This season, Santa’s shopping locally

A songwriter friend of mine once observed that some people can walk around the block and see the whole world while others can go around the world and not see a thing. Food can work the same way. With the current availability of almost anything from almost anywhere, thanks to the Internet, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of the great products we have right here in Southern California.

So this Christmas, why not keep your gift-buying close to home? Concentrate on shopping locally and you might find parts of the area you’ve never seen before and even meet the producers face to face.

And if all of that just seems like too much, almost all of them are also available over the Internet.

-- Russ Parsons

This is a terrific limoncello in the spirit of those enjoyed along the Amalfi Coast, but this one is made right here in Southern California from lemons grown in Ventura County. The lemon peel is first stripped away by hand, steeped in grain alcohol in glass urns, and then when the lemon has given up its all, the resulting liqueur is dosed with sugar. But not too much. That’s what sets this aromatic limoncello apart for me. Keep a bottle in the freezer and serve very chilly, after dinner, the better to appreciate its syrupy texture and sunny lemon taste.

Ventura Limoncello Co., $24.99 for 750 milliliters, $14.99 for 375 milliliters. Available at fine wine retailers in Southern California. For a list of retailers, see www.venturalimoncello.com.

-- S. Irene Virbila

This cheese is a no-brainer -- a super-aged Gouda made by the Wesselink family (and 500 Holsteins) at its Winchester dairy. The big yellow rounds of the family’s Dutch-style boere kaas, or farmstead cheese, are aged for more than a year, and what results is an assertively flavorful, sharp hard cheese. As it ages, it becomes dotted with tiny, crunchy crystalline granules that are like flavor explosions in your mouth.

Winchester super-aged Gouda, $16.95 per pound. (951) 926-4239. Available at Southern California farmers markets and at www.winchestercheese.com.

-- Betty Hallock

Littlejohn’s Candies might not yet have the cachet of some of the bigger names -- they’re still operating out of the same little stand at the center of the Farmers Market at 3rd and Fairfax that they have been at since 1946. But I’ll stack their English toffee up against any I’ve tasted. Candyman Michael Graves still makes it by hand the same way Mary Littlejohn did when she started the business in the 1920s. The toffee is crunchy and buttery, the toasted almonds are rich and flavorful and the chocolate is, as the English would say, “no better than it should be” (meaning it’s milk, not dark, chocolate, which makes a nicer complement to the other ingredients, rather than insisting on being the star of the show).

Littlejohn’s English toffee, 1-pound box for $19.95. 6333 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, (323) 936-5379, www.littlejohnscandies.com. Also at the Torrance and Palos Verdes farmers markets.

-- Russ Parsons

Giving coffee for the holidays is not only fun, but it’s also practical: Never underestimate the value of a good jolt of caffeine. George Laguerre’s coffee -- mellow and rich, with caramel notes that go really well with milk and a bit of sugar -- is just the thing for a sleep-deprived morning of gift-unwrapping.

Coffee from TiGeorges’ Chicken, 1-pound for $16, 309 N. Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 353-9994, www.tigeorgeschicken.com.

-- Amy Scattergood

I’m a big fan of Valerie Confections’ handmade hard toffees, especially the almond version finished off with fleur de sel and dipped in bittersweet chocolate. But co-founder Valerie Gordon is also obsessed with nougat. She experimented for months before coming up with the recipe for her Holiday Nougat. Made with organic eggs, clover honey, organic caramel almonds, French-style butter and June Taylor candied blood orange peel, the dreamy celebratory nougat is hand-dipped in Valrhona chocolate and crowned with flakes of 23-karat edible gold leaf.

Valerie Confections, 16-piece box of Holiday Nougat, $40. Available only through January. After that, she switches to a lemon and hazelnut version. 3360 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, (213) 739-8149, www.valerieconfections.com.

-- S. Irene Virbila

I like these quirky olive oils from the Santa Ynez Valley, where Theo Stephan planted olive tree varieties such as Spanish Farga and Manzanilla and Koroneiki from Crete, as well as Mission. Both the estate-bottled Mission extra virgin oil and the Farga/Manzanilla/Koroneiki extra virgin oil were winners in this year’s Los Angeles International Olive Oil Competition. The recycled glass decanters are pretty enough to put on the table, and to reuse.

Global Gardens estate olive oils, $30 each or $55 for the pair. 2477 Alamo Pintado Ave., Los Olivos, (800) 307-0447, www.oliverevolution.com.

-- Betty Hallock

Excellent caramels like the sea salt ones that Christine Moore makes at her Pasadena candy shop don’t need justification, but this time of year there’s plenty available anyway. They’re great for filling the crooked spaces in stockings, for putting out in a pretty bowl for noshing, and for popping during college football games. (Although you might want to appoint a ref during anxious moments: I ate a whole pound during last year’s Rose Bowl game.)

Sea salt caramels from Little Flower Candy Co., one pound for $28, 1424 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, (626) 304-4800, www.littleflowercandyco.com.

-- Amy Scattergood

Ice cream as a holiday gift? I love it! Especially if it’s from L.A.-based Carmela Ice Cream. Founder and flavor developer Jessica Mortarotti sources ingredients such as lemon basil and cardamom pods from the gardens of local farmers and packages the fresh ice cream in biodegradable sugar cane-based cartons. Her holiday flavors include: brown sugar-vanilla bean; salted caramel; dark chocolate cacao nib; nutmeg; cardamom; candied pecan; orange vanilla bean sorbet; and orange-cranberry-thyme sorbet.

Carmela ice cream, $9 per pint, holiday assortment (six pints), $70. (323) 319-6084. Available at the South Pasadena and Hollywood farmers markets and www.carmelaicecream.com.

-- Betty Hallock

Charcuterie plates are great during the holidays, as they’re easy, aesthetically appealing and multipurpose. They also taste fantastic, especially when you include some salumi with a bit of spice like the chorizo the folks at La Española make, which is laced with all four types of Spanish paprika (mild, smoked, bittersweet and hot).

Leon Herradura chorizo from La Española, 12-ounce package for $10.99, 25020 Dobie Ave., Harbor City, (310) 539-0455, www.laespanolameats.com.

-- Amy Scattergood

When it comes to eating nuts out of hand, I have to admit that I’m pretty much an almond man. Or walnuts. Maybe cashews. Even macadamias, when I can find them. Pistachios? Almost never. The meat always seems mealy, the flavor stale. And what’s with that funky red dye? Let’s face it -- they’re just another salty snack. There is one exception, though: The nuts from the Santa Barbara Pistachio Co. Granted, I haven’t traveled to the Middle East, but these are the best pistachios I’ve ever tasted. Santa Barbara Pistachio’s nuts are crisp and fresh tasting. The flavor is rich and nuanced and only lightly salted. In fact, I’m eating them right now as I’m typing this, and what started as a quick taste to refresh my memory has quickly turned into almost a quarter of a sack gone.

Santa Barbara pistachios, 1-pound bag $7. Available at the Santa Monica farmers markets and many other stores, or at www.santabarbarapistachios.com.

-- Russ Parsons

In the spring, Don Cole sets up about 500 of his hives throughout Santa Barbara County to harvest honey from bees that have frolicked among Santa Ynez Valley sage, Ojai Valley orange blossom and Santa Barbara wildflowers. He and his wife, Anne, make delicious raw -- unheated and unfiltered -- honey. The spun honey has a creamy, luscious texture, amazing even when just spooned onto bread smeared with a little butter.

San Marcos Farms honey, $3.75 for 8-ounce jar; spun honey (plain or cinnamon), $6 for 10-ounce tub; call to order, (805) 681-0312.

-- Betty Hallock