Halloween Craft: Apple Apparitions!

Student Hannah Livingston helps author Eliza Fink to prepare apples for Halloween crafting!

This Autumn, as an eclectic alternative to Jack-O-Lanterns, spice up your home decor by making your own apple apparitions. These festive crafts are simple and fun for all ages. Although it’s best to avoid heavily bruised fruit, any size, shape, or cultivar of apple will work, making these scary faces is a creative use for surplus or mealy apples during bumper crop seasons. Soaking the apples in an acidic and salty solution lets the apples shrink and dry without smelling, molding, or rotting. You can enjoy watching your apple apparition shrink and dry in unpredictable ways, for a whimsical and creepy final product. Following the initial drying product, your ghost will continue to wrinkle and grow creepier for months, or even years to come. Carving apple apparitions is best done with friends or family and pairs well with hot apple cider. Enjoy!

Apple Apparitions throughout the drying process.

What you need:

Apples
3 tbsp. salt
2 cups lemon juice
water
Mixing bowl
Paring knife

Instructions:

Combine salt, and lemon juice in a large mixing bowl. Add enough water for apples to be completely submerged. Apple cider vinegar can be substituted for lemon juice if needed.
Peel your apples. You can leave the stem and bottom of the apple if you’d like (artists choice).
Soak the apples in the lemon-salt mixture for 20 - 30 minutes. While waiting, it is recommended that you listen to the Monster Mash at least once during this time period.
Remove the apples from the bowl and pat dry with a towel.
Use the paring knife to carve apple into desired shape. You can trace with a marker to guide you or free hand your carving. Carefully supervise kids for this step!
Dip the carved apple back into the lemon-salt mixture. Pat dry again with a towel.
Hang the apples in a warm, dry, location using a screw or paper clip and string.
Wait up to two weeks for the apples to dry.
Display your artwork! You can continue to hang your apple apparitions from the ceiling or get creative. Make a them into a dolls with homemade outfits, place on sticks and arrange into a frightening bouquet, add them to Halloween potpourri, make them into ornaments, or spice up scary faces with food dye, yarn wigs, and googly eyes. The possibilities are endless.