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The end of the holiday season means that people are getting rid of their Christmas trees en masse, but some are keeping their holiday evergreens alive — by eating them.
The latest trend has people giving their beloved Christmas trees new life by using the branches as an ingredient in recipes.
“You can pretty much eat the whole thing,” Julia Georgallis, author of “How To Eat Your Christmas Tree,” told The Guardian. “You can use the needles as you would use rosemary or bay leaves, for flavor.”
Georgallis shared that the pine needles can be used in the same way you would use rosemary or bay leaves to give other ingredients an added flavor. They can also be blended into vinegar or crushed to flavor gin.
She also recommended putting sections of the Christmas tree in a hot oven until they are charred and then putting them into a blender to create pine ash to be used for flavor.
Another use for pine needles is pickling eggs or vegetables or putting them in drinks and infusions, food experts told the British newspaper.
It doesn’t stop there either.
Pine needle tea, which can be made by boiling pots of water with pre-washed pine leaves and branches and drinking the broth, is all the rage on TikTok, the Daily Mail reported.
Some even claim that Christmas tree tea can heal sore muscles.
People online have also been using pine needles to make a syrup by putting leaves in a pan with sugar and water and bringing it to a boil.
But the pine needles aren’t the only part of your Christmas tree you can consume.
Georgallis, who hosts a supper club in east London with menu items made from Christmas trees, also said that people who chose to replant their trees can eat the new buds when they sprouts in the spring.
However, she cautions those who want to turn their spruce trees into food — her “favorite” dish is her Spruce Ice Cream Sundae — to wear gloves since the needles are often spiky.
“I have so much love for the spruce,” she wrote. “They are regal and also taste bloody delicious.”
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