Admit it. We’ve all done it at least once: lose track of time and then, before you know it, it’s Christmas Eve and you don’t have any gifts for all those you love, leading to you being the disappointment of the family that day and wallowing your sorrows in as many cookies and desserts possible in an attempt to make yourself feel better.

Well, to help you avoid that misery (although we still encourage the cookie and dessert eating), we’ve compiled a small list of all local, Windsor-Essex culinary gifts you can give this holiday season:

Grand Tour basket from Locally Yours

Locally Yours Baskets
Locally Yours is committed to creating gift baskets that showcase all local products produced by the talented people of the Windsor and Essex community. One of my personal favourites is their Grand Tour basket which contains a personally inscribed Rumrunners Scrapbook by Marty Gervais and a whole bunch of local goodies.

Wines and Gift Baskets From Local Wineries
All you need to do is ask any of our local Lake Erie North Shore wineries to make you a basket full of wine and they will. Often there are also a bunch of treats thrown in as well. Click here to see a list of our member wineries.

With our 30 Days of Local Wine having recently begun, this is the perfect opportunity to learn more about some of the Lake Erie North Shore wines and spread their goodness onto others.

Gift Certificates from Local Restaurants
You can never go wrong with giving someone an evening at their favourite restaurant. Give any of our members a call and tell them we sent you to get a gift certificate for a meal you know the recipient will love (and hopefully bring you along to try).

Wine Trail Rides
Nothing says I love you more than an award winning gift.

Tickets to one of our Provincial and National award winning Wine Trail Rides (bicycle tours to our local wineries) are already available for gift givers to take advantage of this holiday season.

You can purchase tickets for our set dates which take place from May through to October or you can contact us and set your own date just for family and friends, co-workers or whoever!

Also, you can either take your own bike out on the rides or rent one of our bicycles. To make it even more fun, rent our tandem bicycles (they’re bikes built for two)!

Simply visit our shop and choose what you feel is best.

Meal Ready Packages from Trusty Food To You
As mentioned in a post earlier this week, Trusty Food To You is offering Meal Ready Packages that can be delivered anywhere in Essex County.

These are perfect gifts to give not just to people you know need a helping hand, but also to friends and family who are too caught up in the daily grind to make a good, fresh meal.

From Chicken Pie meals to Roast Beef meals to Lasagna meals, Trusty Food To You has many options for you to choose from.

Meat Share Program from County Connect
Know a meat lover? Then the Lamb & Meat Share Programs from County Connect is just for them. They were created to bring high quality, naturally raised, healthy, local meat to the people of our community.

Through the program, you purchase a “share” of an animal lovingly and sustainably raised by local farmers you know and trust. Meat from the whole animal is used giving you a variety to enjoy with your family.

The next County Connect Beef Share is scheduled and the order deadline is Tuesday January 4th, 2011 for a February 8-9th delivery..

County Connect’s first Lamb Share is scheduled for  January 2011. In similar fashion, a local lamb from Ewe Dell Family Farm in Woodslee will be aged and portioned for people to enjoy in a package of various cuts.

The lamb order deadline is Tuesday January 4th, 2011 for a February 8-9th delivery.

When you purchase a share in the beef or lamb, County Connect will send you a Christmas gift card for you to give this holiday season. Just complete the meat share registration, and mark off that the share is a gift (use the delivery address in your registration detail).

WindsorEats Tees (Eat Your Fruit & Veg – Support Your Local Producers)

You’re reading this, so we’re going to assume you love us so much that you talk about us to all your friends and family and they, subsequently, have fallen equally in love with us. Since that is the case, why not give them one of our Eat Your Fruit & Veg shirts. And yes, tell them to feel free to wear it 24 hours a day, every day.