Rustic Winter Spiced Orange Pomanders Table Centerpiece

by Dara The Roots of Home

For me Winter smells like a little smoke from the fireplace; something sweet baking in the oven; and spices like cloves, cinnamon, and ginger. Cloves were one of my Grandma's favorite scents and flavors and during the winter she made pomanders, oranges with cloves stuck in them. They smell amazing. They smell like Winter.
Now they are one of my and my kids' favorite crafts to make together and we do it every Winter. Traditionally they have beautiful swirling patterns, sometimes very intricate. I like to make patterns, but I just let the kids go for it.

rustic winter spiced orange pomanders centerpiece

Supplies you will need:

Oranges

Cloves (about 1 bag for every two oranges)

Star Anise

Straight pins or hot glue (Optional)

And my tip for finding the cheapest spices to use for this project? Check the International aisle at your grocery store. This bag was only $0.64! We use about half of a bag for each orange, depending on the pattern we choose.

So to make the pomanders, insert the cloves into the oranges in the pattern you want. If the orange skin is a little tough and you find the cloves are breaking, use the tip of scissors to make a small hole to stick the clove into.

So after you have your oranges all cloved up (the more cloves, the better) you can leave them as is and they will last a week or two before getting moldy. Check out my blog post to see how I discovered to make them last longer.

I used my pomanders to make table center pieces with some greenery and pine cones from our yard and $0.64 worth of cinnamon sticks. I used a wooden box I already had, but this would also be beautiful in a white bowl. If you need some the arrangement to be taller, you can use wadded up paper towels or grocery store bags under the items to raise them up and give it some extra height.

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Frequently asked questions

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1 question

Eroque022810 on Dec 18, 2016
Can I use fake oranges that I spray with a little orange extract?

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Happy Days Hometalker on Jan 26, 2017
I love the centerpiece, I am filing this for next Thanksgiving. I also made these cloved oranges covering the entire orange over 40 years ago, they did dry out and are preserved and they still have a scent. Thanks for sharing.

2 Reply
- Dara The Roots of Home on Mar 03, 2017
  That's wonderful, I love how timeless they are! Thank you.
  
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Jol15311009 on Nov 16, 2017

I made one orange last year, and still got it. it's all fine. But I covered it entirely with the cloves. that way they just dry out and don't get mouldy. Of course it doesn't look as nice, but it smells great!

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