Culinary Corner - Christmas Tree Preservatives

It's that wonderful time of year and if you decorate a real, fragrant pine tree, here are some excellent recipes to help preserve the tree and keep it fresh, longer.

Tree Preservative #1

2 Aspirin per foot of tree (use unbuffered aspirin only, not Tylenol or Advil)

Fill container with the apsirin and 1/2 water & 1/2 7-up (not Sprite or sparkling water)

Replace every 2 weeks and replenish with water everyday.

Tree Preservative #2

2 gallons water

2 ounces liquid Chlorine Bleach

2 ounces surfactant (Basic H or surfactant can be purchased at a garden center)

2 cups light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon borax

Mix together. Saw several inches off the bottom of your tree if it has been cut and left standing in a tree lot without water. Put the mixture in a bucket and let the tree stand in mixture until you are ready to take it in the house and decorate it. Place the mixture in your tree stand and replenish with extra mixture each day as needed by the tree. ***There is a note on this recipe that this mixture also helps as a fire retardant - but I do not know the authenticity or reliability of that statement. I've used this preservative in our tree stand

Tree Preservative #3

2 gallons hot water

2 ounces liquid chlorine bleach

1/2 teaspoon borax

2 cups light corn syrup

2 pinches Epsom salts

Mix together; stand tree in mixture. Replenish with extra mixture each day as needed by the tree.