Galloway Farm

Sunflowers are awesome garden plants for lots of reasons. They grow fast, and they grow big so kids love them. Birds love the seeds, bees love the flowers. And after the rest of the garden is done for the summer you can easily harvest the seeds for a fun salty treat. Here are a few pointers:

– grow big sunflowers that have big seeds

– black seeds have a bad taste and stain your skin so stick with gray or white seeds like Mammoth varieties

– let the sunflowers die and turn ugly brown before harvesting

– Cut the heads off the stalks and let the kids help you work the seeds out into a pile

– take the seeds inside, dump them out and separate the seeds from all of the leaves and dirt

– put the seeds in salt water overnight

– spread the seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet and add more salt

– cook at 300 degrees for 30-ish minutes and stir several times along the way

– err on the side of over cooking so your seeds dry out and get crunchy (damp seeds are chewy)

– pop them out of the oven and enjoy them while they are still warm!