Mail-order Christmas magic.

• Author: Woodring, Jeannie
• Position: Alaska-made christmas presents - Includes related articles - Product Announcement

Check out the incredible Alaska-made presents you can give this Christmas -- by effortless mail order.

Looking for a way to give unique Alaska-made gifts to your friends and relatives?

Try mail-order, Alaska-style. From Juneau to Fairbanks and dozens of towns in between, Alaska entrepreneurs offer hundreds of different delights to a growing mail-order clientele around the world.

This article looks at three different categories of mail-order products: food, clothing, and arts and crafts. The companies and individual entrepreneurs outlined here are just a few of Alaska's mail-order companies. For more complete listings of these vendors, see the sidebar, "Where to Go" on Pgs.43-44.

A Taste of Alaska

Food products, from seafood to wild berry creations, are the most popular Alaska-made Christmas gift items.

Hankering to give away fish products? There's an ocean of opportunity. In Anchorage, 10th & M Seafoods sends out fresh and frozen seafood packages to thousands of customers every year. Across town at Alaska Gourmet Seafood Inc., you can also get canned, frozen or fresh seafood gifts in a variety of combinations and price ranges.

Down on the bountiful Kenai Peninsula, Eagle Smokehouse in Soldotna sends out mouth-watering kippered and pickled salmon and halibut, smoked salmon cream cheese spread, and a preservative-free salmon jerky. In scenic Homer, Ketch Seafoods provides mail-order frozen scallops, king crab, salmon and halibut to customers across America.

Since 1984, Taku Smokeries in Juneau has dished out mail-order seafood. Today, the company mails catalogs to between 70,000 and 80,000 people a year. "Our clients live anywhere Federal Express goes," says owner Sandro Lane.

Alaska Wilderness Gourmet in Anchorage combines seafood with more than a dozen kinds of jams and jellies, herbed vinegars and berry syrups, a made-in-Alaska barbecue sauce, superb sourdough mixes and reindeer jerky -- all available singly or in a variety of combinations. Trapper Creek Smoke Co., also in Anchorage, offers single items or variety packs of smoked salmon, halibut and reindeer sausage.

The grand-daddy of all Alaska mail-order food companies, Alaska Wild Berry Products of Homer, sells wild berry candies and jams and a variety of smoked fish and meats. "We send out approximately 12,000 gift packages a year," says vice president Terre Devany.

But Alaska is also becoming famous for other food items. Alaska Herb and Tea Co. of Anchorage sells six different kinds...