It is such a familiarity in our gardens, dill’s identity as an herb is
also well established. The name comes from an old Norse word “dilla’
which means ‘to lull’. Even back then, dill water was used to soothe
colicky babies.
Although a native of southern Mediterranean shores and southern
Russia, dill (Anethum graveolens) has been naturalized for
centuries in many other countries. The earliest record of it appears
on an Egyptian papyrus from 5,000 years ago. Romans wore crowns made
from flowering branches of dill for their festivals; garlands crowned
war heroes on their return home. In the first century A.D., Pliny
listed nine remedies with dill as the chief ingredient. This herb is
among those mentioned in Matthew 23:23 as being tithed. In 1578,
Dodoens mentions dill being sown in all gardens among worts and
pot-herbs.
As a drug, dill has been used by herbalists to dispel flatulence,
increase mother’s milk and treat congestion in the breasts resulting
from nursing. Dill possesses stimulant, aromatic, carminative and
stomachic properties, making it of considerable medicinal value. In
the Middle Ages, dill was one of the herbs used by magicians in their
spells and charms against witchcraft.
“Trefoil, vervain, John’s wort, dill
hinder witches of their will.”
Mentioned by herbalists down through the centuries, the reputes of
dill are well recognized. Virgil called it - “pleasant and fragrant
plant, very easy to grow.” Piesse reported some ladies mixed dill
water and rose water together as a simple cosmetic to clear the
complexion. Culpepper said dill would strengthen the brain; Edmund
Spencer called it “head purging dill.”
In 1629, Parkinson stated dill added to cucumbers -“doth very well
agree, giving to the cold fruit a prettie spicie taste or relish.”
Because of its soothing effect, dill was one of the ‘meeting-house
seeds.’ Long sermons were made tolerable with a pocketful of seeds,
dill among them to nibble on. An old German custom was for brides to
carry dill although the significance of the practice has been lost
through the ages.
