kattitudes

Orange.
Whole cloves.

That’s what you need.

What you end up with is this divine smelling creation that is just out of this world.

You would think that the orange begins to rot and starts to mold and stink and all types of science project themes being to spring to mind. Instead what happens is the warm air constantly being blown over the orange slowly dries out the fruit and does amazing things.

So how do we do this fantastic thing?

First, it should be said that apples and other citrus fruits can be used to make pomanders, but oranges are classically used. Having said that, lemons are absolutely wonderful. (I love lemon pomanders, but that is because I adore lemons).

Anyway, on to the orange pomander.

Poke holes in an orange with a toothpick, fork or other sharp point. In order for the fruit to last, the entire piece of fruit must be covered with cloves, so take your time and cover the whole thing.

In order for the skin of the orange to hold the clove in place, the holes must not touch each other. This is very important. There must be space between each hole and the cloves must not touch or the cloves will fall out and create opportunity for mold to begin. Eew.

OK, back to the instruction.

So you are poking holes in your orange. Push whole cloves into the holes that you create.

At this point, you have two choices. You can either place the orange in a very low oven and bake it off for an hour (low as in 200 degrees).

Or you can simply let the fruit dry naturally. Often I have seen this take place by hanging from or near a table lamp. The heat from the table lamp will dry out the pomander better than anything else could do.

In order to hang, gently wrap ribbons around the orange, creating a sling to suspend the orange. Then attach the orange to the lamp and let it dry naturally.

The smell is fantastic and as we go into the holiday season, it looks like a classical holiday decoration also. So really, you have a two-for decoration. During the American Thanksgiving season, you get something that makes your house smell amazing and that still works into the Christmas season without having to worry.

Plus, it’s something that you can give to little hands to put together without having to worry (too much) about destroying anything. And if things go disastrously wrong, it’s just an orange and a bottle of whole cloves. Easily replaceable.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2007 at 12:43 pm and is filed under handmade gifts, personal care, spa recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.