Garlic is native to the steppes of the Djungar and Kirghiz region of central Asia, from where the Mongols soon introduced it to China. It was also cultivated on a large scale in ancient Egypt.
Garlic was even considered to be a sacred plant and ancient Greeks and Romans, believing it to have invigorating properties, fed it to their armies during military campaigns. Patricians, however, disdained garlic, giving it instead to their slaves. Since time immemorial garlic has been a favourite food of the Jews. As the Old Testament tells us the Jews cried to Moses: ‘We remember the fish, which we did cat in Egypt freely … and the leeks and onions and garlic’.
Nowadays garlic is widely used as seasoning throughout the world, but it is used most by the peoples of southern Europe, north Africa and South America. It plays an important role in lands noted for their excellent cuisine, from France to China. Its uses are many: crushed together with salt in green salads; as seasoning for sauces, vegetables and meat dishes (beef and mutton), sausages and salamis, and fish. Besides being a seasoning it also has many important medicinal properties; it prevents flatulence and destroys intestinal parasites, checks the growth of bacteria, and is used in the treatment of arteriosclerosis. The chief exporting countries are USA (California), Egypt, Bulgaria, Hungary and Taiwan.
They are popular in cheese spreads, on bread and butter, in scrambled eggs, salad dressings and cold sauces, sprinkled on buttered boiled potatoes and as a garnish for assorted cold meat platters. In winter they arc a welcome source of Vitamin C.
In order to have fresh dill in the garden the whole year round it should be sown in succession from March till late July. The leaves will be ready for picking within six weeks of sowing. Dill is an annual herb and plants sown in spring produce seeds in the autumn of the same year.
Dill may be stored for the winter by chopping the leaves and preserving them in salt or vinegar. It may also be dried, but this must be done rapidly and with care in an airy place at a temperature of not more than 30C (86F), otherwise the aromatic and extremely volatile essential oil will rapidly vaporize. This is also the reason why dill should be added to hot food just before serving. The dried herb should be stored in air-tight containers.
