IOU Ornament Making…

By, Sara Hollerich

Making edible (at least for a bird) ornaments was a fairly new experience for me. I mean I have made the pinecones with peanut butter and birdseed before. I have strung popcorn too, but I have never made suet ornaments. Emily, Doug N., Karen S. Ken, and I slaved over the ornaments for a few hours. Suet was interesting to work with. Ken had gone to an actual wild bird store and got pre-made suet which was very easy to work with. If you are going to do this I would suggest this route. However we also experiment with suet from the butcher and the pre-made cakes you can purchase at the grocery store. The pre-made cakes I had purchased were made from actual suet, they were some other waxy substance. I hope the birds like them.

The strangest was working with the suet from the butcher. It came in this huge blob and had a lot of other "parts" in it. I guess I should explain that the best I can tell suet is the fat that surrounds internal organs from animals like deer, cows, and other animals. You can get it grounded or you can get it ungrounded. Get it grounded – it is easier to work with. I boiled the suet forever because it was in such large chunks. It almost smelled like you were cooking steaks or something. It wasn’t unpleasant, except to look at. This is also a great activity if you need moisturizer. My hands felt so soft after making these ornaments. See the recipe below for tips on how to make your ornaments.

Karen got a bagel shop to donate some bagels. We made an unreal amount of bagel ornaments. It took three people to cut, peanut butter, and dip all the bagels we had. They are so simple to make though and the birds love them. We also cut some ornaments out of bread with cookie cutters. These were very simple.

When we were through with all of those ornaments we popped in "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and spent the next two hours stringing popcorn and Crasins (I hope the birds like them) into garland. That movie just cracks me up.

Edible ornaments for wildlife are a great way to feed the birds – and squirrels (whether you want to or not). I have compiled the recipes we used to create our ornaments below. Some other IOU members were not able to attend and made their own as well.

Recipes:

Bagel Ornaments:

Cut a bagel in half.
Smear peanut butter on both sides.
Dip in bird seed.

Suet Ornaments:

Get suet from the butcher.
Place in a pot and melt it down over the stove – the pieces of fat that don’t melt will start to fry.
Strain out the chunks and allow to cool.
Melt one more time and add some peanut butter and birdseed.
Allow to cool, until it is soft but not hard.
Press into a cookie cutter and place in a freezer then press out of the mold. It is easier if you cut a length of string and squeeze the suet in around the string then trying to add the string later – don’t tie it until you take the ornament out of the mold. Sometimes they come out without a trip to the freezer.

Bread Ornaments:

Cut shapes out of the bread with cookie cutters.
Sting them up
Allow to dry out.

Garland:

String popcorn, orange slices, cranberries, and apples on a string to hang on a tree.

Peanut Treats:

Get shell on peanuts (unsalted).
Use a needle and thread to string the peanuts.
Tie a bow with raffia and hang on the tree.

Pinecones:

Take a pinecone and smear it with peanut butter.
Roll the pinecone in birdseed.
Tie with string or raffia and hang on your tree.