[rugbymad40]

I have some very large sunflowers on the plot.  We love the seeds we buy from the supermarket.  So how do we get them to that state? Are they roasted before being peeled or just ready for use ?

Six plants with a head each at seven foot high - well the maths is up to you!

[Jake]

Hi rugbymad

I know that if you hang the heads up to dry you will be able to shake the seeds out very easily.

They are nice if they are dry pan toasted before shelling.

Unfortunately I don't know a method of shelling them easily. Anyone else?

[toto691]

Ooops.... must say HI on the main thread first.....!!

[toto691]

Firstly , hi, its my first post (i should really say hello on the main thread!), secondly, once theyve been hung and thoroughly dry (usually by next summer!) the seeds will shell VERY easy simply by rubbing your fingers over them whilst the flower head is upside down.....  and it leaves the most perfect honeycomb effect flower head!!!

[Jake]

once theyve been hung and thoroughly dry (usually by next summer!) the seeds will shell VERY easy simply by rubbing your fingers over them whilst the flower head is upside down.....  and it leaves the most perfect honeycomb effect flower head!!!

Hey thats really good to know. A mate of mine has told me tonight that you could put a heavy piece of pipe in a large tin or can and roll it about with the sunflower seeds in. He's not tried this but is usually good with ideas.

what toto691 says sounds easier though. You do mean the actual shells of the seeds and not just getting them out of the flower head don't you?

[toto691]

Hiya....  bit confusing.....  i wrote half the post, then edited to the first one as i hadnt said hello first, then noticed they had BOTH been posted! THEN noticed the thread was about kernals and not just the seed from the head question!!!  So now i feel dumb!!!

BUT.....  after this amount of time hanging and drying it seems the right time for the seeds to split naturaly so theyre easier at this point to de-shell and get to the kernals just by squeezing the narrow points to make them split open......  is time consuming though!  Did that make any sense?!!

[Jake]

Did that make any sense?!!

perfect sense. I can see myself cracking sunflower seeds individually whilst watching Ray Mears or something but I would like to find an easy way to harvest them. Like a mini industrial process.

Edit: Sorry Rugymad. Feel a bit like I've hijacked the thread. :oops:

[mellowmick]

Pal's son, growing sunflowers for the allotment kids' competition, has produced one with 15 flower heads. Told him I'd try and find out if this was unusual.

[toto691]

I have NEVER come across it.... I grow them every year, and have done since i was a kid, and have only managed ones with a few heads, and these have always been either the dwarf or multicoloured variey, never on the giants!

[tetley]

hello there, I am new to your forum, and I think it is great!  I know I live in France, but I am a complete novice at gardening and your site with its advice and recipes is invaluable to me!  I have been enjoying the produce of my first season of veggies!!
sorry to hijack the thread, but my son did a project at junior school in england last year where they grew sunflowers, the grandparents kept the plant (we left uk) and dried the seeds and then posted them out to us, we planted all of them....only a handful came up, we have one 78 inches high, it has currently 7 heads in flower and looks like there is another8 or so to come....is this normal?  the others have only just started flowering and have a couple of heads on them.  We are surrounded by fields of sunflowers by the way, but I think our bigun is the most impressive!!

[wellingtons]

... there was an item of one of last year's GQT about a sunflower with mutliple heads ... can't recall how many off hand, but it was also grown by a child.  

It'll be in their archive somewhere but I can't search the bbc website from here because for some bizarre reason logging onto it takes out my net connection ... and that of anyone else on my network.  And today we're talking my teenage son, and my business partner, Pen!

[tetley]

many thanks, I will see if I can find it...