I love sunflowers
I forgot how tall sunflowers get. Taller than RT, if you can believe that...
The great thing about sunflowers is.....sunflower seeds!
I wasn't sure how to harvest them, so I checked out Wikihow and their step by step plan on how to harvest sunflower seeds.
Once the flower starts to droop and the petals started to pull back from the flower, you know that they are ready to harvest. You can harvest them on the stalks, just cover them so birds, squirrels and chipmunks don't get to them.
We cut our flowers and let them dry in the kitchen hanging from some hooks. (the chipmunks were feasting on them, so I decided they needed to come into the house) I forgot to take a picture, so, you just have the one flower hanging. (you can see some of my peppers hanging in the picture, too)
When all the flowers were hanging, Nick said, "Why are those weeds in the house?" Yea. He thought they were weeds that we were growing and that we decided to just bring them in the house. We're weird like that, I guess. Oh, and we did tell them that they were sunflowers.
Once the flowers are completely dry, it's time to harvest the seeds! They should come right out of the flower easily. It can be quite messy, so, put down a towel or maybe think about doing this step outside.
The seeds come out pretty easily
Once picked, you can soak them in salt water or just bake them. I soaked them in salted water and wish that I skipped that step. They still turned out, but, I don't think it was necessary.
Bake them for about 40 minutes at 300 degrees and they are ready to eat!
We have a large bowl full of sunflower seeds. I think we are set for awhile in the sunflower seed department.
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