| A Great Homemade Bird
'Suet' Cake This is pretty off-topic for
this website, but after feeding and enjoying birds for as long as I can
remember, I can tell you they love this stuff!
We started using this in the winter of '03, and one
of its advantages we've discovered since then is how well it fares in
hot weather. Much better than suet. It appears that a block of it won't last long enough to get
rancid like suet does.
I've never seen a food 'block' that's attractive to
so many species, year-round. It's amazing how many of them really go after this
formula - Bluebirds included. My current list of birds that go
after it includes some 20 local species, and I'm sure I've missed seeing
a few.
Btw, this does very well
in hot summer weather. Doesn't seem to melt or get rancid at all like suet.
If you have bears or raccoons,
though, plan on bringing it inside overnight as recommended in the
recipe. I'm not kidding - Bears really love this stuff! They've
climbed right up onto our deck to get to it.
By the way, I'm 'cooking challenged', so if I can
make it, anyone can!
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'Bluebird Suet'
* 1 pound lard
* 16-20 oz. crunchy peanut butter
* 3/4-1 cup raisins
* 3/4-1 cup black oil sunflower or mixed birdseed
* 6 cups cornmeal
* 5 cups all-purpose flour
Melt lard in microwave. Pour into a really large mixing bowl, stir
in other ingredients in order above. Pour mix into cake pan, cool
and cut into blocks to fit your feeder. Freeze in zip-lock
bags.
Yields 6 blocks roughly 4" square and
1-1/2" thick from a 9x12 cake pan, and these fit perfectly
into our suet 'cages'.
Just be sure to bring your feeders inside overnight if you have
bears in the neighborhood, as we do. (They love it too!) |
Many thanks to my cool sister-in-law LuAnn for this
recipe!
Copyright 2006 www.DavesRepair.com
This article may be reprinted and distributed freely
only in its entirety, including this message.
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