Happy Faces

I love this time of year when the sunflowers are standing tall and proud in the garden. Their bright sunny faces are sure to put a smile on any face.

Sunflowers serve several purposes. You can cut the flowers to make a beautiful floral bouquet for your home, leave them in the field to bring joy to a on-lookers, leave them on the stems to feed the birds or harvest the seeds for eating yourself.

The tiny seeds serve as a good source of nutrients for the American diet. Just a quarter of a cup of sunflowers seeds will supply you with 205Kcal, 4 g of fiber, 8 g of protein, 18 mg of vitamin E, 127 mg of magnesium, 21 mg of selenium and 81 mg of folate.

If you are growing sunflowers in your yard this year and have never harvested the seeds before, heres a simply way to do it:

1. Allow the sunflower to mature on the vine. To determine maturity the back of the flower head with be brown and dry.By this time most of the flower petals will have fallen off. The seeds will appear plump and the shell will be striped black and white.

2.Before the seeds loosen and dry remove the flower from the stem, cutting the stalk about 12 inches long.

3. With your hand, gently rub the seeds out of the flower.

4. To prepare the seeds, cover them in salt water, making a solution of two quarts of water and 1/4 cup to 1/2 cups of salt. Place seeds in the water and place on stove. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer for two hours. Or if you prefer, you may soak the seeds in salt water solution over night, omitting the heating, boiling, simmering process.

5. After you have soaked the seeds in the salt bath they are ready for roasting. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place seeds in a shallow roasting pan, making sure the seeds are spread over pan in a single layer. Bake for 30-40 minutes, stirring occassionally. Seeds are ready when they are golden brown.

6.Remove from oven and add 1 teaspoon of melted butter or margarine for every 1 cup of seeds roasted.

7.Cool on an absorbant towel.

8. Store seeds in an air tight container