Home » News » Guest Blog: Anthony Anderson Urban Forages Pine Pollen!

Guest Blog: Anthony Anderson Urban Forages Pine Pollen!

Posted by: admin Tags: anthony anderson, daniel vitalis, foraging, harvesting, health, herbalism, natural health, natural supplements, pine pollen, plant medicine, raw model, stephen harrod buhner, surthrival, wellness, wild food, wild foraging, wild medicine Posted date: March 10, 2011 | 16 Comments

What I love about urban foraging, is the thrill of finding absolute treasures where most other people simply speed past. Knowing how abundant nature is, even as she is contained in the cities, has completely changed the way I live my life.

I was at an audition last week in Los Angeles and spotted some massive pine trees lumbering overthe street. I noticed the huge flower clusters right away. There they were alike little torches glowing through the green needles… Pine pollen had finally presented itself to me, after a long year of waiting.

I had found some pine trees in Arizona last March that finally gave me the one on one contact that I was asking for. I was so confused about all the varieties and the timing of the harvest. When I finally stumbled upon that Arizona pine one year ago, I could see at last the flower clusters in their prime and now knew what to look for in the future.

So, it was with a dropped jaw that I found these pines in Los Angeles. They were dripping with pollen and about 5-times as large as the flower clusters I had previously harvested from. I gently removed them from the branches and got them into my bag. I am drying out many and will tincture many as well.

Harvesting is messy, to put it bluntly. There definitely has to be a passion for foraging involved,

otherwise if it feels like a chore. We are missing half the point of being outside and harvesting our own

foods and medicines. Foraging is therapeutic! It is a lot of time and “work”, but I love foraging and processing wild foods. I know how amazing this food is, so there is no hesitation.

The pollen harvest is flowing North as I write this. From February till late May, the pollen bursts from so many different regions on the planet. These ancient trees feed the forest. Getting wild food from a 300-year old pine tree, scraping the sky, is literally a completely different level of eating.

We are planting many pines this year too. We already have many nut pines, but now I’d like to find some that are known for their ample pollen production.

I am delving into discovering which pines we can plant to help spread this abundance.

A huge thanks to Daniel Vitalis and Stephen Harrod Buhner for turning so many people onto pine pollen. The feeling of eating this food from ancient trees is truly a gift and I must personally thank you both for all the inspiration with not just this food, but many, many other foods as well.

The SurThrival team and the Blackbird team are dedicated to re-wilding Mother Earth and re-planting Paradise, by changing the way we interact with our environment and assuming the role of co-creators of this Earth. We are putting our work and our profits into spreading these ideas and have been seeing the ripples travel widely. We’ll both be at the Longevity Now Conference in Costa Mesa, California April 1st-3rd to discuss topics and ideas such as these, so come by the booths and say hello!

Here’s to Heaven on Earth again!

~ Anthony Anderson

www.BlackbirdNaturals.com

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16 Comments for Guest Blog: Anthony Anderson Urban Forages Pine Pollen!

Infinite energy to spreading ancient wisdom, Daniel and Anthony!

Georgia gets so much Pollen in the spring…The Pollen count is extremely high…because of Georgia Pacific…You see pollen everywhere when it hits…Allergies are common…Thanks for your dedication…By the way, We have peppercorn…aka Christmas Berry everywhere on the Big Island and it is here on Maui also…considered invasive…strong tree but I have heard the firewood is toxic to burn

Beautiful pics….Stoked for the season of fertility!….. Are Eastern White Pines, as I live in north eastern MA, a reliable source of pollen? I have heard of lots of allergies to this tree’s pollen.

Hi Ryan!

Yes, Eastern White Pines are a reliable source of Pine Pollen… As are all Pine Trees

We always recommend that people be very discerning around using Pine Pollen if they are prone to other Pollen allergies.

I hope this information is helpful to you!

Sincerely,

The SurThrival Team

wondering if pollen from all types of pines is beneficial? i’m on the west coast.

Hi Susan!

Yes – Pine Pollen from all species of Pines are nutritive! Many of our friends have been harvesting Pine Pollen on the West Coast as the season has already begun there! Anthony, who wrote this blog post, was harvesting in Los Angeles, CA.

Sincerely,

The SurThrival Team

Collected a large amount of pine pollen and stored it away in jars to use in our drinks. We came back to it one day only to find that it started smelling a little fermented.

I’m wondering if we should have roasted it a little beforehand. We are doing that now, just to try and save it from going bad.

Another idea was to put pollen into honey so as to preserve it, as well as make a tincture.

What do you think?

Hello James!

You can certainly extract the Pine Pollen immediately in tincture form or in honey. As for preserving the mass amounts of Pine Pollen Powder, it needs to be dried in order for it to store without going off. It does contain moisture upon it being harvested, so the drying process preserves it.

I hope this information is helpful! Happy harvesting!

Sincerely,

Ali Schueler
Customer Support
http://www.DanielVitalis.com

Drying, extracts, taking both extract and pine pollen… All seems so complicated – wouldn’t it be good just pour some high quality ~40% alcohol to make sort of a paste out of the pollen and eat a teaspoon of that stuff (keeping it in your mouth for a minute) everyday work just as well for both benefits? I did this with surthrival Bee pollen – do you think it is a good idea?

Hi Jussi,

Thanks for your inquiry! We do not sell a bee pollen product, perhaps you are referring to our Pine Pollen product? The point of making an extraction is to derive the nutrients from the Pine Pollen Powder that are alcohol soluble and require an extraction to assimilate. There are both water/fat soluble nutrients and alcohol soluble nutrients in Pine Pollen – To just eat the Pollen straight would provide you with the water/fat soluble nutrients and making the extract provides you with the alcohol soluble nutrients, such as the bio-identical testosterone that is in Pine Pollen Powder. This bio-identical testosterone can only be assimilated by humans if it is extracted in alcohol. So, to answer your question, depending upon what kind of benefits a person wanted to receive the product, would determine whether you made an extraction of the Pine Pollen Powder or not.

I hope this information helps to answer your questions! Enjoy the Pine Pollen

Sincerely,

The SurThrival Team

I am a 35 yr old man that has very low Testosterone. My Total Testosterone = 282 [241 - 827 ng/dL] and I am afraid I am becoming hypogonadal. Can I take pine pollen powder to increase my T levels? I also do not want to get “shutdown” since Pine Pollen has Testosterone in it.

Hello Shell,

We appreciate your interest in our Pine Pollen products!

Pine Pollen has been used for hundreds of years as a testosterone supplement and was a prominent herb in traditional chinese medicine. Pine Pollen has been known to raise testosterone levels through regular use of it. The recommended dosage for someone who is interested in directly increased their testosterone levels is a 1/2 droppers full three times per day – Once in the morning upon waking, once in the afternoon, and once again before bed. These times are specific, as they are when peak testosterone production generally happens in men. Therefore, consuming Pine Pollen tincture at these times has not only been known to increase testosterone levels, but also re-educated the endocrine system to produce more testosterone naturally.

I hope this information is helpful to you!

Best wishes,

The SurThrival Team

Thanks for your kind response. But my real concern (and question is) if I will have a ‘shutdown’ because I am taking xeno-testosterone through Pine Pollen. Can you please provide some clarity on this?

Hello Shell,

We have not had any clients report that they have had the experience of a “shutdown” because of producing too much testosterone through the use of our Pine Pollen product. We have also never heard of this happening in any studies that were done on the use of Pine Pollen in relationship to testosterone. Because we are not trained medical professionals, we are legally unable to directly answer that kind of question as we are not allowed diagnose or give medical advice.

I apologize for my brevity here, though I trust you can understand our legal position with this kind of thing!

Best wishes,

The SurThrival Team

I recently attended a foraging seminar in Berkeley, Ca and author/speaker Kevin Feinstein was one of the key note speakers. What stood out in his talk was his excitement about harvesting pine pollen. When I got off the BART station in Fremont, CA we immediately hit the road and started foraging. My wife, 2 boys, and myself harvested approximately 2 cups of near pure pine pollen in our neighborhood. The season is already past the prime and we still did good. Yesterday we harvested close to a cup in less than hour in strip mall parking lot!

We are so excited about foraging wild harvests.

We also learned how to make our own house hold disinfectant/cleaner by steeping California Bay Laurel leaves in hot water over night. This is one potent disinfectant. I have been using it for years to keep bugs out of our grain bins. Never knew that we could steep it and use the tea in spray bottles as a cleaner.

Wonderful!!! Thank you for sharing