Sunflower seeds

It’s time to pull sunflower (Helianthus annuus) seeds off their dried heads. Toward the end of Fall I harvest the sunflower heads that have not been too attacked by birds or squirrels. They hang in the garage and the greenhouse drying for the next 5 months or so.Now is the time to liberate the seeds from their tiny beds. I try to remove each seed individually but Juana has a better method.

“I used to do this with corn as a little girl,” says Juana as she rubs two rounded heads together. The chaff and seeds fly into the 1020 tray she is using to collect the seeds.

“Then to get rid of the chaff, you toss it like this,” she says demonstrating a slight circular toss that causes the chaff to fly away like so much dust. I try her method but my over-exuberance hurls seeds out of the tray inadvertently planting them in nearby vegetable beds.