Holiday Stove Top Potpourri: 

Fill Your Home with Festive Scents 

Having scents that fill the home during Thanksgiving or Christmas is a fantastic way to kick off the season of giving. With holiday parties the smells of the season can create a welcoming and festive atmosphere. This easy-to make stovetop potpourri recipe will fill your home with warm and inviting aromas.

Not only can you make these and give them to the host/hostess as the holiday season is in full swing.

The Traditional Stove Top Holiday Potpourri

1 whole orange

⅓ cup fresh cranberries

3-4 cinnamon sticks

3–4 star anise

1 tsp whole cloves 

Optional - rosemary sprigs.

Add 3 - 4 cups of water in a pan and bring to a boil. Place your items in the pan of water. Simmer to keep the scent for several hours. Add more water as needed, preventing drying up.

The cinnamon, oranges, cloves, star anise and more scents will fill the air. With fresh fruit like oranges and cranberries, you would want to let them know to use this recipe in the Stand-up Pouch right away.

I made both freeze dried and dehydrated options to give. That way fresh oranges and cranberries are dried and good to last for a long time.

See how easy it is to make these fun festive gifts. 

Dehydrated Oranges 

Slice thinly and place on your dehydrator trays. 

Set the temperature to 135 degrees Fahrenheit

Run them until they are dried to a crispness. 

I rotate my trays a 1/4 turn every 2 or 3 hours to ensure they dry evenly. 

I think mine took about 10-12 hours of dry time.

Make sure they are fully dried add more time as needed. 

Store in an airtight container. I used a desiccant to absorb any extra moisture until I am ready to make my Festive Stove Top Potpourri. 

               Dehydrated Cranberries

*Blanch the cranberries in boiling water for about 3 minutes 

*Put in an ice bath to stop the cooking process. 

*Drain off any liquid and place on the dehydrator tray.

*Take a sharp item like a tack or knife and poke each cranberry at least once.

I forgot to do this and realized it after about 12 hours in the dehydrator. This allows the moisture trapped in the thick skin to vent and get removed. It took about 24 hours to fully dry my cranberries to a dehydrated state. Dried is like how we typically eat cranberries: there is still moisture in them. But I dried mine completely or as completely as I could so that is called dehydration.

When using dehydrated cranberries you will use a smaller amount of fruit. Four cups fresh are equal to 1 1/2 cups dehydrated. Since the original recipe is for fresh fruit, you would add less dehydrated since it shrinks the fruit. 

For dehydrated cranberries, use less than 1/4 cup and I used 8 - 10 slices of orange.

FREEZE-DRIED STOVETOP POTPOURRI

Freeze-dried Cranberries

You can blanch the cranberries; however, I did not do that. I cut each cranberry in half and placed on my trays for the freeze drier.  Whether you just want to fill your home with scents of the holidays or gift these to your neighbors, co-workers, and family, the aroma of cinnamon, cloves, star anise, oranges, and cranberries set the stage to get the scents of holidays past into the present. As you can see you have three ways to prepare this as gift. With PackFreshUSA's beautiful Stand-up Pouches you can do the fresh oranges/cranberries, the dehydrated, or the freeze-dried version. Any way you choose will be beautifully prepared in PackFreshUSA's Stand -up Pouches and a homemade label with ribbon, stickers, and card stock.

Freeze-dried Oranges

A citrus takes extra amount of freeze-drying, but don't they look beautiful. I always add 24 extra freeze-drying time to my cycle on citrus. 

Did you know that oranges have been given as Christmas gifts for years. My family, my maternal grandmother in the great depression had her brother who moved to California from Idaho, they always received oranges from him for Christmas. With modern day technology and with Freeze-drying you can now gift oranges for the holidays in a whole new way!

Happy holidays!

Ola D Griffin

Long-term Food Storage Expert

Customer Service, Safeguard Brands, Inc. dba PackFreshUSA

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