Many of us foodies work with fruits and vegetables that are loaded with seeds but in our quest of making the perfect dish we forget that these discards are great food for the birds. Being a composter, the clos est peels and cores would ever come to being considered "discards" amounted to nothing more than a short visit to the compost bucket. Seeds presented an altogether different challenge.
Whether from papaya, pumpkins, or butternut squash, seeds can easily go out to the garden right after meal prep time but I like to save them for the winter months when birds have fewer sources of food.
Using an old baking sheet I simply spread the seeds out to dry, paying no heed to any of the bits of fruit pulp and fibre that might be clinging to them. Once dry remaining pulp can easily be removed by rubbing the seeds between my hands. Then its just a matter of storing them until the cold days of winter. Really any container will work - even those big containers from cat little, but I like the bright orange Home Bucket.
Come winter, especially just before a snowfall, I'll mix some of the kitchen seeds with the sacks of seed from the garden center and then see who arrives. If larger birds don't make off with the pumpkin and papaya seeds sometimes a bunny or two will nosh on the seeds that fall to the ground.
At less than $3 each, the 5 gallon Homer Bucket is a great way to go green. To find your nearest Home Depot visit HomeDepot.com
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