ripe sunflower
The time has come to harvest my sunflowers. It’s warm, it’s dry and they’re turning brown.
After raiding the workshop for an appropriate saw, I cut them down; all 3 of them.
One of the sunflowers was covered in ants. I’ve no idea why. I put it face down in the grass for a few minutes to let them escape.
I cut the dead leaves off all of them and then proceeded to brush the dead flower buds out of the centre (each seed had its own tiny flower). When I did that, the seeds were much easier to see, as were the weird little yellow bugs. I have no idea what they are, but they are swarming over all of my sunflower heads. Any tips welcome.
I decided it was time to taste a couple of seeds. I tried some from each of the flowers. My judgement? I was not a parrot in my past life. Okay, they were tasty in a very sunflowery way, but a whole lot of hassly peeling to get very little nutrition. Maybe if I roast them?
sunflower harvest
Laura Rittenhouse's Gardening Journal 
Laura,
I had the same experience, they were not as tasty as I had imagined they would be – also not as big as the ones you get in the store. Then again those are probably raised on steroids and the home grown ones are healthier.
Gillian
Gillian, did you try roasting them? I’m thinking that will make them a bit tastier and the shell should crack open rather then peeling it like a lychee.
For whatever reason the cockatoos didn’t get this batch. I saw one flying off with a mandarin the other day when 5 metres away there were 3 ripe sunflowers. Which means I have enough to plant a huge crop (or 20) and experiment with roasting them.