Are Amazon boxes filled with uninspired products creating a barrier to your creativity this gift-giving season? The new, Built Oregon Marketplace makes it easy to shop local. Oregonian makers have invented food, books and looks with a Pacific Northwest flavor that can be picked up at their shop or delivered.
Dozens of food purveyors, fashion creators, wellness promoters and other up-and-coming small business owners are selling their wares at builtoregon.shop.
Businesses can still join the online market before the holiday shopping event, which runs Nov. 19-22.
Packed and ready to wrap are gift boxes such as the Oregon artisan cheese collection ($55), beard grooming kit (on sale at $50), home spa kit for men or women ($139), chai samplers ($42) and more.
For your home, there are displayable, sustainably made wooden cutting boards ($150), Bend-themed cork coasters ($18.95 for four), reusable, organic bamboo straws ($10 for six straws plus a cleaning brush), candles, letterpress art prints ($36) and colored-glass sun catchers ($45).
Workshop Goods has modern Edison-like Worklights with an exposed LED bulb and a colorful metal backplate and socket secured to walnut or maple ($158).
Alshiref Design and Print offers a cotton kitchen towel with a hand-drawn illustration of Tilikum Crossing, Bridge of the People ($14).
For kids, the Northwest Store has infant bodysuits ($22.95) with a graphic of Oregon Strong (proceeds help fire victims) and a flannel plaid-clad, lumberjack Bigfoot baby bodysuit ($22.95). Overcup Press has the whimsical picture book, “Tolly” by Maryanna Hoggatt ($16.99) while /m productions has “What’s Over That Hills? A journey of two curious little birds” ($24; includes a donation for the preservation of national parks).
Need to wrap up gifts in a practical, reusable way? There are totes and recycled cotton market bags as well as other gifts that hold everything, including cash.
Here’s a sampling of products on the Built Oregon Marketplace:
Shaun Winter grows hot winter peppers in Cottage Grove to make a fermented, organic hot sauce with Oregon grown chiles. Hot Winter Hot Sauce’s Bulgarian carrot ($10.99 for six ounces) is the hottest.
Rob Leon of Food Field Trip curates a collection of Oregon creamery artisan cheeses and a package of barrel-aged Oregon honey from the Barreled Bee for a Gift Box ($55 with 1.5 pounds of cheese) that changes each month.
Nikki Guerrero makes small batches of Mexican-inspired Hot Mama Salsa based on family recipes and her extensive research into the origins and traditional uses of chili peppers from around the world. A nine-ounce jar of Smoky Coffee Chili Oil is $12.
Genevieve Brazelton, co-founder of the Bitter Housewife, is neither a housewife nor that bitter, she says, but she has been making craft cocktail bitters (orange, lime, grapefruit, starting at $16) for six years.
Adriana Lopez of small-batch Tostado Coffee Roasters sources sustainable green beans farmed in the Sierra Madre mountains of Chiapas and Oaxaca, Mexico, and roasted and packed in Southeast Portland ($14.99 for 10.58 ounces).
Inspired Leaf Tea’s Cindi Neiswonger of Bend has Tea Party gift sets with a tin containing 12 pyramid tea bags of Inspired Leaf tea paired with Holm Made Toffee in three flavors: Chocolate hazelnut, lavender and cardamom vanilla for $25.
