Homemade Potpourris, How to's :)

Hi,

Once a year, around now, we make up all our own potpourris for the entire year. They look best in the canning jars as they're glass and can be tightly closed. For gifts, you can use the 4ounce ones and to decorate them, in addition to the potpourris being really pretty, get a half yard of calico print, cut it into circles so it will overlap your jar top and as there's a liner (replaceable) inside the actual jar, you just place your circles on top of that, put the over top on, and let the calico make a nice round border around your jar.

What you need:

Orange/Spice Potpourri

1 cup orange peel ribbons

1 cup orange bits (smaller)

1 cup cinnamon sticks (the 1" ones)

1/2 cup red rose buds and pieces

1/2 cup whole cloves

1/2 cup chamomile (german) flowers

Orange Essential Oil

Cinnamon Leaf Essential Oil

Blend in a bowl all the herbs, spices and flowers. Add enough essential oil to the batch so that you'll get a fairly strong scent that you like -you'll use more of the orange oil than you will the cinnamon leaf oil. Stir well.

Put in glass jars, decorate with the calico lids and close tightly. Age for as long as you can before using, at least a couple weeks. or more.
When you wish to use it, open the jar and take only a small amount out. Put it into (if you have one, I've got two!) small crock pot and fill with water - leave the top of the crockpot off and turn it on high, if there's no setting, just turn it on. The heat will go through your herbs, spices, etc's and permeate the room with a nice orangey-spicy scent. The water will add moisture when it's needed due to the cooler weather and lower humidity, plus the heat being on.

Additions to this recipe:

1/2 cup basil

1/4 cup fennel

Tangerine or Manderin Orange (red) instead of the Orange (sweet) Oil.

Label each jar.

Any spice or herb that you've grown that you really like the smell of and feel it would go into this blend. I will post more.

Keep aside a small bottle of both orange and cinnamon essential oil to add to your crock pot if needed, add water as necessary, and when you need to, change it all out for a fresh batch. These recipes can be doubled, tripled or make as much as you'd like - we always make much more than this :)

Have fun and enjoy,

Marilyn