Combining Sunflowers

When we finished visiting Himself's senior relatives in Minnesota, we then visited some of my friends.  We arrived just as they were finishing the sunflower harvest.

I was invited to spend the afternoon out on the combine and I jumped on the chance.

It was really interesting to learn what it takes to grow sunflowers.

The combine makes short work of cutting the tough stalks.

The sunflower they grew are the eating kind... not the cooking oil kind.

You can see how big they are.  This is the back of the combine.

When the combine filled, the tractor with the grain cart would pull along side.  Then the combine would empty of seeds as we were driving along cutting more.

That is a LOT of sunflower seeds!

Once the field was done, Himself and I went out and did some gleaning of the sunflowers that were knocked over during harvest.  I came out with two garbage bags full of sunflower heads.  Some will be eaten by us, some with be used to treat the birds, and some will end up in craft projects.

But first I have to finish drying them.

Here's some video Himself took of the combines going by...