Pumpkin and Squash Seeds to Eat?

[Shortie]

Hello you knoweldgable lot

I luuuuuurve eating pumpkin/squash seeds and will have a plentiful supply I hope this year, even after seed saving for next year.

As much as I love eating the seeds I despise picking them out of the darned shells - your fingers hurt after a while, not to mention the fact you get left with a dodgey greeny tinge to your fingers...

Does anyone know a better way to shell them en-mass?

[vicky]

There are varieties that have shell-less seeds - Triple Treat, Hungarian Mammoth or Lady Godiva cultivars.
Haven't seen them for sale that I can remember but I'm sure if you Google them you'll find a supplier...

[mapcr77]

Maybe a silly question, but I'm a newbie.... So, what do you do to the seeds when you take them from the pumpkin? Do they have to be prepared in some way to turn them into the sort that you can buy?

[Shortie]

Hiya, I think I'll have a nose for those varieties vicky, ta

Mapcr77... they're a bit like sunflower seeds in that they have a husk around them that needs to be removed before you can munch them. But they're so small and fiddly that it drives me nuts to de-shell them all an I usually just throw them away

[mapcr77]

That brings a new question then, can you eat the sunflower seeds right from the flower? Do you have to let the flower die first or what?

[terrier]

I think the sunflower seeds ripen after the flower dies off. I give them all to the chooks, they love them. Once the husks have dried they are pretty easy to shell, just roll them around between your hands and they come off.

[fwuffydragon]

Hiya, I think I'll have a nose for those varieties vicky, ta

Mapcr77... they're a bit like sunflower seeds in that they have a husk around them that needs to be removed before you can munch them. But they're so small and fiddly that it drives me nuts to de-shell them all an I usually just throw them away

Ah - forgot about the shelling thing - will try that this year and see if they're more edible!!!

[di]

I was told last year to try soaking them in boiling water & then roast them. Apparently it makes the husk easier to remove.Due to lots of other upheavals between sept-Dec I didn't get round to trying but will be giving it a go this year.Will also watch this thread hoping someone comes up with a mastermind solution!Don't you find the untangling them from the gooey inside bits of pumpkin almost as unbearable as the husking?!

[Shortie]

Nearly as bad, but I tend to rinse them in a wire collinder (like a big tea strainer) which seems to seperate them quite well

[Phreddy]

That brings a new question then, can you eat the sunflower seeds right from the flower? Do you have to let the flower die first or what?

The sunflower fields are not harvested yet, the sunflowers are all looking very despondent, heads drooping. Suggests to me that they must ripen on the stem.