Northland College

Northland College
  • Academics
  • Campus Life
  • Admissions
  • Athletics
  • Centers
  • Sustainability
Search
  • Directory
  • Campus Map
  • Calendar
  • Alumni
  • Giving
  • News
  • COVID-19
More...
  • Academics
    • Undergraduate
    • Faculty
    • Resources
    • Opportunities
      • Internships
      • Undergraduate Research
      • Study Abroad
      • Off-campus Learning
      • Student Jobs
    • Graduate Success
    • Course Catalog
    • Transcript Request
    • Commencement
  • Campus Life
    • Dining
    • Housing
    • Outdoor Orientation
    • Diversity & Inclusion
      • Indigenous Cultures Center
        • Native Student Offerings
        • Powwow & Awareness
        • Community Outreach
        • Native American Museum
    • Get Involved
    • Bicycles & Gear Rental
    • Fitness Center
    • Services
      • Counseling Services
      • Accommodations
      • Health Services
      • Safety & Security
  • Admissions
    • Visit Campus
    • Tuition
    • Financial Aid
      • Scholarships
      • Grants
      • Loans
      • FAFSA
      • Veterans
    • Enroll
    • Meet Your Admissions Counselor
    • College Fairs
  • Athletics
    • Athletic Website
    • Athletic Facilities
    • Varsity Club Membership
    • Buy Team Gear
    • Hall of Fame
    • Annual Golf Classic
    • Camps, Leagues, Tournaments
      • 3on3 Basketball Tournament
      • Basketball Camps & Leagues
      • Youth Soccer Camp
      • Softball Camp
      • Volleyball Camps & Leagues
    • Give to Athletics
  • Centers
    • Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation
      • Our Work
      • Student Research Opportunities
      • Lab Services
      • Burke Center in the News
      • Water Summit
    • Center for Rural Communities
      • Rural Livelihood Initiatives
        • Quality of Life Database
        • Northwoods Community Survey
        • Opinion Polls
        • Local Food Systems
      • Human-Environment Connection
      • Publications
      • Data Visualizations
      • Student Opportunities
    • Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute
      • LoonWatch
        • About Loons
        • Protect Loons
        • Get Involved
        • Loon Appreciation Week and Poster
      • Timber Wolf Alliance
        • Wolf Awareness Week and Poster
        • Learn About Wolves
        • TWA Speakers Bureau
        • Wolf Status Reports
        • Vision for Wolves
        • Great Lakes Wolf Symposium
      • Youth Outreach Programs
      • SONWA Book Awards
        • SONWA Seals
      • Sigurd Olson Legacy
      • Apostle Islands Stewardship Symposium
      • Intangible Magazine
      • Forest Lodge Educational Campus
        • Rental Information
    • Hulings Rice Food Center
      • Compost Center
      • Larson Food Lab
      • Campus Gardens
      • Student Opportunities
  • Sustainability
  • Alumni
    • Alumni Board
      • Alumni Awards
    • Get Involved
      • Ask Our Alumni Panels
    • Pride Pack, Apparel, and Merchandise
    • Class Notes
    • Transcript Request
    • Update Your Information
    • Events
    • Give
    • Oral History Project
  • Giving
    • Christopher T. Morgan Scholarship
    • Meet Our Team
  • About Northland
    • President Chadwick L. Dayton
    • Northland College Magazine
    • Campus Sculpture Tour
    • Advocacy & Public Discourse
    • Consumer Information

Dan’s Dill

Finding beauty in a plant that grows like a weed.

By Kathryn Simpson '22
July 21, 2021

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • email

Dill grows like a weed in the garden hidden on the outskirts of Northland College’s campus. It grows like a weed because I put it there.

As I settled into my first summer working in the campus gardens and living along the south shore of Lake Superior, I was comforted by the discovery of a familiar object in the garden shed: a Smucker’s grape jelly jar with a purple lid, half-full of dill seed. I knew in an instant that this had been my grandfather’s. Every summer morning, he carries one of those jars while he strolls along his fence, dolloping jelly on the posts for the orioles, who hang a few feet back, waiting for their breakfast. The seeds the jar contained could only have come from his garden.

The migration of that jar from Durand, Wisconsin, all the way to the north woods of Ashland could be attributed to my brother, Danny Simpson ’18, a former garden crew employee and my current boss. He approved of my decision to scatter the remaining seed all over the garden, much to the confusion, and even dismay, of my fellow gardeners. I gave orders that the dill was not to be pulled up, hoed, or disturbed, except where it choked out our other produce. The dill had to stay. And stay it did, enough to pop up again the following year, when I collected mature stalks by the bucketful, saving even more seed.

This spring, that same jelly jar sits full of seeds. I take a few out on occasion and rub them between my fingers. They’re thin, with rounded sides, and they come to a point on both ends. These flat, fragile seeds contain all the essentials for a life to begin. Somewhere, buried in their DNA, I know they hold the memory of a garden, tucked behind a house, not far from the Chippewa River.

I haven’t seen my grandfather in over a year. I’m glad he and I have been cautious about COVID, but it’s tough to stay in contact with him. He’s not one to chat on the phone for very long. Usually, he calls with a specific question in mind, and when he’s past the formalities of checking how I’m doing, he’ll end the call abruptly with a, “Well, be good.” Click. He’d rather give someone a bucket of raspberries and a pound of ground beef than delve too far into his feelings. I can’t say I’m all that different.

Those dill seeds preserve my connection to him. Even though we’re separated by miles of woods, lakes, and farmland, our dill can remember each other.
Dill plant.
I think my hunger for connection was what drove me to scatter those seeds in the first place. How could I work the soil without the company of those familiar, pale-yellow blossoms, branching out like an upside-down umbrella and wafting their scent on the breeze?

On campus, we certainly don’t grow dill because it sells well. Only a few people appreciate its culinary uses. A woman with a southern drawl and a wallet full of two-dollar bills will eagerly seek out our young dill leaves at the farmer’s market, but most days it’ll slowly wilt in the sun, untouched until the end of the market, when I try to hand it off for free.

Pickling season is a different story. Certain people come hungry for it then, buying it in bundles of mature stalks. But it only satisfies the few customers who desperately need it and is overlooked by everyone else. We harvest the leaves and stalks all the same, cleaning and recording how much was harvested, along with the other produce. The dill’s specific variety has been forgotten, so on the record sheet, it’s listed as Dan’s Dill, after my grandfather.

My grandparents never used dill for much either, but I think they enjoyed the aroma. I still remember my grandma, sick and couch-ridden from chemotherapy, asking me to get her some dill from the garden. She seemed so happy to smell those small, yellow flowers, rolling the stalk between her fingers. She was too ill to go outside, but the dill could help her imagine the garden—what it would be like to stroll around it again if only her lungs would cooperate.

After she asked for that first stem, I started bringing bouquets of blossoms to her more often, so she could enjoy the scent. Now that she’s gone, I think a lot about that little bit of dill—that small gift—a simple herb helping her cling to a shred of humanity while her body withered away.

When I finally leave Ashland, I’ll take that jelly jar with me, stuffed to the brim with fragrant seeds to scatter wherever I land next. I’ll keep bringing them with me, to every garden, every farm, every salvageable piece of land. And all along the way, they’ll have trace memories woven into their DNA, remembering a garden, tucked behind a house, not far from the Chippewa River.

Kathryn Simpson is a writing major and an employee of the Hulings Rice Food Center. She wrote this essay in “WRI 273: Writing the Environmental Essay” taught by alum Emily Stone ’04.

  • Big Lake Organics owners Jamie Tucker and Todd Rothe stand near compost pile.

    Rebuilding the Health of Our Planet

    On September 1, 2021, Todd Rothe ’10 and Jamie Tucker ’16 pulled on leather gloves, hooked up a trailer to a truck, and began collecting…

    Rebuilding the Health of Our Planet
  • Danny Simpson walks with Governor Tony Evers

    Governor Evers Visits Northland For Sustainable Food Program

    Hulings Rice Food Center Assistant Manager Danny Simpson led Governor Tony Evers on a tour of the processing center, compost, and high tunnel garden this…

    Governor Evers Visits Northland For Sustainable Food Program
  • Northland College Hulings Rice Food Systems Center

    Hulings Rice Food Center Receives Funding for Hazelnut Development

    The Northland College Hulings Rice Food Center has been awarded $49,300 from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection to work on product…

    Hulings Rice Food Center Receives Funding for Hazelnut Development
  • The Impossible Burger Won’t Save Us

    The Impossible Burger, a non-animal burger gaining popularity, is being marketed as the solution to saving the planet. How? Persuade people to stop eating beef…

    The Impossible Burger Won’t Save Us
  • Visit
  • Info
  • Apply

News

  • Northland College to Help Finlandia University Students Continue Their Education with the Sisu Promise

    Northland College is launching the Sisu Promise to support Finlandia University students…

  • From the Archives: A Guide and Outfitter for the Northwoods

    In the entryway to the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute building on the…

  • The Text Effect

    If you had asked me at any point before my senior year…

  • From the Archives: Giving a Voice to Intangibles

    The Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute archives include a small, saddle-stitched pamphlet titled…

  • From the Archives: Forest Lodge on Lake Namekagon

    In the summer of 1994, a number of individuals with homes or…

  • From the Archives: The Chequamegon Bay Area Partnership

    Chequamegon Bay and the wetlands and waterways associated with it are one…

  • For the Love of Learning

    In the spring of 1965, I graduated from high school and looked…

  • From the Archives: The Sigurd Olson Legacy Project

    In the fall of 1937, Sigurd Olson converted a one-car garage located…

  • From the Archives: Promoting Nature-focused Literature for Children

    In a 2003 press release, the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute announced that…

  • From the Archives: Lake Superior Programs at the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute

    It’s just a short walk from the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute through…

News Archive »

1411 Ellis Avenue
Ashland, WI 54806
(715) 682-1699 | Map
  • About Northland
  • Constitution Day at Northland
  • Consumer Information
  • Privacy Policy
  • Take a Class
  • Employment
  • Campus Store

my.northland.edu

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2023 Northland College. All rights reserved.

https://www.northland.edu/news/meet-our-students/dans-dill

Our website uses cookies for necessary functions and to enhance your browsing experience. Learn more in our Privacy Policy.

Accept & Continue