This early morning, while in the kitchen, I was cutting the leafy hats off the strawberries (jordgubbar) to make a larger bowl for the family breakfast (frukost). I opened the little lid to the compost Tupperware vessel we keep on the countertop. Once open, a waft of dill ran up my nose and into my brain, activating my mental hard drive.

I was at once in farmor’s kitchen. She was standing at the sink, back always to us as all single filed through the entry door opposite of the kitchen that led us past and into the efficient dining area. “Hello!” she would greet us with, smiling.

I text messaged this memory to a couple friends, one living in the desert southwest. And another who spends time in the Atlantic World, a large chunk along the eastern Baltic Sea and the United States.

The latter texted me back, noting how the Baltic Sea area is replete with dill and the landscape. Lots of dill on new/small potatoes and herring.

Dill. Ancient Mediterraneans noted how rosemary was and remains an herb of memory. But so is dill, the memory herb of the steppes, the Baltic Sea, and central North America.

A photo below of the dill growing in our own backyard garden. This dill was a starter early this season from Forager Farm. It has produced many delicious cold potato salads and cucumber salads already this summer.