Roasting winter squash seeds is a simple and thrifty way to get the most from your pumpkins and winter squashes. Many winter squashes and pumpkins have great seeds, but Butternuts do not, and I find that carving pumpkins' seeds are bland, so you may want to add a curry powder, chili powder, or ginger powder to the salt in Step 5. The squashes in the photo are Winter Luxury Pumpkin (left) and Cheese Pumpkin (right) - both have flavorful seeds.

Great in a trail mix, as a soup garnish, or straight out of the oven. Seeds will store for 2 weeks in a sealed container. Makes 1 cup.

Ingredients:

1 cup (approx) seeds (eating pumpkin, rather than carving)
1/8 cup Fat Stone Farm Organic Maple Syrup, Ye Olde Grade B preferable*
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 300F.

2. Separate seeds from pulp, but do not wash. They will be slightly slimy but the coating will dry out in the oven.

3. Spread out onto baking sheet in single layer. You can use parchment paper for an easier clean up, but it's not necessary.

4. Cook for 25 minutes.

4. Remove from the oven, drizzle maple and salt on seeds, toss to coat, return to oven for 9 more minutes.

5. Scrape off of baking sheet when the seeds are still warm (if it hardens and does not come off, return to warm oven for a few minutes), or tip out of the parchment paper.

6. Serve warm or at room temperature, or allow to cool completely and store in a sealed container. 

*Traditionally-made, authentic maple syrup is a real treasure! Did you know there are more than 39 identified flavors in real maple syrup? Generally, I identify one or two "flavors" in our small batches of Organic maple syrup. They range from hints of vanilla to undertones of molasses. Because we don't send our sap or syrup to a large packing house, we can retain these unique qualities from tree to bottle.