Do you want to be known as the best gift-giver in the group? Purchase something from this list and your popularity will soar!

This year’s Best Gifts List focuses on small businesses. Businesses where you will find unique, one-of-a-kind, practical and appreciated gifts for all the cooks on your list.

First we start with the shameless promotion part of the list. Seed to Pantry now has an Etsy store – well, an Etsy store in progress. An Etsy store filling up with home-crafted gifts:

Market Bags – Throw away those old, boring re-usable grocery bags and replace them with tea-dyed, appliqued, glittery, eco-friendly market bags. No two are exactly alike. Choose between beets, eggplant, or pears; or maybe all three!

Canning and Preserving Journal – Hand-crafted, vintage-look journal. Canning journals are almost impossible to find, but soooo useful to we home canners. This is a gift that will be handed down through the generations.

Aprons for adult and kid cooks– You can never have too many aprons, especially aprons that are pretty and practical. Like the market bags above, our aprons are hand appliqued, tea-dyed, and eco-friendly.

Now that I have gotten that out of my system we move on to……

Cookbooks – Big glossy cookbooks might be tempting, but often it is the small, independent writer wArtisan Vegan Cheeseho produces your favorite cookbook. All cooks love cookbooks. And you can never have too many. Trust me, the cook on your list will be thrilled to receive one of these books:

Wild Bread by Lisa Rayner for bread bakers and aspiring bread bakers.

Simple Soups by Sharon Petersen at Simply Canning. Scroll down on the page to purchase a physical copy.

Souplove by Rebecca Stevens. Specifically for beginning cooks, but I am an old hand and love this book! Many cooks find soup especially difficult to make well, this book will change that.

Artisan Vegan Cheese by Miyoko Schinner. For the vegans and lactose intolerant cooks on your list.

The Everyday Gourmet Essential Secrets of Spices in Cooking from The Great Courses. I love The Great Courses. This one teaches all about how to use spices and is filmed at the Culinary Institute of America.

Cloche Bread Baker from King Arthur Flour. Help your local baking fan create true artisan loaves with this stoneware baking dish.

Garden in a Can Herb Set by Back to the Roots. All cooks love to use fresh herbs. Now they can grow their own. This eco-friendly kit includes basil, cilantro, dill and sage and can be grown anywhere. Perfect for a windowsill or kitchen counter.

Wooden Spoons by Out of the Woods. We cooks love wooden spoons. We don’t need one, or two, or even three. No, we need at least 10 wooden spoons of all different shapes and sizes. I personally own closer to 20 wooden spoons and use them all. But my favorites were hand carved and given to me by my in-laws. They are very much like these spoons from Out of the Woods. Hand carved spoons will last longer than machine mass-manufactured spoons, and are more beautiful too. If your cook has everything, it’s time for another wooden spoon!

Pottery Utensil Holder – We need someplace to keep all those wooden spoons and nothing is better than a beautiful, handmade utensil holder. I found several on Etsy that will make lovely gifts, including these four:

Maroon Holder by Tamarack Stoneware

Button Utensil Holder by SonjaGloria

Rich Brown Clay Holder by EclecticPottery

Turquoise Utensil Holder by Page Pottery