A YEAR OF PIES!
HOMEMADE LIVING: HOME DAIRY
HOMEMADE LIVING: KEEPING BEES
HOMEMADE LIVING: CANNING & PRESERVING
HOMEMADE LIVING: KEEPING CHICKENS
Smells Like Autumn
When the weather cools, I find myself wanting the scents of the season to envelop me. From the smell of leaf piles burning, to the ambrosial scent of a basket of fresh apples, once the mercury dips, I’m ready to pull on a cardigan and start baking gingerbread, apple pie, and hot, mulled cider.
That little apple you see above is riddled with whole cloves, a project I’m working on for my new book. By the way, said book now has a working title I can share with you-HANDMADE GATHERINGS: Recipes and Crafts for Seasonal Celebrations, Communal Potlucks, and Collaborative Parties. It’ll be out in Spring 2014, from Roost. SO exciting!
But back to that apple. It’s a pomander, an easy way of imbuing your home with the smell of cloves and fruit during the autumn and winter months, when the aroma of cloves is where it’s at. And they couldn’t be easier to make.
You simply get an apple (you can also do this with citrus fruits, which I do every winter, when fresh citrus comes into the markets), get a whole mess of cloves, and stud the fruit with it. If you riddle the entire fruit, it’ll last longer. If you have neither the inclination nor the patience (mine took 23 minutes, start to finish), you can also simply make a design, or your initials, or an image in the apple.
That’s it. Done. Scents of the season, in your home, in minutes. Sounds (and smells) good to me!
I love doing this with oranges; now I’ll have to try an apple – seems perfect for fall! Oh my gosh, I cannot WAIT for that book to come out!!
Aaah, we did this in Michigan with oranges! It was my favorite project in the schoolyear and smells so, so good!
I’m putting this on my project list for this weekend!
I love the idea of doing this with apples! My mom used to make these when I was little…she did it with oranges, like you mentioned. I can just imagine the smell with the apple…how fantastic!
A great idea! The fruit doesn’t go icky?
not if the cloves are pressed all around the fruit, as close together as possible. that helps to prevent rotting. if you just do a small motif or design with the spices, though, and don’t cover the entire surface of the fruit, it’ll rot considerably quicker.