Instead of throwing out your Christmas tree, a journalist writing for The Guardian urged families to consider eating it.
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"Instead of sending their pine, fir and spruce trees for recycling or replanting, growing numbers of eco-conscious households are trying to make the most of them by eating various parts before throwing them out," Miranda Bryant wrote. "Fir trees can be used in ice-cream, to pickle vegetables and even to flavour gin."
Food experts said a Christmas tree can be used to cook, using the needles like rosemary or basil leaves as a kick of citrus or pine flavor and a source of vitamin C, she wrote. By burning the wood, eco-family households can also make pine ash for use in the garden or kitchen cleaning.
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According to the National Christmas Tree Association, 25-30 million real Christmas trees are sold in the United States every year.
"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 flavour."
Georgallis, a London-based baker and food writer, who has been working with Christmas trees for years, said her ideas have only recently gained traction, The Guardian reported. She points to the climate crisis as the main driving force behind the increased interest.
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She said it is best for the environment to simply not have a Christmas trees in your home at all, but for "those who cannot give up the habit, the tree should be used as much as possible," she told The Guardian.
"I don’t know why in a climate crisis, when trees are our best armoury, we’re cutting down thousands a year to keep hostage in our houses," Georgallis concluded.
