Monday, September 23, 2013

Suet day



A few months ago, I bought a suet feeder from Joanne, a fellow Master Naturalist, who makes them as a fundraiser for Friends of Blanco State Park. Finally, this morning, I got after it and made some suet myself. But I think I still have some learning to do. I made the recipe below, then set the small pot in the refrigerator to cool. I guess I thought it'd have a cookie dough consistency. Well, not completely. Twas a bit crumbly to mash together into small balls. But I'm sure the birds won't care. We'll see what they think.

I came upon this recipe in a nature blog that Charlotte T. emails to her subscribers. Thanks, Charlotte!



Charlotte's No-Melt Suet

1/2 cup lard
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup cornmeal


Melt lard and peanut butter in large saucepan. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Put into molds; chill in refrigerator until firm. Charlotte uses recycled commercial suet molds to form the cakes and then stores them in ziplock bags. 


UPDATE–Charlotte sent me a nice email after reading this post and some additional comments on her suet recipe....


"Regarding the suet recipe, you sometimes need to "fiddle" with it.  If mine is too soupy, I add more cornmeal or flour. If it's too crumbly, add more melted peanut butter or lard. It seems to vary as I use different brands of ingredients (buying whatever is on sale at the time). But it does set more solid the longer it stays in the fridge. I form little cigar shapes for the cedar hanger and just cram it in tightly. Also, sometimes I add raisins or chopped pecans or shelled peanut pieces just to give the birds a bit of variety. It's an easy recipe to tinker with."

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 26, 2013–Well, one of our local woodpeckers has discovered the suet. Yesterday, I heard one call as it got closer. Then, bingo, it landed on the suet feeder! This morning, I recognized the same call. Sure enough, here it came, right on the suet feeder. Yay! 

UPDATE OCTOBER 4, 2013-Not a great video. But hey, you can see the woodpecker.


  

1 comment:

Rock rose said...

I like the idea of putting it in the holes in the log. I always have plans to make suet balls but have never managed to get round to doing it. We used to put out suit for the birds in England but it was real suet and you could string it up in chunks. It is hard to find these days. It is one of the ingredients for my Christmas pudding and I can never find it. I hope the weather isn't too hot for it to be outside in this heat.

Post a Comment