Join us at the Library for a workshop on how to make holiday pomanders! Pomanders originated in the Middle Ages. People would melt spices and oils together and enclose the concoction in perforated cases, which they wore around their necks or carried with them to ward off plague or disguise body odor. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the English began to make pomanders the way we think of them today, poking oranges and apples with cloves and rolling them in a mixture of spices and preservatives. Early immigrants to North America brought this craft with them as a Christmas or New Year’s custom, but as oranges were far too expensive, colonists typically made their pomanders with apples.