Let's Tell Each Other Our Favorite Food Catalogs

[niki rothman]

I get some of my favorite food treats from mail order catalogs. I love browsing through a good food catalog - so much more relaxing than looking at a website. I bet you do too. So, let's exchange favorite food catalog info. These days, there probably are websites, so 800 numbers are not really vital. Most likely we can get the 800 number from the website or order the catalog through the website.

These are some of mine: Trader Joe's "Fearless Flyer", Dean & Deluca 800 221 7714, Zabar's, Harry & David, Vermont Country Store, Williams Sonoma, See's candy, King Arthur Flour.
I also just got a catalog from Kozlowski Farms in Sonoma County, Calif. Bottled specialty food items: relishes, preserves, dressings. I've never ordered anything from them - anything truly wonderful?

[tracylee]

Ohmigosh, I have soooo many windows open right now, trying to control myself! I love ordering food online, and some of these suggestions are fantastic!

[lee.]

Native Harvest, a Native American-owned cooperative in MN that produces wonderful wild rices, jams, teas, buffalo sausage, and other things. I love their buffalo sausage.
http://www.nativeharvest.com/

Harbor Sweets Handmade Chocolates, makers of delicious chocolates in MA that have tasty little sweets called Sweet Sloops, and my personal favorite, Dark Horse Chocolates Sea Biscuits.
http://www.harborsweets.com/index.html

The nuns of Our Lady of Mississippi Abbey in IA make the. best. caramels I have ever eaten. And I've eaten a lot.
http://www.trappistine.com/

[the moose]

what a great idea! there are so many interesting catalogs that i never knew about! My two cents: www.tienda.com. It is a catalog of authentic food from spain, gifts and receipes. i ordered the paella kit and impressed everyone at christmas with a delicious paella that fed 7 people with leftovers!

[Allstonian]

Big enthusiastic YES to Upton Teas and to Penzeys. I still love The Baker's Catalogue (King Arthur Flour) a lot, but I'm very unhappy that in the past year they stopped carrying a lot of things I had been ordering from them for ages, such as the finely diced apricots, and discontinued some of my favorite mixes.

A couple of Texas catalogs we like a lot: New Braunfels Smokehouse (their webiste seems to be dead right now, but it's http://nbsmokehouse.com ) for excellent smoked brisket, sausages, and jerky, and Pedro's Tamales for - well - tamales. Absolutely outstanding tamales. Every year for BFP's birthday I order 10-12 dozen to store in our freezer. http://www.pedrostamales.com

[fromager]

Don't buy tea from Harney & Sons. Sorry to say this - I posted this below as a reply but I really want to emphasize this to save someone else a lot of money:

I have been using two Web sites for years to order tea: www.specialties.com and www.inpursuitoftea.com

I agree with you and love specialteas but I have to make a very strong negative comment about a recent, rather large order of tea sachets that I got from Harney & Sons.

I had expected the tea to be great since they used the new sachets - but frankly it is the worst tea I have ever had. I'm sorry to be so forceful about this but I got about 7 flavors of sachets and they are all just bland, bland, bland, bland - like the teas are old and flavorless essentially.

That's my take on Harney & Sons. I'd never order from them again. I love and adore every single tea I ever got from the first two companies I mentioned though.

[basicfoodgroupie]

Two of my favorite "locals" are:

Rowena's
http://www.rowenas.com

Blue Crab Bay Co.
http://www.bluecrabbay.com

I always love looking through: Williams-Sonoma, Harry & David, Stonewall Kitchens and (gasp!) Swiss Colony.

---

Patrick C=:-)

[pralinepatty]

For the very best fruitcake (also other, pecan cake,candy, etc.):
Collin Street Bakery, Corsicana, Texas

http://www.collinstreet.com/pages/catalog_request
http://www.collinstreet.com/pages/abo...

Some people consider fruitcake a joke, but probably none of those people ever had one from the famous Collin Street Bakery (since 1896 - founder a German baker named August Weidmann. No other fruitcake I have ever tasted even remotely compares with theirs.

[KCJ]

A few of my favorites:

Amana Meat Shop, Amana, Iowa
Excellent bacon, ham, knocks and brats.
All prices include shipping. Super packing. I use them a couple times a year to send bacon to family and friends.
http://www.amanameatshop.com
1-800-373-6328

Tony Packo's, Toledo, Ohio
Remember Klinger on M*A*S*H waxing poetic about Tony Packo's?
I'm a sucker for their amazing Brittany Tomatoes (pickled tiny green tomatoes with a unique flavor).
http://tonypackos.com
Sorry, no catalog, but phone orders accepted at 1-866-472-2567 (10:00am - 4:30pm weekdays, EST

)

Jake & Amos Amish Style Fruits & Vegetables, Myerstown, PA
I can't get enough of their Pickled SWEET BABY Beets! Not just the ordinary pickled beets but the SWEET BABY ones! Lots of other good products, too.
Again, sorry but the don't seem to have a print catalog but website is
http://www.jakeandamos.com

The Spice House, Chicago, IL
Excellent spices and herbs. Nice people, And, dangnab it, no print catalog but stil worth the effort.
http://www.thespicehouse.com
312-274-0378

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Mansfield, MO
If you grow your own, check out these folks! Homey print catalog is a real education. They also have a pretty nifty magazine.
Request print catalogue at:
http://www.rareseeds.com/index.php?pa...

[pacz]

I don't think thy hav a catalog, but

http://barryfarm.com/

for organic pasta, also whole wheat pasta, rice, legumes, jellies and jams.

[MagnoliaTrees28]

They don't have a mail order catalog but they are located about 45 minutes from us here in South Louisiana. www.cajungrocer.com They are wonderful. I have shipped to a fellow Louisianaian (in Arizona)and she loved the good old Cajun food she was used to. A co-worker has shipped MANY TIMES items from Cajun Grocer to friends out of state(Alabama) and they can't say enough good about the items they have received. The perishables are shipped packed in dry ice and all those that receive the items say they were definitely still frozen and at their safest when they received them. Haven't had a complaint yet. Shipping may be pricey but these foods arrive without worry of defrost, etc. You can even get BOILED CRAWFISH.

PLEASE keep posting your mail order food catalogs here. I've gotten some wonderful ideas.THANKS & GOD BLESS.

[niki rothman]

Thanks to everybody who has contributed tips on their favorite food catalogs - my easy chair catalog browsing has already begun to be deliciously enhanced as the new catalogs you suggested have started arriving. Just today I checked in here after not looking for about a week and there are about a dozen new catalogs I'm going to contact as a result. It's an education to drool over the different goodies in these glossy catalogs hailing from the far corners of our great food loving nation. I'm becoming an expert in all the fine points of ham, and have even been amazed to find you can actually pay $50 for a coffee cake (not even counting shipping and handling) if you're in the mood (Zingerman's).

One idea that I got from the gourmet basket type catalogs that i'd like to pass along is that I often see some really interesting item that I WOULD really like to try - but not at Dean and Delucca's, for example, prices. So, I take the next step and search for the manufacturer online - and often you can find a much cheaper retail source.

So, please keep adding more gourmet food catalog finds - you can find really interesting goodies not available in your own area. And every once in a while it's the perfect endulgence to get some weird and wonderful edibles handed to you by the UPS person.

[thegolferbitch]

I too love Dean&Deluca and our local guys, The Vermont Country Store especially for their cheeses and hard-to-find stuff. A nice surprise to me this year was www.tienda.com which specializes in foods from Spain but has great ideas even if you're just "window shopping"

[bibi rose]

Ranchogordo.com. Beans, vegetables, spices and hot sauce. They have some great themed packages, excellent recipes.

[writergirl]

Not food per se, but when I moved somewhere without good coffee, the Peet's Coffee catalog was my lifeline! Coffee and tea, plus gadgety stuff. Their customer service was fab. You can sign up to have a pound delivered every month. My whole office loved it when the coffee arrived, it smelled so yummy. Now I live in LA and can get Peet's anytime...it's not exciting now.

[Cakegirl]

For bakers, King Arthur can't be beat. Great for equipment, ingredients, even recipes.

Also love Penzeys for spices and cocoas.

[Kelli2006]

cakegirl, I wait for the next Penzeys catalog, and the King Arthur catalog is viewed as a challenge in my house.
Penzeys catalogs have some great recipes, and I love the unexpected spice blends that they send as a customer gift.
J.B. Prince has a great equipment catalog for professional bakers that should come with a warning label.

[chefslinejenn]

Zingerman's - still haven't ordered but WANT to. Also, Rare Finds (www.rarefindsinc.com) is this new company and they have great stuff. Mostly small purveyors. Sent my mom a selection for the Holidays and she is raving.

[opinionatedchef]

i have a major jones for Mauna Loa coffee coated macadamia nuts.i box(pop-top cans) lasts me a year.

[winndixie]

I have ordered ham gift items from www.honeybakedonline.com and have had their hams, perfect every time, hardly any waste and best of all never salty like most hams are. www.winecountrygiftbaskets.com is also great. Some items are shipped free, and their prices are much lower than other websites that carry the same exact items.

[hotdoglover]

I like http://www.usinger.com. Great hot dogs, bratwurst, and other sausages and meats.

[AnneInMpls]

What a great thread! Here are some of my favorites that haven't been mentioned yet.

Made In Oregon has coated hazelnuts to die for. I love the hazelnuts covered with marionberry-flavored chocolate. And it's the only mail-order source I've found for extra sharp white Tillamook cheese (another of my addictions).

http://www.madeinoregon.com

I also love Joie de Vivre, also known as FrenchSelections.com. Their printed catalog isn't much to look at (it's mostly text), but the French food they carry is wonderful stuff. Puy lentils or canned foie gras, anyone?

http://www.frenchselections.com

Anne

[Ruth Lafler]

Niki -- Kozlowski's products are available retail at various places -- upscale groceries, etc. -- around the Bay Area, so if you keep an eye out, you can save yourself the shipping (shipping stuff in glass jars tends to be expensive).

[Will Owen]

Early's Honey Stand and Loveless Café Hams'n'Jams - two sources for the biggest reason (other than old friends) to miss Nashville, the foods. Especially the grits, the biscuit makin's, the jams and jellies and those fantastic dry-cured pork products. Early's has a better selection of un-bundled items (that is, available individually instead of only in gift baskets), and Loveless has somewhat better prices, but higher shipping charges. As I'm figuring on only a smallish order, I'll probably go with Early's - some smoked bulk sausage, a slab of bacon, and a couple of two-lb. packages of stoneground grits.

Just do a search for those guys and their info will come right up. You can request a catalog on line. I did that several years ago and I get at least two a year from both of them.

[skybolt]

The Loveless Cafe has got to be the most over-rated, underwhelming place of all!!! I live just 5 miles or so from there, and it has never been anything to write home about! Really mediocre food -- can't figure where they got their reputation! Save your time and money. Early's is good, though. No cafe (that I know of), but the stuff from the catalog is way better than the Loveless.

[Katie Nell]

I just got this beautiful catalog and I have no idea why (I've been getting lots of random catalogs, but it's called Viva Terra and there's more than just food and dishes, but it seems to be focused on mostly that. They carry a lot of organic and green products. http://www.vivaterra.com/pls/enetrixp... I'm thinking about getting the Culinary Herb Wreath for my MIL this year for Christmas, but I'm not sure if she'd actually used it... I would, if Santa is paying attention! ;-

)

I also like Stash Tea's catalog and Napa Style as well.

[LaLa]

Broadbent Farms for yummy country ham and other stuff.
Southern Season for gift Baskets.

[niki rothman]

a search for broadbent farms turned up no way to contact them. Do you have any contact info. you could share?
thanks!

[LaLa]

http://www.broadbenthams.com or 1-800-841-2202

[Cpt Wafer]

Some good mentions here. I'll add Zingerman's.

http://www.zingermans.com/Index.pasp

[Missy2U]

tastesofchicago.com - I got their catalog in the mail (you can see it - there's a link to the PDF on the homepage) and am going to be ordering some of the packages for Christmas gifts for folks who have moved and miss "Chicago food". While their prices may seem high, they include shipping, so it will be working out well.

[fauchon]

Does on-line count? If so, Kalustyan's is one of the best-ever sources...

http://www.kalustyans.com/

For teas, three stand out: Harney, Upton & Specialteas...All of these have excellent informative catalogs...here are the websites...

www.uptontea.com
www.specialteas.com
www.harney.com

[Bob Pr.]

I order tea sometimes from Special Teas (in NJ) but I usually prefer the teas from Murchies in Vancouver, B.C. It DOES usually take a couple weeks to get an order mailed from Canada. But Murchie's Extra Choice Keemun (a loose Chinese black) is outstanding in flavor. I also like their Formosa Oolong. Their estate Darjeelings are fascinating, too -- each estate produces a different flavor. Murchies has big catalog of the more common as well as more exotic teas.

http://www.murchies.com

[fromager]

I have been using two Web sites for years to order tea: www.specialties.com and www.inpursuitoftea.com

I agree with you and love specialteas but I have to make a very strong negative comment about a recent, rather large order of tea sachets that I got from Harney & Sons.

I had expected the tea to be great since they used the new sachets - but frankly it is the worst tea I have ever had. I'm sorry to be so forceful about this but I got about 7 flavors of sachets and they are all just bland, bland, bland, bland - like the teas are old and flavorless essentially.

That's my take on Harney & Sons. I'd never order from them again. I love and adore every single tea I ever got from the first two companies I mentioned though.

[eriberri]

My family and my in-laws all adore Wolferman's english muffins. We order every year at Christmas. Perhaps we're not english muffin aficionados, but I think the flavor and texture are worlds better than Thomas's, but perhaps they're just different products.

[Ed Dibble]

Nueske's for bacon and other applewood smoked goods: 800-392-2266.

ed

[merkay]

American Spoon from Northern Michigan is just wonderful. Lots of fruit based condiments and spreads. Yummy! http://www.spoon.com/

[Michele4466]

I just got one I have never seen before...

Wolferman's... Fine Foods since 1888. It is basically all about holiday breakfast towers and baskets along with other types of cakey things. www.wolfermans.com

Signature english muffins, scones, crumpets, cinnamnon rolls, and the like, packaged with jams, jellies, coffee samplers, candies, etc. They all look so good and it seems fairly affordable as holiday catalogs go...

Anyone hear of them? Has anyone ever ordered from here? I would love your thoughts...Thanks.

[Candy]

Their muffins are readily available here. Although they are enormous, slicing them in thirds horiozontally is almost a necessity, they don't have the flavor of Thomas' muffins.

[Michele4466]

Thanks Candy... BTW: Where is here? :-)

So, they are not as good as Thomas'? I am pretty loyal to those and I am an english muffin girl. What about their other offerings? Have you tried anything else?

[Candy]

Here is Bloomington, IN. Thomas' has that sourdough tang that blander english muffuns lack. I compare all other muffins to the Thomas brand. I was one unhappy camper when we moved here many years ago and there were no Thomas' to ba had.

[Pegmeister]

I use to be able to find Wolferman's in some of the better food shops in the Boston area, but not anymore. They had the most fantastic cheese english muffins!

[KCJ]

I live in Wolferman's hometown -- Kansas City. I grew up with Wolferman's muffins. They were downtown for a long time but moved out to the Kansas-side suburbs maybe 20+ years ago.

At one time, they had a charming bakery/specialty food/cafe operation in a wonderful old movie theater they converted in suburban Leawood, Kansas (on 63rd Street, not far from State Line). That was at least 20 years ago and was always one of our favorite places to shop and have lunch.

Their plant and an outlet store were located along I-35 in Overland Park (Shawnee Mission), Kansas and I used to shop their outlet store sometimes, but they've since moved from there and I'm not sure where their plant is now or if they have an outlet anymore.

Their English muffins are simply amazing however I don't think they are quite as good as they were years ago -- but that may be the jading of the middle-age memory, too.

In my opinion, the best way to fix a Wolferman's muffin is to fork-divide it, toast it, and immediately smother it in a lot of soft butter while still warm so the butter melts and oozes into all those holes and crevices. Occasionally I'll add some high quality jam but usually not.

Definitely worth a sample order to see if you like their product.

[pixe]

We lOVE Wolermans. The crumpets and pear butter are to die for!!

[racer x]

A well-meaning relative sent me some Wolferman's muffins in a gift pack a couple of years ago. I didn't really care for them.
I've been trying to get off their mailing list ever since. Just got another one of their catalogs today -- this is after multiple calls requesting they stop sending them!

[rosielucchesini]

I can't disagree w/any of those mentioned before but here are two others that weren't: Stonehouse Kitchen and Napa Style. I am a BIG condiment fan-anything that you can smear on a cracker or bread I love.

[niki rothman]

Are you sure it's Sonehouse kitchen? It doesn't show up in an online search. Do you have any contact info.?

[pikawicca]

Probably meant "Stonewall."

[Candy]

Divine Delights and Harringtons of Vermont are my favorites