picked them all through 2015."
"We chose them based on being outstanding in two of three categories: medicinal, culinary and decorative," Voigt said. "Dill is of course widely used in cooking, especially in northern Europe and the Scandinavian countries, and down into the Mediterranean.
Some varieties have such a quality in their bloom that they're used in flower arrangements, and it can help quiet the digestive tract. It's almost a triple threat."
Chef David Guempel uses dill in several dishes on the menu at Cafe Osage, the restaurant at Bowood Farms garden center in the Central West End.
"It goes with fish, but it almost needs something creamy," he said. "I also think it goes very well with earthy things — I make a cucumber and beet salad with dill dressing."
But Guempel warned against overdoing the dill.
"You need to be very light-handed with it," he said. "It can overpower. I think maybe the Silver Palate cookbook back in the '80s almost did dill in. Maybe tarragon, too."
Multiple varieties are standard at garden stores, including Bowood Farms, which is selling at least three types of dill this year.
"The Fernleaf dill is very popular," said Ellen Barredo, horticultural manager at Bowood. "It's a very durable and reliable plant — precious and compact, and very pretty if you're doing container potting."
"The Superdukat is a taller dill that gives you more of a stately presence if you're planting a planned herb garden," Barredo added. "Also, you'll get more of a harvest off of the larger plants, which grow to be 24 to 36 inches tall."
A third variety, Vierling, is more commonly chosen for its appearance, she said.
"You could eat it, but it's really pretty in the garden," Barredo said. "It's another tall one, and it's grown specifically for cut flowers."
Barredo said dill attracts butterflies and that gardeners should be aware some of the dill will end up being eaten by the insects.
"You should plant a little extra," she said.
