Collecting Pollen

Pollen, the dust-sized seed found on the stamen of all flower blossoms is the special sensory trinket employed by the flower for the very necessary purpose of making it attractive.

If it smells good, and it's golden, and comes from an edible flower, then, surely the bees won't mind if we take a small share.

Dill Pollen

Collecting pollen has become a bit of an industry in parts of the world, where little tins of it are sold at a premium - but if the dill and fennel plants in your garden are fragrant and colourful, then it's easy, on a dry sunny day, to collect a few grains for your spice shelf.

Collect the pollen simply by shaking the plant into a little jar - and what you're looking for is the golden dust that tastes of the herb, except magnified to the power of ten.

Crab and beetroot salad with dill pollen mayonnaise

Inevitably you get a few tiny flowers as well, which if you were buying commercially would be sifted out. To be honest they taste good too, so leave them in. Use dill pollen for sprinkling on poached salmon, adding to mayonnaise, or sprinkling over grilled vegetables. Fennel pollen is great mixed with olive oil and drizzled on to grilled bread. Use as a spice rub for pork, or sprinkled over grilled chicken. Also great with all types of fish.

Photo: courtesy of freely licensed media file repository

Thanks to Patrick McLarnon in Brook's Hotel, Dublin, for giving me a jar of fennel pollen last year, and exciting an interest in this beautiful spice.