Thanksgiving is over and Christmas preparations have begun! I love sourcing supplies from nature and this November I have been doing just that by doing some Fall foraging. In upcoming posts, you will see how I use the materials to decorate for the holidays!
Pine Cones
The first thing I did was gather pinecones from my backyard. Technically, most of the pinecones were gathered by my 2.5 year old nephew who came to help. He was a dedicated forager and found some really good ones.
Since the pinecones were cold and damp, they were tightly closed up. I brushed them off, placed them on parchment paper, and baked them in a 200 degree F oven for about 3 hours. I checked on them frequently to make sure they were opening and not burning. And, voila! I’ve got dried, open spruce cones ready for crafting 🙂
Osage Oranges
These were a gift from my mother! There is an osage orange tree near where my parents live and she gathered a few for me. I love this fruit. It isn’t edible by humans (or other animals) and it has been suggested that the fruit was originally consumed by extinct Pleistocene animals such as the giant ground sloth. It has a sticky sap that can be irritating, so I wore gloves when preparing them. They have a slight citrus-like smell that isn’t at all unpleasant and they look so unique!
First, I cut them into about 1/4″ slices. Then, I laid them out on some parchment paper on a baking sheet. Like the pinecones, I dried them in a low oven (170-200 degrees F) for about 3 hours, or until they were no longer soft and were completely dry. I added some clementine slices as well, as I had a few at home that were going to go bad.
Grape Vines
A few of the trees in my backyard had managed to accumulate some pesky grapevines. I removed them from my trees and gathered them onto my front porch. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to use most of them, as they were too fat and brittle to mold in the way I wanted. However, some of them worked out.
After soaking the vines in a bucket of warm water for a few minutes, I used the younger, thinner sections to shape/weave a circle. I wanted to create a wreath, but didn’t have enough vines. I will keep what I have so far for next year and hopefully add to it!
Bird’s Nest
Lastly is an attempt to preserve a bird’s nest! This nest was located under my deck and had been used over the spring/early summer. It had been abandoned for a while so it was safe to remove it. I let it sit in the sun for a day, bagged it up and sealed it, and have placed it in the freezer to fully sanitize it. It’s almost ready, as all I have left to do is a little cleaning and preserving with matte topcoat. If all goes well it will feature in one of the upcoming posts.
I hope everyone is having a cheery lead-up to the holidays! Stay tuned for more holiday crafting content featuring the result of this fall foraging:)
