How to Make Dried Orange Slice Garland with a Dehydrator

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Today’s post is about how to make a dried orange slice garland.  They are so pretty, traditional and festive.  They are perfect for decorating for Christmas.  The pops of orange are subtle and inviting to the eyes.

This is my first year making a dried orange slice garland and it won’t be my last.  I plan to package this garland up safely so that I can re-use it next year as well.

Let’s get started on how to make this garland.

I purchased one bag of fresh oranges which is about 10 medium sized oranges.

Slice oranges.

To slice the oranges, you can either use a sharp knife or to keep the thickness consistent, you can use a mandolin.  I used a mandolin and set it to the thickest setting since I knew it would thin out.  What I found though was that the mandolin could not cut the orange very well towards the end.  The slices began to rip.  I don’t use my mandolin very often so I don’t think the blade is dull.  I’m not sure what the issue was there.  Simply cut the rest of the orange with a sharp knife. I couldn’t find a link for where I purchased this mandolin from, but you can buy them at The Bay here as well.

Press Juice.

Next, press the juice out of the slices with a paper towel to decrease the cook time.

Dry Oranges.

You can either bake in the oven or you can use a dehydrator.  I have the 9-tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator, so I used that to speed things up.  It dries a lot of slices at one time.  I placed the slices 4 wide by 4 deep giving them lots of space for the air to circulate.  One bag of oranges used 3 trays.

I turned the dehydrator on to 135F for fruits.  I left it on for 6 hours and then I turned it off and left the slices in the dehydrator overnight.  Here is how they looked the next morning.

Assemble Garland.

Now it’s time to assemble the garland.

What you will need:
1. String of some kind, either jute or fishing wire will work.  I used jute because that’s what I had on hand and I think it looks more traditional.
2. Needle with large hole.  I picked up this package at Walmart for $1.97
3. Scissors

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