Feed the birds with popcorn strings.

What You Need:

• thread and sewing needle
• day old plain air-popped popcorn (do not use microwaved popcorn! As it is too high in salts and fats)
• cranberries, soaked raisins and other fruit pieces: grapes, oranges, apples, bananas, melon, etc.
• vegetable pieces: carrots, peas, broccoli, cooked potatoes, tomatoes, etc.
• cooked beans (Note: some varieties of beans can be poisonous unless cooked.)
• pasta – cooked or uncooked
• whole grains: bread cubes, shredded wheat, etc.
• nuts
• fresh chile or banana peppers

How To Do It:

1. Let the popcorn sit out over night so that it won't break apart so easily when you string it.
2. Thread the needle, double the thread. String a cranberry and tie a knot around it.
3. Thread the popcorn alternately with the other goodies.
4. You can string a long garland to wrap around a tree. Younger children will find it easier to make lots of shorter “icicles” to hang on the branches.
5. Cut the needle off, leaving several centimetres of bar thread and knot the thread at the end. Use the loop to hook over the tree branches.

Originally part of an article published in The Orleans Star, January 9, 1996.