Sunflowers

I am starting to start to harvest some of the sunflower seeds. The process is actually pretty complicated. I have some very large sun flowers which have heads that are 15-20 cm across. I have been concerned that the lack of rain may lead to problems with the seeds filling out. I think that sun flowers must be pretty drought resistent since of all the plants we have they are looking pretty good.
After the petals have come off head the seeds fill out and this can cause the head to warp.  The next step is to pop out all the seeds  and try to get out the debris.

The next step is to make a brine with salt water and soak the sees overnight.
The next day the seeds are roasted at 300 degrees for 20 minutes. I think that this was a little too long. They smelled great and taste good but are a little dark. I haven't tried to shell them in a batch which would be convenient since they are pretty small.

Still harvesting about 500g a day and there is a tropical wave coming but we have just broken the the record of 40 consecutive days over 90 and almost no rain during that time.

148.740 KG with the harvest added today.