From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Hobbiton New Zealand

well there it is what more can i say how do you do it?

2/28/2005 11:44:45 PM

[email protected]

Great question. I hope someone has an easy method!

2/28/2005 11:51:02 PM

Itzetown City

Ask the birds, they do it all winter long. lol

3/1/2005 6:33:07 AM

Nova Scotia

are the seeds dried? if so i just crack them open with my fingers. i stick my nails in the side and pry open.

3/1/2005 11:15:05 AM

Vermont Green MTN State

I use my teeth to crack um'!

3/1/2005 3:07:21 PM

[email protected]

I would be curious to know how the commercial operators process large quantities. It seems unlikely that they pay people to sit around hand shelling sunflower seeds. There must be an automated shelling machine.

3/1/2005 5:55:42 PM

Itzetown City

Upfilled birds?

3/2/2005 5:03:29 AM

Ohio

I put a hand full of seeds in my mouth and move em all to my cheek then pick one out with your tongue, split it with your front teeth spit the shells out and then eat the middle. Takes practice but you will get the hang of it. I learned this in my ball playing years.

3/2/2005 5:40:37 PM

[email protected]

We're not the only ones wondering.


Design Challenge Summary:
The Centre Songhai and Mieux Vivre au Village (MVV)--two African-run nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working in Benin--are looking for help in designing a small-scale motor-driven machine to shell sunflower seeds. The intended market for this device is rural communities in sub-Saharan West Africa.

Sunflower oil is a nutritious and valuable commodity. Mechanical presses to make oil from the shelled seeds exist locally, but machines to remove the shells do not. At present, there exists no alternative to the laborious and time-consuming process of shelling the sunflower seeds individually by hand before loading them into the press.

Available power sources to drive this machines include 5 hp gasoline engines and 15 hp diesel engines. The total projected cost for the commercial design, excluding the motor, should not exceed US$300.


<picture was here>
Shelling sunflower seeds by hand in Kemon, Benin
[Design that Matters]

Project Motivation:
Tabletop or community-scale shelling machines would provide a major economic boost to rural communities around the world by allowing them to add value to locally-produced agricultural products. Prototypes are in development for the following agricultural products: peanuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, palm nuts and shea nuts.

3/2/2005 6:29:09 PM

[email protected]

There is no shortage of shelling equipment for large nuts. Likewise sorting equipment for small seeds.

http://www.jborrell.com/en/products/productsen.htm

But Lord help the Sunflower seed shellers.

3/2/2005 6:34:59 PM

[email protected]

Here's a homemade Peanut sheller that might be adapted in minature to sunflower seeds:

http://www.peanutsheller.org/assembly/

3/2/2005 6:47:34 PM

Sequim, WA

Leave them out for the mice and birds. You'll get all the empty shells you want.

3/2/2005 11:55:18 PM

Hobbiton New Zealand

So bascially no one has a good easy
way to do it

3/3/2005 12:06:26 AM

Thornhill, Ontario, Canada

What if you used a bucket and some sort of long bit (maybe like a paint mixer) and a drill?

Two summers ago I was on a hiking trip in Northern Israel which took us past a wheat field. I found that if I grabbed some wheat and rolled it in my hands, I could blow off the husks because they were so much lighter (then I ate the wheat raw, a novelty for a suburbanite).

So, maybe the same principle would apply to the sunflower seeds. If you agitate them enough, and don't care about the grains too much, maybe they whould separate with some shaking of the bucket.

3/3/2005 1:40:10 AM

C N Y

oh, man. are you trying to shell these for quick eating,
or do you have plenty of time as the 508 continues to
pack on the pounds? lol!
i would probably use a file or sanding stick thingy and get an opening going, then split the seed coat open from there.
GEE, sounds like something we do to PUMPKIN seeds? i dunno.
use a box cutter to scrape off a section of the shell and then pry open the shell from there?
one more---use some snippers to snip off the rounded, fat little end, lol...the seed itself is not attached in the
longer area of the seed, i don't think. so, snip off the rounded end and the seed meat should basically fall right out. got a bucket? eric

3/3/2005 1:52:12 AM

Hobbiton New Zealand

Na it was the wifs question and I had to put up on the board or i would never hear the end of it.
That and I am fast running out of finger nails!
Am goining to weigh 508 at home first as weigh off sponsered by a company that only makes stock scales so a company in town is bringing out a set that can be set up trade calibrated so that is good.
only 7 days 15 hrs and 19 minutes to go

3/3/2005 2:42:00 AM

[email protected]

I see three problems with automated shelling of sunflower seeds.

1.) The size of the shell is similar to the meat (embryo).
2.) The weight of each is similar.
3.) The shape is also similar.

Even if a device were employed to shell the seeds without destroyng the embryo, the 2 shell halves would be difficult to seperate from the meat unless a dual element (shaker screen plus air?) seperator was employed.

It CAN be done. But what is it worth? Not much I'd wager or it wouldn't take 30 minutes to not find a commercially available table top unit.

What wpuld happen if you tried running some seeds through the various sized discs of a meat grinder? Or maybe no disc at all? I'll ask my wife where her's is over the eweekend if time permits.

3/3/2005 7:41:09 AM

Menomonie, WI ([email protected])

I have heard send them through a blender with water. The meats sink, and husks float to the top.

3/3/2005 9:25:02 AM

Itzetown City

Why water, wind would also blow the lighter husks away and you keep the pits dry.

3/3/2005 10:12:03 AM