Pumpkin Seed

drjockers dot com slash pumpkin-seeds suggests that pumkin seeds have anti-parasitic properties and contains bio-available Zinc

I discovered this after excavating plenty of this resource in the construction of lanterns for my kids during Halloween.

If, like me, you have prickly family members who have suffered a sudden infusion of parasites and an immune system starved of Zinc or otherwise compromised - than we can say with an amount of wonderment that the universe provides.

I roasted one set with soy-source and the other with green chilli.

seeds were separated from their stringy supports by placing them in a deep bowl filled with water and scooping the free floating seeds with "a holy draining spoon".

the chilli batch was allowed to soak overnight in a small amount of water in along with chopped chilli.

both sets were placed on re-purposed brown paper bags and entered the oven for roasting at different times.

I allowed the electric oven I use to reach 190 degrees  and cool, twice, for each batch.

Funny story: I had one of these ramekin prepared for immature visitors to sample should they tire of processed suger during their visitations. One of them accepted the healthy option but I neglected to inform them before crunch time that they needed to be shelled. . .

Which brings me to my question; what is the easiest way mass process the shelling of pumkin seeds?

For most of the c. Pepo squash like jack’O’lanterns and acorn squash, we eat them shells-on.  Or you can shell them with your teeth and spit out the shell, like with sunflowers.  I don’t know any good way to shell them in bulk.

I've always just eaten the shells as well and had no issues. In a way, they're actually better for you that way, as the shell adds fiber. I imagine for people with digestive issues, it might be best to find a way to shell them though, since that extra fiber could cause irritation.

I know that you can give pumpkin seeds to chickens, goats, pigs, sheep etc as a dewormer. I'm thinking they have to be hulled before you give them to animals, and not roasted.

chickens with eat pumpkin seeds hull and all (or peck them off themselves), and i suspect the bigger animals in that list would too.

You can try growing Styrian or Kakai pumpkins for their hulless seeds.

It's well-known in Mexico that they are antiparasitic and in fact, most people around where I live grow winter squash, especially for the seeds. They cut them open remove the seeds, then toss the flesh to the cows. The kind like you pictured you can easily eat the shells, it helps get some extra fiber in you too to help move those intestinal parasites out. One trick for mas shelling them--before roasting (for example there is a lovely green sauce called pipian made with ground pumpkin seed, is the following.
1, soak in water to wash and remove pumpkin pulp.
2, crush them gently with a rolling pin--not hard enough to crush the insides.
3, boil for just a minute or two
4, cool and strain
5, peel and leave to dry

You can also toast them this way, you will often find them peeled in Mexican peanut snack mixes.

melissa, just to be clear, when you go from the soaking/cleaning to the rolling pin, are the seeds still wet from soaking?

greg mosser wrote:melissa, just to be clear, when you go from the soaking/cleaning to the rolling pin, are the seeds still wet from soaking?

Yes, and you are not pushing hard with the rolling pin so as to crush the seeds. Though mostly this is done to eventually grind the seeds so many people don't worry about that. But if you want to roast shelled seeds for a snack the rolling pin should crack the shells without crushing the seeds.