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.