Sunflowers

If only I could grow sunflowers like this! Not this year anyway! This is one that has opened out from a bouquet of 10 blooms that arrived yesterday. Stunning with its rays of petals emerging from its seed-studded centre. I wonder how many hours of sunshine it absorbs to grow to this state of perfection. No wonder Van Gogh was obsessed with them. 

In a good year in the past I've been able to produce a few heads and then harvest the seeds. They are classed as one of the healthiest food for human consumption bursting with essential fatty acids, B-complex vitamins and minerals, including  the antioxidant vitamin E, phytosterols that lower bad cholesterol, magnesium and selenium. Click here to see the whole range of health benefits. I eat some virtually every day sprinkled on my cereal.