Orange Ornaments

We are attempting to dry orange slices so we can make ornaments to give as gifts. This idea was inspired by Red Ted Art and the Concolor conifer Christmas tree in our family room that smells like citrus.

We buy some oranges from the reduced produce shelf at the grocery store, $1.50.
We slice and spice the oranges, lay them out on cooling racks and bake at 170F, flipping about every hour, using Red Ted Art’s instructions as a guideline.

I also experiment with Kumquats. These don’t work very well, by the way. They just shrink and shrivel up. More than one person ask if they were little tomatoes.

It takes about 8 hours to dehydrate the oranges and makes the house smell like citrus, cloves, cinnamon, allspice and ginger. I use all the orange ends and spilled spices and some water in a little pot on the wood stove.

Some friends come over for dinner, and post dinner, I invite Friend H to sit down and string the oranges with colorful wooden beads while the kids are busy watching a movie.

When we hang the ornaments on the tree, they are semi translucent and lovely. I wish they weren’t covered in so many spices so that they could be even more like sun catchers. We’ll be giving some of these beauties away to teachers, librarians, friends for the holidays.