Harvest Pumpkin Seeds

I recently started putting more pumpkin and sunflower seeds on meals and baking I make YUM! But I had a great idea when reading Fantail a book called "From Seed to Sunflower" . That I could collect our own seeds and harvest there goodness from pumpkins where I would otherwise dispose in rubbish or compost.

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DON"T THROW AWAY SEEDS YOUR PUMPKIN!

Remove all of the stringy flesh from around the seed  the wash and drop in a colander. Then place them on a baking tray in a low heated oven while stirring frequently for 2-4 hours depending on size of your seeds. Once they are dry, break or cut them open to see the food inside which will be similar to what you buy in store.  The outer shell (hulls) can be left on and are edible although they can be hard to bite with your teeth. Also good idea to break some open throughout the drying baking process to check weather the food inside has dried out sufficiently and ensure they are not over done! Once done let them cool, the place them in a air tight container.

Or there is the drying them on newspaper on a windowsill (good if you live somewhere where you get a lot of sunshine unlike me in Wellington).

Use these seeds are baking, on top of quiches and pies, pasta and salads.

Let me know if you try this and how you went? :)

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