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Re: Suet? (a substitute)



I long ago gave up suet for John Terres' miracle meal:

Knead together:
1 cup Peanut Butter (cheap stuff is fine, IMHO, but I've heard some claim salt-free should be used)
1 cup vegetable shortening


Sift together:
4 cups cornmeal (NOT self-rising)
1 cup white flour  (NOT self-rising)

Knead together the butter mix and the flour mix. You should get a nice dough, not too sticky. I form it into hamburger patty-sized pieces and refrigerate or freeze it, layers of patties separated by waxed paper. Put it in a suet feeder. All suet-loving birds love it, especially woodpeckers. Chickadees, titmouses, nuthatches, Yellow-rumped and Pine Warblers, etc also feed on it avidly. I usually feed in the winter, but Terres says that it does not spoil quickly even in the summer in Chapel Hill, where he lived for many years.

The recipe is from Terres's classic book, Songbirds in Your Garden.

Again, I've used it in my backyard here in Durham for several years. I've seen the same individual birds coming to it for months at a time and they seem to remain healthy. Terres used it for years as well--you can read about his experience with it in his book.

I'll never fuss with suet again--"miracle meal" is so easy.
--

Patrick Coin
Durham, NC
patrick@coinconsult.net