I've tried to shake pollen in to a container and you're right - a lot of work for a little benefit. It is so valuable to know this traditional method of collecting cattail pollen. We will definitely try it out at the Maine Primitive Skills School in the coming weeks. Thanks Arthur!
Thanks again Arthur! Sharing this with new people again! Glad to review! Have your first book "Ancestral Plants".. need to get the next one. EXCELLENT info!
I tried the tops of the cattail this year love them, your right they smell like corn when you cook them, I did a video on it and lot of other people tried it too!
@YoshiFreeman I eat the pollen-bearing flowers in that manner quite frequently. If I arrive at a cattail stand a little early, I collect the entire spike and boil/steam it for a few minutes. If I just before pollen shedding, I remove the flowers for food. If I'm later than this (i.e., when the pollen is shedding), then I gather the pollen (a little pollen is better than no food at all).
Very nice video. I've been a long time mushroom hunter (of all varieties) but recently became interested in wild plants with an apparent growing popularity of "wild rice" in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Fantastic info Arthur , thanks! We just found a good local patch of bulrush in our very suburban/urban environment that we've started collecting to use. Clint + Aimee
I have heard that you can take the brown head, strip it into a pan and singe it at high heat. This separates the seeds from the fluff. I have not tried it.
Hello! New to ur channel, liked, subscribed and tapped the bell. I’m learning, but I heard the part that turns brown was what was eaten like corn on the cob, I’m guessing from what u said, I heard wrong, right? Do u have a video on how to preserve the pollen? And the edible green part? Thank u
@dk48rfgj The seeds are so tiny that I don't find them efficient to collect (they are difficult to see without magnification). I do use the mature fruits later in the season as a coal extender for friction fire (within the tinder bundle).
@wcomalley I frequently find insects of the flowers of cattail, but they are almost always limited to the lower portion of the spike (where the ovule-bearing flowers are) or at the area between the two spikes. You may have just had an odd collection with an infestation of sort. I don't see this in the areas that I collect. Best wishes.
I think it is different everywhere and even from year to year. Here in northern Idaho it is from mid to late June most years when it is at the pollen stage. So I start looking for it any time in June and check its progress.