Pollinated Foods

Looking to support pollinators while mastering your cooking skills? Check out the Pollinator Partnership Pollinator Friendly Cookbook! This resource encourages folks to explore new recipes featuring ingredients that rely on pollination services.

Food is a basic human need, and without pollinators, humans would go hungry! Birds, bats, bees, butterflies, beetles, flies, and small animals that pollinate plants are responsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food. Pollinating animals travel from plant to plant carrying pollen on their bodies in a vital interaction that allows the transfer of genetic material critical to the reproductive system of most flowering plants. With the decline of pollinators on the rise, our food is on the line. More than 200,000 species of pollinators are critical to the stability of our food supply. Use this cookbook to create culinary masterpieces that honor pollinators and the work that they do!

ALFALFA: leafcutter bees and honey bees

ALMOND: honey bees

ANISE: honey bee

APPLE: honey bees, blue mason orchard bees

APRICOT: bees

AVOCADO: bees, flies, bats

BANANA: birds, fruit bats

BLUEBERRY: Over 115 kinds of bees, including bumblebees, mason bees, mining bees and leafcutter bees

CARDAMOM: honey bees, solitary bees

CASHEW: bees, moths, fruit bats

CHERRY: honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees, flies

CHOCOLATE: midges (flies), stingless bees

COCONUT: insects and fruit bats

COFFEE: stingless bees, other bees or flies

CORIANDER: honey bees, solitary bees

CRANBERRY: Over 40 native bees, including bumble

DAIRY PRODUCTS: Diary cows eat ALFALFA pollinated by leafcutter and honey bees

FIG: 800 kinds of fig wasps

GRAPE: bees

GRAPEFRUIT: bees

KIWIFRUIT: honey bees, bumblebees, solitary bees

MACADAMIA NUT: bees, beetles, wasps

MANGO: bees, flies, wasps

MELON: bees

NUTMEG: honey bees, bird

PAPAYA: moths, birds, bees

PEACH: bees

PEAR: honey bees, flies, mason bees

PEPPERMINT: flies, bees

PUMPKIN: squash and gourd bees, bumblebees

RASPBERRY and BLACKBERRY: honey bees, bumblebees, solitary bees, hover flies

SESAME: bees, flies, wasps

STRAWBERRY: bees

SUGARCANE: bees, thrips

TEA PLANTS: flies, bees and other insects

TEQUILA (AGAVE): bats

TOMATO: bumble bees

VANILLA: bees