The new mail-order tradition.

• Author: Woodring, Jeannie
• Position: Alaskan mail-order enterprises

Reversing the old trend of ordering from Outside, more Alaska entrepreneurs are creating their own mail-order products to ship worldwide.

Mail-order gift-giving is a centuries-old Alaska tradition. From the 1790s to 1970s, Alaskans ordered from Outside retail giants like the old Russian trading companies and Sears Roebuck. Starting in the 1970s, Alaskans began thumbing through the pages of specialty catalogs like Sharper Image to find unique mail-order products.

Now, Alaska's mail-order trend is reversing. No longer do you have to order specialty gifts from the Lower 48 for your friends or relatives -- or even yourself. An increasing number of northern entrepreneurs are creating delightful Alaska products -- from cranberry-banana jellies to soapstone carvings -- that you can mail-order to your friends and relatives Outside.

Best of all, since many Alaskan mail-order enterprises are fueled by the growing number of visitors to the Last Frontier, you can expect to see more northern mail-order items available in the years ahead.

Listed below you will find a sampling of Alaska's new mail-order magicians. Remember, this is only a taste of the wide range of products you can order from Great Land entrepreneurs. You can discover more mail-order marvels at specialty stores statewide, local farmers' markets -- or at the holiday bazaars that pop up between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

A TASTE OF ALASKA

While Alaska doesn't have orange groves or apple orchards, it does yield a bounty of foods that are turned into tasty mail-order treats.

Tapping Alaska's birch trees provides the Original Alaska Birch Syrup Co. of Fairbanks with up to 500 gallons of birch syrup each year. For the last four years, the firm has offered its mellow brown birch product through mail-order -- along with three other kinds of syrups -- rosehip, fireweed and blueberry.

"We try to offer products that are very high quality and as natural as possible," says Jeff Weltzin, owner of Original Alaska Birch Syrup Co. "We use the maximum amount of fireweed, rosehips, blueberries and birch syrup, and sweeten our products with high-quality fructose, which is much easier to digest than cane sugar or corn syrup."

The company's four syrups are available in two gift pack sizes, one with 8-ounce bottles and one with 1.7-ounce bottles. In addition to its mail-order sales, the company provides its products wholesale to stores around Alaska. To order, write to Original Alaska Birch Syrup Co., P.O. Box 29, Ester, Alaska 99725, or call (907) 479-5527.

Despite its northern proximity, Fairbanks produces an abundance of other mail-order items. Out at North Pole Acres south of town, Ed and Aggie Bostrom turn out 23 different jams, jellies, wines, toppings and honey from their 240 acres and the wild Interior woods nearby.

In addition to selling their wares at Christmas bazaars...