Easy as A-B-C Monday: D is for dill.
(amazing photo from gardenguides.com)
It’s Easy as A-B-C Monday.
And I know what you’re thinking… dill? But there is a method behind my madness. I’ve been struggling for days to come up with a kid-friendly ingredient that starts with “d”. And I kept coming back to dill. It just didn’t seem “glamorous” enough to be its own ingredient at first. Then it dawned on me: kids just don’t get exposed to herbs and spices early on, and they certainly should.
Herbs and spices are great to introduce to children for a lot of reasons. A super reason is the introduction of new flavors. Often, kids’ food isn’t actually flavored. It’s just created and then usually salted. Salt, while it has its place, actually masks a lot of the good in food. Sometimes, just a dash of spice or a sprinkle of herbs adds wonderful pizazz to a dish, and eliminates the need (or desire) for something “extra” like salt or sugar.
Another reason is that herbs are a really good way to teach children about the relationship between the food that they eat and where it comes from. Many herbs are wonderfully easy to grow - and dill is no exception. Growing herbs from seed (or plants) also requires little in the way of space, so you can create an herb garden outdoors in your spacious suburban yard or in your tiny city flat. Try Burpee.com for wonderful, inexpensive seeds or consider buying a plant from bluestoneperennials.com. There are many others (you can also check out your local plant nursery - these just happen to be some of my favorites). An added bonus - in addition to usually saving money by growing your own herbs, I find that kids are more likely to try something new that they grew themselves.
Stop by throughout the week for recipes featuring dill. But certainly don’t feel limited. Consider this your license to try new herbs and spices a pinch at a time!
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April 27th, 2007 at 9:11 am
[...] Hic - what? April 27th, 2007 by Kelly According to an old wives’ tale, a little dill water “destroyeth the hiccups.” [...]