Like many men, I guess, I am not very adept at shopping for gifts. I literally start to hyperventilate in shopping malls. Agora was the chief marketplace of ancient Athens, so I guess I have some form of modern day shopping agoraphobia.
I’d always turn to gourmet baskets as my gift of choice for my family, but this is becoming more of a challenge. My mom, working in cahoots with my health nut sister-in-law, has turned all of them into a throng fixated exclusively on organically-grown whole foods. Mercifully, they leave me to my own dissolute devices.
When birthday season rolls around these next couple of months (and, gasp!, the holiday season shortly thereafter), I knew it would be a challenge to find unique edible gifts for them that satisfy their healthy eating requirements.
I may not be the paragon of holistic health, but I do appreciate gourmet food and locally grown produce. So I scoured the internet and found some amazing gift box/basket suggestions for the health-conscious foodie. For you, dear reader, I offer my curated list.
Artisanal Treats from Gift a Feast
This new San Francisco company is running with a very cool idea. They curate boxes packed with handcrafted food from the Bay Area’s most distinctive food artisans.
They offer products like gluten-free Roasted Tomato Salsa from the popular (and Bobby Flay endorsed) Papalote Mexican Grill, blood orange marmalade, Snyders sage honey, violet mustard, and varieties of locally-produced organic extra virgin olive oil.
They’ve done away with the baskets and wrap them in your choice of attractive wrapping paper and include a hand-written note.
With each purchase they also send on your behalf a $5 donation to Heifer International, a group working to end world hunger and poverty. My parents spend a lot of their spare time ministering to the needy and less fortunate, so this adds a nice humanitarian touch to the gift.
Fresh, Gourmet Gift of the Month Cubs
Clubs of America offers a wide variety of gourmet gifts that you can continue to give long after your loved one’s birthday. With the gift of the month you can determine the frequency with which you would like them to continue receiving a new gift. You can send a one-time gift, monthly over a set course of months, or every other month if you prefer.
The fruit gift of the month delivery comes with five pounds of two varieties of specially packaged fresh orchard fruit that is picked and shipped the same day. Fruit varieties can include Fuyu persimmons, royal tangelos, Comice pears, pomegranates, mangos, and papayas. They offer free shipping every month and also include a personalized message and a monthly newsletter.
Healthy Gifts from Gourmet Gift Baskets
If you’re looking for a wide variety of gourmet gift baskets and need something last minute (as I often do) this is a great way to go. They offer same day delivery if an order is placed by 1:00. They have many gluten-free and organic options, and also give you 15% off your first order.
Organic Fruit Boxes from Cherry Moon Farms
Also offering same day gift delivery of orchard-fresh organic fruit boxes for the healthy foodie in your life is Cherry Moon Farms from the San Diego area. You can choose favorites from a selection of fresh picked fruits including organic apples, pears, oranges, grapefruit, pineapple, mangoes, kiwi, avocados and bananas. They also have discounts of 10-20% off depending on the order price.
Manhattan Fruitier
When I lived in Manhattan, I also found it a challenge to get gifts for my whole foods, gluten-free friends. Located in nearby Long Island, and owned by a husband and wife team, they draw their inspiration for their elegant baskets of exotic fruit from Dutch still-life paintings. They deliver nationwide, but they hand deliver in Manhattan!
Shop Organic
Based out of Arizona, this is another small business that offers a wide variety of organic and GMO-free gift baskets and gift sets in any price range. They also have kosher and vegan gift baskets.
Gift Boxes from iGourmet.com
Offering an impressive and practically inexhaustible array of products from all over the world, you can choose from one of their gift basket creations, or you can customize your own. They also have a gourmet food of the month clubs, gift cards, discounts and coupons that are easily found across the web, and a newsletter that contains exclusive offers, helpful advice, and recipes.
I lived in the Czech Republic for a spell, and have many friends living there and across Europe. Their Gifts for Europe sister site will allow you to ship to Europe and a host of other countries around the world.
