A Little Fall in a Bag: Make Simmer Pot Gifts With Your Daughter
There is something about fall that makes me want to make things.
Maybe it’s the first hint of cooler weather, the cinnamon coming back out of the cabinet, or simply the promise of a new season. Whatever it is, this time of year always seems to invite us back into the kitchen and around the table.
Recently, MG and I spent some time making the sweetest little fall simmer pot bags together, and they turned out to be one of those projects I love most.
Simple. Beautiful. Useful.
And easy enough that we could work side by side and talk while our hands were busy.
That’s pretty much the perfect Dearest Daughter project.
What Is a Simmer Pot?
If you’ve never made one, a simmer pot is simply a mixture of fruit, spices and other fragrant ingredients gently simmered in water on the stove.
As the water warms, all those wonderful scents begin filling the house.
For our fall version, we used dried citrus and cranberries along with some of those unmistakably cozy fall spices.
And because the ingredients were dried first, we could package everything into clear bags, add a pretty tag and turn them into little gifts.
What We Used
For our fall simmer pot bags, we gathered:
- Dehydrated orange slices
- Dehydrated lemon slices
- Dried cranberries
- Cinnamon sticks
- Star anise
- Whole cloves
- Clear gift bags
- Twine or ribbon
- Gift tags
You can grab some of the necessary supplies over on amazon (This is an affiliate link, and I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you!)
We started with fresh oranges and lemons, sliced them, and dehydrated the fruit. We also dehydrated cranberries to give it some more color
Once everything was completely dry, we had beautiful little citrus slices ready for our bags.
One practical note: if you’re preparing these as gifts, make sure your fruit is fully dehydrated before sealing it inside a bag. Any remaining moisture can shorten its shelf life.
We gathered our cinnamon sticks, star anise and cloves together.
Then came the fun part. We filled clear bags with our simmer pot mixture. We added dried citrus slices, cranberries and the spices, making sure each bag had a nice variety.
Make Them Pretty
Once the ingredients were inside, we tied the bags with twine and added our fall tags.
For this project, we used printables from the Honey Bee Mercantile Design Library. (This is also an affiliate link) We printed the designs, cut them out, and used them as the finishing touch on our bags.
And they were adorable! Little scarecrows and pumpkins turned a simple clear bag of dried fruit and spices into something that felt special enough to give to a friend.
Add the Simmering Instructions
Because these were gifts, we also included instructions so the recipient would know exactly what to do with everything inside.
Our tag instructed them to: “Empty the entire bag into a small saucepan. Add 3–4 cups of water. Bring it to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat and simmer on low. Add additional water as needed and enjoy the cozy fragrance.“
One important reminder: never leave a simmer pot unattended, and don’t allow the water to completely evaporate.
Enjoy One Yourself
Naturally, after making all those bags, we needed to put one on the stove. We emptied the fruit and spices into water and let everything gently simmer.
And goodness.
Orange. Cinnamon. Cloves.
All those warm fall scents began drifting through the kitchen. It smelled like someone had somehow figured out how to put October into a saucepan. I love how these turned out.
They make sweet hostess gifts, teacher gifts, neighbor gifts, little thinking-of-you surprises or something you can tuck into a fall gift basket.
