Caraway

Carum carvi

herb

Caraway is a cool-season biennial herb in the carrot family, grown for its crescent-shaped seeds that flavor rye bread, sauerkraut, cheeses, and spice blends with a pungent anise-licorice character (driven by the essential oil carvone). The feathery first-year foliage is also edible and tastes like a milder dill.

✅ Plant alongside

Good neighbors that attract beneficial insects or deter pests

• Strawberries — Loose taproot of caraway opens compacted soil for strawberry roots
• Peas — Cool-season pairing; peas fix nitrogen for the moderate-feeding caraway
• Cabbage — Caraway flowers attract parasitic wasps that hunt cabbage worms
• Coriander — Similar growth habit and pollinator-attracting flowers

❌ Keep away from

🛡️ Pest & disease prevention

Proactive ways to stop trouble before it starts — tap a name with an arrow for its full guide

• Carrot rust fly →

  Row cover bed and rotate Apiaceae for 3 years

• Aphids →

  Blast with water and encourage natural predators

• Powdery mildew →

  Space for airflow and water at the base

• Slugs →

  Iron phosphate bait around young plants; remove garden debris where slugs hide

🌾 Harvest & storage

Harvest first-year leaves any time for a mild dill-like flavor in salads and soups. The main crop is seed: in summer of year 2, watch for the umbel flower heads to turn from green to brown. Cut the whole stalks just as seeds begin to mature (they shatter easily) and hang upside down inside paper bags for 1 to 2 weeks to finish drying. Rub heads to release seeds; sift out the chaff.

🥗 Nutrition & benefits

Caraway seeds are about 333 calories per 100 g with 38 g fiber, 19 g protein, and high levels of iron, manganese, calcium, and magnesium. Carvone, the main aromatic compound, has been traditionally used as a mild digestive and carminative; modern studies have looked at antimicrobial effects of caraway essential oil.