Clove Oranges ... A Trip Down Memory Lane

When we were little we always had a clove studded orange in our kitchen that my younger sister Merryn had apparently made at kindergarten.

This week I went off to the local fruit shop to buy 5 oranges and then to the local Indian shop for a bag of whole cloves.

I figured my kids and their cousins could do an after school project and make a clove studded orange each as a present they could use for our homemade christmas.  I hadn't done much investigating but I figured you would just roll the oranges in the cloves and somehow they would stick in .... I was mistaken. 

You have to actually make a hole with a fork or toothpick for each clove before you poke it in.  Clearly in 4 year old kinder my sister had had a lot of 'help' making her orange.

So an after school project for the kids turned into a week long project for the older kids and adults (the younger kids gave up after about 2 minutes and headed out to jump on the trampoline!).

Anyway, we are nearly there ... and I now hope they actually preserve and don't go mouldy (imagine all those hours chucked in the bin).  Once we finished studding our oranges (well the 2 that we have completed - and I am optimistic about the remaining 3), we  rolled them in a mix of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and clove.  The kitchen table with our half finished project on a tray is a bit messy, but it smells delicious!