Roasted Sunflower Seeds

Gardens are a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. When I was planting everything in my garden this spring, I had little bit's of space left along some of the edges. I wanted to make use of all my space, but know that I have to draw the line somewhere on what I can maintain. That meant using my leftover space for fun and color. Enter Sunflowers! I have never planted a sunflower seed before, so I decided to try them.

We went to a local fair in July that had a massive field full of sunflowers... I was in love!

 Soon after the fair, my own beauties started showing off!

They grew to sizes, I would have never imagined!

My mom shared a blog recipe with me for oven roasting your own sunflower seeds, 

so I cut the heads off and brought them up to the house.

After getting the heads to the house, you hold the head over a large pan or bucket and run your fingers across, and the seeds just fall out.  The ones toward the center that don't come out easy, aren't ready. Just leave them, you want the ones that fall off the head.  To the experienced sunflower roasters, there is probably a better way of getting the dried flower remains off so you don't have to pick all the little pieces out of your seeds before preparing them. I don't know that trick yet, so it was a little bit tedious (annoying!) to me.  All in all it was fun, and they are tasty. Not sure if I would go through the work again, but if you have more patience than I do, it's probably worth it!

Roasted Sunflower Seeds ( Source: My little cottage in the making)

Clean sunflower seeds of all the little dried flower bits.  Next, give them a good rinse to wash away any remaining dirt.  
In a large bowl, dissolve about 1/2 cup salt ( I used kosher).  Add your sunflower seeds to the salt water. They will float, so set another bowl or plate on top of them to hold them down into the salt water. Let them soak for at least 8 hours, up to 24. When you are ready to roast them, drain them in a colander, but DO NOT RINSE! You want all that salty goodness to stay on them.

Place on cookie sheet in single layer. Roast at 300 degree's for 30 minutes. Stir them around half way through to prevent burning. At 30 minutes check to see if they are done. I ended up roasting mine for 20 minutes more (50 minutes total) until they were roasted to my taste.  

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