Beat the Birds to Sunflower Seeds

From seed to serve, sunflowers are fun to grow. Learn how to beat back the wildlife and be able to harvest your sunflower seeds. Sunflower roasting recipes, too.

We all love to see sunflowers growing in the garden, watching as they develop tall sturdy trunks and ever widening flower heads until they bloom in glorious shades of sun warmed yellow and gold. And then the petals fade and shrivel and we hold our breath watching that leaning tower of stalk crowned by a ripening head of seeds. The shorter people among us can only see the backside turning browner and drier so we take it on faith that there are seeds waaaay up there. And then, dontcha know it, along come the birds and the little mice and the big hungry squirrels and they devour our seeds just as they begin to ripen and that leaves us with nothing at all to remember our wonderful summer treasure, the mammoth sunflower, except dried out, bent up, rattling debris. And a sad little pile of empty sunflower hulls.

Well phooey to that! Stand up, or get out the step ladder, and protect your sunflower seeds from the defenseless hungry little birds and assorted scavenging critters. It’s easy to do, just wrap the head in cheesecloth! This lets air and light through and keeps the greedy little robbers out until it is time to pick the sunflower and then rub out the seeds and then dry the seeds and then roast them on a nice fall evening. Don’t let those wild things outwit you – get what’s rightfully yours!

This may sound a little extreme, but if you have ever had a little kindergarden age child proudly carry home the sunflower seedling, planted it and nurtured it in your garden all summer and explained how when the flower dies we get seeds and whoaah boy we can bring them into the kitchen and pick them out and cook and EAT them, then you’ll understand why this is IMPORTANT. So don’t wait too long to put that big bandage wrap on your sunflower flower. Bon Appetit!

PS Old window screening or a scrap of row cover fabric or an old fashioned brown paper bag will do the job if you don’t have cheese cloth handy. Or, you can pick the seedheads a little early and dry them indoors in an airy, protected place.

The National Center for Home Food Preservation gives you the cooking recipe for the seeds once you have them in your hot little hands. If they aren’t quite dry yet and you are in a hurry you can use a dehydrator to finish the job. Recipe 1 for Sunflower Seeds

University of Illinois Extension has a recipe, too. This one includes salting the seeds before roasting them which is great unless you are salt-challenged. Recipe 2 for Sunflower Seeds

Then use potholders and stand back – that pan gets HOT!

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Copyright August 16 2007 Barbara Martin All Rights Reserved