An Edible Tree for Wildlife

Wild Babies love to play outside! Our nature crawls are always an exciting sensory experience for our babies, full of opportunities to study the natural world and observe wildlife - a favourite activity with the babies! They love listening to the unique songs of birds and watching the squirrels in wonder as they climb up trees. We were so grateful to our woodland friends for bringing us so much joy during our nature walks that we decided to give back this winter with an edible tree of treats!

Mother and child place apple ring on a tree.

Children use apple rings to decorate a tree.

What is an edible tree?

An edible tree is an evergreen tree decorated with edible ornaments to feed birds and squirrels during the winter months. It is also a great way to observe nature!

It doesn't have to be the holidays to trim a tree. You can create an edible tree in your backyard with this simple recipe.

Fresh Apple Ring Ornaments

1. Cut fresh apples into thick slices. 

2. Cut out and discard the core of the apples.

3. Your apple slice should look like a ring or a doughnut. 

4. Hang them through the center on the tree.  

5. If you decide to prepare your treats a few hours or a day in advance, keep your edible treats in a cool place until ready to hang outdoors.  

This recipe is safe for our woodland friends as it avoids the use of fishing lines or hooks.  

The hole in the middle of the apples made it easy for the Wild Babies to hang the treats.

A few of our Wild Babies couldn’t resist taste-testing the edible decorations, but we managed to get most of the treats on the tree. Once our tree was decorated, we took some time to admire it.

A tree decorated with apple rings.

A child tastes an apple ring decoration.

Interested in another recipe? Here’s one for a DIY birdseed ice cube ornament:

 https://www.outdoor-classrooms.com/2015/01/diy-bird-seed-ice-ornaments/

Written by Lorena Arauz, Parent Support Coach