Yep, this is true. I was on the waitlist for about 2 years. Are you signed up for the RG newsletter? If not, put yourself on the waitlist and signup for the newsletter for updates. I’m such a RG Bean freak I started a thread about them on my local food board. 
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Those are great ideas! 
Oh I like it!
Can I see? I made some in vacuum sealed last year to see if it would work, and it was fine, but I had more trouble with sealing the bags this weekend.
Last season;
This season; Couldn’t get all the air out!
Also planning to send pepper jelly, plum ketchup, chili powder and BBQ spice blends with dried peppers from my garden, spiced pecans, chocolate bark, and tea from Turkey.
Or maybe I’ll just send something from Amazon or that D’Artagnan gift box from Costco.
Thanks for the heads up @Auspicious !
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Found this when looking for threads on tempering chocolate.
Also this one, with pretzel and toffee bites.
About tempering chocolate for chocolate bark
Joy of Baking
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I want those chocolate-dipped apricots they sell! Swooon!
This looks a lot like nut or poppy seed strudel in Austria, with yeast dough… probably regional spillover from the empire years…?
They look lovely! Great save. And I love the doily. (Old post, I know).
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Stunning!
I gift food a lot, especially to older family and friends who already have everything and don’t want more clutter. Last year we gave Spicewalla barbecue and roasting blends to two sets of in-laws, and a cookie baking kit (gourmet chips, spices, extracts, a Dorie Greenspan cookie book, etc) to my MIL. In the past I’ve made apricot ruglach for a Jewish boss for New Year - he also happened to be French and had no idea what they were, but liked them 
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This year I sent my dad, who’s an adventurous eater stranded in a predominantly white, rural area an assortment of mostly Asian condiments, sauce sachets, and spice blends. I think it was black vinegar, doubanjiang/fermented chili bean paste, spicy chili crisp, canned Thai coconut soup, Evergreen sesame oil, canned Thai iced tea, Chinese soy roasted chicken and other blends, Filipino coconut curry, Sichuan/ma la peanuts, chai tea bags, a Belgian stroopwafel, and an al pastor taco seasoning. Also tucked in a 85% dark chocolate from Aldi (house fave), an engraved Kleen Kanteen insulated cup (he’s a cold drink nut and these are insanely good), and a handmade Christmas stocking. The pistachios didn’t fit in the overstuffed flat-rate box, so they’re my treat. I’ll email him recipes.
For my brother’s serious girlfriend, who I don’t know very well yet, I made a movie-night-in kit with classic boxed candies (Raisinettes, Starbursts, Sour Patch Kids, etc.), extra-butter and kettle corn popping corn, popcorn boxes, salted peanuts, some other snacks I am forgetting, fizzy drink mix, cozy socks, and an Amazon gift card.
Last year my good neighbor friend got a bottle of Eagle Rare. My plan this year is to get her a gift certificate to our nice neighborhood restaurant that’s been hit hard by COVID, where her buddy works.
This whole food gifting thing goes back to 7th grade when I made Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookies for all my teachers. I think I burned the nuts .
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Wow, Santa! Do you pack all that up? I’d to see how folks pack boxes, especially one of these USPS “large” (ha!) priority mail boxes.
(Those are not my hands).
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I think Apricot King chocolate is meh. I split open a slip-pit apricot and insert a piece of good quality dark chocolate.
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I feel like marmalade made from sweet oranges just wouldn’t have the zing you get from Seville oranges. Or have I misunderstood, and you do have those?
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Those sound great. I love homemade things. How do I get on your gift list?
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Those flat rate boxes are the best. I used to use them to mail gifts to The Sprout when she was away at college. I usually used candy as the filler. The postal worker told me it would have cost over $40 to mail if it was in a regular box.
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This year we’re keeping our physical gift list shorter and simpler, because in-person celebrations won’t happen and I’m not going out to a bunch of stores to collect ingredients.
That said, I am planning a virtual cheese tasting with another couple, as a substitute for our usual pre-Christmas get together.
My ordinary local supermarket carries tempting cheeses these days—the product isn’t going to hotels and restaurants—so I can put together a selection in one quick stop. I’ll make foccacia, box up various accoutrements, and include a wine from our quarantine stash (thank you, curbside pickup). This weekend we’ll agree on an outdoor meeting point to hand over the goods.
A Zoom call will follow where tasting and merriment will ensue. Confident this will be fun with these particular friends. Even if we end up talking about how awkward it is!
Here’s hoping the format works out well enough to try on other occasions this winter. For example, chocolate is more easily shippable so a virtual tasting might be fun with long-distance family or friends.
P.S. I forgot to mention that I might be making and delivering a batch of latkes this week as a surprise for friends who celebrate Hanukkah. I know they don’t prepare their own and of course these won’t compare to her dearly remembered mom’s version. But my grandmother made them from time to time and I have a lot of potatoes from our farm share. If only I have time before the expected snowstorm!
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I signed up!
What’s your current favorite bean from Rancho Gordo, and how do you cook it?
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I made a gift box last week, with umami salt, local chocolate, local maple syrup, a spice blend and maple popcorn , and reused the packaging materials from the gift box the same cousin had sent me!
I’ve also been reusing my boxes from Sephora lately.
I had sent one health conscious cousin a healthy snack gift box in the spring, which cost around $120. Decided this month to buy a flat rate box and fill it with healthyish treats. Around $18 Cdn for the small flat rate box for shipping in Canada, and $30 of treats (protein snacks, trail mix, shelf stable chorizo bites, strawberry quinoa snacks and chocolate energy bites). The $30 of snacks is more food than that $120 gift box had included.
I’m mailing my own stuff from now on.
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Prima - I am with you on the flat rate boxes!
Normally I ship folks a few jars of jam and and they are heavy. With the medium flat rate box, I can throw in so many more treats and, ut gets there quickly - so I have been a fan for years.
Recently I had dear friend having to quarantine in Wisconsin (she’s okay!) and she could not do her normal family gathering xmas cookie baking. So I took out a flat rate box and threw in 2 pounds of sliced almonds, a pound bag of my favorite natural brown sugar, a giant bag of organic cocoa, a two pound bag of my favorite mexican whole wheat flour (it’s like cake flour, texture wise, but better for you), a few new ikea dish towels, yeast and a brand new tub of baking powder.
She was over the moon. She loved how heavy the box was, and the fun of pulling more and more useful stuff out of the box. All for around $15 shipping. Way better than any premade box, more fun and, cheaper. Yay flat rate boxes, the gift that helps : )
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