About Mountain Harvest Pine Pollen™

An Herbal Legacy That Keeps Unfolding

For us, Mountain Harvest Pine Pollen™ isn’t just part of the story—it is the story. It’s where RAW Forest Foods began, and where it continues to return.

Pine Pollen is the sacred bridge. It connects us to the land, to the rhythm of the seasons, to the pulse of the forest, and to the quiet wisdom held in the body. It’s how we remember what we’ve always known, and how we begin to grow forward—together.

From Need, a New Path Roots In

Our journey into Pine Pollen didn’t begin with a business plan. It began with a need—a very real one.

In 2010, our founder, Ryan Wade, was living in the long shadow left by Lyme disease. Medically, he was “healed.” But anyone who’s lived through chronic illness knows that’s never the full story. What lingered wasn’t the infection. It took everything to survive it. His body, simply put, was in ruins. (Ryan shares the full story on our About Us and Meet the Founder pages).

He had reached the point where it felt like everything had already been tried. Read. Researched. Until one day, he found an out-of-print book by Stephen Harrod Buhner, the beloved herbalist and philosopher. In it, Buhner spoke about the androgenic intelligence of Pine Pollen. At the time, no one in the West was really talking about it but Buhner had seen its potential. And what he wrote resonated.

So Ryan reached out. A conversation began. And together, they believed that Pine Pollen might be the key to bringing Ryan’s health back into balance.

Two things became clear:

1. Pine Pollen wasn’t something you could just buy. It wasn’t on shelves. It wasn’t even part of the wellness conversation. Not yet.
2. Not all Pine Pollen is the same. For it to hold the deep vitality spoken of in Buhner’s work, it had to come from the right tree. That meant Pinus massoniana. Native to the forests of southern China, it’s the only species that carries the true essence of this ancestral herb.

Sourcing Mountain Harvest Pine Pollen™

Every spring, we return to the wild forests of Chun’an County, China to gather Mountain Harvest Pine Pollen™ from its original source: Pinus massoniana. It grows there the way it was always meant to: untamed, unhurried, and deeply rooted in its ancestral soil.

These pristine, government-protected forests are the perfect home for the ancestral trees to grow and yield golden pollen. And we’ve stood in these forests ourselves.

We work directly with local communities—those who’ve known these lands far longer than we have. Their traditional ecological knowledge shapes how and when the harvest happens. And because of that, every batch is single origin and site-verified. This is Dàodì-informed sourcing, in practice and in spirit.

Wildcrafted during a fleeting three-day harvest, the Pine Pollen is processed with care to preserve its full integrity and elemental strength. And once it arrives here in the U.S., we craft each formula in a certified organic, FDA-registered, NSF cGMP facility.

In this remote forest, where the air remains untouched and the waters run clear, each harvest of Mountain Harvest Pine Pollen™ carries the living memory of its pure and ancestral origin.

Discover how our sourcing honors land, lineage, and livelihood in Sourcing Mountain Harvest Pine Pollen™.

Crafted with Intention. Nurtured by Experience.

For more than 15 years, we have honored the legacy of Pine Pollen by integrating ancestral knowledge with modern science. At RAW Forest Foods, this alchemy is our foundation.

It’s where intention becomes formulation. Our products are crafted in the USA, within organic, FDA-registered, and NSF-certified cGMP facilities. And every ingredient—from hand-selected Dàodì to carefully sourced botanicals—carries the integrity and intention that guide our adaptogens and tonics.

But like the forest, our work has grown in seasons. Here are some of the milestones on this journey:

• 2010 – First to offer RAW Pine Pollen™ and Pine Pollen Tinctures.
• 2011 – Introduced the first Pine Pollen Extract Powder.
• 2012 – Released several Master Formulas, integrating Pine Pollen in new ways.
• 2013 – Built sourcing partnerships for Mountain Harvest Pine Pollen™, the first single origin, authentically wildcrafted Pinus massoniana pollen.
• 2018 – Developed a dual-stage extraction process, increasing both strength and purity in our tinctures.
• 2018 – Introduced the Forest Prana Pine Pollen Extract—a 50:1 Chūn Fèn extract of RAW Pine Pollen™.
• 2019 – Completed R&D on the first 2:1 dual-extraction Pine Pollen Tincture.
• 2022 – Launched our essential oil–infused Pine Pollen Tinctures and Twelve Rivers Functional Mushroom MycoMedic Elixir Tincture.
• 2024 – Released Forest Aurum Pine Pollen Nectar Tincture, a potent 2:1 dual-stage Pine Pollen Tincture, infused with phytotherapeutic essential oils.

The Mountain Harvest Pine Pollen™ Product Collection

Everything we create begins with pure RAW Pine Pollen™. While the pine tree offers many gifts, it’s the golden pollen that holds its most concentrated life force.

As a phytoandrogenic, an adaptogen, and a nutrient-dense functional food, its strength lives in the pollen itself—not the catkin, not the cone. We honor this by taking the extra time to hand-separate the pollen from its catkins. It’s a meticulous step, but one we never skip—or rush.

From there, we prepare the pollen for the body. In its raw form, Pine Pollen is nearly impossible to digest. So we gently fracture its tough outer walls by air-blowing it across a fine mesh screen. This delicate step unlocks its whole spectrum of amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and phytoandrogenic compounds. And this intentional process brings digestibility to 99%, making what was once inaccessible… bioavailable.

From this point, we begin to work with the pollen more intimately, guiding it through processes that awaken different qualities, depending on how it’s meant to serve. Though it all begins with the same RAW Pine Pollen™, how it’s handled shapes how it meets the body.

The following notes are here to help deepen your understanding. And if you’re just taking your first steps, our Pine Pollen Trail Map offers an introductory place to begin.

Forest Manna RAW Pine Pollen™ Capsules and Powders

We see RAW Pine Pollen™ as the original invitation. The beginning of the trail. The first “yes” the body gives. This is Pine Pollen in its most essential form. We don't add to it. We don't take from it. We simply prepare it in a way the body can receive.

That means separating it by hand from the catkin, then gently fracturing its cell wall—making its nutrients 99% digestible and ready to absorb. That’s it.

Inside, there’s over 200 known compounds: all essential amino acids, enzymes and coenzymes, vitamins, macro and trace minerals, and plant sterols with adaptogenic and phytoandrogenic qualities. For a deeper look at what lives inside the pollen, see Nutritional Benefits of Pine Pollen.

We call it Original Forest Tonic for a reason. This is foundational nourishment—for all bodies and all seasons. It offers the broadest support for vitality, balance, and restoration.

We offer it as powders, capsules, and tablets. You’ll also find it woven into select formulas, like our Forest Prana Pine Pollen and Nettle Root Elixir Powder and Capsules.

Pine Pollen Tinctures

When we tincture Pine Pollen, we’re asking it to rise. To meet the body with its fiercest energy.

This is the Yáng side of Pine Pollen—the fire beneath the nourishment.

In this concentrated form, the plant’s androgenic compounds come forward, rebuild what’s been worn thin, and offer direct support to the body’s own hormone system.

While RAW Pine Pollen™ nourishes the whole, the tincture gathers that vitality and concentrates it into a more direct and intentional strength for the body’s deeper needs.

Most often, this form is ideal for post-pubertal, male-bodied individuals experiencing low testosterone or seeking a natural source of androgenic support.

If you wish to go deeper into this, visit Pine Pollen Tinctures and the Phytoandrogenic Hormones and Pine Pollen’s Adaptogenic and Proandrogenic Benefits.

Forest Prana Pine Pollen Extract Capsules and Powders

Turning Pine Pollen into an extract is like tuning into a deeper frequency.

In its raw form, Pine Pollen is a vibrant, complex, and nutrient-rich food. But when we extract it, we’re after something else entirely. We’re seeking its deeper strength.

Forest Prana Pine Pollen Extract is a 50:1 concentration. That means every jar begins as 7.5 pounds of raw pollen that’s intentionally distilled down to its most vital, phytotherapeutic core. We lose the raw enzymes in this transformation but what remains is something more refined, more targeted. A true adaptogen.

Here, Pine Pollen steps out of its original role as nourishment and into its deeper work of supporting balance, resilience, and the long journey of restoration.

This way of working with Pine Pollen goes back thousands of years. In the Shénnóng Běncǎo Jīng, it was honored as a Superior Herb. And that same lineage lives on here.

You’ll find this extract in capsule and powder form, with just a touch of Piperine to support absorption. It’s also at the heart of two of our most beloved formulas: Forest Prana and Nettle Root Elixir Capsules and Powder, and Mountain Alchemy Pine Pollen Elixir Capsules.

This is Pine Pollen not as you first met it, but as it becomes when you go deeper.

Explore the Pine Pollen Academy

Every path begins with a question.

And every question—when followed—leads to wisdom. The Pine Pollen Academy is a place to follow your questions. To learn, remember, and return to the roots of things.

You’ll find curated resources designed to meet you wherever you are in your journey. Here are a few places to begin:

• Find your footing with the Pine Pollen Trail Map
• Your top questions, clearly answered in Pine Pollen FAQs
• Learn the difference between forms in Pine Pollen Powders vs. Tinctures
• Discover what makes it nourishing in Nutritional Benefits of Pine Pollen
• Bridge traditions with Western Uses and Benefits of Pine Pollen
• See through ancestral eyes in A Chinese Medicine Perspective on Pine Pollen
• Understand our roots through Sourcing Mountain Harvest Pine Pollen™

The path is here when you’re ready.

Learn More About RAW Forest Foods and Wander through Our Collection