NW Gifts for the Holidays

Each year it seems to be more and more difficult to buy gifts for people on your list. A few years back we decided that family members out of state might like some of the northwests finest...and we were right.

BARTON:  Do it yourself has become really quite a trend and we're so lucky in Oregon because we have this huge, wide array of wonderful Oregon agricultural products to work with.

Laura Barton of the Oregon Department of Agriculture says with about 250 different commodities in the state– many of them directly associated with the holiday season– it shouldn't be hard for do-it-yourselfers to come up with something.

BARTON:  Sometimes it just takes a little bit of thinking. Like, if you go to a store and there are Oregon pears there, just pick out a few, get a little basket, put a little cloth in it, wrap it with some cellophane and a ribbon, and you have a nice gift to give somebody.

Barton says even commodities not necessarily tied to the holidays can take center stage in a gift that truly comes from Oregon. That includes wheat and some of the newly planted legumes grown in the Willamette Valley.

BARTON: You could have an Oregon milled flour and make somebody a loaf of bread. Or you can take those legumes, dried you could make somebody a lovely soup mix. We have wild rice grown in the Willamette Valley, so you could put together a mix with soup or stuffing that would be a great gift.

She says you can get creative when dreaming up a do-it-yourself gift for a friend or family member.

That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.