7 Mistakes to AVOID when Harvesting and Roasting Sunflower Seeds

Horrors! This is the fully illustrated NOT-TO-DO guide for a neophyte’s foray into sunflower food production. Whether for birds or humans, you want seeds which look like the ones you formerly purchased at the grocery or the feed store. Now that you are a sunflower gardener, do not be impatient or cut corners. Here is what may happen….

It is too early to cut this flower head. The petals are still gloriously waving like a corona around the flower. Wait until almost all fall off.

This one is still too early to cut, kind of… The general wisdom is that the back of the flower’s seed disk (called the calyx?) should be all yellow-brown and drying out. The lovely and lively green as illustrated means the seeds are not mature, meaning not tasty and good for eating.

Picking a sunflower with totally white colored seeds rather than black stripes on white means the seeds are not mature.

I will cut my seed heads a little on the early side because the birds in my neighborhood organize themselves marvelously, with 24/7 surveillance on the progress of the seed maturation. If I wait until the back of the flower is the proper shade of drying out, there will be NO seeds left on the reverse side. Yes, one can cover up the flower head with a cheesecloth or paper bag to prevent fly-by avian diners from taking the seeds before the human gardeners get them. But, I do not want to be bothered. So, maybe that should be illustrated step number 4.

No bags over flower heads.

Flower heads piled on top of each other to dry inside the garage, basement or house prevent moisture from evaporating. Then all the flowers can become moldy. EEyuck!

If you are shelling the sunflower seeds before you roast them (which is an acceptable way to prepare them), trying to do it before the seeds are dry enough is another mistake. The insides are like squishy white potato.

Cooking on too high a temperature. Whether you are roasting shelled or unshelled seeds, the common wisdom is to cook them at 300 degrees F for 30 to 40 minutes.

A YouTube which does harvesting the right way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oumO0BIy7Z4

I hope these photos frightened you enough to convince you follow all the wisdom contained in blogs on how to correctly harvest and roast sunflower seeds. After bestowing all the love a gardener pours into a crop of flowers, you deserve the bounty of seeds either for yourself or your bird friends. When you learn the specifics of sunflower harvesting, you will never need to see images like these in your own yard.

Bon appetit!

Photos and text copyright 2011 Maren E. Morgan