Can you save seeds for next year?

We plant lots of sunflowers in the food forest for the birds and the bees if you follow my posts.I think that sunflowers are must haves in any garden or food forest.There are toxic heavy metal contaminants and poisonous chemicals in the soil and you can use sunflowers to clean them up.They are being used to clean up contaminated soil in urban areas.In a previous post, I wrote about the benefits of sunflowers.We try to get funny photos with sunflowers.I look forward to the photo opportunity each year because it's a tradition on the homestead.

We took silly photos this year.To know how funny this is, you have to know my husband.I told him to pretend to be taking a shower because the bent over sunflowers look like shower heads.I added a rain effect to the photo.

I planted the Lemon Queen and Sunspot sunflowers.Lemon Queen is 5' to 7' tall while Sunspot is 18 to 24 tall.The package says the Sunspot variety is the same height as small children.I didn't know what to expect when I first started growing Sunspot, but I trust the description on the seed package.I was expecting a small plant with a lot of flowers.I was wrong.I don't know if the seeds got mixed up by the seed company or if some of them are super charged, but I got a few that were more than I expected.They are taller than any I have ever grown and the blossoms were larger than the Lemon Queen sunflowers.

In the past, I have gone out for seeds only to find the birds had taken them all.Half of the matured seeds have been found by me.I saved most of the seeds for next year.

I have eaten a few seeds from my garden, but they were not something I thought about harvesting.I usually save some seeds for next year's planting and let the birds have the rest if they haven't stolen them all already.I decided to harvest a good amount of the seeds for eating because I have so many large sunflower heads.I will be trying to find the best time to harvest for humans.I will be putting some fabric around some of the heads.I used the tulle on one bush this year.This will help prevent seed loss.

It is easy to harvest sunflower seeds.It's the hardest part of the harvest.There would be a small amount of meat in the center of the seed if you harvest too early.The tender seeds will be too dry to roast if you wait too long.Don't wait until the birds are near the head.Birds and Squirrels would have taken all the seeds and left you with nothing.

If you read online, you should wait until the back of the seed head is dried and brown to harvest it.I would have no seeds left on the other side if I waited til it turned brown and dry.There are a lot of birds on our property.I harvest a couple of my sunflower seed heads earlier this year because I learned my lessons the last few years.The seeds are mature because the yellow petals have dried and fallen, the green base of the head has turned yellow, and the seed coats are black and white.These are viable seeds for next year's planting, but are they good to eat?I opened a few seeds last night.I think they might develop more meat inside the seeds if I let them go a little bit longer.

I have to keep an eye on the remaining seed heads.The birds will fight to see who gets to the seeds first.Unless it works, that is.I always share with the birds, but they never seem to reciprocate and I am tired of their greediness.

The post is epic and the photos are always great.To pass on the goodness...in deep gratitude!Please keep these posts coming.!

Thank you for being so kind.Your encouragement is appreciated.Thanks for taking the time to swing by.

There are toxic heavy metal contaminants and poisonous chemicals in the soil and you can use sunflowers to clean them up.They are being used to clean up contaminated soil in urban areas.

I didn't know that!Thank you so much!We always let the birds go to the flowers, but you're encouraging me otherwise, we have sunflowers that come up each year from the heads.The birds don't eat from the chicken tractor.A plant that typifies summer!

Isn't that cool?It is food and useful for cleaning up contaminated soil.

We don't think about harvesting for food when we grow a lot of things.If things get bad, I like to learn all the things we can eat.You guys have taught me a lot.Knowledge is power.You guys are awesome.You should keep sharing what you have learned.

As part of the eco train community support initiative, thelaundrylady's post had been selected for an upvote worth $1.I use the rewards from other people's bids to pay for great posts like yours, which is why I'm a friendly voting bot.I hope your upvote encourages you to keep writing and make this world a better place.

Thank you.I created the photo and we laughed at it.I haven't laughed like that in a long time.I felt like a kid.

Resteemed this post.I like sunflowers.The colour is happy.They are both food and a flower.I love multi functional.I didn't know that you can use sunflowers to clean up toxic heavy metal contaminants and poisonous chemicals in the soil.Thanks for the informative content.The first photo is a winner.

Thanks for the resteem!Isn't it amazing that sunflowers can do so much?I don't think of it as food, even though I know that every part of a sunflower is eaten.For a rainy day, I like to save these little facts.

Someday you will be able to use that information if you know who reads it.I wonder if you can use sunflowers to do a metal cleanse for yourself.You know, like with clays and herbs.