A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Pumpkin seeds?

I have dried two variety of pumpkins seeds. Large seeds that came out of jack O lantern type pumpkins, and small seeds that came out of small pie pumpkins. My parrots prefer the small seeds to the larger ones. Does anyone know of any reason they would taste different? My son is going to taste test them both later to see if he can tell a difference in them. There has to be a difference though because Boo will not touch the bigger seeds but will jump through hoops for the smaller ones. So of course this has me wondering why?

Also I was reading the article in the helper section about pumpkin seeds, it says do not wash them, but to just wipe off the excess pulp. Does anyone know why your not supose to wash them? I don't wash them but I do rinse them under the faucett in a strainer, but now I am worried I might have done something that would cause mildewing to set in over time? I dehydrate my seeds I don't bake them, I use a Nesco dehydrator for 2 hours.

Also both the large and the small pumpkins were very very fiberous, is there a reason some pumpkins are so fiberous they are unusable? These appeared to have cross bred with speghetti squash!

Does anyone know why your not supose to wash them
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Hi Mik
When you dry tomato seeds it's the same story and the reason is to do with the fermentation of the fruit remaining on the seed aiding in germination. I imagine it's the same for pumpkin seeds. Also the idea of fungus developing if they are washed may have merit. I generally just dry my seeds in the sun or on a windowsill, dust them with bordeaux if they're gonna be stored and put them in a paper envelope.
Not sure why the small seeds are preferred for eating. Maybe they just taste better or perhaps the shells are less bitter or something. Try a few. They're best dried but are still nice raw i reckon.