Harvesting Sunflower Seeds...

I can hardly believe how many seeds came from so few!

I was given a few Giant Russian Sunflower seeds, and boy were they nice and big flowers!

-And full of seeds!

*

We knocked the little green and yellow flower tips off just by raking our hand across the flowers surface.

Then sorta scraped the seeds from the flower.

Rinsed them.

Boiled them in salt water for 2 hours. (2 cups salt 4 quarts of water)
(*I've also just soaked small ones overnight, rather than boil.)

Strained them, let them drip dry some. To help dry them, you can dump them on towels and pat them.

Then baked them at around 300 until they were completely dried out. (this could take several hours, depending on how long they drip first)

They are ready once dried.
So yummy,  and you don't have to add any extra weird oils like store-bought!
(Although you can if they are not salty enough by tossing them in a tablespoon or two of melted butter and salt, after they've been dried.)

*If you want a roasted peanut butter flavor, you can slightly brown the seeds.