Zingerman’s may have its gift baskets filled with the finest foods from around the world, and Occasionally Gifts is known for its gift baskets stuffed with all things Michigan. 

But the creative, food-loving Ann Arbor-area locavores can make their own holiday gift baskets, filled with food made in Washtenaw County.

A host of regionally nationally distributed food companies, from red popcorn to tangy hot sauce to old-world pastas, are made in and around Ann Arbor and, for many of them, the holidays mean strong sales.

Just minutes north of downtown Ann Arbor are Tom and Rosanne Bloomer’s Bur Oaks Farm, growers and producers of Bur Oaks popcorn and Rabble Roasters soy nuts, distributed throughout Michigan and in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Sales pop between Thanksgiving and the New Year as customers load up on popcorn and, on a smaller scale, soy nuts.

“Popcorn is comfort food, and people are indoors more in the winter where they are more likely to prepare,” Tom Bloomer said.

That they sell red popcorn — popcorn kernels come in traditional yellow but also red, blue, purple and other hues, though they all pop white — gives them an edge at Christmas, he said. 

“Some people buy it because it looks nice, and they don’t even pop it.”

The popcorn packs nicely in a gift basket and is inexpensive ($2 for a one-pound package), Bloomer said. “The trick to gift baskets is to get items everyone likes. Popcorn is one of those items.”

Bur Oaks popcorn is already part of professionally prepared gift baskets, such as Maggie’s Baskets in Muskegon. The soy nuts were a spinoff. “It’s a small market for the soy nuts,” Bloomer said. “But everyone loves popcorn.”

Sales of Clancy’s Fancy, Ann Arbor’s iconic gourmet hot sauce founded during Ann Arbor’s hippie days in the late 1970s, saw sales spike a week after Thanksgiving, said Lindsey Till, who manages the day-to-day operation of the company. 

“Especially with our online sales. People usually buy one or two bottles. But since last week, people have been ordering it by the case.”

Till figures people are buying it as stocking stuffers and for gift baskets. While the company is working to expand its national reach, it has stalwart fans locally.

 “People who grew up here come home for the holidays and want their Clancy’s Fancy,” Till said.

Clancy’s Fancy already finds itself in a number of professionally prepared gift baskets, such as Ann Arbor’s Baskets and More. It’s a nice size for slipping into a basket and next year, Till said, Clancy’s Fancy may offer a boxed gift set — mild, hot and extra-hot — for the holidays.

Monique Deschaine joined the gift basket bandwagon for the first time this year, packaging her Whitmore Lake-made Al Dente Pasta Co.’s pastas, sauces, company aprons and hand-rolled bee wax candles. Costs range from $10 to $60. 

She’s opening up her production facility lobby, seven miles north of downtown Ann Arbor, to the public this holiday and selling the baskets.

Pasta is a natural for a holiday gift basket, Deschaine said.

“Ninety-nine percent of the world’s population loves pasta. It’s a one-size-fits-all gift. It makes people feel good.”

And Al Dente offers close to 20 flavors and types of pasta. Retail cost of a single bag ranges from $3-$5, and can be purchased from most area grocery stores. 

New this year is Al Dente’s pappardelle, a broad noodle that’s catching fire nationwide, but has yet to take off in Ann Arbor, Deschaine said. “We introduced it four months ago and it’s flying off the shelves nationwide.”

While Al Dente is a home-town favorite, it has a national reputation.

 “We are small but we have a real solid national presence,” Deschaine said. “People don’t realize we have such a broad reach.” It is sold in all 50 states along with Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.

While Flatout Bread’s five varieties of flat bread would curl over and slump in a gift basket, the Saline-based company’s new product, six ounce bags of EdgeOn Crisps, made under the Flatout Bread banner, would be perfect, said Kyle Pleger, general manager. 

The four flavors of EdgeOn baked crisps, a healthier version of pita chips and with 60 percent less fat than regular potato chips, have been test marketed in targeted areas and will be nationally distributed in January. The company was founded in 1995 but has been strong growth in the past three years.

Sales of Flatout Bread, marketed as a healthier alternative to sliced sandwich bread, slump during the holidays — caution goes out the door with holiday indulgences. 

However, the company is hoping EdgeOn crisps will capture some of the holiday market: They can be used with dips, spreads and to make hors d’ourves, said Nicole Simonds, director of marketing. 

They come in four flavors — garlic herb, multigrain, four cheese and sea salt — and are available locally at Hiller’s Market, Busch’s Fresh Food Market and Krogers, Simonds said. Retail cost is between $3-$4 a bag.

Roos Roast and Free Speech Coffee comes in a nifty, hand-stamped block print bag, good enough for framing once the coffee’s gone. Owner John Roos said he is marketing his Ann Arbor-roasted coffee as the perfect gift this season. This is his busiest time of year. 

“I’m trying to get people to buy locally roasted coffee rather than aftershave,” he said.

And it seems to be working. A woman from Arizona called recently to confirm her online order, a pound of Roos Roast she will give as a gift to a friend. How someone in Arizona found out about Roos Roast remains a mystery, Roos said.

Janet Miller is a freelance writer and a frequent contributor to AnnArbor.com.