Josh jumped up on the rail of the fence beside his cousin Jared. As they both peered out over the yellow field of sunflowers, Josh asked his cousin. “Why does your Dad grow sunflowers? They just look like a bunch of colorful, silly ole, useless flowers. What does he do with them all anyway?” Jared reached into the pocket of his overalls and pulled out a handful of dried seeds, and opened his hand to reveal them as he asked, “Well have you never had sunflower spits?” His cousin grabbed a few and threw them in his mouth. “Yes, but this field can’t be all for just spits, can it?” Jared shook his head, “ No you are right. It will become many things. Let me show you a little.” They walked behind the barn to a pile of sticks. “What’s this heap?” asked Josh as he kicked it. “ Well, when we harvest the stalks, we let them dry and pile them and we use them when we make fires in our fire-pit over there, for wiener roasts. It burns nicely. And you see that rabbit pen over there, we also pull off the green leaves and feed them to the rabbits and sometimes to the cows, as a treat.

The cows can eat the seeds too, but we don’t do that.” As they walked past the birdhouses, Jared threw a handful of seeds to the ground. He chuckled, “They like them too. In fact some of the seed gets harvested and bagged so that birds like goldfinches, nuthatches, chickadees and a few others have bird feed.The seed gets sold around the world.” “Well is it a seed or a kernel?” asked Josh , looking puzzled. “Good question. It’s actually both depending on when you see it. When the sunflower seed has its hard outer shell or hull on, then it is a seed because the seed inside is what grows when you plant it. When the shell is removed it is a kernel, but people often still call it a seed. They eat them raw or roast them and even put them on salads.” “Sunflower seeds not only make a good snack, but are squished to make cooking oil. They are also used in some peanut butters.” Jared went on to explain as his cousin seemed to be listening to what he had to say.