posted 15 years ago
I cut a sunflower to brighten up the kitchen table a few days ago, and noticed it was dusting a little pollen onto things near its vase.
After adding salt & pepper to a bowl I intended to scramble eggs in, I had a whim and held the bowl under the sunflower, tapping the flower a couple times in different directions.
I got a fair amount of pollen that way. Not enough to change the flavor of the eggs, but it improved the color a little, and probably the nutrition profile.
More of the little florets are now open now; I think a good-size flower head should work for two or three well-timed harvests, a couple days apart.
I've read people do similar things with anise.
"the qualities of these bacteria, like the heat of the sun, electricity, or the qualities of metals, are part of the storehouse of knowledge of all men. They are manifestations of the laws of nature, free to all men and reserved exclusively to none." SCOTUS, Funk Bros. Seed Co. v. Kale Inoculant Co.
