While I can’t wait to put up the Christmas tree each and every year, I also can’t wait to take it down once it starts getting crispy and dropping needles all over the floor. Usually I’ll try and restrain myself from touching the tree until New Year’s (I feel obligated to keep the tree up until that time for some tradition unbeknown to me). But sometimes I just can’t help it. Once the tree comes down though, many wonder what they can do with the darn thing besides just throwing it out. The answer to that is pretty simple: recycle it!

The easiest way is through a curbside recycling program with your local city or municipality. If you haven’t already received info from your city on where to leave your tree or drop it off for recycling, you can check out the National Christmas Tree Association’s website. It’s as simple as punching in your zip code to find local programs. Some cities like Newburgh, New York have gone as far as making a family event out of tree-cycling by supplying hot apple cider, munchies and a bag for families to take home fresh mulch (courtesy the freshly chipped trees) for their garden beds.

This next idea may sound silly but it has some great benefits to the feathered friends hanging around your bird feeders this time of year. Simply take your tree outside and place it in the garden or backyard near the feeder. The tree will provide some shelter for the birds braving the winter cold. If you don’t have a bird feeder out yet, you can also turn your tree into a giant feeder. Hang orange slices from the branches and spread peanut butter onto pine cones and sprinkle with mixed seed. Don’t forget to remove all the tinsel before doing this! The birds will eat the tinsel which is very harmful.

If you happen to have a pond on your property, you can also sink the tree to the bottom of your pond. It’s a great habitat for fish and provides them with nooks and crannies to feed in. This year don’t just throw out your Christmas tree, recycle it!

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As we move from the Christmas holiday into the New Year, you might be thinking about hostess gifts or party favors to dole out at all those New Year’s parties your headed too. If you’re over baked goods, why not consider whipping up some homemade liqueurs and cordials. I home-brew my own beer and have been happily handing out a pale ale I brewed this summer. Beer and wines require advance planning though, so unless you have some ready to be bottled up, I suggest homemade liqueurs. The tasty and sometimes exotic concoctions you find lining the shelves in the local liquor department can usually be made at home with little effort.

I have about three very old paperback books that are filled to the brim with just about any liqueur recipe you could think of. Any fruit, nut, herb or otherwise worldly flavor can be steeped into just about any neutral spirit. The main player is vodka but there are also recipes dealing with whiskey, brandy and other liquors. Most recipes consist of making a simple syrup to sweeten the liquor and the addition of something to flavor it like vanilla extract, chocolate extract, etc.

Tracking down usable recipes can be a quandary though since homemade liqueurs seem to have been little more than a passing fad during the cocktail heydays of the 1930’s through the ’60s. While there aren’t many liqueur recipes spread about the internet, you can find plenty in a book that’s currently offered called Cordials from Your Kitchen . That should have plenty of recipes for any aspiring homemade-liqueur maker to dabble with. I found my small collection of liqueur making books at used book stores and thrift shops…places you can easily find things several years old that people don’t want anymore. All you have to do is find some nice bottles to dress up your liqueur and you’ve got a great gift to hand out while wishing a prosperous and happy New Year. Below are a couple of great recipes you can try out:

Ginger Honey Liqueur

A spicy, full-bodied liqueur. Try it warmed up on a cold winter night.

• 3 tbs. finely minced, peeled fresh ginger root
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 1, 3-inch long cinnamon stick broken into pieces
• 2 whole cloves
• 3 cups brandy
• 3/4 cup honey

Combine ginger root, lemon zest, cinnamon stick, cloves and brandy in a large jar. Stir well to mix ingredients. Cover tightly and let steep in a cool, dark place for 1 week. Shake jar occasionally. When steeping period is complete, strain and filter the liquid. You can use filters found for filtering wine at your local home-brew shop or you can just use a coffee filter. Combine honey with the filtered brandy mixture. Pour into bottles and cap tightly. Let age at least one month before serving. Recipe found in The Village Pantry’s Treasury of Homemade Liqueurs by Janet Reda.

Pear Liqueur

A tasty treat with flavors of the winter season

• 1/2 lb. mature, ripe, firm pears
• 2 apples, peels only (any variety will work, but Red Delicious works good)
• 1 clove
• 1/2″ cinnamon stick or pinch of ground cinnamon
• Pinch of nutmeg
• 2 coriander seeds
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1.5 cups vodka or brandy

Cut the pears into strips (don’t pare) and place in a jar with all the other dry ingredients including sugar and the two apple peels. Add alcohol to cover. Steep two weeks, shaking the jar every two days to mix the ingredients. Strain and filter. A coffee filter works great. If you’d like the liqueur to be sweeter, add simple sugar syrup in small quantities (about 1 oz. to 4 oz. of liqueur) to establish a sweetness ratio. Then add to the whole bottle accordingly. When the recipe tastes perfect and you’ve recorded it in your recipe book, purchase more pears and make larger amounts for cooking, drinking and gift giving. Mature pear liqueur about 2 months. Recipe found Homemade Liqueurs by Donna and Mel Meilach.

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While my yard is blanketed in white, the onset of the gardening catolog season is already beginning to flush our post office box with fun new catalogs. I’ve already spent more than an hour pouring through hundreds of tomato varieties in the Totally Tomatoes catalog that arrived two weeks ago. I probably earmarked about 30 different varieties I’d like to grow but I guess I better think about slimming that list down!

I’ve also spent the morning relishing over a couple of food blogs that do a great job of combining gardening information with some delicious looking recipes. I quickly became a fan of Kalyn’s Kitchen blog and the myriad of healthy recipes she’s concocting and sharing with readers. I also got a lot of great ideas from reading her summer blog post on the bounty growing in her backyard garden and the recipes utilizing it.

I now have food blogs on the brain too. Maybe it’s the delight of eating yourself silly during the holidays that’s got me on the subject. I regularly read Farmgirl Susan’s Rural Food Blog and enjoy every single post. It’s partly because I’m jealous of her life on the farm. She also suggested some great food blogs including Nami-Nami from Estonia, Garlic Breath from France and Lucullian Delights from Italy. I think they’re enough to transport you to another country, if only for a few minutes!

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This last weekend proved to be a big one as we picked up about a foot and a half of new snow out of a four day long storm. It’s been fun trying to dig ourselves out of this one, especially with a gravel driveway. Challenges aside, the snow is beautiful to look at and goes a long way to stave off fire season in the spring and summer months.

The county doesn’t use any de-icers up here because there’s a lot of people who are against their environmental impacts. There have been a lot of meetings and outcry lately because the city and the county would like to use de-icers on most of the northland roads. I think it’s a great idea. I would rather be driving on safe roads then to be dealing with extremely icy hills and slide offs. As long as we don’t see trees dying off and wildlife croaking on the side of the road, it seems okay to me.

There are some ways to deal with snow and ice and be a little more environmentally cautious too. It has been shown that salt can damage soil, plants, crumble concrete driveways and sidewalks, contaminate ground water supplies, rust cars and even be tracked into the house where it can be a problem for pets and children. Obviously, the best way to avoid all that danger is to just use some good ‘ol fashioned backbreaking work and shovel and scrape your driveway. The best time to get out and do it is actually during the snowfall before it becomes hard and icy, freezing to your driveway. I’ve also found tackling it during sunshine is another great trick because the icy chunks are beginning to melt and will usually scrape easily after just a few minutes of sun exposure.

If you happen to be in the process of building a new home or renovating, think about your driveway placement and the sun exposure it gets. I’ve seen plenty of south and east facing driveways ice free a day or two after snow. But a ton of north and west facing driveways that look more like a skating rink a week after a storm. If you do need to use ice melter, there are some safer alternatives to salt-based deicers. One product is called Safe Paw and is apparently pet, child and environmentally friendly.

Another fun tip I learned is about avoiding those chemical laced windshield cleaner/deicers for your wiper fluid. Apparently you mix one part water to two parts plain ‘ol vinegar or rubbing alcohol, whichever you happen to have on hand. Supposedly it doesn’t freeze and helps keep the ice from building up on your windshield while you’re driving down the highway. I’m going to have to try that one out myself!

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