Sunflowers for Easter

I adore sunflowers, and they are my favorite because my daughter adored them too.  I remember her being so fascinated with how they would turn and face the sun.  "How do they know where the sun is, Mom?" I shared a love for the seeds with Alex, and long after she was gone I would find the empty shells she had left behind.  To this day they remind me of her and anytime I see anything sunflower, it's like getting a "hello" from my little girl.  For that reason, sunflowers and their seeds are very special to me, so it makes sense that I enjoy growing them so much.  I often sprout the hulled seeds, which causes them to become very high in protein, and this time I planted the seeds that were still in the shell so that we could enjoy their sweet greens as a salad or in our wraps.

Today I harvested our first batch and we will have them as a part of our Easter meal.  As I pulled each one from the moist earth this morning, I said a long prayer of thanks for them, as well as for all of the other wonderful foods we have been so blessed to have learned about with our new lifestyle.  I recognize each food now as a little miracle all of it's own.  Each seed, each sprout, each green, and each flower is truly incredible and I am in awe of it all.

Notice how in this picture (below) the small section in the drawer is doing a lot better than the bigger section?  This was an experiment to see which kind of seeds grew better.  One side has a rather pricey and SMALL bag of organic seeds planted in it, and the other has the sunflower seeds that I pulled out of our very inexpensive birdseed.  Not organic, I know, but guess which side is which?

As you can see, it doesn't take much to grow these as far as equipment goes.  I grow mine in an old drawer someone gave me.  See the watering can behind the drawer?  I found it. It was broken.  I fixed it with some gorilla tape and it works just fine.  There is no need to buy anything to grow sunflower greens because you can just use what you have lying around.  You can even grow these on a cafeteria tray, in a pie plate, or in a baking dish.  Just sprout them for a couple of days, then put them in some high quality soil.  Water them lightly every day and in a week or two you will have a sweet salad that you grew yourself.  If this feels good to grow a little sunflower salad, I can only imagine what it will be like when I am growing all of my own food!

This is what they look like after you pick them.  I spent a long time pulling them one by one instead of just cutting them off like many people do (not that there is anything wrong with that) but I used the early morning time I spent harvesting to sort of meditate and give thanks on this special morning, and I felt so much peace.

Happy Easter, everyone!