 Gimme Smelter Winter approaches and once again my mind turns to bird feeders. I have a number of small black sunflower seed dispensers already up but as usual I plan to modify their variety, size, and arrangement as the season deepens. That prospect doesn’t concern me, in fact I think of it as entertainment, but gnawing at my thoughts each autumn is how to dispense suet in a clean and efficient manner. In a winter climate as harsh as the Cariboo’s, suet is a necessity I wouldn’t want to deny the birds. Even now, Woodpeckers that remember suet was available in past years are beginning to arrive. If they do not finding any suet, they gravitate to the seed feeders and toss everything around in fits of pique. One particular male Downy taps on the walls of the house to show his displeasure when kept waiting. In years past I have provided a steady flow of raw suet by stuffing it into various wire cages, mostly of my own making, which I then hang in a number of spots around the yard. Much like avoiding Hummingbird squabbles over nectar feeders, it is best to hang suet feeders out of sight of one another. Supplying raw suet has been my route of choice for the past number of years mainly because I found that melting and rendering suet into any other form is a messy and smelly affair. I’ve rendered suet in the kitchen but quit almost immediately. The smell was indescribable. Well, actually a few similar smells came to mind but none of them akin to acres of lavender fields in summer – I’ll leave it at that. Last year, during winter, I stepped outside and made an attempt at melting suet in a small pot on a propane 2-burner camp stove, but after 20 minutes only the tips of the chunks in the pot were melted. This was a brave attempt at showing that I don’t easily give up, but other than that, appeared to be a lost cause. Still, urged on by a number of angry Woodpeckers gathered in the yard, I couldn’t pass by the meat store recently without stopping for at least a small chunk of raw suet. When I got it home I began to stuff the suet into one of the past year’s wire cages but the sight of chunks of suet falling everywhere, not to mention my greasy gloves and cutting utensils, reminded me that I still had no love for raw suet. And as I poked about my mind returned to the suet experience I had at my most recent house-sit. D & K’s freezer contained rendered down blocks of suet which had been poured into margarine tubs and then allowed to cool into nice neat bricks. The bricks were simple and clean, and could easily be presented to all the hungry birds on the window feeder. Shortly thereafter, Woodpeckers and Jays arrived to chop and peck away at the molded suet. It did not escape my attention that the rendered suet never shattered into broken shards, or scattered about the feeder tray. It remained solid, dispensed efficiently and looked like the solution to all my suet needs. Meanwhile, back on the home front, I still had my suet rendering problems. In a fit of disgust I finally decided to place the raw suet on a platform feeder in the yard and mount it on a wire drum to keep it above marauding dogs. Now when I look at the huge piece of suet from inside the house, it reminds me of a primitive offering to some wild god, or bait for a pack of hungry wolves. This would not do. I reassessed past attempts at suet rendering and quickly convinced myself that I was working on too small a scale. I needed to think big. I would render a whole winter’s suet during the course of one day. This would put me on the right track again. I have a stainless steel pot, a dented two-handled affair that will hold a gallon or two of whatever I decide to put in it. This would be an ideal container for a big rendering. I’m also convinced that a small outdoor wood fire is the way to go, so that the smell will drift away and not linger in the house. A brick of lard or shortening pre-melted in the bottom of the pot should speed up the melting of the raw suet. I have the plan, now I need to pressure myself to produce the product. Yesterday I announced my suet plans to anyone who would willingly, or unwillingly, listen, so now all that remains to be done is purchase enough suet to do the job. I calculate that the necessary amount of suet is in the ten dollar range, about the size of two small turkeys. As for the fate of the first bit of suet I purchased, the Gray Jays have found it and are doing their best to haul it away as fast as they can. A small piece stuck like an afterthought on the end of a seed feeder has caught the attention of a Hairy Woodpecker and that also will soon be gone. I feel that I stand at the dawning of a new suet era – an era of premanufactured, molded suet. Yet, no flame has licked a pot bottom, nor has the first ounce of suet melted into a controllable molded suet ingot. I do harbor some doubts, but the day of reckoning is at hand. No doubt there will be more to this story in the future. To e-mail Tom CLICK HERE To look at previous column CLICK HERE |
