| Suet and Amaryllis |
[Dec. 5th, 2008|10:11 am] |
Yesterday I took the bacon drippings that I've been saving and made an adaptation of a recipe that I found in Birds & Blooms magazine*. Here's the recipe:
2 c. lard (I use saved bacon drippings)
2 c. crunchy peanut butter
4 c. quick oats
4 c. corn meal
2 c. flour
other stuff: oil sunflower, finch mix, raisins
Line a 9 X 11" brownie pan with aluminum foil.
Melt the lard and peanut butter in a pan, then mix it all with the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl, along with the other stuff. Pack it into the brownie pan and freeze. After the mix is frozen, turn it out and cut it into six pieces.
 I wrap them in saran wrap (you can see the one is already wrapped) and freeze them. These are just the right size for a suet feeder like the one below:
 this is a photo of a tufted titmouse right outside my kitchen window, getting ready to dig in. This recipe is way more popular with the birds than the bought cakes -- the store-bought one that I have hung by the pines has been there forever, and the birds are eating it, but I've gone through 2 of my cakes since I've hung it. I've had a truly naughty downy woodpecker (bad because he pecks on the house), chickadees, tufted titmice, and the red-bellied woodpecker so far. I'll blog as other species appear.
This recipe is very forgiving, and will accept wide variation. For example, I only had a cup and a half of corn meal left, so added more oats to compensate, but not as much as 2 1/2 cups, so you can really play with it. You may also add your own other stuff ingredients, anything that you think your birds would like -- peanuts, safflower seeds, song bird mix (the birds will probably pick around the millet and throw it to the ground, where dark-eyed juncos will eat it.)
Other news:
The amaryllis that I'd ordered is actually growing. I am a skeptical gardener, and always amazed when a seed or bulb does this.
 
<< This one is just peeping up from old growth. The other is farther along. I get these bulbs from John Scheeper's, an excellent bulb house. One of these will be Amaryllis Papilio Improved; the other, Amaryllis Cybister Emerald. You can check the site out for the flowers. Papilio is under the Royal Dutch Hybrid Miniature category, and Emerald is under the Special Novelties category. Emerald is light and airy, more like a species amaryllis. Papilio is evergreen, and has a butterfly-like flower (hence the name), very dynamic, with maroon and cream and bronze. I'll post photos as they develop, although the catalog warns that Papilio may not bloom the first season.
* I don't get this magazine anymore, and don't any of you send it to me, although whoever sent it in the first place, thanks again.
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
postspace's journal
