Harvesting Your Own Sunflower Seeds
Harvesting and eating your own sunflower seeds is another one of those great organic foods. Just one-quarter cup of sunflower seeds will give you 90% of your daily recommended dosage of vitamin E. So, the seeds are great for your skin. But, the seeds are also high in fiber and are healthy for your heart and mind. Sunflower seeds are a great snack if you are on a diet.
Late summer and early fall are the times to harvest sunflower seeds. Let the sun do most of the work for you. The sunflower pod is ready to be harvested when the leaves on the back of the flower have shriveled up and turned brown. If you rub the head of the flower where the seeds are, the seeds should easily come out. If ready, cut the flower off the stalk leaving about 10″ of stem. To remove all the seeds, I find it easiest to rub the seeds out inside of a 3 – 5 gallon bucket while wearing leather gloves. After removing all of the seeds, we now have to prepare the seeds for roasting.
With the seeds still in the bucket, add enough water to cover the seeds with about 1/2″ of extra water. To this, add 1/3 cup of iodized salt per gallon of water, mix thoroughly, and let the seeds sit overnight. The next day, pour the bucket through a find sieve to collect the seeds and to remove the water and fine particles. Look through your seeds and remove particles that you may not want in your seeds (such as bits and pieces of shells or leaves). Now, in a sunny place, lay a couple layers of paper towel down flat and spread your seeds out on top of this. The seeds should not be crowed. From the top, pat these seeds down with a couple more paper towels to help reduce the moisture. Let these seeds remain exposed to the warm sun for about one hour. Now, you are ready for roasting.
Put your seeds in a flat, shallow baking pan. To this, pour about 1 tablespoon of soy oil (if preferred, you could use butter) and a small amount of sea salt. Gently mix with the seeds. Spread the seeds out once again and bake in the oven at 300 degrees for about 1 hour, or until golden brown. Remove the seeds from the oven and let them cool. Now, enjoy!
Oh, by the way, like I have found with most organic foods, if you need to store them, I have found it best to do so in a glass jar.
Sunflower Seeds – Organic Foods
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