The Weekend Project: Birdseed Ornaments for Backyard Trees

This weekend’s project goes outside, on the trees. You mix birdseed with a little flour, then bind it with unflavored gelatin and corn syrup. Pressed into cookie cutters, the mixture sets into shapes you can hang from a branch. One batch yields 12 ornaments, and the ornaments do most of their setting while you sleep.

The gelatin holds the shape. The corn syrup keeps loose seeds from flaking away. The gelatin did it’s job to hold the cookie cutter shapes, and the corn syrup helped keep the birdseed pieces from flaking off, wrote the maker of one version.

What You Need for One Batch

• 4 cups birdseed
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup of hot water
• 1 packet unflavored gelatin
• 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
• Metal cookie cutters, plus cooking spray, butter, or shortening to grease them
• Parchment paper to work on
• Drinking straws cut into 2- to 3-inch pieces, and about 9 inches of twine or string for each ornament

Steps: Mixing and Molding the Birdseed

1. In a large bowl, stir the birdseed and flour together.
2. Heat the water until it is hot enough to dissolve gelatin. A microwave works, and so does a saucepan over low heat. If you use a saucepan, dissolve the gelatin, but don’t let it boil.
3. Stir the gelatin into the hot water until it dissolves, then stir in the corn syrup.
4. Pour the warm gelatin mixture over the seed and flour. Stir until every seed is coated.
5. Grease the cookie cutters and set them on parchment paper. Fill each one with the seed mixture and press it in firmly. Grease your hands to help the birdseed mixture resist sticking to your fingers.
6. Push a piece of straw through each shape near the top to make the hanging hole.
7. Let the ornaments set until firm, about eight hours. Then lift them out of the cutters, pull out the straws and thread twine through the holes.

How Long It Takes

Mixing and filling the molds fits easily into a Saturday afternoon or evening. The setting time is what makes this a two-day project: if you make the ornaments on Saturday, they will be firm enough to hang on Sunday.

Ways to Adapt the Birdseed Ornaments

Make a double batch. A larger version for about 12 bigger ornaments uses 2 packets Knox gelatin ■ 1 cup warm water ■ 6 Tbs. light corn syrup ■ 1½ cups all-purpose flour ■ 8 cups birdseed. With that much seed, stir in half first, coat it well, then add the rest.

Change the molds. Holiday cookie cutters and mini Bundt pans both work. Smaller shapes hang more easily from thin branches.

Decorate the tops. Before the mixture sets, press in dried fruit, fresh cranberries or dried seed heads.

Make a smaller batch with children. A half-size version uses 1 ¼ tsp unflavored gelatin (1 pack), 1 ½ Tbsp corn syrup, 2 cups birdseed, ⅓ cup flour and ¼ cup water.

FAQ

– Will the ornaments hold up outdoors?

They hold up in cool, dry weather, but not for long in rain or heat. Rain and hot sun will melt the gelatin, so hang them under some cover if you can.

– Can I give them as gifts?

Yes. Once they are fully firm, tie ribbon through the holes and package them for friends who like watching birds.