October 21st, 2007 - Not planting sunflowers again
I was quite excited about my sunflowers. They were beautiful this summer and I looked forward to their seeds.
I’m not longer looking forward to them.
I started shelling them yesterday. In 45 minutes of work, I got less than 1/4 cup, and Maggie ate them all (except the 2 I had). 45 minutes! And I have at least 5x that many to go. I’m rather glad the mice got to them now! Otherwise, I probably would give most of them to the birds, as Eric has suggested.
I followed suggestions online which said the easiest way to shell them was to put them in a bag and run a rolling pin over them. Then, put them in water and the shells will float while the seeds sink. I didn’t do the latter part, luckily, as less than half were completely split by the pin. Most had to be opened and some weren’t even cracked! And I used the rolling pin for at least 5 minutes, then again in between each handful I pulled out.
Yes, I could salt and roast them in the shell and break them apart with my teeth instead. But neither Eric nor I eat sunflower seeds that way very often so there’s no great desire for that.
Maybe I should just feed them to the birds. I can buy 2 cups of sunflower seeds for just a couple dollars (or less!) so is it really worth that many hours of my time? I could do them while watching TV I was thinking. But….
I also did some garden cleanup yesterday and picked ground cherries. Still no sign of a frost so the peppers are still growing. Unfortunately, the beans are not drying up, neither the ones on the vines nor the ones I put in the garage. :( And I planted garlic. I don’t know which heads are which, so I just took one soft necked and one hard necked. In addition, it appears that some of the seed heads I popped off had developed enough, and I have garlic shoots throughout the bed. Oh my! Once I realized what they were, I stopped pulling them and we’ll see what we get next summer. The seeds I planted last fall grew as well, but stayed small all year and are still there. So I left them as well. Who knows what I’ll harvest next summer?