Brenda Hunt, age 9, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, for her question:

How do they harvest sunflower seeds?

Sunflower growers leave the harvest in the field until the backs of the whopping flowers are as dry as cardboard. If the stems are not too tall, they may be cut down and harvested with a combine. The seeds can be separated by a thrasher used for soybeans. The seed shells can be cracked in a mill and the mixture dumped into water. The light shells float to the top and can be poured off. The tender little sunflower nut meats at the bottom are drained and thoroughly dried.

Most of us grow just a few sunflowers in the home garden. We do not need a lot of fancy equipment. As a rule, our big problem is letting the seeds dry on the stems. It seems that the bird world knows that sunflower seeds are delicious little snacks, stuffed full of proteins, vitamins and other valuable foods. We can protect our crops with nets. Or we can cut down the huge heads and let them finish their drying in the sun. But while they dry, let's be sure to protect them from birds and mice and outer health food experts of the animal world.