Buy local: Delicious gifts to give, or receive

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

A songwriter friend of mine once observed that some people can walk around the block and see the whole world while others can go around the world and not see a thing. Food can work the same way. With the current availability of almost anything from almost anywhere, thanks to the Internet, sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of the great products we have right here in Southern California.

So this Christmas, why not keep your gift-buying close to home by using this guide put together by the staff of The Times’ Food section. Concentrate on shopping locally and you might find parts of the area you’ve never seen before and even meet the producers face to face.

And if all of that just seems like too much, almost all of them are also available over the Internet.

--Russ Parsons

Photo caption: Box of chocolates from Los Angeles-based Valerie Confections.

Photo credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times