How to get the best out of your herbal seed harvest
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catch seeds
few days
damaged ones
The Greek philosopher and botanist Theophrastus (372– 286BC) paid tribute to dill seed (as well as to mustard seed and aniseed). Dill water is made by distillation, so is not one easy to prepare in the kitchen.
The time to collect seed is toward the end of a dry day.
I find it’s easiest to pick the whole head of flowers, into a bowl, and to pick out the seed on a tray later. It’s a nice job to do listening to the radio. Depending on the size of the seed, you can put the debris through a colander or sieve, making sure everything is completely dry.
White horehound, a expectorant for chesty coughs, and skullcap, a soothing sedative for over-active and anxious minds
Other perennial herbs which are worth growing from seed are chamomile, chives, hyssop, feverfew, sweet cicely, good King Henry and winter savory.
Of the plants whose seed is used medicinally, the chief family is the umbellifers. Lovage, chervil, fennel, dill, caraway, angelica and parsley are all used in herbal medicine. Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is often grown as a decorative plant, as the umbels turn a lovely yellow-green in late summer, making them a useful foil for stronger- coloured flowers in a vase.
‘The time to collect seed is toward the end of a dry day‘
The bronze variety is particularly handsome in a mixed border. It is also grown for use in the kitchen, traditionally in fish dishes. The seeds make a refreshing tea, soothing to the digestion, helping relieve indigestion and heartburn in adults. Fennel oil, contained in the seeds, is both antispasmodic and antibacterial. It is a mild diuretic and is used in the treatment of urinary stones. Fennel is also mildly oestrogenic, and the tea is helpful during menopause. It self-seeds prolifically, and has deep tap roots, so pull up in Spring any you don’t want before they take hold. Its annual cousin, dill, makes the soothing dill water used to ease colic in babies.
Containers need to keep the seeds absolutely dry and dark if you intend sowing them next year. Commercial seed companies use sealed foil packets to exclude moisture, but small plastic sealable bags are readily available substitutes, so long as you put them in a dark container. Before the days of digital cameras, the little plastic pots that camera film came in were good for larger seeds.
Label them clearly, with dates. Seeds for
consumption (as teas) also need labelling, but it is not so essential to exclude all moisture or light if they are to be used soon. Remember, dried herbs are much stronger than fresh ones, so use sparingly, and if in doubt, don’t.
Dill makes the soothing dill water used to ease colic in babies
Country Gardener
Caroline Sheldrick MNIMH practises medical herbalism in Gloucestershire and pulls up fennel plants on the allotment all year round.
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