Pumpkin – one of our family favourites. Not only is the flesh useful and all gobbled up at our dinner table, the skin goes into our compost and the seeds …  along with being delicious dry roasted, they are also really easy to save and store for growing in months to come. Here’s how to do it.

First of all make sure your pumpkin seed is coming from good stock – a plant that doesn’t have any fungus or growing issues.

You want the seeds to come from the healthiest plant possible. A note on the stalk – your pumpkin, if being cut from the vine, should have a reasonable in length stalk during the ‘curing’ period.

Next up, give the seeds a simple wash in a colander after scooping from the middle. This gets rid of any of the gloopy bits.

Then dry them on a large plate, baking paper or tray (dependent on how much seed you have).

Do this somewhere where they can have lots of airflow, and no direct sunlight. Move them around a bit over the first few days especially.The seeds need to be well dried before being stored, as you don’t want any mould to form. They can take several weeks to be well and truly dry.

If you have more pumpkin seeds than you need, there are two options:

The first is eating them! Just gently panfry them, (make sure you get a lid on, as they will pop) and enjoy them with a light dusting of your favourite excellent salt.

Or, you could try Jamie Oliver’s take on roasted pumpkin seeds.