Eat your Christmas tree!

Don't toss that tree--eat it!

​After you strip your Christmas tree of its ornaments and lights, don't let it go to waste. That evergreen is edible: You can turn the boughs into holiday leftovers, alongside the figgy pudding and lefse.

Copenhagen chef René Redzepi shared several suggestions with the New York Times for cooking with spruce or fir:

• Use a branch as you would a sprig of rosemary or thyme, to flavor oils or vinegars, in steamed greens, or to pan drippings after cooking meat--especially game.


• Needles may be dried and pulverized into a powder for an aromatic spice to flavor cookie dough, rice, or roast chicken.


• Use dried needles to smoke meat and use wood for kindling.


• Salt fresh fish and leave it covered in fresh needles for a day.

Find recipes for spruce butter, spruce oil, and spruce vinegar here.