[Marilyn] Dill is coming into season for many.

[Mick] Along with the uses mentioned in the book above, another wonderful use for dill is that it is a galactagogue (it promotes milk production). We give dill seeds to our goats every day to help them to give more milk. This use will be important down the road, when mothers might not have access to formula or cow/goat milk for their newborns.

[Marilyn] Moral of the story. Collect as much dill seed as possible? How much would one have to take for something like that? Another thing that dill seed does is it cleans your mouth and gets rid of garlic and onion smells.

[Talitha] Once established, dill also self-seeds if you leave some in the garden…and can become another ‘weed’ to pull and eat. Both my cilantro and dill do that now and I can’t complain.

[Carolyn] I’ve been cutting off my seeds so I have more dill. I only have one plant. Maybe I should just be saving seed.

[Mick] Yes. The moral is perhaps threefold: (1) collect as much seed as possible; (2) grow it every year; and (3) if you think you might be helping nursing mothers down the road, consider buying a few pounds of it now, while it’s available and cheap ($8.54/lb from Frontier Herbs, with free shipping on orders over $39).

[Marilyn] We give the goats a tablespoon twice daily. For a nursing mother, perhaps a teaspoon twice daily. Fennel seed is also a galactagogue, and I think it tastes better; so that’s another option. Or the seeds of dill, fennel, or both together could be ground and tinctured, and the nursing mother could take that.

[Mick] This is funny: I just checked my email and noticed that an hour ago, I got an email from Frontier Herbs with a coupon code for 10% off on their bulk seasonings. Guess I’m going to be ordering some dill in a minute! For anyone interested, the coupon code is FR1026.

[Talitha] If you prefer organic whole dill seed check out Azure Standard or Mountain Rose Herb only about $1 more per lb. My midwife has the fennel seeds in her tea blend that you are suppose to drink a quart of per day.

[Mick] Thanks, Talitha. Somehow I always forget that Azure Standard carries some bulk herbs. Mountain Rose is currently out of stock of dill.