05 June 2011

Feed the Birds

At this time of year birds can really do with a bit of extra sustenance. This bird seed cake is easy to make and can be frozen in small blocks and brought out as required.

Melt a packet (about 250g) of dripping or lard in a pan. Remove from the heat and pour in 1/2 cup each of rolled oats, bran and wild bird seed mix (available with the pet food at the supermarket). Stir and let cool slightly before pouring into plastic moulds, such as recycled yoghurt or sour cream containers or the small round takeaway containers. Let cool on the bench then set in the fridge until hard. Pop the seed cake out of the mould and place in an onion bag (or similar).

Hang in a nearby tree and watch the birds feast.  You can buy dripping from the supermarket or you can do what Grandma did and drain the fat from the frying pan, baking dish and grill tray into a container and let it set.

Grandma had a dripping dish, I'm guessing that's not something that's in many kitchens these days so use a clean, empty 800g fruit tin to store your dripping. Keep it in the fridge until you have enough to make your seed cake.

2 comments:

  1. So just to clarify this bird mix, do birds actually like the lard around the seed as well, or is that just there to slow them down in how much they eat?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The birds like it. It is what binds the seed mix together too. If you leave it out you'll just have a lot of loose seeds/rolled oats etc falling through the onion bag.

    ReplyDelete

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