Power Bars

2 c Whole wheat flour 1/2 c Packed brown sugar 1/4 c Skim milk powder 1/4 c Wheat germ 1 t Baking powder 1 1/2 c Raisins or chopped dried -apricots 1/2 c Unsalted sunflower seeds 2 Eggs 1/2 c Vegetable oil 1/2 c Molasses 1/3 c Peanut butter In bowl, combine flour, sugar, skim milk powder, wheat germ and baking powder; stir in raisins and sunflower seeds. Combine eggs, oil, molasses and peanut butter. Add to dry ingredients, blending well. Spread in greased 9 inch square cake pan. Bake in 350F oven for 35 minutes or until browned and firm to the touch. Let cool completely. Cut into 24 bars. Bars can be stored in air tight container for up to 5 days.

Sunflower Seed Bread

3 c whole wheat flour 3 c unbleached flour,up to 4 -cups 3/4 c sunflower seeds 1/3 c sugar 1 t salt 2 pk yeast 4 T oil 3/4 c milk,scaled & cooled 1 1/2 c water,Warm Soften yeast in warm water, add sugar. Add milk, oil, salt, sunflower seeds & 1 cup flour. Stir in wheat flour gradually. Add enough remaining white flour to make a soft smooth ball. Knead well. Let rise until doubled in size. Punch down dough & shape into loaves. When doubled bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.

Sunflower Crisp Cookies

Yield: 60 Servings 1 c butter 1 c sugar 1 ea egg 1 t vanilla 2 c flour,sifted 1/2 t salt 3 c corn flakes,Crushed 1/2 c salted,roasted sunflower seeds Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Blend in flour, salt, and corn flake crumbs, reserving 1/2 cup crumbs. Stir in nuts. Chill dough thoroughly. Shape dough into 1" balls. Roll balls in remaining crumbs to coat evenly. Place, two inches apart, on un-greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Almost Winter

Now that winter is almost upon us, we cab bring sunflowers indoors for a ray of sunshine on cold winter days.

Add some sunshine to meal-time with this sunflower cutlery set and display rack. Hurry before they're sold out! Welcome your family and friends to your home with this wonderful Welcome plaque. It measures 7 1/2 inches by 10 inches.

An Amazing Story!!

I just read an amazing story about the history of the sunflower. The photos with this story are absolutely incredible!! You can get to this story by clicking the link below.
Click Here To Read Story

I hope you enjoy the story and photos as much as I did!

Free Sunflower Seeds

Be a part of The Great Sunflower Project and get a packet of free sunflower seeds. They're tracking bees pollinating sunflowers for food production. A very worthwhile project.

Just got my Stokes Spring Garden Collection Catalog in the mail today. If you go to Stokes and place your order online before June 15, 2007 they will include a free packet of sunflower seeds with your order. Just include the code "#5024" in the "Additional Order Instructions" box to receive your free pack of 20 seeds.

Both of these free orders are worth looking into.

Bold Colored Sunflowers

If you live in a white brick or sided house, or any othe light colour, yellow sunflowers seem to get washed out when planted along the foundation. To make a bold statement and avoid that washed out look you need to plant some brightly coloured sunflowers along the foundations. A good choice would be the reds, blacks, almost blacks and bright orange sunflowers. These will give you a nice backdrop for your other plantings in front of the sunflowers.

White Sunflowers

White sunflowers can really brighten up a dark wall. If your house is a dark brick like red, or a dark coloured siding like brown, planting white sunflowers along the foundation will really brighten up the house. The green of the sunflower leaves makes a wonderful back drop for brightly coloured flowers planted in front of your sunflowers.

Taking Stock

Did you know that you can use your tall sunflowers as a living trellis? Sunflower stalks are study enough to support just about any climbing plant. Morning glories are a wonderful choice because of their abundance of flowers. You can use all different colour combinations. Colours that blend in with each other like Black Eyed Susan vine and any of the yellow sunflowers. Or you can go for contrast and grow white sunflowers with Black Morning glories. Or Black sunflowers with white wisteria vine. The combinations are endless. You can also grow peas and pole beans this way.
Plant all of these seeds around the base of your sunflower plants. They will climb up the sunflower stalk

Winter Entertainment.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers offer winter entertainment when left in the ground. If you leave your sunflowers in the ground they will be natural bird feeders and add some interest to the winter garden. As bird feeders they don’t require you to trudge out in the snow every day to fill them.

I grow a row of the giant ones at the end of my vegetable garden. The heads get so large and heavy that they hang down and face the ground. This means that the birds who try to eat the seeds must hang upside down to get them. As the birds work their way towards the center of the seed head they have to stretch, often losing their footing.

Even though there are several sunflower plants the birds all seem to favor one over the other. They will chase each other away to get at the sunflower seeds. I’ve watched as the blue jays actually knock each other off the plant. Even though the blue jays are larger than the hairy and downy woodpeckers the jays take off when the woodpeckers show up.

I could watch the bird’s antics at the sunflowers for hours.