A dill bouquet is usually 1 flowering head plus 3-4 stems of dill leaves. It all depends on what the recipe calls for. Some call for 2-3 heads, some for no heads just stems of leaves, etc.

Or if the recipe calls for dill seeds then you wait until the bloom head dries and turns to seeds.

Dave

Slightly related and not worth a new thread...... With the propensity of dill to go to seed far sooner than the vegetables are ready to pickle, I found out last year that it is rather easy to take a bucket, walk around to the dill plants that have gone to seed and brush the seeds off into the bucket, then later putting them into an open container to 'air out' and dry completely. Repeating this over the early summer now and again results in several quarts of dill seed when the pickling onslaught begins.

But I bet everybody knew that already.

I haven't sown my dill (or cilantro) yet, didn't want it (them) bolting/going to seed b4 the cukes (tomatoes) were ripe. I just started my cukes 6/10, just getting first true leaves now, tomatoes are just starting to blossom (some of them), when would be a good time to start the herbs? Packages don't have DTM. Thanks

Several quarts of dill seeds? That will make a LOT of pickles.

I haven't done this, but since someone mentioned that dill is always ready before the cucumbers, couldn't you just put up a couple of quart jars of dill packed in the same brine you will ultimately use for the pickles, and then open those up and distribute the dill into the pickle jars at canning time -- should work, I think. I might try it -- my dill is beginning to bloom, but my cucumber vines are only a foot long now.

"Several quarts of dill seeds? That will make a LOT of pickles. "

It sure does :-). In my garden, the one weed that causes the most problems is dill - thousands of the things pop up everywhere. In a couple of days of hot weather, the little fellas seem to grow a couple of feet, and suddenly, its not just a few cute little plants but a forest. Yesterday I must have cut down half a bushel of green dill which was shading the other plants. Plenty more to supply seeds.

My cucumbers and beans are just starting to vine, so I'm 5-6 weeks away from pickling.