Land of Lincoln's pride
A sweater? Nice. (Yawn).
An ornament? Thank you. (Stifled yawn.)
Looking for something better?
How about Café Louisiane Hotter n' Hell hot sauce, Charlie Trotter-brand sauces and marinades, butter made from Illinois-grown pumpkins, sausage made in Hampshire, or organic herbal shampoos?
You can shop for Christmas and support Illinois businesses at the same time thanks to the new "Food and Agribusiness Guide" published by the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
The online guide lists more than 130 Illinois companies that sell food and personal-care items, as individual products or in gift baskets or gift sets.
One example is the almond butter and dark chocolate fair-trade coffee set from Futter's Nut Butters of Hawthorn Woods.
"It's a real different kind of thing," because of the gift's nutritional value, said Jody Futterman, owner. The almond butter is good for your heart, with cholesterol-lowering properties. The dark chocolate is high in antioxidants.
And the coffee?
"It's just an added boost!" she said, laughing. But it is good for your heart in that you will know that your money is going to a farmer who pays his laborers a living wage, and who uses organic means to grow the beans."
The list includes a description of the Illinois-grown or produced items, addresses, phone numbers and links to the companies' Web sites. Many offer online ordering, as well as lists of stores where you can get their products.
Participating local suburban firms include the Long Grove Confectionery Co. of Buffalo Grove; Octavia Teas of Geneva; Papanicholas Coffee of Batavia; Ahruns Famous Inc. of Crystal Lake; Candy Tech of Buffalo Grove; Diana's Specialty Foods of St. Charles; Dreymiller and Kray meat processors of Hampshire; E Sutras botanic products of Schaumburg; Garden Row Foods of St. Charles; Jel-Sert of West Chicago; John B. Sanfilippo and Son Inc. nut processors of Elgin; Kernel Season's of Elk Grove Village; Lambs Farm of Libertyville; Lynfred Winery of Roselle; Mary's Gourmet Foods of Wheaton; Reid Foods of Gurnee, Rose Packing of Barrington; Terri Lynn Inc. nut processors in Elgin; Galena Cellars, which has a store in Geneva; Uncle Mel's barbecue products, in Wheeling; and the Popcorn Factory in Lake Forest.
The list is part of the state's increasing efforts to promote Illinois agribusiness -- and to teach us that agribusiness isn't just about seed corn and tractors.
Illinois is No. 1 among the 50 states in sales of food produced or processed, with $149 billion in sales; New York is next, with $75 billion.
And yes, some of that is due to us having such big corporations as Archer Daniels Midland -- but it also comes from 1,497 processors large and small.
Many of them are based in Chicago and northern Illinois.
"People do not think of that area of the state as agricultural," said Jeff Squibb, a spokesman for the department.
"We wish more people would recognize that."
The list also fits in nicely to the trend of people buying and eating locally.
"This gives us a better opportunity to better position Illinois products," Squibb said.
To see the complete list, visit the department's Web site at www.agr.state.il.us and then click on the blue box on the right side of the page, entitled "Illinois Food and Agribusiness Guide." The "Gift Baskets/Gift Sets" category can be found in the bottom right corner.