-:- an orange garland

This weekend, I was inspired to dehydrate some orange slices and make something festive with them. I debated making ornaments, but our little tree is already full, so I ended up with a pretty garland to hang over our fireplace instead.

I dehydrated a sliced orange for about a day - we have a thrifted dehydrator (which makes it really easy) but you could also bake the orange slices on low heat (around 170 degrees F) for anywhere from 6-12 hours. The thicker the orange slices, the longer you'll have to bake them. It's also helpful to put them on an oven-safe rack when they are in the oven to help air flow completely around them - they'll get done much faster that way.

Check on your oranges every few hours (don't forget about them!) and when the juicy part is hardened, not sticky at all, and you can pretty much see through it, they're done baking/dehydrating. 

To make a garland, first roughly measure the space where it will hang to determine the length of your string (baker's twine, cotton kitchen string, or yarn would all work well). I just eyeballed it and then added a few feet to account for tying and drape. It's definitely better to have too much string than not enough.

Then attach the dried oranges. I strung my oranges through their middles like they were two-holed buttons. This helps them stay put and lie flat.

Once I had attached all of my oranges, I tied a large pinecone to each end of the string and then situated my garland before attaching the remaining, smaller pinecones. You do this by wrapping the string around them once, close to their centers - no need to tie these ones - they'll just hang where you wrapped the string around them.

And that's really it - look at your garland from a few feet away and make any little spacing adjustments as needed. Then go make some hot cocoa to drink while you admire your holiday handiwork.

xox