Our Favorite Unique Gifts To Surprise And Delight!

For the Cook - A Subscription to a Local CSA

CSA—short for Community Supported Agriculture—is a sales model that connects people directly with farmers. CSA was created in response to a globalized food economy to provide consumers with the ability to secure local food and develop relationships with the people and places that produce that food. We love supporting CSAs and think there really is no greater gift than that of healthy, organic food that is grown with love by small farmers who need our support! Finding your local farmer is a start, and then contact them to see if they have a CSA program you can subscribe to for someone.

The CSA is a unique model of accessing local farm products that:

Provides access to fresh, nutritious, and diverse farm products;

Connects people of diverse life circumstances to the farmer, land, and food they eat;

Supports the agricultural costs incurred by farmers through up-front member investment in the upcoming harvest;

Provides fair market value to farmers through direct sales;

Helps individuals and families to spend their food dollars locally.

For The Outdoor Lover - ORCA

Oftentimes there is nothing better than making your outdoor space, however big or small, a sanctuary. So we think that unique gifts can always include something for the backyard. One of our favorite places to source from is ORCA Living, who create beautiful and functional outdoor products. They source materials with a light footprint and a substantial story from throughout California, using incredible materials like fallen trees and sourcing from local craftsmen.

For a bigger investment, we love the idea of their wooden furniture sets. A smaller unique gift idea could be their planters! Either way, shopping from ORCA will result in a timeless gift that can sit in the receivers outdoor space for many, many years to come. Learn more about ORCA in our podcast episode with the founder Molly Sedlacek!

For the Foodie - Flamingo Estate

There is nothing to not love about Flamingo Estate’s ethos and products – truly anything you could get from them is beautiful, delicious and good for the earth.   High atop the hills of Los Angeles, hidden by a lush orchard and dense gardens, Flamingo Estate is a pleasure-obsessed home of sun-worship, folk mythologies, and psychedelic remedies grown only by organic farmers they know and trust.

From olive oils to soaps, butter to pickles made in conjunction with Pamela Anderson, there is always a pantry staple or natural beauty item to swoon over. We also love their cookbook, Fridays from the Garden, as the perfect gift for home. Listen to our podcast episode and learn more with their founder Richard Christiansen here!

For The Wine Lover - Lady of the Sunshine

You can’t go wrong with a bottle of wine when it comes to unique gifts, but we think that Lady of the Sunshine has to be one of the best vineyards to shop from and support. They produce all natural wines from california’s central coast and are a demeter biodynamic® vineyard & winery so you can shop their wines and feel incredibly good about what you are gifting someone!

Gina Giugni, a second-generation biodynamic farmer, began Lady of the Sunshine in 2017 as a personal project and an invitation to care more deeply, farm more gently, and drink with intention – a commitment to thoughtful farming, natural winemaking, and cultivating a lasting relationship with the land as an act of preservation. We love Gina’s beautiful designs on her bottles, and the wine itself is incredibly delicious.

For the Host or Hostess - Le Marké Olive Oil

When it comes to unique gifts, we think something that can be used as a special treat is always a good thing. And the Le Marké organic olive oil and balsamic vinegar is just that! Sourced from their very own olive grove in Lake Garda, Italy, Le Marké works in close partnership with a maestro olivicoltore, a master agronomist who specializes in olive cultivation. He has dedicated his work and life to reviving abandoned olive groves using organic and regenerative farming techniques, restoring them to their natural bounty. This collaboration marks a new chapter for Le Marké on their journey to create the world’s most exquisite olive oil. We have tested a lot of olive oils in our time, and we always come back to the fact that Le Marké is simple the most delicious, as well as being the nicest to gift!

For The Flower Lover - A Floral Subscription

We think that unique gifts oftentimes are best when they contain flowers – but the average flower delivery service can be incredibly toxic and unsustainable. The bouquets we think are so beautiful can bring troubling climate and humanitarian impacts. The global cut flower industry is fraught with many of the same environmental and ethical issues that can accompany fruit and vegetable production, including worker exploitation, the unregulated use of pesticides and other harsh chemicals and carbon emissions from shipping and refrigeration

When it comes to buying flowers for a loved one, try and find your most local option. For instance in Maine, our co-founder Cora uses the Maine Flower Collective to source the best seasonal flowers. In the UK, our Head of Partnerships Taylor orders from Petalon which grows most of their flowers on their own regenerative farm in Cornwall. In New York City, one of our new favorites is Field Studies Flora for nature based arrangements. The list goes on but just make sure you are shopping for your flowers as consciously as you can!