Eat your holiday tree

Post-holiday pine snacks are the theme for early 2025

Snoot Bat knows how delicious a white pine wreath can be.

I love the scent of pine, and the taste of pine. And just generally, the experience of being around pine trees. So imagine my confusion this time of year, when people are getting rid of so many perfectly serviceable pine decorations, rather than eating them?!

If you’ve been following along for a while, you’re familiar with my obsession with mugolio (green pinecone syrup), which I make each spring and stir into drinks (especially bourbon) throughout the year.

But pine needles hold a treasured place on my table, too.

You can use your edible pine wreath or tree (or garlands, or whatever else) for:

• Pine sugar or pine salt (blitz together in a blender or food processor: I start with a 2:1 ratio of sugar or salt to pine and adjust accordingly)

• Pine vinegar (infuse needles in vinegar for cleaning and cooking. Needles also make a nice snack and garnish!)

• Pine mead and pine soda (brew em up in the usual way, but add your pine as a yeast and flavor source!)
  I give mead-making instructions here, and I’ll share soda-making instructions in a future issue).

• Pine syrup: Make a simple syrup (1:1 of sugar and water), add a pinch of salt or don’t, and add your pine needles, slooooowly simmering to infuse until it’s nice and fragrant.
  If you don’t want to make your own fermented drinks, this is a nice one to mix into store-bought soda water.

• Tea: Steep your pine needles as you would any other herbal infusion. I like to keep an iced pitcher in the fridge and serve with lemon.

• Pine honey: Pack needles in a jar, pour honey over the top to cover completely, close it up and let it sit for a month or so. This may be mildly or strongly flavored depending on both your pine variety and its water content.

• Nice smelling house things: you can also make sachets for your drawers and linen closet, simmer pots to make the house smell nice, etc.

Important edits: I forgot to add in infused spirits here which, of course, is also delicious. I use vodka or bourbon, poured over pine to cover, then steeped for 2+ weeks. Add sugar if you want.
Thank you to Franz over on Bluesky for mentioning his cousin’s pine needle schnapps, and reminding me of this very important pine tree repurposing technique!
And thanks to Drew Starr for mentioning spruce tip beer, which you can learn more about here, and here.

Please note that the emphasis here is on EDIBLE pine, which means you need to identify what kind of pine tree you have first.

Toxic evergreens include Yew, Ponderosa, and Norfolk Island Pine.

BUT, many pines thankfully are edible, which means you can be one of the cool kids this late winter by eating trees (or wreaths).

They’re also incredibly healthy (did you know pine needles are high in Vitamin C and A?)

How are you eating your tree this year?