Repurpose Your Real Christmas Tree

This post is an excerpt from a previous post about choosing a Christmas tree.

If you had a fresh cut tree and if it is organic or pesticide-free, consider honouring your tree by using all of it, or as much of it as you can. After your celebrations are over, harvest the pine needles for use in healing teas and other recipes. Pine needle tea is high in vitamin C and is supposed to be good for whooping cough. Local expert Laura Reeves says that though pine needles are great for breaking up phlegm, she sticks to the tea and chewing on the needles as the syrup is quite “medicinal-tasting”. Read on for a roundup of recipes and DIY tree trunk crafts…

mike with cut tree

 

Pine Needle Recipe Roundup

Please do not consume anything that has not been properly identified. If you’re not sure, seek out a local professional.

Pine Needle Tea (really cute video instructions here)

Pine Needle Vinegar

Pine Needle Juice/Cocktail (swap agave for honey!)

Pine Needle Cake (I recommend subbing in unrefined sugar and whole flours) – some good info here on tasty varieties

Pine Needle Syrup (again, sub an unrefined sugar or honey)

 

DIY Tree Trunk Crafts Roundup
You can also use the trunk for making crafts –  simple slices of trunk for block play, coasters, decorations, and if you carve or have access to tools like a drill press, then the options are many (think candle holders, wooden spoons, wood toys, and more. Below are just a few ideas…

Pencil Holder

Wood Blocks for Kids

Tree Branch Fridge Magnets

Tree Branch Coasters

 


Get some valentine’s day or year end teacher gifts ready to go with my printable vanilla labels!

vanilla packaged

 


 

This post was featured at Thank Goodness It’s Monday and was shared as a part of Simple Lives Thursday,  Fight Back Friday,  Unprocessed Fridays and Simply Natural Saturdays,  Natural Living Monday, and Fat Tuesday.

5 comments

    1. Thanks, Janet! I also love your post on foraging ethic – we are loving foraging for healing plants (not right now as we have a mountain of snow outside), and this will be a good thing to go over with the kids as we’ve talked about it only briefly.

  1. Love your thrifty ideas! I sure wish I had an organic, real tree this year. I’d love to make tea from the needles. Good to know for next Christmas! Happy New Year!

    1. Thanks for stopping over, Gabriela! I’m glad you were inspired by the post. Hopefully next year, you’ll be able to get a tree that you love. If you have access to trees that you know aren’t sprayed, though, you can forage for some branches to bring home for tea : )

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