We have been enjoying vegetables from our garden since July, but today as I looked out my window I noticed about 6 birds out in my garden having a great feast on the sunflowers. I decided it must be time to harvest them, if we were going to have any seeds for ourselves.In the spring I let my kids chose one item that they want to grow in our garden. This year Joseph chose Sunflowers. He planted the seeds himself in the spot that I showed him. (He also planted a few randomly around without my knowledge.) All summer we watched them get taller and taller. In August they bloomed and made our backyard beautiful. I have never grown sunflowers before so I was not sure when they would be ready to eat. When I saw the birds today I decided it was time.
I got on the Internet and found directions for roasting the seeds and the boys and I went to work.
And work it was........It was harder to get the seeds out than I thought it would be and I did not realize that sunflowers have sap on them. I found a faster way by the end, but I only did
3of 6 flowers today because I did not think my thumb could handle anymore.
After you get the seeds out you have to wash them and then boil them in salt water for 1 hour. (I had tried this with my pumpkin seeds last year and it made the salt flavoring just right.)
Then you drain the water off and put the seeds on paper towels to dry off the excess water.
Then you place them on a cookie sheet and roast them for 30 minutes. After they cool they are ready to eat.
They are yummy!
We will probably do the last three flowers tomorrow. I am hoping that It will be faster next time, now that I know the system.
We will definitely be planting Sunflowers again next year.
8 comments:
You are such a good mom. My kids would love some of this kind of stuff:)
Sounds good, I might have to try that next summer!
Yum, I love sunflower seeds. I can see why your thumbs were hurting. Ouch! I am impressed with how garden savvy you are-and that you are teaching your kids!
My grandpa always says..."Lots of sunflowers in the fall means lots of snow in the winter."
Remind me to thank Joe with our first snowstorm. :)
Your vegetables look great! You are so brave to try all these new things, especially when it requires that much work. I'll need your advise when I grow my own garden.
we he grown Sunflower seeds and then kept some for replanting they do well here but not this year oh welll they are good
What a fun activity for the kids. Don't you just love fall. Your kids are lucky to have such a wonderful mother:)
Looks like a lot of work! However, I am totally up for planting some next year. Where do you get your seeds?
Your blog is so cute!! I need to find time to set one of these up. Jon gave me your site to check out. I didn't realize you were living in Utah again. Jon and I were talking about getting together maybe next summer for a reunion at Lagoon. I'm on facebook or my email is minimouse0219@yahoo.com. Drop me a note sometime, would love to hear from you!
Post a Comment