Wild Food

Birds, like people will often eat fruit, cheese or cereals. So you could try making some fruit gem filled jewelry that is good enough for both you and the birds to eat. 

You will need a selection of:

• 4 or 5 different types of fruit, prepared and cut into chunks around 2-3cm square
• Small chunks of cheese
• Hoop shaped cereal
• Clean large needle
• Clean string or elastic

Measure out a length of string or elastic and tie a knot at the end. Thread the elastic or string on to the needle. Fruit comes in all sorts of lovely colours and cut in to chunks they are a bit like jewels, so your task now is to make a string of fruit, cheese and cereal beads.

Thread one for you, which you can make into an edible necklace. Thread one for the birds, which you can hang up somewhere outside.  What are the pieces of fruit you eat first? Do the birds eat the same things as you? 

Other things to try

• Have a picnic, in your garden, or why not visit one of the Colchester countryside sites? 
• Pick some wild blackberries for you to eat – both you and birds enjoy these, so always make sure you leave plenty of the birds. 
• You can eat the blackberries raw (though it is advised to rinse them first) or pick enough to make a blackberry and apple crumble or pie. 
• Investigate some of the historical food recipes found on our Museum from Home page. and eat like an evacuee, a Georgian or an Anglo Saxon. You could make a Beagnoth bite and take them with you on a picnic visit to Hilly Fields, where the remains of an Anglo Saxon farmstead has been found.