Roasted Sunflower Seeds

I was told that you need flowers to attract bees to pollinate your stuff so that you get fruits/veggies. Naturally, I opted for flowers that I could eat. So I chose sunflowers. I decided to grow Mammoth Russian sunflowers. Then, when they didn't sprout after a few days, I got seeds for a couple others as well.

Well, the sunflowers grew in a couple weeks later and I had a lot of sunflowers. They are actually shading some of my other plants, which is probably not good, but a bunch of them are at least 9 ft tall.

Well, since I chose a flower I could eat, I figured I better figure out how I could eat them. Let me tell you, getting the seeds out of the flower takes FOREVER. One flower (and probably 2 hours of picking seeds out) gave me about a quart of seeds.

Next step, figuring out what to do with the seeds. I had gotten a couple of the smaller flowers a few days before. They sat in a plastic container for a couple days and got moldy. So I figured I needed to dry the seeds. I left them spread out on 2 sheet pans for a few days. Also, it was during the week and I had other stuff to do.

Last weekend I got back to them. I kept them simple. I just wanted a light coating of salt so they would make a good snack. Google led me to a few recipes. Then I didn't follow them. Based very loosely on this post. Most people probably want more salt on them than this. I snack on them randomly. I hear they make a good long car ride snack.


Sunflower seeds

1 large sunflower (1 quart of seeds)
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Dry the sunflower seeds.
Rinse the sunflower seeds and drain off the excess water. Let them be damp but let anything that drains away go.
Sprinkle with the salt and toss until the salt is dissolved.
Toast in a single layer of a skillet until they dry and turn light brown. This could also (probably more easily) be done in an oven. 350 probably 20 mins but check regularly until slightly browned.