Protein rich reedmace pollen

[Toddy]

One of my washing lines crosses the pond in the back garden just enough that when I spotted dusty yellow splodges on my towels I knew that the reedmace was ripe for collecting.

The flowering head, that eventually forms the familiar cigar shaped and coloured 'bullrush' is an all in one. The top part is full of pollen just now, but that will wither and crumble while the bottom solid green budding part will ripen and darken with the brown windborne seed down.

If you gently nudge the pollen heavy tip into a bag, and rattle it around a bit in there, then it'll pop back out, undamaged, ready to produce another load, while leaving it's present pollen to fall down to the bottom of the bag.

It's simple to collect, it's dry and it's only ripe for a couple of days and it's not full of insects. Indeed I found none.

I add flour to the bag and shake it all together and just use it for baking
Think plant egg

Some photos….not terribly clear, but look at the reeds and it becomes a little more obvious.


Reed mace (this is the lesser one) Middle of the photo, and top and bottom right.

Two stems coming up from the bottom left.

Sorry, rather blurry, but it does give an idea of just how much pollen the stems bear.

Showing the green 'bud' of the cigar shaped bullrush below the pollen bearing tip.

The bag of pollen I collected from nine stems.

Pollen enriched flour

Only available for a few days every year, it's rich in protein, doesn't have much taste and what it does have is quite pleasant. I just add it to the seasonal round

M

 

[Robson Valley]

Have you got a Latin name for that? Dramatically different from out 'bullrush/cattail' = Typha latifolia.

Can humans digest the exine of pollen grains? Palynological research looks at fossil pollen, millions of years in age.

 

[Toddy]

Typha minima, the lesser reedmace. The big reedmace, the 'bullrush' one grows in the other pond in the front garden.
Hang on, I'll find the photo of my 'jungle' it's growing up among the meadowsweet (filipendula ulmaria) that I grow and gather as a natural aspirin.

Can we digest it ? We've been eating the stuff in Europe for an awfully long time. Pine pollen is even richer if you catch it at a good time in the weather

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4255920?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents


M

 

[Toddy]

Centre left of the photo, tall thin grey green leaves…..photo taken a fortnight ago. No head on this one yet, but it's already two metres high.

 

[Robson Valley]

Good. Thanks very much. I don't think our cattails have headed out yet, either.
The broader leaves look familiar. There's a big deep ditch over by an old sawmill where they are normally far above my head by September.

 

[Toddy]

Recipe for jonnycakes.

These are basically a heavy pancake with green weeds added

I ended up with about five puddingspoonsful of reedmace pollen. I added that to a similar amount of (in my case gluten free) flour.
I added the same again of oat flour.
So, fifteen puddingspoonsful of floury stuff.
Half a teaspoonful of salt,
I teaspoonful of Baking Powder.
Stir well together.

Gather, clean and chop whatever weeds you have to hand. I had dandelions, bittercress, fat hen, and some chives. I deleafed a sprig of thyme and added a pinch of my own dried and powdered rosemary.
I fried the leaves in a tiny wee bit of coconut oil, but bacon fat is traditional. Doesn't really matter, just add something fatty or oily and fry the leaves until they wilt. Set aside and add enough water to the flour mix to make a decent batter. I use a balloom whisk. Beat really well. Stir through the greenery and the remaining fat or oil.
Spoon onto a hot girdle, frying pan or bakestone (or clean hot rock or slab of clay if you're camping) and bake one side and then t'other.

The recipe works if kept thick and wrapped in leaves and baked in the hot ashes or embers of the edge of a campfire too, or wrapped around a greenstick and roasted.

Tasty seasonal and a good way to get the hang of a few foraged foods.

M

 

[Toddy]

From the link I posted above, the pollen is considered a rich food, suitable for athletes.

It's a very, very old food in Europe, is now considered a 'famine food'.

I like it; it has a vaguely nutty flavour, but it's a no flavour kind of nutty flavour, iimmc ?
I like pine pollen too, and at times that comes down in blizzards.
I know someone who swears that his best metheglyn comes from brewing with pollen added

I sometimes think that despite the huge array of foodstuffs in supermarkets, that our diets are incredibly limited compared to the potential.
We import cultivated 'famine foods' from around the world, yet forget that the Atlantic islands and sea coast lands are themselves rich habitats with an enormous variety of food available. Just that it needs a little effort to seek it out, to make use of it. It doesn't come out of a packet or a poly bag or in a can.

Quote of the Abract:

Abstract
Pollen, the male gametophyte of flowering plants, is a high energy material, which is collected by insects and stored as food reserve. Pollen has been used traditionally by humans for religious purposes and as supplementary food. Pollen is a concentrated, energy and vitamin rich food that in contemporary times is not only consumed as a dietary component, but also is used in alternative medical treatments. Pollen has potential importance as a supplementary and survival food, and for conditioning of athletes. Pollen has been used medically in prostatitis, bleeding stomach ulcers and some infectious diseases, although such use has been questioned by the medical profession. Pollen may also be used for treatment and prevention of the high-altitude-sickness syndrome. Because some individuals are allergic to pollen, and various pollen species contain specific allergens, individual sensitivities must be tested before pollen is used as a treatment or as a supplementary food.