Sunflower seed harvest

Some of the sunflowers I planted this year are the heirloom Arikara variety; I saw them listed as having “edible seeds” so I figured I’d give them a shot. (For all I know all common garden sunflower seeds are edible; they aren’t listed as such so Seed Savers exchange got my $2.95 for the Arikara).

Three of the early starts I transplanted to the garden in April flowered some time ago and they were hanging their heads low among the Brandywines by now.

The “sure” way to know if the seeds are ready for harvesting it to leave the flower heads on the plants until brown and the birds start eating them. Usually though, by the time back of the heads are banana peel yellow the seeds are developed enough. I went ahead and cut these after checking a few seeds (per earlier posts I’ve fed the birds enough for now, and besides they have their own “Mammoth” sunflowers growing in another spot).

They have to be dried a bit before salting and roasting, so the 3 heads are currently bound and hanging in my garden shed:

The world cup final is over and the team I was “sort of pulling for” lost, so I’m off to check the current drought/heat wounded state of the garden. I’ve since forgotten how long these are supposed to dry; can someone please look this up for me?