Ok, your Christmas tree will probably do better decked out in lights than it would on your plate, but pine needles are indeed edible and they can be a really fun ingredient to play with this time of year. Pine needles have a minty, fresh, and yes, pine-like flavor that make an intriguing component to everything from a roast to a round of cocktails. Have you ever experimented with this ingredient?
The most traditional way to use pine needs is to steep them hot water to make a simple tea high in vitamins A and C. This same pine needle tea can be used to flavor simple broth-based soups, breads, and sauces. Whole pine needles can also be used to infuse braises or in marinades for fish, meats, and other dishes. I could also definitely get behind the idea of cocktails made with pine-infused simple syrup or infused honey.
If you have a pine tree in your neighborhood, you can harvest your own needles. All pine needles are edible, though you may find that you like the flavor of some pines over others. Just be sure the tree hasn't been sprayed with any pesticides or herbicides. Also, younger needles tend to have a milder flavor that works better for cooking. Young needles will be lighter in color and softer (less tough and brittle) than older needles. Also keep your eye out for pine needle tea at natural foods stores and co-ops.
What have you made with pine needles?
Related: Mighty Tasty, Mighty Expensive: Pine Nuts
(Image: DinaDesign/Shutterstock)
My Staple Summer Cocktail Recipe: Campari & IPA Spritzer
Recipe: Ham, Cheddar & Chive Egg Bakes
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Bacsac Bacsquare 04...
Dirty Little Secrets of Tidy Families
Hillary & Michael's Refined Roost
A mess on my floor is what I've made with pine needles!
Just remember, not all conifers are pine!
Since all, or mostly all, Christmas tree farms spray heavily for pests, this bears repeating: "Just be sure the tree hasn't been sprayed with any pesticides or herbicides."
Most Christmas trees are sprayed heavily for pests, so don't cook with them! Likewise, don't use flowers from the florist to garnish food.
The young tips are normally only found in Spring. And ellabee has a very good point about dangers of the unknown of what kind of chemicals have been put on the tree.
My backyard is full of a variety of non-sprayed pines. Last spring I made simple syrup of fresh spruce sprigs and added it to our iced tea. Everyone loved it and we are looking forward to making more next spring.
I drink pine needle tea frequently in the summer (it's so good iced!) and in the winter whenever I'm missing the Pacific Northwest location where a spent several years.
A good rule of thumb is any monoculture (corn, cranberry, xmas tree) farm will attract one type of pest as they don't have any competition and there is no biodiversity. Thus the increased need for heavy use of pesticides.
I have all kinds of conifers in my back yard! I'm totally getting out my identification book and getting cracking! Fiveandspice had a pine tip shortbread on Food52 that I ran into the other day. Which is what got me thinking. And that Perennial Plate episode where they drink spruce tip tea. Yum.
I've made spruce-tip jelly.
Also, the article title is "pine needles" yet you have a picture of spruce tips.
Also also, some Christmas trees are Firs, and maybe even Yews(?)--beware what you are eating!
Wow, good spotting popsicle. I can't believe I missed that. This is what pine needles look like (link below). Remember F for fir = flat needles. S for spruce = square needles. No idea if either is edible.
http://www.bio.brandeis.edu/fieldbio/Sylvain/whitepine.html
Just be careful its not yew, as that's really really poisonous.
I cook with conifers a lot; here in Southern California we have a really diverse range of different species and I like to play around with them all. My favourite things to do are teas, infused honeys, infused oils, and infused vinegars. Braised lamb with redwood tips is heavenly, too. Hope you don't mind the plug, but I wrote an article on gathering and processing conifers, and wanted to share it with those of you who are interested. It really is relevant to the conversation!:
http://www.cauldronsandcrockpots.com/2012/09/gathering-and-processing-conifers/
Emmi- fir and spruce are both very edible. As are Douglas Firs (not a true fir). Firs are my favourites, actually; they're slightly more citrussy and fresh.
No, no.....just....no.
Thanks fairybekk, I will have to be cautious as I have allergic reactions to many types of food but I shall look into that!
Christmas trees aren't only sprayed with pesticides - we had a cheap one some years ago that had been spray painted green - you could see the over spray on the trunk after it turned brown. So I'm gonna go with don't eat the tree unless you're getting it for that purpose from a farm or you are really certain that you're getting the right thing.
Did you just boil them down to make the simple syrup??
I just started canning, and now I'm looking for all sorts of stuff to put in little jars!
Pine needle tea is delicious! I made some once on a field trip where we pretended to live like pioneers.
I'm very interested in a pine simple syrup recipe. I love the smell of the white pines that grow in our neighborhood, I bet they would be tasty.