Decorating With Dried Fruit and Veg - a World of Possibilities
While dried fruit and veg are often used to create things such as potpourri, you can also incorporate them into more elaborate floral arrangements, or use them to decorate your dining room table.
Whether you use them whole or sliced, or simply use the peel from fruits such as grapefruit, lemon, limes, or oranges, they will add a wonderful array of aromas and textures to your designs.
Decorating with fruit
Using dried fruit opens up an incredible array of possibilities. Using slices of dried apple will fill your home with a warm and comforting aroma that all your guests will love. Try placing them in different rooms all around the house to make the most of their wonderful fragrance.
Like pineapples and bananas, slices of pomegranate can be a great way to give your designs a more exotic feel. By arranging them in small groups, you can create a look that really stands out.
Another of our favorite ideas is to place slices of dried peaches on a bed of pale rose petals. This is the perfect way to fill your home with natural floral aromas. If you like, you can also use essential oils to create a more powerful fragrance.
As well as dried flowers, dried fruits can also be combined with berries or nuts, including walnuts, almonds, chestnuts, and hazelnuts. This is ideal if you’re looking to create a really interesting, autumnal look for your home.
Decorating with veg
In the same way that people use fresh vegetables to create decorations and table arrangements, you can also incorporate dried veg into your designs. Whole artichokes or ears of corn are ideal and can create really eye-catching decorations.
Dried vegetables work perfectly in rustic style homes. We especially recommend using them to decorate country homes and cottages, where they’ll make the ideal centerpiece for your kitchen or dining room.
Dried fruit and veg – original designs
Looking for some original ways to use dried fruit and veg in your home? Here are some of our favorite ideas to inspire you:
Fall centerpieces
To create this kind of centerpiece, we recommend using fruit and veg with red, gold and bronze tones, choosing a variety of different sizes and textures.
Try combining a mixture of pomegranates, corn cobs, artichokes, and wild yellow apples with rosehip, dried leaves, and hawthorn berries. Give it a go, and you’ll see just how beautiful this look is.
We advise arranging your final design in a pyramid shape. It doesn’t have to be totally symmetrical, so don’t worry if it’s a little uneven. You can then secure your display with string, place it in your favorite glass vase, and use it as a stunning autumnal centerpiece.
Natural gift wrapping with dried fruit and veg
Brown paper packaging, natural raffia string, and dried fruit are ideal for gift wrapping and can be used to create a beautiful and natural look.
First, wrap the gifts in brown paper packaging and secure with raffia, ribbons, lace, or string. Next, use a needle to pass a length of thread through a slice of fruit, and tie it onto the raffia or ribbon.
If you want to give your gifts a more professional finish, try including a few sticks of cinnamon, or a bouquet of dried flowers.
Hanging vegetables
Rustic kitchens are the ideal place to hang strings of dried vegetables. First, take your vegetables and a length of raffia (either natural or colored). Artichokes, corn, peppers, or even small pumpkins are all great options.
The first thing you’ll need to do is make a braid. To do this, cut several pieces of raffia of equal length, and pass a fine wire through the center of each vegetable, leaving a short section protruding at each end to allow you to fix them securely.
Once you’ve arranged all the vegetables just how you like them, add a hook to one end so that you can hang it on your wall. And there you have it – a beautiful and original decoration for your kitchen.
Dried fruit and veg – oven and microwave drying
Fruit and veg can be dried in a conventional oven, as well as a microwave. Let’s take a look at how to do it!
Oven:
Prepare the fruit and veg and place it on a baking sheet or metal rack. Start with the temperature on low, around 110 to 120°F, and gradually increase it to 150 – 160°F, depending on the type of fruit or vegetable you’re using.
We recommend leaving the oven door slightly open (around 2 or 3 inches). You should also be aware that this kind of artificial drying technique can take around 8 – 10 hours.
Microwave:
If you decide to dry your fruit and veg in a microwave, the drying time can vary from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the type of fruit you use.
We should also mention that there are a number of food dehydrators on the market, which you can use to speed up the drying process. These are especially useful when it comes to drying slices of fruit and veg.
Ready to start experimenting with dried fruit and veg? Give it a try, and get in touch to let us know how it goes!