Pecan shortbread, Jollof spice blend and more Southern-made products to try

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Jollof spice blend

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Bakeware and ready-to-use icing

$4.59 per 7.5-ounce pouch of icing with four decorating tips available at Walmart. Bakeware available on Amazon and at Walmart from $9.09-$14.99.

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

A calamansi tree

Your friend who enjoys Filipino food and fun cocktails needs a calamansi tree so they can pick fresh fruit right off their own tree. Atlanta-based Danny Trejo offers citrus trees from his family’s Florida farm delivered to your door. A winter-shipped calamansi is likely to arrive with both fragrant flowers and bright orange fruit. Your friend can grow it in a protected spot outdoors or indoors in a space where they receive four to six hours of direct sunlight.

Credit: Caroline Porth

Credit: Caroline Porth

Blackberry spice and sage simple syrup

We’ve long enjoyed the creations of Sallie Dent Porth and her Cameron, South Carolina-based company, Sallie’s Greatest. We just tried her blackberry spice and sage simple syrup and it’s now a favorite, thanks to the combination of the sweetest blackberries and herbal back notes from the sage. Drizzle it over ice cream or sorbet, mix it with sparkling water or wine, or pour it over pancakes and waffles.

Credit: Pete Massey

Credit: Pete Massey

Champagne dill mustard

Jennifer Burns of Atlanta-based Emily G’s has been dreaming up delicious jams, sauces and mustards for more than 15 years. Our newest crush is her Champagne dill mustard, which takes mustard to the next level by adding Champagne and white wine to the mix. Use it on sandwiches or add to deviled eggs. It also makes a festive accompaniment to seafood.

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Deviled eggs in gourmet flavors

Latoya Alphonse brings her culinary training to the world of deviled eggs with Atlanta-based Eggalicious. She offers a half-dozen regular flavors like zesty bacon ranch and little Caesar, and occasional special flavors like avocado smoked salmon and Cajun seafood. For those of us who love deviled eggs but hate peeling those eggs, her tender, flavorful concoctions provide all the fun and none of the work.

$1.80 to $3.50 per deviled egg. Available at the Sandy Springs Farmers Market, Smorgasburg Atlanta and letsgeteggalicious.com.

Credit: Alexandra Hernandez

Credit: Alexandra Hernandez

Esquites in a jar

Alexandra and Arturo Hernandez opened Sandy Springs-based El Elote in 2017, offering elote (corn on a stick) and esquites in a cup with lime at local farmers markets April to October. Their jars of esquites are available all year long and taste as if the corn were freshly cut off the cob.

$7.50 per 16-ounce jar. Available at Lucy’s Market, New York Butcher Shoppe on Roswell Road, The General Store at Serenbe and el-elote.com.

Credit: Janet Sanders

Credit: Janet Sanders

Cheesy garlic baguette cashew butter

Husband and wife Min Yoo and Janet Sanders of Marietta-based The Buttered Nut produce nut butters that Sanders says aren’t “plain and boring.” While their specialty is dessert-flavored nut butters, we think you have to try their limited-edition cheesy garlic baguette cashew butter. Their classic peanut butter cookie, sea salt brownie, black sesame, matcha nut and strawberry soft cream cake flavors are available year-round.

$14.99 per 10-ounce jar. Available at thebutterednut.com.

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Pecan shortbread made with Georgia pecans

Brian and Kam Kyzer of Augusta-based Watanut offer gift-worthy tins of bite-sized shortbread. You can fill the tins with your choice of classic pecan, salty chocolate shortbread, cheddar cocktail shortbread, cranstachio shortbread and more. You can’t go wrong no matter what flavor you choose.

$21.95 per 10-ounce tin (approximately 60 cookies). Available at Lucy’s Market, The Local Exchange, Randolph’s Fine Gifts, Candler Park Market and watanut.com.

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Corn and buckwheat polenta

Polenta taragna is a classic Italian combination of corn and buckwheat, darker in color than corn polenta with the added nutrition of buckwheat. Brad Swancy of Artisan Milling Co. in Rome is offering stone-ground polenta taragna along with corn polenta, buckwheat flour, grits and cornmeal. Prepare polenta taragna with Parmesan cheese for a creamy porridge that is as delicious for breakfast as it is for dinner.

$8 per 1.5-pound bag. Available at Morningside and Freedom farmers markets and artisanmillingco.com.

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Touchscreen toaster

If it’s time to update your toaster, the Vivid Touch Hi-Resolution Touchscreen Toaster from Kalorik should be on your list. Scroll the 4½-inch touchscreen to select from 10 types of bread and pastries, then choose the toasting option from very light to deep, deep brown. You can create presets so your bagels and sourdough always turn out just the way you want. The stainless steel exterior will look sleek and stylish on your counter.

$119.99. Available on Amazon and kalorik.com.

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Warm wild long pepper

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Strawberry beet mint tea

Credit: Evan Summers

Credit: Evan Summers

Sweet Asian chili butter

Every week Evan Summers of Austell-based Now Schmear This mixes batches of cream cheese and butters in more than four dozen rotating flavors. One flavored butter you’ll always find is Asian Sweet Chili. Summers suggested we try it on popcorn and it was an instant hit, but we can imagine it stirred into fried rice or melted on roasted vegetables.