For the month of June, The Wildlife Trusts are doing an amazing scheme that everyone should try and do something for ‘nature’ at least once a day and either blog, vlog or tweet photos about it.
For Day 8 of #30DaysWild, my lovely eight year old wildlife lover Kai and myself got together to make a film about making homemade bird seed balls.
In order to make it easier for the film, we used just the vegetable fat to create the balls, but if you would like to know the full ingredients with binding and setting agents, the full recipe is below:
- 50g of Solid Vegetable Shortening (Can also use set Coconut Oil)
- 2 table spoons of Peanut Butter
- 70g Polenta
- 2 tablespoons wholemeal flour
- Bag of wild birdseed
- 1 large Bowl
- Some string
- Scissors
- Knife
- Empty coconut shells (optional)
Firstly warm the vegetable fat so it becomes ‘squashable’
Combine all of the ingredients in the large bowl
Squash like pastry making sure to mix a good amount of the bird seed in with the fats and binding ingredients
Sculpt into the desired shape / creation you require (options below)
Option 1: Normal Fat Ball
Simply squash the ingredients into small balls which can go in your bird feeder
Option 2: Fat Ball on a string
Simply put a piece a string through the middle of the fat ball, so you can hang from a tree
Option 3: Coconut Fat Ball
Squash the contents into an empty halved coconut and hang up with a piece of string
To find out how you can support your local wildlife and take part in 30 Days Wild please visit the following website: http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/30DaysWildInfo
The following websites are amazing to learn more about nature and the world around us:
