Gift Giving, Ithaca Edition [by Stacey Harwood-Lehman]

I'll be shopping locally this season but before I feature my favorite vendors, I hope your lists will include poetry books. I can recommend without reservation these titles:

Here are a few of my favorite Ithaca area small businesses. Each of these artisans will ship to you. 

Heirloom quality gifts:

John Truex, co-owner with Liz Seru, of Borough Furnace, braves the cold at a recent farmers market pop-up.

Each one-of-a-kind hat is custom-designed, blocked, sewn, and trimmed in-house by Kimberly Hutsal, owner of Two Foxes Studio.

Many years ago I wrote in the Wall Street Journal about Borough Furnace (above left), maker of hard-working and beautiful cast-iron cookware crafted in Syracuse, NY.  An added benefit? Borough Furnace has Climate Neutral Certification.To receive such certification, brands must empirically measure their cradle-to-customer greenhouse gas emissions and create quantifiable plans to reduce that footprint year over year.

One of my favorite shops in New York City is the tiny storefront of East Village Hats on 80 East 7th Street in Manhattan. It is a wonderland of beautiful hats, some of which are made by Kimberly Hutsai, owner of Two Foxes Studio. Now you can find Kimberly and her hats at the Ithaca Farmers Market, where she maintains a small booth loaded with--you guessed it--hats, and a mirror where you can admire yourself while trying to decide which hat to buy, for yourself or as a gift. I have a terrific straw hat that I wear in summer to protect my punim from the sun. I love it. Visit Kimberly's instagram feed  to see the full range of her millinery or visit her website to place an order or arrange for a custom lid for a loved one. 

When our beloved Johnny of blessed memory was still with us, I arranged with Katherine Solomon to have his portrait taken, in situ. She and her partner arrived with everything needed to take photos of our sweet boy and a few days later, her proofs landed in my in-box. Deciding which to enlarge and frame was tough! In the end, I picked the photo of the three of us to frame and made a calendar with the others. See two examples below. Wasn't he a noble beast?  You may not be able to arrange an in-person photo session with Katherine but you can still buy one of her gorgeous photographs of farm animals. Take Tallulah, for example, one of the Shetland Sheep at Miller Creek Farm. So many portraits to choose from! 

 

Gifts for hosts and hostesses:

When I have a visitor, I like to send them home with a gift bag of locally made artisinal food products. My favorites include Ithaca Dukkah from IthacaDelish seasonal honey from The Honeybee Embassy, wrapped up in a tea towel or basket. A great ambassador for Finger Lakes wineries is Hillick and Hobbs, a relative newcomer on Seneca Lake. The winery, on a beautiful spot with an unobstructed view of Seneca Lake, makes only Rieslings. A dry Estate Riesling makes a great gift. 

 

If you have a local vendor who ships, please drop the details in the comments.

 

Happy Holidays!

-- sdl

Comments

[Johnny Dog Lehman]

Great post!

[jim c]

Stacey, I love Love LOVE this! I so wish we were neighbors! I love, too, that Christmas and Hanukkah are twinned this year. Maybe the Festival of LIghts will illumine some things for those assholes this time around. Happy holidays!