drying oranges, etc for wreath

[FairyFay]

I know you can buy read-dried orange slices online, but I'd really like to have a go at doing them myself.

Has anyone ever done this successfully?

When I googled, the oven temps and times varied a lot - any tips gratefully received

ready- dried

I'd also like to try chillies and other fruits

Slice oranges, put on baking tray, stick on a low heat until they're dry, (I think it took a couple of hours.) I flipped them over about half way through too. Ooh and I sprinkled them with cinnamon first.

I was disappointed that they didn't smell for very long, but the house smelt lovely while they were drying and I top them up with essential oils every so often. Last time I did it was about 7 years ago and I still have them in a bowl.

Fab, thank you! I love the cinnamon idea. I'm off to do them now.

I've only done them once and sliced them quite thinly. Then laid them out on a dry tea towel, put another tea towel on top and pressed to get excess moisture out.

I also put them directly on the oven shelves so that the air could circulate. I can't remember what temp I put the oven on but they did work.

I put them on really low to start with, but after an hour they didn't seem to be doing anything much so I turned it up - and burnt them . That'll teach me for being impatient.

I tried making some last year and burnt them all. Might give it another try, will hang around for tips if you don't mind, FairyFay.

I did this last year by slicing oranges thinly and letting them dry on the top of the radiators. It worked well.

I was in a shop looking at the wreaths and wondered how easy they'd be to make, and whether they'd cost as much to make as they were charging for them!

They were made with dried oranges, cinnamon sticks, limes and chinese lanterns.
There was one with chillies on too, and one made from rosebuds.

They're lovely but so expensive!
They must be easier to make...?

This is my first year of making them - we've got 25-30 to do for the school Christmas Fair. I will have some help and have had a lesson from the lady who did them last year. They are really not that difficult, but do take quite a long time and A LOT of foliage.

I am going to try the oranges again today, and will probably add in some limes as well. I got a big bundle of cinnamon sticks (non-food grade are much cheaper!) from e-bay. We have all raided our decorations boxes for out of favour xmas decs. We've also collected lots of pine cones. We're making them next week, so fingers crossed they're as good as last year, as we raised over £300 from 25 wreaths

I put cloves in the orange before I slice it (too fiddly otherwise) and I bake the orange slices on an old tea towel at 150 to let the air circulate. Blood oranges look really pretty too.

Trice, great idea. How thick did you slice them and roughly for how long did you back them?

Ladybird - I'm same as you, having a go as i've seen lovely garlands for £40... found a few good youtube videos, worth a look. Any idea how to dry out chillies anyone? Just same as oranges? Oh and on garland i saw, they'd done some whole clementines/satsumas, with slashes cut vertically all around them iyswim, then dried, looked lovely.

Chillies air dry very quickly.I currently have a few hundred hanging up in my kitchen.If they are green,they will turn read as they dry.I thread mine through the little green cap near the stalk and hang them,that way they don't rot.

Thanks!

About 5mm and at least 2 hours, just keep checking.

Ooh, I was about to post a separate thread about how to make a wreath with the dcs.

Please if you have instructions, could you be so kind to share it.

just marking my place as I'm planning to do this, but Oven is covered in Oven Pride at the moment, so it'll have to be tomorrow. Was thinking of doing limes & grapefruit too.

Apparently there are some wreath bits and bobs in Wilko's

Oh thats good! I will be using the base from the fresh one my parents bought last year (not dwelling on why my hoarder parents kept a dead wreath for 12 months)

Thanks trice.