| When we see that
most of the blooms within the sunflower head have been pollinated, we protect the seed
heads with netting. Once all of the seeds in a head have set, we cut the seed heads
for drying in our greenhouse. Of course, this causes
quite a commotion in the goldfinch population on our farm since they think THEY should be
able to have the large seed heads. Guess there are critics everywhere you go. |
One of our sunflower fields in late August with netting draped over the
ripening seed heads
|
Birds
Whole sunflower seed heads are a natural way to help the birds make it
through the winter. Fill the empty seed heads with peanut butter for continued
nourishment. In addition to wild birds, sunflower seed heads are appreciated
by all sorts of captive birds. Why not treat
your parakeet or cockatiel to a tasty seed head?
|
Mammals
Sunflower seed heads are a natural source of food for
squirrels, hamsters, gerbils, and all sorts of furry friends - including small
monkeys. Many of these little critters have fun playing with the seed head as well
as chowing down on the seeds.
Izzy the chinchilla with one of our small sunflower seed heads.
|
Craft
Projects
A sunflower seed head can make an interesting addition to many craft projects. You
can attach a few sunflower seed heads to a grapevine wreath base as shown above.
Also, add a few seed heads to your next popcorn string with cranberries for outdoor (or
indoor) evergreen decorations.
Milly Pollock of Chico, CA sent us this photo of a Sunshine Wreath she
made from one of our Sunflower Seed Heads
|
The squirrels and birds at our farm know they can always find a tasty
Sunflower Seed Head
|
Positioning Seed
Heads
Sunflower seed heads can be displayed in a variety
of ways. The simplest is to just lay the seed head on its back. For hanging,
we make use of screw eyes in the woody backs. Outside, we hang these eyes on
1-1/4" cup hooks screwed in to a post. For cages, put the seed head inside and
slip the screw eye through the cage. On the outside of the cage, slip a short length
of wooden dowel rod through the eye as a holder.
A screw eye in the back of one of our small
seed heads.
|
One medium seed head
laying flat and two small seed heads hanging from cup hooks. If you have squirrels
(like we do), use pliers to close the cup hooks most of the way. |
A Nibbler sized seed head with a dowel rod
pin. You might try a rubber band over both ends of the dowel if it has a tendency to
slip through. A tapered piece of a tree branch does good as it fits snuggly.
We are told that a plastic bag twistie also works well to secure the scew eye to the bars
of the cage. |
| Sunflower seed heads are a great gift idea for bird lovers and folks with
seed-eating furry pets. |
Journal
Notes
1/15/08 - We had to drop our "Organic" designation due to growth of the business.
We have selected "All Natural" as our new descriptor.
9/14/09 - We attempted to rotate our sunflower fields and
underestimated the effort required to move the net support structures. As a result,
There will be NO 2009 Sunflower Seed Head harvest.
We now have the new fields ready for next year's planting and hopefully will be
wise enough to avoid the same problem in the future.
10/23/09 - I ended the sale of our small sizes which were
from the 2008 crop and thereby ended our sunflower seed head sales for the time being.
The new field has been plowed and the net support posts are in place. We must
now wait for some warm days next spring and summer.
To get e-mails on the status of our sunflower crop -
just sign up in our Guestbook. |
Seeds
While we endeavor to provide complete seed heads,
some seeds may drop from the heads during picking, drying, and shipping.
Seed Types
We plant a variety of store bought seeds and seeds
saved from the previous season to produce the best seed heads. As a result, your
seed heads may be white, black, striped, gray, etc. If you want only a certain
color/type, please let us know in the "Comments" section of the order form.
|
Sizes
Sunflower
seed heads are measured when they are taken from the field and sorted. During the
drying process some shrinkage may occur. Also, some seed heads are dome-shaped -
their sizes are estimated as if they were flattened.
Dried sunflower seed heads on our Greenhouse drying
racks
|
What
Our Customers Say
Karen M. of Phoenix, AZ ~ "My bird loved them . . . she didn't want to eat
anything else" |
Limited
Availabilities
Our Sunflower Seeds Heads are very popular and to be quite honest, we wish we could keep
up with demands. Each year we plant more - only to sell out soon after they are dry
enough. Register in our GUESTBOOK System to get periodic
information about our crop progress. |