Roast Your Own Sunflower Seeds

Here’s how to harvest and roast your own sunflower seeds from your garden.

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I get helianthus in my garden for mantrap , good dirt ball , and wildlife . The bonus is that I can harvest the sunflower heads for myself and roast the germ . This is another labor that your Thomas Kid can participate in easily . In fact , it ’s a great project for small fry chemical group and guild like 4H , girl and boy scouts , or after school programs . While all sunflower are beautiful and attract wildlife , normally the best sunflower heads to use are those produced by the giving sunflowers like Giant Gray Stripe , Sunzilla , and Mammoth .

After you cut the flower heads off the stalk , let the heads dry until the front of the question turn a crispy brown and the back of the heads are yellowish . At this degree , you’re able to lay them flat on a covered table and let the fry fray the front of the sunflower heading . The seeds will well pop out and young tyke will be quite entertained .

After they seeds are all out of the flower heads , cautiously go through the seed megabucks and pick out unsuitable pieces of stem , etc . For salted seeds in the case , you ’ll require a bowl or other container with a couple of quarts of piss . Add about 1/3 – 1/2 cup of board salt to the water , tot up the sunflower seminal fluid , and lease them soak in the salinity water supply overnight . Another room to get the salt onto the plate is to put the common salt water and seeds in a pot and let it simmer for 2 hours on the stove . If you ’d rather have unseasoned seminal fluid , hop this whole section and go flat to jest at .

The next day , run out the salt water from the seed and lightly dry them with a paper towel . Preheat the oven to 300 degrees . * overspread your seeds on a large cooky sheet and let them laugh at for 30 - 40 minutes in the oven . you could stimulate them around after 20 arcminute or so , if you ’d like . You ’ll want to determine for the seeds to become a little brown and looking crisp – or you could pull them out when they just look dry .

Sometimes , you ’ll see a little crack on the shells as they roast . The finished Cartesian product is an item-by-item matter and you may want to try out with a few plenty until you get them to cook they way you enjoy eating them . At this breaker point , pull them out of the oven and let them cool . you could add a small more salt at this time or some people summate some liquified butter over the top of the seeds after they add up out of the oven . I ’ve not tried the butter estimation , but I ’m usually up for anything with added butter – so it sound correct to me . To keep sunflower seeds , once cooled , store them in a tightly sealed shock or container .

Here ’s a little bonus information for you . When I eat sunflower seeds it ’s commonly in front of the TV in the evening ; and it ’s for hours . badly . We always have to vacuum-clean up billions of bantam shells when I ’m done . Anyway , because of all the common salt I ingest , sometimes I awake up with cramp in my calves . I cite this once to husband extraordinaire who move to tell me about a gripping thing call the “ sodium / potassium channel ” . I have zero idea how it all forge , but the jist is that the atomic number 11 ( Strategic Arms Limitation Talks ) over - rides the potassium and that ’s why you get muscle spasm . I probably do n’t need to assure you just how much salt I take in on those Night .

I ’m not a doctor , and I do n’t even play one on TV , but the solution is bananas . I eat a banana after eating the seed and I ’ve never had another branch cramp after that at dark . Not that you ’d ever use up the huge pile of seed that I do , but hey – just a little soundness from me to you .

Only grownup should be handling the source around the oven .

Like sunflowers ? Check outKids Can Make Bird Feeders Out of Sunflower HeadsandGrow a Sunflower House for Kids .

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