My mother-in-law sent us a Harry & David pear box one Christmas in the early eighties, and Tom and I sat at the kitchen table in Grand Rapids slicing those Royal Riviera pears like we'd never tasted fruit before. Forty-some years later, I still get a little flutter when a brown box shows up on the porch with cold packs inside, especially in February when the lake-effect snow has the whole driveway buried.
So when one of the gals at the church food pantry asked me last Tuesday what I'd actually order from a food catalog these days, I made her a list. Most of these names have been around longer than my marriage. Here's where I'd start.
Harry & David
If you only know one mail-order food name, this is probably it. Harry & David has been shipping gift baskets and Royal Riviera pears out of Medford, Oregon since 1934. They were bought by 1-800-Flowers back in 2014, and the Wolferman's English muffins and Stockyards steak lines came along under the same umbrella. The catalog still arrives like clockwork in October, and I still flip through it with a pen.
What it's good for: holiday gift baskets to send to folks far away, the Tower of Treats for an office, and those pears (which really are as good as the catalog makes them sound). I've sent the Moose Munch popcorn to my son's family in Traverse City three Christmases running and not heard a complaint yet.
Wine Country Gift Baskets
This one's been my standby for hostess thank-yous and out-of-town funerals when I can't be there with a casserole. They put together baskets and gift towers with crackers, cheese, chocolate, and a bottle of wine if you want one. You can also order without the wine, which is what I do when I'm sending something to a Baptist friend or a household that doesn't drink. The presentation is dignified rather than splashy, which matters when it's a sympathy gift.
Lobster Anywhere
For Tom's sixty-eighth birthday I ordered live Maine lobsters from this outfit and they showed up the next morning still kicking, which is more than I can say for some of the relatives. The catalog includes cooking instructions and a steamer schedule, which is a kindness for first-timers. They also do tails, chowder, and shrimp if the live option is more excitement than you bargained for.
Sphinx Date Co. Palm & Pantry
This is the family-owned date company out of Scottsdale, Arizona, in business since 1951. I started ordering their stuffed Medjool dates after my doctor told me to swap out my afternoon cookie for something with fiber in it. The dates stuffed with pecans are my favorite, and the chocolate-dipped ones make a perfectly nice gift if you wrap the tin in a tea towel. Fair warning: once you've had a Medjool date that came directly from the grower, the ones at the regular grocery store seem a little tired.
Kansas City Steak Company
Owned by National Beef since 2013, Kansas City Steak ships filets, ribeyes, strip steaks, and the porterhouse cuts that Tom likes for Father's Day. I'll be honest with you, the recent reviews I've read have been more mixed than they used to be. Some folks have had delivery hiccups and the prices have crept up. So my advice is to read the current reviews on their site before you place a big holiday order, and if you're sending steaks as a gift, do it well in advance of when you need them to arrive. When the steaks land in good shape, they're as good as anything you'll find.
Hale Groves
Florida citrus, mostly. Honeybells in January, navel oranges through the winter, and a fruit-of-the-month club if you want to send a gift that keeps showing up at someone's door. I sent the citrus club to my mother her last two Christmases and she said the box arriving every month felt like a hug from the mailman, which was sweet of her to say. They also carry chocolate-dipped fruit and marmalades. A good catalog for sending something to grandparents or someone who's been ill and can't manage a heavy meal.
Eli's Cheesecake
Anybody who's lived in Chicago knows Eli's. They've been baking on the West Side since 1980 and they ship cheesecakes nationwide on dry ice in styrofoam coolers. The plain Chicago-style is the one I'd recommend first, but the turtle and the strawberry are both wonderful. They'll also write a custom message on a chocolate plaque if it's a birthday or an anniversary. I've sent these to a niece who just had a baby and to a cousin recovering from hip surgery, and both occasions were better for it.
New Braunfels Smokehouse
This one's been smoking meats in central Texas since 1945, and they celebrated their 80th anniversary last September. The dine-in restaurant closed a few years back, but the deli, country store, and mail-order catalog are still going strong. The hickory-smoked turkey is what I'd start with, especially around the holidays when the oven's already full of other things and you just need a beautiful main course you can warm and serve. The summer sausage is also a fine thing to keep in the refrigerator for unexpected company.
Home Bistro
Chef-prepared meals that arrive frozen and ready to heat. I started recommending this catalog to some of my older patients before I retired from the hospital, and now I recommend it to friends whose husbands don't cook and who are recovering from surgery themselves. They have meals built around dietary needs, including lower-sodium and diabetes-friendly options, which matters if you're watching your blood pressure or your blood sugar like the good Lord intends folks our age to do.
Waterwise
Not food exactly, but worth a mention because everything you cook starts with water. Waterwise sells countertop water distillers and carbon filter combinations. My grandmother always said you can't make good coffee with bad water, and she was right about most things. If your tap water has a chlorine taste or you're on a well that runs hard, this catalog is worth a look.
A few practical notes from a nurse
A few things I've learned over the years that the catalog descriptions don't always tell you:
- Order earlier than you think you need to. Holiday shipping for perishables fills up by early December. If you're sending a steak or a cheesecake for Christmas, get the order in by Thanksgiving week.
- Make sure someone will be home. A box of lobsters or a frozen meal kit should not sit on a porch in July, and the cold pack only buys you a few hours.
- Read the dietary information. Smoked meats and gift baskets can be high in sodium and sugar. If the recipient has heart trouble or diabetes, look at the ingredient list before you send something fancy. Fresh fruit boxes are almost always a safe bet.
- Call the company if something arrives damaged. Every one of these outfits has been around long enough to have a real customer service line, and in my experience they make it right. I had a Honeybell box show up bruised one year and Hale Groves shipped a replacement without much fuss.
Mail-order food is one of the small luxuries that's gotten easier rather than harder as the years go on. The Internet didn't kill these catalogs the way it killed a lot of other mail-order names. If anything, it gave them a second wind. So if you're wondering what to send your sister for her birthday, or what to put on the table when the kids drive in for the holidays, one of these has an answer.
