Since 2019 was our first year in our house, I didn’t know how many oranges we should expect in one season from our 4 trees. Much to my surprise- it was a very large amount. As you know from my many posts.. I really only know how to make orange juice. Yep- that’s about the extent of my knowledge when it comes to this fruit- squeeze it and drink it. As a native Floridian, that is embarrassing.
Obviously you can just eat them too but oddly enough my family just doesn’t seem to do that as much. I took some time to research what other things I can do with oranges so that I am prepared for next years harvest! There are TONs of different uses for oranges, and many that I know I would never truly use or honestly that just seem wasteful and you would only do it if you were bored or completing a science experiment for your kids. So I cut down the list, and wanted to share it with you all. So here are the 5 orange uses that I WILL be doing this year!
1. Make Orange Juice, and Freeze it!
As I stated before, making orange juice is my jam. Pretty much my entire harvest of oranges this year went to making juice {I posted with my directions here}. Because I had so many, I ended up freezing the juice in mason jars so that I have some to enjoy throughout the year.
2. Orange Peel Fire Starters
I love fires. But I am no Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of dragons, who can simply say 1 word and her dragon lights up the night. Instead.. I am just a lady with a lighter trying to get her fire starters to keep burning long enough for the wood to catch on.
You may not know, but orange peels have high oil content which makes them perfect for fire starters! You simply allow your orange peels to dry out (this can take hours to 1-2 days depending on how thick the peel is, and if you have any juice on them from the orange.) Once completely dried, set a lighter to it until the oils catch on fire- then sick back and watch!
3. Make Orange Candy!
If your kids are like mine, they can go through a box of gummies or fruit roll ups in a matter of minutes. In fact, let’s add my husband to that list as well. They LOVE ‘real’ fruit too. Which is great but I have noticed it has to be a small amount of effort on their part. So maybe that is why they don’t peel oranges as much? Anyway- one of the recipes that I found recently that has fully intrigued me was making orange candy but adds a twist of dark chocolate, eeekk! Here are links to a couple of recipes I am going to try:
Dark Chocolate Dipped Candied Orange Slices
Candied Orange Slices
4. Orange Peel Natural Exfoliating Cleanser
I am all about using natural products, and when I came across this use- I thought, well why the heck not! Creating your own exfoliating cleanser is as simple as grinding down your dried orange peels with either a coffee grinder or a food processor. Mix it with chickpea flour, and boom! You can use it on your face and body as a natural exfoliator. Or, if you wanted to make a simple sugar scrub, follow the same directions but throw it in some sugar! Now that is something I will actually use.
5. Natural Orange Cleaner
Speaking of natural.. cleaners are probably the item I am more controlling over using natural products. I have worked hard to rid our house of a lot of unhealthy alternatives and now use Melaleuca products for almost all of our cleaning needs. I am most excited about this use, and I am pretty sad that I didn’t come across this one when I had all my oranges. I was juicing them and throwing the peels in my compost. I could have totally used them before chucking them in. I just LOVE the smell of oranges.
I looked through many recipes and this one from Graceful Little Honey Bee was my favorite: DIY All-Purpose Orange Cleaner.
If all else fails- Gift them to friends, family, neighbors to share the love 🙂
