Local Favorites for Gifting

We love to give locally produced items when we choose holiday or thank you gifts. It's always nice to send something to those far away that comes from here. It's also good to support our neighbors who produce fresh and local goods. And, we enjoy introducing friends to products that we love.

Effie's Oatcakes

Long time friends, Joan MacIsaac and Irene Costello make Effie's Oatcakes in Hyde park.

They say, "The inspiration for our company comes from Joan’s mom, Effie MacLellan, and her recipe for Oatcakes. Effie grew up on a rural farm in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Like many traditional farmhouse recipes we realized the uniqueness of Oatcakes is in its honest and simple flavors. All of our products are based upon this premise as we rekindle old-fashioned and forgotten recipes."

This year they added Crispy Corncakes that were inspired by this regions traditional cornmeal flatbreads, corn pones, and johnnycakes. We like both Effie's products and so have the friends that we've introduced to them.

http://www.bostonzest.com/2009/04/effies-oatcakes-local-and-luscious.html

Taza Chocolate

Our most recent gift of Taza Chocolate was to friends who were hosting a dinner at their home. Port was on the after dinner menu. We learned the perfection of matching port and chocolate from Reggie St. Paul at the Blue Room in Cambridge.

Our choice for the evening was the Taza Salted Almond Chocolate Mexicano discs. They were a perfect match for the tawny ports we were tasting.

The Taza webstore has tasting sets, stacks of bars, and a sampler box that make great gifts. We just noticed that Taza has an offer of free shipping on orders of $50 or more thru December 25th for those who want to order online.

Westport Rivers Sparkling Wines

Whenever we have friends visit Boston we toast their arrival with Westport Rivers Sparkling Wine. They're always impressed that a Massachusetts vineyard produces such wonderful wine. It also makes a great gift when you're invited to dinner or a party. It's fun to watch the expression on peoples' faces when they discover what they've been missing.

These products are in great local shops.

We discovered all of these products in local shops like Formaggio Kitchen, Boston Cheese Cellar, Foodies Market and Bauer Wine. Other places, like Whole Foods, also support their neighbors and will have good supplies of local products available this time of year.

If you are not shopping local, you can support your local source of information, BostonZest, by beginning all your Amazon shopping here.Click on an Amazon link and then shop for any item you like.

Mailing Deadlines Are Upon Us

The deadline to send Chrismas gifts by parcel post is December 16th. Here's a post with all the shipping deadlines.

http://www.bostonzest.com/2009/12/holiday-mail-and-package-delivery-deadlines-for-the-boston-area-2009.html

What are your favorite local products? Add a comment below, email us , or send your ideas our way on Twitter. Tomorrow we'll tell you about a few more of our local favorites.

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Writers: Penny & Ed Cherubino

Photos: Courtesy of the Effie's Homemade, Taza Chocolate and Westport Rivers