The best way to get rid of your Christmas tree? Just eat it

Pickled veg, herb tea, vinegar, even flavoured gin … an organic tree has many uses once the baubles are banished

Over the next week, millions of trees will be ejected from homes across the UK as Christmas festivities draw to a close.

But 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. Fir trees can be used in ice-cream, to pickle vegetables and even to flavour gin.