Whenever I need to send someone I know or love a food gift, I toggle over to Dancing Deer’s website. This Boston-based bakery has some of the best baked goods I’ve ever tasted. Not only are the products freshly made, but they’re certified kosher (great for Hanukkah gifts) and packaged in recyclable containers. Ever since a client of mine sent me a cookie assortment as a thank-you gift, I’ve been sending Dancing Deer treats.

Recently, though, I starting to think again about this notion of eating locally (locavore) and how maybe I should apply this thinking to food gifts I might be buying and sending to folks this holiday season. Plus, in this down economy, where we hear so much about how Wall Street is hurting but Main Street is hurting even more, I think it would be a great idea to figure out a way to gift and shop locally.

So if you’re considering sending food gifts this holiday season, here are three resources that can help you support local businesses–either local to you or local to the recipient–and send something delicious to those special food lovers on your list:

1. LocalHarvest.org
Most people know Local Harvest as a resource for finding CSA memberships and local farmers markets. But in addition to that seasonal information, the website also has an online store locator that provides links to locally grown food and gifts that you can get via mail order–or in the case of holiday giving, send to people. In addition to edible items, the 21 categories also include soaps, pet needs and lavender–mmmmm.

Unfortunately, the “store” page does not allow you to choose products locally. However, you can find that information is a quasi backdoor way. Go back to the Local Harvest home page and find the “what are you looking for?” box. Select the “online store” button, enter your zip code, and click on “search,” and you’ll find all of the local businesses on the site that offer online shopping.

If you’d rather just shop for holiday gifts, you can visit the Christmas specials page.

2. Regional Best
I learned about Regional Best, a guide to local foods, through my subscription to Help a Reporter Out or HARO. HARO is a free, media leads service for journalists, experts and PR people alike. It’s thanks to HARO that I got featured in these stories about frugal living in Business Week and The Christian Science Monitor.

My mouth started to water as I perused through the 11 different categories of Regional Best’s local gift offerings–from artisans cheeses to whole grains. Better yet, I was able to shop by region so I could make selections that wouldn’t endure too many food miles.

One piece of constructive criticism: I wish the Regional Best folks would tweak the “results” pages, when shopping by regions, to make it clearer where in my region each of the companies was located. Obviously, Maryland Blue Crab Express is in the Old Line State, but I’m not really clear where Tait Farm Foods is headquartered. (Google helped me figured out that it’s in central Pennsylvania.)

3. NRDC Eat Local Guide
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) website allows visitors to find out what is in season in their state in any two-week period of the year. Just use the pull-down menu to select “state” and “season” and, voila, up comes information about fresh food you can buy locally. Though it doesn’t provide direct links to local growers with holiday gifts, you will find links to other local resources that can help you in your quest for the perfect locavore food gift. Or you can check out the NRDC’s Green Gift Guide for additional ideas.

And by all means, if you live in the Boston area and are sending a gift to someone else in New England, do support Dancing Deer–I’d recommend the Sugar Cane Lime Cookies. The recipient’s taste buds will thank you.