Here's To The Epic Sunflower Seeds
Thought we’d give a shout out to the almighty Sunflower. Again :) and this time to share the epicness that is the Sunflower Seed.
We know we go on and on about this great plant, but we can’t help it! It is a highly sustainable resource that offers a wide range of nutrients and we just gotta have more of it. These seeds are super high in vitamin E and magnesium (both good for blood movement) and are packed full of protein. Hard not to love.
So here’s your fun fact: what is commonly referred to as the flower head, or what you think of when you picture a sunflower is really a collection of thousands of tiny plants arranged together. Each sunflower head can hold up to 1000-2000 seeds.
Another benefit that we love, sunflower seeds are super scalable. They are scalable because they are flexible in how they are farmed - sunflowers can be planted on a range of soil types and as a long season crop they can be planted early or late in the season. This flexibility allows for scalable farming, which we always support!
Sunflower fields are easy to farm and are relatively effortless to maintain. As tall as sunflowers are above ground, the stalks also go way deep into the soil where the roots can reach six feet down. Because of this, sunflowers can soak up rainwater and survive dry conditions better than other crops. So they use less water and are pretty low-maintenance, which is all around better for our planet. They can also grow on no-till management (growing crops year-to-year without disturbing the soil) which has been shown to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent.
So as one of the many scalably sustainable ingredients we fight for, these seeds are good for you, good for farming, and easy to eat! Add them to salads, top them on any vegetable, sprinkle them on bread or baked goods, mix them into granola, use them in pesto, turn them into burgers, or make sunflower butter... yum!
For us here at HoneyFlower, we make sure to include these awesome seeds in all of our meals. Sunflower seeds are used in the seed cracker of our Potato Cauliflower Curry. In our Whole Wheat Fusilli, the seeds are chopped and mixed into the green bean salad. In our Soba Noodle, the seeds are toasted and sprinkled on top.
To bring it all back, sunflower seeds are a great ingredient that are incredibly versatile sustainable, full of protein, and should be a staple in our diet.
Team HF