We love sunflower seeds, especially when we are in the car taking even running a short errand.  We are also a bit old fashioned, in that we refuse to buy the pre-shelled seeds, preferring to split the husks open between our teeth, savoring the saltiness of the shell, and extract the meat of the seed with our tongues, holding it to the side of our months while we spit out the seed husk into our spit cup.


Now some people, especially athletes, like to put a large handful of seeds in the mouth, working through them one at a time. We eschew this method.

We also avoid the plethora of flavored sunflower seeds that are currently being marketed. We buy sunflower seeds to taste the seeds, not to be inundated by tequila lime flavoring. 

Recently, on a driving trip through New Mexico, we ran out of our favorite brand of seeds, and stumbled upon Giant Brand seeds, that are produced in North Dakota (of all places!).  Giant Snacks sells their products in stores and online through their website. They also maintain a Facebook presence.

The seeds are all jumbo, and even the smallest ones in the bag are larger than some brands Jumbo-line of seeds. The seeds were well roasted, with just the right amount of salt. They split open easily and had good sized nutmeat.  Naturally, they also managed to get black seed dust under our fingernails, but that is the price one pays for eating sunflower seeds one-at-a-time.

The 14 ounce bag (also available in 6.5,  3.5 and 1.75 ounce bags) had very few empty husks, and we were both quite sad to see the empty bag sitting on the center console of our trusty automobile.  We've searched for them in the metropolitan Phoenix area, and have failed to any, as nearly all the stores seem to only stock products from the two largest manufacturers.  This is becoming a major disappointment to us - but we are still looking for a local source. The discovery they can be bought direct on the company's website was of great relief and through a number of other online outlets.

While on their website we discovered they also have different flavors available: Italian, Garlic, Ranch, Dill Pickle, BBQ, and Salt & Pepper.  They also make up custom packages for shipment to the US Military.

Recommended: Yes