Dan's Papers - October 27, 2006 - Scents Of The Season

It's that time, the autumn air has caught a chill and the nights are laced with frost. This year, as you head indoors to warm up, warm up the indoors with a sweetly scented blaze in the fireplace. A crackling fire is a favorite harvest time treat and as the fall and winter holidays get closer, more and more family and friends will want to squeeze around the hearth. So why not put a twist on a great tradition and add sweet, spicy, or citrus scents to your fire? Herbs, spices, and fruit peels in your fireplace can fill your whole house with warm, inviting smells.

The best part is that creating these relaxing scents won't stress you out. After a long day of pumpkin picking or foliage viewing, come inside, take off your coat, and head for the spice rack. Maybe you have some left over rosemary or thyme. Or maybe you can stop by the garden before you take off that coat and pick any lavender or geranium leaves that might be lingering from the summer. Back inside, scatter the herbs and flowers you collected across the dying embers after your fire. Concentrate on the edges to keep the fragrance from being sucked up the chimney.

If you finished sewing that Halloween costume earlier than expected and have some extra time, you may want to opt for a more sophisticated method of scenting your fireplace, such as making a dried herb bundle. The beauty of this method is that while it is more complicated than simply scattering herbs, it still only takes a few minutes to do. Plus, it doubles as a fire starter. Start by gathering the dried stems (with or without leaves) of any herbs of your choice into little bunches. Tie them together with raffia. Then nestle a six inch cinnamon stick into the bunch. If you would like the bundles to also serve as decorations for the hearth, tuck two or three bunches into festively printed paper cones (available at craft stores). If not, simply toss a lit bundle into the fireplace and get your fire going.

Another fire fragrance maker that also works as a decoration is the scented pinecone. For a decorative sparkle, add a pinch of glitter to a mix of frankincense powder and myrrh power (both available at craft stores or florists). Tip the edges of the pinecone with glue and roll the cone in the mix. After all the cones are dry, toss them on the embers of the fire, and enjoy the smell.

Even if your house is without a fireplace, it does not have to be without the delightful scent you put in it. You can use a much smaller flame - the one on your stovetop - to create the same big fragrances. Simmering potpourri is a great option as it leaves you open to a wider array of herbs, spices, and fruits from which to choose.

A fitting choice for this time of year is a mix that brings to mind some of the best fall activities; pumpkin and apple picking. Fill a pot with water or cider, and add a cup of canned pumpkin. Next come the spices. Add three whole cinnamon sticks, a handful of cloves, and fresh grated nutmeg. Then cut and add an apple. Pure vanilla extract finishes off the blend. Bring the mix to a simmer and let the pot sit over extremely low heat for several hours. If the water starts to evaporate, add more. If all this stovetop simmering becomes too tedious, try using a crock-pot as a less attention requiring method.

These pumpkin patch and apple orchard-specific ingredients are not the only ones you can use. There are many other autumn appropriate foods, flowers, and garnishes that work just as well, and there are many, many more that fit any other season or mood you want to capture in your house. To personalize a blend for your home, mix and match various ingredients. From the herb family you might want to sample sage, thyme, mint, or rosemary. Cinnamon and nutmeg are popular spices, but also try more obscure ones like cardamom. Lemons, limes, and oranges all lend sweetly scented peels while eucalyptus and bay leaves give off earthier smells. Fennel, anise, and caraway have great seeds to offer, and, at the opposite end of the plant world, there is ginger root.