Dill from Noordhoek

Dill from Noordhoek

“Dill from Noordhoek” could become a niche product for me as the plants are thriving so well in my garden! As we are moving towards the shortest day and the longest (and probably coldest) night down here in the Southern hemisphere at the tip of Africa, we have to use every minute of sunshine to get on with all that needs to be done in the garden, planting and transplanting, just before the next storm or rains hit us!

That’s when I also noticed that my dill (Anethum graveolens), which is also called ‘Lao coriander’ when grown in Laos and Thailand, is much higher than the 40-60 cm mentioned in many manuals! It’s not only a very useful culinary as well as medicinal plant and herb, but in my view also pretty decorative in gardens, besides the fact that it attracts beneficial insects. I love the fragrance and use almost everything – the fernlike aromatic leaves, stems and seeds – when preparing delicious meals, especially in winter vegetable soups, colourful healthy salads and fish dishes. It’s unbeatable in mashed potatoes, cucumber pickles  and with smoked salmon.

Here we go again: food! I could go on and on. . . so could you, I’m sure !

Dill from Noordhoek

My other agenda when it comes to ‘Dill from Noordhoek’ is, of course, digital photography! And Dill is so incredibly photogenic! Whether as a plant with its fine twigs and umbrella-shaped yellow flowers or when the seeds ripen! As I’m not back to normal eye-sight just yet, I am starting slowly to get back into swing with my images. The photo below is the original I took about a month ago with my Fujifilm – and I think it’s rather sharp although, at that time, I wasn’t seeing that sharp anymore and wondered why!

But to get back into swing, I worked on this simple photo in ADOBE Photoshop to give it a different look, an antique frame, and playing with black & white values. When seeing the photo, I immediately saw an arum lily as well, and tried to bring this out as a little side note – not that it is important, but it inspired me to work around it! If you squeeze your eyes and look at it from further away, it’s actually quite amazing!

So that’s for today’s article on “Dill from Noordhoek”…. working my way up again after losing all my work since February due to a bad hack – so don’t be surprised by seeing changes in the website soon, too!

Have a happy weekend and enjoy a good meal – with or without dill!