Natural Winter Potpourri Recipe

One of the things I absolutely love is the smell of a charming country gift shop. Do you know what I mean? I walk into an old fashioned looking shop filled floor to ceiling with homey treasures and am immediately greeted by the warm scents of cinnamon, apples, vanilla, citrus, and sometimes pine and herbs. What a wonderful feeling!

Part of keeping a cozy home is paying attention to how it smells. Clean is important, obviously. But a gentle hint of a nice scent is really nice, especially when entertaining or around the holidays. During the winter months a house can feel so dry and stagnant due to being shut up, unless you live in a warm climate where you can open windows even in January and February. Those of us living in colder places employ humidifiers to make air feel more breathable and air fresheners to liven up a home. Unfortunately many air fresheners contain all sorts of chemicals. Harsh floral and other scents are brutal for those with allergies. Many scents also mix poorly with food smells when you’re cooking. With those issues in mind, I always prefer to make my house smell nice with a natural potpourri.

This Natural Winter Potpourri is so easy to put together and will make your home smell downright delicious! I’ve never had an issue with my allergies and the smell of natural spices and fruit. When cooking a meal, this potpourri mixes nicely with the other food smells.

Ingredients:
1 apple, sliced
1 cup fresh cranberries
1 lemon or orange, sliced
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Water

Directions:
*Place cinnamon and nutmeg in the bottom of a medium size sauce pan then add in the apple, cranberries, and lemon or orange. Add water to the pan to cover the other ingredients and stop filling when the level is about 2 inches from the top of the pan.
*Heat the potpourri over medium heat for about 10 minutes then reduce to low. Keep the potpourri over low heat for as long as you wish to enjoy the scent. Be sure to never leave the potpourri on when you’re away from the home and do check on it often. Add more water as needed.
*To reuse the potpourri, cool the mixture to room temperature and then cover with a lid and refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Feel free to add other spices and herbs, fruits, essential oils, etc. as you wish.

This Natural Winter Potpourri also makes a great homemade gift! Pack the ingredients in a jar like this:

Add water to the jar, seal tightly with a lid, tie a pretty ribbon around the mouth of a jar, and attach a small card with instructions for using the potpourri. I’d recommend substituting the ground cinnamon for several cinnamon sticks. I use ground cinnamon in my potpourri at home because it’s cheap and works perfectly. But when making a gift jar you’ll find that the ground cinnamon makes the water brown and not at all pretty, so go for cinnamon sticks.

Check out these affiliate links for products on Amazon that work well for this Natural Winter Potpourri project… and as a favor to me because I’m a nice person 🙂

 

Enjoy your sweet smelling home!
-Carissa