Trick to get the "pepita" out of pumpkin seeds?

[CWS4322]

We grow pumpkins. I was playing with some of the dried seeds today to get at white "husk" off to get to the "pepita." Not easy to do--anyone know a trick for getting to the "inside" of the pumpkin seed?

 

[Andy M.]

I've seen baseball players do it. First toss a handful into your mouth...

 

[NoraC]

It isn't easy - and I suspect there is a machine like a mechanical pea sheller that does it faster, but simmer the seeds in water for about 15 minutes, then squeeze from the rounded end and the seed shoots out of the husk. It's kinda like chestnuts, by the time you go to all the trouble, you are bound and determined to like them. OTOH, the simmering time can include all kinds of flavorings, which actually do get picked up through the hull and flavor the pepita.

 

[CWS4322]

Thanks NoraC! As if I didn't have enough projects...this one sounds labour intensive. I tried using a toe-nail clipper (yes, I sterilized it first) to pinch the husk open...definitely requires practice if I want to miss cutting into the meat...no wonder pepitas are so expensive. I doubt anyone else would want to eat anything I put them in if they knew I cracked the husks in my mouth...but then, commercial pasta was kneaded by barefooted men until at least 1910...