DIY - Pine Cone Peanut Butter Bird Treats

Alright, I've slacked a bit.  I was on a roll and some how managed to distract myself with other things.  We've been up to many things, so it's time to get back to the business at hand.  So here goes.


I believe in recycling.  There is no need to throw something away, when it can be used for something else.  Or revamped to use for another purpose.  A re-purposing if you will.


Here is a neat way to recycle pine cones, that would otherwise go to waste.  We turned our PERFECT pine cones into PERFECT bird treats.


Now my Mom, is a lover of the little feathered friends.  Brings her great delight to watch them come in to feed on the treats she strews out for them every morning.  Waylon, my son, decided to turn that delight into a wonderful present for his Nana.  With the help of his Mom (me) and the donation of pine cones from his Papa (my Dad) we were able to make some Pine Cone Peanut Butter Bird Treats.


It had been many years since my Grandmother showed me the recipe to make these little delights, so for the most part I winged it (pardon the pun).  I could remember the ingredients, but the quantity escaped me.  So throwing caution to the wind, we dug in and started off on the right foot by gathering the ingredients:  suet, peanut butter, bird seed, pine cones and some string for hanging.


We needed some suet.  It just so happens that I cooked up some bacon to serve with breakfast and saved the grease.  (See, I did have SOME forethought of the project! lol)  And as luck would have it, I bought the wrong peanut butter at the store.  We don't care for crunchy peanut butter, so another good save!! .... we donated it to feeding the birdies.  I had some wild berry bird seed on hand (what a coincidence) and it is considered one of the best for bringing in the finches, blue birds and cardinals.  (Which are ALL Nana's favs! Another good save. hehe)


Now, we needed to scavenge some string.  Well, I do seem to have an unlimited supply of hay twine.  So we took one strand and broke it down into several more and tied them around the top of the pine cones.


Now, I didn't think of taking pictures until Way had already gotten a couple of them done.  But as you can see from the pictures, it's kind of messy with the suet peanut butter.  But we had alot of fun putting it all together and then packaging them with love for Nana!


See the recipe at the bottom of this post.

The suet peanut butter is a bit saucy, but to get it in the little crevices of the pine cone it was

necessary to make it that way.

As you can see here, it kind of drips off the pine cone.   We attached the string first,

making it easier to dip, then double dip in the bird seed.  I used a muffin tin to rest them in,then placed them in the freezer for about 15 - 20 minutes to set the suet mixture.

I don't have a final picture, but as you can see from the one sitting in the muffin tin

that is what they look like.

Nana loved the Pine Cone Peanut Butter Bird Treats and is ready for us to make some more! :D

I think I will adjust the amount of suet I use next time and see if I can make it a bit less "soupy" and try

more of the packing method to see if it works out better for us.

Here's the Peanut Butter Suet recipe:

Ingredients: (Makes 12)

1 cup Suet (I used bacon grease, warmed)

2 cups Crunchy Peanut Butter

1 lb. Wild Berry and Nuts Bird Seed

String

Directions:

Now (as I said before) I'm into re-purposing as much as possible, so I used some twine from the hay that we get for the horses.  But any type of string will work, or wire if you prefer.  Be creative with it, as it doesn't have to be perfect, just look perfectly unique when your finished.

I separated the twine to make into more manageable pieces of strings.  And as it turned out it made 12 strings for 12 pine cones.  Now lace the string thru the top edges of the pine cone.  It doesn't make any difference which end you use, but I opted to use the flat edge, so I suppose for all intense purposes that would be the bottom.  After bringing the string together, I tied a knot in the middle.  Leaving enough string to make a loop at the end to hang it from the branch.

Next I took the suet that had been warmed and added the peanut butter to it. (I want to add here that I warmed it so that it would make a soupy mixture so that it would get into the crevices of the pine cone easier.  However in retrospect I might not warm the suet so much next time).

I set the bowl of suet peanut butter next to the bowl of bird seed.  Dip the pine cones in the peanut butter mixture and rotate a few times.  We used a spatula to make sure the peanuts got into the crevices too.  Then transfer it to the bird seed.  We used a double dip method and it worked well.

Place each pine cone in the muffin tin, then place in the freezer for 15 - 20 minutes until the suet is set.

Once the suet is completely set, we packaged ours and Way presented them to his Nana. :D

After Nana hung them up, she started getting in the blue birds that are her very very favorite next to cardinals.  And now enjoys watching her blue feathered friends thru the big picture windows with Papa. 

Simple, easy, made with love and perfectly unique!  Now that's what I call a great gift idea.