Two weeks before Christmas my 12-year-old daughter handed me a “Hanukkah Wish list.” We celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah, but, historically, our efforts have fallen short of the spangly, awe-filled, consumer frenzy of childhood dreams.

Not having grown up celebrating Christmas, I admit, I’m still a little unclear on the concept. Kids make a list of what they want and we provide as if we’re trying to build kids’ muscles of wanting? Or, we skip the list, surprising them, in perfect accuracy, with the toys of their dreams?

Rosie’s “Hanukkah wish list” had four items, each containing three bullet points: item description, explanation of significance and location for purchase. A tactical appeal to my utilitarian side, her enumeration of the benefits of Wish List item No. 2, an electric kettle, were: “turns off when water is boiling and sometimes I forget about water on the stove and that’s dangerous.” And bonus: “Drinking tea is healthy and nice when friends are over.”

If you are similarly practical, vexed by the trance of consumerism and confused by the planned obsolescence embedded in every gadget, here are some gift suggestions that keeps your money local, ensures your gift is usable and packaging-free, and supports people who literally plant the seeds to feed our community.

Taking the lead of a certain 12-year-old girl, here are item descriptions, explanation of significance and location for purchase:

Join the Turtle Lake Microgreens CSA (community supported agriculture, i.e., food subscription) and pick up trays of fresh, nutritious, living sprouts weekly. You can give up your bland California-grown-and-shipped lettuce for delightfully spicy radish sprouts; feathery, nutty pea sprouts; and sweet, chewy sunflower sprouts. It’s almost like grazing – you cut as you go. And if it’s too snowy (or too anything) to get to the grocery store, you can still check the vegetable box on your food pyramid while winter glitters outside. Found at Turtle Lake Cafe, 848 East Third Ave., Durango and reachable at 247-8395. Various sizes of radish, sunflower, pea and wheatgrass sprouts. Prices range from $2.50 (5-inch by 5-inch tray) to $12 (10-inch by 20-inch tray) per week.

Studies show that people get more happiness out of experiences than things. Things fall prey to our warp-speed change of preferences while experiences solidify in the sunny memory bank of our mental scrapbooks. Recently, we bought 50 pounds of gorgeously colorful potatoes from Mountain Roots Produce and immediately hosted friends for a baked potato bar, during which five children created a soccer-inspired game to be played in our 12-foot by 2-foot hallway. Highly memorable! Host friends for potato latkes; potato-leek soup; a homemade carrot cake studded with grated bits of edible orange confetti. A gift of hardy, storage roots will give you multiple and instant answers to the perennial question, “What’s for dinner?” You can include in your gift of vegetable bounty recipes for French onion soup, carrot-ginger soup, and homemade purple potato chips. Found at various local farms. Prices vary. Consult websites for Mountain Roots Produce, Rohwer’s Farm, Fields to Plate Farm and Tierra Vida Farm.

Studies show that people get more happiness out of experiences than things. Things fall prey to our warp-speed change of preferences while experiences solidify in the sunny memory bank of our mental scrapbooks. Recently, we bought 50 pounds of gorgeously colorful potatoes from Mountain Roots Produce and immediately hosted friends for a baked potato bar, during which five children created a soccer-inspired game to be played in our 12-foot by 2-foot hallway. Highly memorable! Host friends for potato latkes; potato-leek soup; a homemade carrot cake studded with grated bits of edible orange confetti. A gift of hardy, storage roots will give you multiple and instant answers to the perennial question, “What’s for dinner?” You can include in your gift of vegetable bounty recipes for French onion soup, carrot-ginger soup, and homemade purple potato chips. Found at various local farms. Prices vary. Consult websites for Mountain Roots Produce, Rohwer’s Farm, Fields to Plate Farm and Tierra Vida Farm.Why is everything moving so fast? What are we all chasing? Forget the faddish techno-gadgetry; pass on the shiny, sparkly, landfill-destined plastic. I think we all crave more simplicity. Life could be simpler, simple as a pot of pintos. Beans are a low cost, high protein alternative to meat, and they store and travel well (i.e., put a bow on a bag of beans and tote to your out-of-town celebration). A large pot of beans can form the scaffolding that supports a variety of weekly meals, like chili, enchiladas, 7-layer dip, or just a pleasing bowl of warm, salted beans. The Isgar’s pinto beans, buttery smooth, delicious and grown without pesticides, are dry-farmed on 500 acres, meaning they do not require irrigation, which is a resourceful and seemingly magical way to grow food in an arid land. Found at Isgar Farms, which can be reached at 759-0377.

Studies show that people get more happiness out of experiences than things. Things fall prey to our warp-speed change of preferences while experiences solidify in the sunny memory bank of our mental scrapbooks. Recently, we bought 50 pounds of gorgeously colorful potatoes from Mountain Roots Produce and immediately hosted friends for a baked potato bar, during which five children created a soccer-inspired game to be played in our 12-foot by 2-foot hallway. Highly memorable! Host friends for potato latkes; potato-leek soup; a homemade carrot cake studded with grated bits of edible orange confetti. A gift of hardy, storage roots will give you multiple and instant answers to the perennial question, “What’s for dinner?” You can include in your gift of vegetable bounty recipes for French onion soup, carrot-ginger soup, and homemade purple potato chips. Found at various local farms. Prices vary. Consult websites for Mountain Roots Produce, Rohwer’s Farm, Fields to Plate Farm and Tierra Vida Farm.Why is everything moving so fast? What are we all chasing? Forget the faddish techno-gadgetry; pass on the shiny, sparkly, landfill-destined plastic. I think we all crave more simplicity. Life could be simpler, simple as a pot of pintos. Beans are a low cost, high protein alternative to meat, and they store and travel well (i.e., put a bow on a bag of beans and tote to your out-of-town celebration). A large pot of beans can form the scaffolding that supports a variety of weekly meals, like chili, enchiladas, 7-layer dip, or just a pleasing bowl of warm, salted beans. The Isgar’s pinto beans, buttery smooth, delicious and grown without pesticides, are dry-farmed on 500 acres, meaning they do not require irrigation, which is a resourceful and seemingly magical way to grow food in an arid land. Found at Isgar Farms, which can be reached at 759-0377.Francis Horvath’s little winged workers are responsible for pollinating swaths of wild and domesticated trees, fields of alfalfa, beans, sunflowers and myriad vegetable gardens, large and small. Purchasing local honey is more than a two-way transaction between consumer and producer; it is a commitment to supporting every connection in our wild ecosystem, starting with the viability of a plant. (Plant feeds herbivore, herbivore feeds carnivore; simplistically speaking). Farmers and ranchers, who maintain the agricultural heritage of this region, benefit from bees as well. There is always room for a little more sweetness in our lives.Reach Horvath Honey at 588-3419. half pints at $8; pints at $14, quarts at $24. Hoorvath offers deals when buying multiple jars

This is hardly an exhaustive list of local food producers, and food is hardly an exhaustive description of what they contribute; additional benefits might be healthy soil, wildlife habitat, jobs, passing down knowledge and skills and keeping land rural. When buying gifts this season, we can contemplate the downstream affects of what we purchase, their endurability and ultimate happiness quotient.

FYI Santa, if you’re reading this, Rosie would also like a “hat with pom-pom” because “it’s super cute and will keep my head warm which can actually help me not get sick.”

Rachel Turiel blogs about growing food and a family at 6512 feet at http://6512andgrowing.com.