Whenever I have leftover fruit and veggie scraps, I head to my chicken coop and yell “FEAST TIME!” as I scatter the scraps in their coop. The other day my son heard me say this and decided that the chickens shouldn’t be the only ones having a feast on such a cold day. We finally hit below zero temps this week and though the sun was finally peaking out from the clouds, it was still a cold one. So we gathered up some supplies from the kitchen and made a few yummy treats for the forest critters to have their own winter feast tree.
I’m thinking this will have to be a yearly tradition! Perhaps the first day it reaches below zero. Or maybe during the winter solstice? Either way, I know this will not be our last Winter Feast Tree.
Supplies:
- peanut butter or sunflower butter
- apples
- oranges
- cranberries
- twine
- scissors
- a yarn needle
- bird seed
We had just a tiny bit of bird seed left in our bag so I mixed in some cracked corn I have from the chickens. I had all the supplies ready to go when my son came home from school so he could dive right in.
I helped him slice an old orange up and with the apple we sliced one side and cut up the other side of the apple in chunks.
We never seem to be able to eat the last couple of oranges or apples in a bag before they start to go bad. These old apples and oranges were perfect to feed the animals with!
For the garland:
Tie your twine to a yarn needle and let your child thread cranberries, the slices of oranges, and chunks of apples to make a garland. My son loves making patterns, so he enjoyed counting out the fruit to make a continued pattern for the garland. I made loops on both ends so that it was easier for him to hang in the tree. You can also add on popcorn, raisins, craisins, peanuts, dried apricots etc.
For the apple ornaments:
Have your child spread peanut butter on both sides of a slice of apple and coat generously with bird seed. This is messy so I recommend putting down some old newspapers!
He poked a hole at the top of each slice and slid the twine through to make a large loop for hanging.
My camera died before I could take a photo of the finished tree and by the time it charged it was dark outside. The next morning when we went to check on our feast tree, everything had been eaten!! So I suppose our feast tree was a success and our backyard critters were hungry.
We will have to do this again and watch from inside with binoculars to see what animals were munching on our treats!
Have you ever made DIY bird feeders before? What do your backyard critters seem to like the best? Ours apparently aren’t too picky!
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