Today Seth was the cooking boy and we brought sunflower seeds.  I originally had the idea to bring this snack when we still had sunflowers in the garden to bring  to class.  However, the sunflower snack was postponed and the idea seemed academic upon revival today.  Not to mention that after tasting the seeds out of the oven Seth asked me if we could bring some different seeds for him to eat.  All this did not bode well, but the snack was a huge success.  The kids seemed to like eating the little seeds, playing with the seed heads and they even ate the sunflower sprouts.  Here is what we brought:

Pre hulled sunflower seeds, baked at 325 for 8 minutes on baking trays.  We served them in paper baking cups.

Sprouted sunflower seeds, sunflower seeds in a few inches of dirt.  Ours only had 5 days to gestate, but this was good because the seeds were still on the sprouts and enhanced the effect.

Sunflower seed heads.  We saved these big heads from the summer garden.  We let them dry fully inside so that the birds would not eat them.

We augmented with the last of the tomatoes that the kids harvested in the garden.  These were not part of the official snack, but they are so pretty I can’t not include a picture!

I like the camera because photos help me see blurred, bright or empty spaces.  I never think we should stop experimenting with composition.  Even today Seth and I were remarking about the “odd” negative spaces in a block construction we had made.

Apples have so many varying textures, colors and demeanor.  These photos really capture the different flavors, states of growth and decay.

Wilder Ranch Harvest Festival.