Hope this isn't too way out there for BYC...
Black oilseed sunflowers are easy to grow and the chickens love them unhulled. When the day comes that I actually try pressing some to get my own sunflower oil, the press doesn't give a hoot about the hulls.
But for those nice, big, yummy confectionery varieties... I keep plenty for the chickens (again they don't care about the hulls, that's what grit and gizzards are for, right?). But the sunflowers are so easy to grow, so prolific... I wanted to start saving them as human food this season.
But how to get all those hulls off? I know I'm going to have the same problem with buckwheat when I up my efforts there to food crop. The only person I've read who had a solution to this problem was just lucky: he used his friend's rice de-hulling machine. I'm not that lucky.
Does anyone have any experience with this?
Black oilseed sunflowers are easy to grow and the chickens love them unhulled. When the day comes that I actually try pressing some to get my own sunflower oil, the press doesn't give a hoot about the hulls.
But for those nice, big, yummy confectionery varieties... I keep plenty for the chickens (again they don't care about the hulls, that's what grit and gizzards are for, right?). But the sunflowers are so easy to grow, so prolific... I wanted to start saving them as human food this season.
But how to get all those hulls off? I know I'm going to have the same problem with buckwheat when I up my efforts there to food crop. The only person I've read who had a solution to this problem was just lucky: he used his friend's rice de-hulling machine. I'm not that lucky.
Does anyone have any experience with this?