Fruit Ornaments DIY
I am a bit of a DIY junkie. Things have calmed down a tad since bringing Tristan home, but now that we are getting more into normal groove, I am feeling the creative juices (and time) once again!
A few years ago, after taking down the Christmas decor, the house was feeling a tad sparse and empty from the lack of decorations. So I decided to make winter garland from dried fruit. We hung it in windows, which is so beautiful when the winter sunlight hits the oranges. Such a fun way to add a little winter cheer for the final months we are stuck indoors.
This year, I pull in our little miniature Christmas tree into our kitchen. Some years we decorate it with real ornaments. But this year I decided to decorate it with the dried fruit we had used for some of the garland years before, and also made new fresh ornaments using mandarin oranges for ornaments.
To create your own garland or ornaments you will need the following:
One roll of stiff twine
1 large orange
1 large grapefruit
2 mandarins
1-2 apples
Preheat oven to 150F degrees. Slice fruit into thin slices, but not too thin so they do not tear or break when threading. Place fruit on wire rack with spacing between fruit. Place in oven and let the magic begin. It takes approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour for fruit to dry. Half way through, flip fruit over to help prevent it from sticking to rack.
Once the fruit is dried to your liking. Let cool and then poke a hole through the fruit to thread the twine or thread through the fruit. Hand as garland or on a tree!
If stored in a cool dry place, the fruit will last for years to come!
Merry Christmas!
