I love making things from what I already have in my house, without buying anything new, things that are secondary uses for what might eventually become waste. When we fry up some bacon, there’s always some leftover grease. What do we do with that bacon fat? We turn it into suet for our wild birds.

Our bacon comes from grass-fed natural sources with no added sugars or chemicals. It’s about as healthy as bacon can get. So, I’m happy to share the grease with our little feathered friends who in winter do need an added boost of calories.

First, save the plastic holder for bird suet that commercial suets come in. If you don’t have any, ask in your local Buy Nothing group for the square plastic packaging for suet. This way, you’ll be able to use that plastic container as your future mold to fit into the suet feeder.

Here’s our recipe:

1. Fill 3/4 of a plastic suet mold with any kind of bird seed.
2. Collect the melted liquid fat from your bacon grease. You can keep it in a jar until you have about 2 cups of it, and melt it. Or, simply pour the not-too-hot grease into your plastic suet mold with seeds in it. Fill the suet mold with your grease. 
3. Place the plastic suet mold filled with seeds and bacon grease in the freezer. 
4. When the suet is completely frozen, take it out of the suet mold and place it in your suet feeder. Done!

We sometimes add peanut butter, old flour, nuts, berries, anything that birds would like. 

Your little tweeties will love their suet and you won’t have to buy any more plastic-packaged suet again!