Pining for pine?

Heading east in 1972, California girl, my mom, affectionately known as LouLou, along with her husband, 6 kids, dog and cat, left her home with everything she owned including a collection of California giant pinecones. These pinecones remained in their packing box until 1986. That year, during a closet clean out, LouLou looked at me and said, “Do you think you can use these?”

Married with one child and just starting out with my own family traditions, we had little money for holiday decor, and our Christmas tree was pretty sparse.  Wiring the pine cones to old artificial tree branches and then attaching to a wire coat hanger for the hook, these pinecone “branches were placed in strategic spots on the Christmas tree adding a fullness and natural beauty. To this day, they are still a part of every Christmas (pictured in the bottom right photo). 

In a continuance of this tradition, we have hand gathered pinecones from our new farm in the Northern Neck and created our own pinecone offering (see top left photo). Each pine cone has been washed, soaked, dried and packaged by the dozen in a beautiful bushel basket to be delivered to you just in time for the holiday season! Check out all of our pine products if you are pine lovers like us!

To create our own collections of pinecones for you, I developed my own process of cleaning and drying pincones through many hours of trial and error. If you would like to try it yourself, use these steps below:

Step 1: Fill a pot or bowl with dish soap and warm water. Place the pinecones in the warm, soapy water and use a vegetable brush to gently brush off any dirt and debris. (Don’t brush too hard.) You only need to scrub a few minutes per pinecone.

Step 2: Fill a pot or bowl with 1/2 cup white vinegar and fill the rest with warm water. Place the washed pinecones in the vinegar bath (this will help to kill any insects). Cover the bowl/pot with a plate (helps to keep all the pinecones submerged). Let them soak for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes dry the pinecones on a towel. The pinecones close up during the vinegar soak - this is normal. Don’t worry, they will open up during the drying process.

Step 3: Depending on how hot/cold your oven runs, you may need to adjust the drying temperature. I set my oven to 275 degrees farenheit because my oven tends to run hot. Line a baking pan with foil (this will catch all the sticky sap as the pinecones bake/dry). Place the pinecones on the baking sheet (you can see in the photo above that the pinecones are all closed up from the vinegar bath). Bake for about 2.5 hours. You will know the pinecones are done when they are dry and open up like little Christmas trees. You can reuse the foil for multiple batches. If you are on the last batch of the day, you can turn off your oven and put your last batch in the oven overnight to dry and get them in the morning.

Now go out and…. 

Find Your Fancy!