How To Make A Dried Orange Festive Garland

That time of year is back, the Christmas decorations come out of hiding and we give our houses a full festive make over. But let’s be honest some of these decorations are a few years old and could use a sprucing up. One easy and great smelling way of levelling up your decorations is a DIY dried orange garland. We’ve found ourselves making several of these and wanted to share how we’ve done it.

Ingredients

3 Oranges (can also use other citrus fruits like lime or lemon)

Baking paper

Paper towel

Twine or thread

Needle

Knife or mandolin

Method

Preheat your oven

Your oven needs to be set to a low temperature, max 100ºC, to dehydrate the oranges. Having the temperature to high can burn the fruit and have the opposite of the desired effect.

Slice the oranges

The oranges need to be cut into slices, they shouldn’t be too thin or too thick, around 3mm – 8mm. If the slices are too thick, they won’t dry, too thin they will not hold the weight stringed up.

Soak up excess juice

Blot the orange slices with the paper towel to soak up the excess juice.

Arrange on baking sheet and bake

Arrange the slices leaving a centimetre space between each slice so they don’t stick together. Shove in the oven and leave to bake for about 3-4 hours. Halfway through flip and keep an eye on them to check it doesn’t burn.

Cool and sew garland together

Once they become see through, shrunk, and changed colour, remove from the oven, and leave to cool down. When the slices cool use a thick needle threaded with twine to pierce a hole through each slice, knotting the twine on both sides of the slice. Leave 4 figures between each slice of orange. When done, add to any garland to hang across the fireplace or as a centre piece on a dining room table.

We hope that you enjoy our latest how to blog and make sure to tag us in your garland photos on Facebook and Instagram.