Don’t you just love it when your home smells fresh and fragrant? There’s nothing better than walking in the door to the smell of baking bread or fresh flowers. Off the shelf air fresheners and home odorisers offer an easy solution, but do you ever worry about the chemicals they may contain?
There are plenty of natural alternatives, such as home made diffusers using essential oils or potpourri, but did you know you can make your own beautiful fragrancers using nothing but ingredients from your kitchen and garden and a humble saucepan?
Fragrant simmers are so quick and easy to make and leave your home smelling fresh for hours or even days. Recipes can be tailored to the season too, you could try ingredients like lemon and rosemary in the spring or orange and cloves during the festive season. Best of all you, can have some real fun with them and make up your own recipes using any spices, fruits, herbs, flowers or plants you have handy.
Here’s how to make them
Simply combine a few ingredients in a saucepan, in this case, we are using one orange (halved), a handful of cloves, a vanilla pod and water. Then just bring the pan to the boil, turn down to a simmer and leave for an hour or so, it’s that simple. Just be careful not to let all the water evaporate, as your ingredients will burn and leave a nasty smell, not the pleasant one you are looking for.
There are loads of different ingredients you could try, here’re just a few:
- lemons
- oranges
- grapefruits
- apples
- cranberries
- cinnamon sticks
- whole cloves
- fresh herbs
- pine needles
- bay leaves
- flowers
- ginger
- nutmeg
- rose water
- almond extract
- vanilla extract
- essential oils
Happy simmering!
Written by Mike Pye
