How to Eat Your Leftover Christmas Tree: For Real!

What do you do with a leftover Christmas tree?

While you eat it, of course.

Stay tuned, there's a lot more in store in this next episode

of Family Tree Food and Stories.

Have you ever thought of creating a new tradition of eating a Christmas tree?

My husband and I had our annual tradition of hiking through the freezing cold

snowy fields of New England, be it sunny, sleeting, or snowing, to chop down a fresh

Christmas tree early December each year.

Once the absolutely perfect tree was selected and tightly tied onto the roof

of our car, We'd head out to our favorite 60's style diner, the Sycamore Diner.

For a steaming hot cup of cocoa, with extra whipped cream, of course.

But I often wondered if it was possible to take those pine cones on that perfect tree

and harvest the little nuts from them.

You know, like pignoli nuts that are often used for cookies, or if there was

any other part of the tree that could be used for decoration or something

more delicious, Other than the homemade cookie cutter sheep cookies I'd always

place on our Christmas tree branches.

So, okay, my co host Sylvia Lovely has often said that

my tastes are a little weird.

However, in this case, although it may sound odd, guess what?

It turns out you can eat your leftover Christmas tree with a

side of extra turkey or stuffing.

and perhaps digging into this year's tree might spur a new eco friendly holiday

tradition with your family and friends.

Now before you decide to chow down on the beloved and bedazzled Christmas tree

standing in your living room and pulling out your fork and knife and getting ready

to sit down at the table, it's important to make sure that it's the right species.

Yes, there are actually some quite delicious trees out there.

however, there are other varietals that can cause you a good bellyache a few

extra unwelcome trips to the bathroom.

I will let you know that I have tested and tried these recipes and am

obviously still here to talk about them.

And yes, or maybe no, I have not made an extra unwanted trip to the loo.

Okay.

Maybe that's a little TMI, but I digress to get you going on your new

gastronomic feast, You want to use a pine tree for the Piney tree family.

These include the white pine, the eastern pine, and Jeffrey Pine.

some fur and spruce species are safe too.

But please make sure you don't eat any type of cedar, cypress, or yew tree.

These are toxic and can make you sick.

After all, we do want you around for next Christmas.

So how do you actually start eating a Christmas tree?

Alright, so I can't resist the bait on that one.

One bite at a time.

so it's a bad dad joke.

but seriously, Here are several ways to create a new gourmet

treat with your holiday wonder.

But first, let's take a quick break before I actually start digging into this one.

So let's dig in to how to actually eat your Christmas tree.

Let's start with something simple.

Alright, that's a little bit of a pun or play on words, because we're

starting with sweet pine syrup.

This isn't like your traditional maple syrup that's been boiled down

for hours to make a golden liquid that you pour over your pancakes.

Instead, you make this pine syrup kind of like a simple syrup.

Hence the pun, here's how it's done.

Take as many pine needles off your tree as possible.

You can do this by cutting off the branches and running your hand

down each branch in the opposite directions that the needles grow.

I do suggest you wear gloves to protect your hands from the tree

sap and the prickly needles though.

They get a little stingy.

Oh, and you might also want to do this over a large bucket or plastic bag because

it's going to make it easier to scoop up the needles and they're not going to

be sitting in the dirt And perhaps your living room rug, yeah, maybe with the

dog hair, yuck, next, rinse your piled collection really well, To Make Sure

That The Tinsel And Extra Ornament Pieces Haven't Accidentally Been Forgotten.

Then, In A Saucepan, Combine One Part Sugar With One Part Water.

For Example, One Cup Of Water And One Cup Of Sugar Is Actually The One To One Part.

You can double that or triple it if you want to make a little bit more syrup.

so that would be two cups sugar, two cups water, three cups sugar, three cups

water, 20 cups sugar, 20 cups water.

Depends on whether you make a gallon or so, but that's up to you.

And it's also up to how big your pot is.

then stir the water and the sugar until it's all nice and mixed together and

starting to kind of dissolve and melt.

Take your bunch of pine needles, the ones that you've just washed and

cleaned, And place them in the pot on your stove or an open fire pit

if you prefer to do this outside.

That could be kind of cool too.

once your pot comes to a rolling boil, let it sit there and boil for just a few

minutes and then turn the heat down and let it simmer till it becomes a thick and

sticky Typically about 25 minutes or so.

If you have a lot of water, You might need to make it a little bit longer.

so if you're beyond the one cup of water to one cup of sugar,

just watch it and make sure it's kind of hit that sticky point.

You'll know when you see it.

If it's not too hot, take a little spoonful, blow on it, cool

it, and see if it tastes good.

If you want a more pungent tasting syrup, I suggest just letting it simmer

for a bit longer till your mixture gets even more thick and syrupy.

Now at this point, you might want to add some interesting flavors, like orange

for a little bit more tang, or rosemary.

Or even lavender.

those are delicious additions and make it even more interesting later on.

when your concoction has it just the right point, take it off the

stove and let it cool slightly.

Strain out your pine needles and pour your creation into a clean jar or bottle.

If you have fancy bottles, it makes it even more fun to eat later on.

can be to give away as gifts.

simple syrup in your favorite herbal tea, over your pancakes, Or even cranberry

juice mixed with a little sparkling water.

Here's recipe number two, Pine Needle Tea.

I actually like this one.

I like the simple syrup too.

But to do this, you follow the same kind of directions, but without the sugar.

boil a big bunch of pine needles in a pot of water and let it simmer till it becomes

just the right flavor that you want.

the longer you boil and steep, the stronger the flavor will be.

if you want a more delicate flavor, only simmer it for about 15 20

minutes, and then let it cool just to the point where it's drinkable.

and of course, don't forget to strain out your pine needles.

If you like a little sweeter tea, other than just plain raw pine

needle tea, add your simple syrup.

I guarantee you're going to like this one.

Oh, and by the way, Pine needle tea is extremely rich in vitamin C, which

is perfect for winter cold season.

If you've got leftover tea, put it in a jug, store it in the refrigerator,

or maybe put some remaining part of it into ice cube trays and freeze them.

You can add them to other drinks or just melt them when you're

ready to drink them later on.

Perhaps a cool tea.

Add a little lemon, a little simple syrup, And voila, you've just consumed

another portion of your Christmas tree.

Next is pine bark flour for baking.

No, I haven't lost my mind, and you heard me correctly.

I did say pine bark flour.

You can use this for baking cookies, or cakes, or even bread.

And here's how you do it.

First off, you peel the bark off your Christmas tree.

It's the inner portion of the bark that you want, that softer part.

It's called the camabium.

I think that's how you pronounce it.

It's not the rough outer edges that you want.

it's that soft white portion of the inside of the bark.

Once you've scraped that part out, rinse it.

So it's clean and pat it dry with a paper towel.

Make sure it's nice and dry.

So it doesn't get lumpy.

Once it's dry, put it into your food processor or use a mortar and

pestle and grind it down until it's in a fine powder like substance.

Now, here's how you use this.

You don't use it straight as flour.

for a recipe that requires flour, Take one third of the amount of

flour that you need, take that out of the recipe, and substitute one

third of your pine bark baking flour.

most recipes will actually tolerate a substitution of about a third,

or maybe a little bit more.

That includes muffins, cookies, or even breads.

And what happens is it gets just a little nutty flavor to them.

A little bit more earthiness, shall we say.

And that's totally in these days.

So how cool is that?

now if you're not up for baking, how about a little pine infused ice cream?

And who doesn't like ice cream, right?

ice cream, you scream, we all scream for pine ice cream?

That's right.

Here's how you make it.

First of all, use your standard ice cream recipe.

It could be out of Betty Crocker, it could be out of the Joy of Cooking, it

could be, I don't know, I think Julia actually has a recipe for ice cream,

but you might have to check her book.

I haven't looked at it lately, but I do enjoy her Art of French Cooking Cookbook.

has cream, thick, heavy cream, right?

The fatter, the better.

You're going to want to infuse your Now You're going to want to take

a bunch of your pine needles, and put them into some cheesecloth.

I suggest just one layer of cheesecloth versus two just so that the flavors

of the milk get in there really well and so it's also easier to strain out.

put the amount of cream that you're going to need for your recipe into a pot and

then dip or I'll just say place your cheesecloth of pine needles into the

cream and let it sit there and warm up.

You don't want it to boil, you just want it to steep and get warm So

that those flavors get nice and infused into your ice cream cream.

Once that's done, take it off the oven and follow your standard

ice cream recipe instructions.

For a little extra flavor on top.

Who doesn't like whipped cream?

In that case, you can take your simple syrup and add it to fresh

cream, whip it up, And now you have a double dip Christmas tree ice cream.

I think that's a double dip.

Finally, if this all sounds just a little too complicated, and I know, the holidays

are rough, there's always something going on, and I don't know about you, but I'm

pretty exhausted come New Year's, and barely make it to that midnight hour.

make a pine needle old fashioned.

You can do that by adding a dash of your original simple syrup to your

drink, sit down by the fire with your favorite family member or loved

one, and just chill for the night.

So you see, there's actually a lot of ways to create a new and yes,

even delicious family tradition

and fun food story.

I'm pretty sure that if you try eating your Christmas tree, this

is a family tree, literally, food story, that will be passed down

for at least a few generations.

I bet they'll say, Crazy Aunt Nancy gave me that one.

Yeah, right?

but it's really good.

You gotta try it.

At least until you get the Artificial Christmas Tree.

P.

S.

Don't try this with one of those.

on that note, folks, Sylvie and I hope that you've enjoyed this New Family Food

Tradition, Eating Your Christmas Tree.

Stay tuned, there's a lot more in store in the year 2025.

Both fun, delicious, and yes, filled with laughter and joy,

and new and old traditions.

Take care, we'll hear you soon, and we'll see you soon.

Bye bye.