The other day at Trader Joe’s I got distracted by my children tipping over the kid-sized shopping carts and accidentally grabbed a bag of apples that were not organic. Oh no! Seriously, I wouldn’t freak out about this as much if apples weren’t rated #1 by the EWG as the most toxic fruit when grown conventionally. And yes, the testing is done on apples that have been thoroughly washed and peeled. The toxins run that deep in apples. Scary.
I’m not going to lie, I took it upon myself to eat some of them, but I didn’t enjoy it. All I could think about was the toxins! I had 4-5 apples left in the bag. What could I do with non-organic apples that are not fit for eating? I consulted Pinterest and found this wreath from L.Michelle using dried apples. She did a great job, it was very artsy. Fortunately, I have a dehydrator and one of those fruit/veggie slicers that consistently slices off large chunks of my fingers.
I have to admit that I did not look at her wreath’s picture when I ran to the craft store for supplies. I was too busy keeping both my kids in the cart and running to the potty with them midway through a 10 minute shopping trip. So my wreath doesn’t have the beautiful star anise or acorns or whatever. I made this thing on the floor with my kids jumping over it while trying to prevent them from actually eating the apples. Here is the result:
Definitely not as awesome as the original, but I hope that, with her instructions and my personal recommendation that you can do this even if you have two little “helpers”. Remember: you, too, can prevent the unintentional eating of non-organic apples by gluing your apples to a bunch of branches and hanging it on your door!
#greensisters The Non-Organic Apple Wreath Solution http://t.co/STvSuy3sUL @_conscientious
The Non-Organic Apple Wreath Solution http://t.co/UweplqXcTe via @_conscientious
I think apples might not be peeled in the tests. Not sure, but I remember it saying that test for however produce is typically eaten — so edible skins eaten, non-edible (avocado peel, melon peel) removed. But STILL, I think you made the right choice.
Lovely way to make use of a mistake. Pinning!
Easy & pretty solution for non-organic apples: make a wreath! http://t.co/iz3VjgWF2O via @_conscientious
The Non-Organic Apple Wreath Solution http://t.co/mfa6Bfk5hO via @_conscientious
The Non-Organic Apple Wreath Solution http://t.co/CLKYKG51kz via @_conscientious
The Non-Organic Apple Wreath Solution http://t.co/m5vrEVUDeB via @_conscientious
Thank you for blogging this! I don’t have a dehydrator or mandolin, so I’ll have to get extra creative to do mine. And I actually prefer the look of your wreath to the original 🙂
You can totally dry the apples in the oven at a super low temp (I think 200 degrees is correct?). In fact, I think it takes much less time that way! You just keep an eye on them to see when they are dry enough.