Pine Pollen Ponderings (1) - gathering information

I'm kinda kicking myself here - this was supposed to be the year I get into working with pine pollen and I didn't even think about it until the last possible moment. Grrr! That's probably the trickiest part of working with nature, getting the timing right. Blink and the season for (fill-in-the-blank) is over; you have to wait another year.

Up until the last couple of days I didn't know a whole heck of a lot about pine pollen. I've never used it nor spoken to anyone who has, which leaves me only the literature to go on .. and since pine pollen is right up there in hype-ville with chaga, the "literature" consists mostly of the questionable ravings of body builders and other testosterone addicts and of course page after page of advertorials.



Still, as I've been tripping over references to pine pollen for years, and I'm nothing if not curious, it's been on my bucket list. I had read here and there that the pollen itself - not an extract - has been used by various peoples around the world for literally thousands of years as a 'tonic'; something to rebuild strength and maintain health and a sharp mind well into old age. It's loaded with valuable nutrients, minerals and yes, testosterone. And if pine pollen is one thing, it is plentiful. That yellow coating on your car in the spring? That's pine pollen.

It's plentiful and it has been used historically as a tonic? I'm interested.

It took some more serious digging, but I've found some (I believe), reliable sources of information over the last couple of days. The always interesting Stephen Harrod Buhner has literally written the book on pine pollen, here's the preview on google books.  Buhner's focus is primarily on pine pollen tincture, which is what I'll be doing with it. 

Here's an interview with him on the subject (audio only, I'm afraid, and quite long, but well worth listening to).

And here's Blanche, a hale and hearty old lady I've been meaning to introduce to you anyway, as her videos are superb. Here she offers a terrifically informative video on collecting the pollen and using it in its raw state.

And just this once, I looked into the tortured mouse studies. I detest these things, but they do sometimes offer some interesting tidbits of information - if you like your information science-y, as I know some of you do ..

Antiaging Effect of Pine Pollen in Human Diploid Fibroblasts and in a Mouse Model Induced by D-Galactose

Once you follow that link you can find others, if that's your thing.

So with all that under my belt - because it's vitally important to gather information before gathering medicine - we've been out on a pine pollen hunt the last couple of days. I'll tell you about that in part 2, coming up ..