Healthy Eats

Healthy takeout spot the Goods helps busy professionals stay on track with Lunch Club, an office meal delivery program running Monday through Thursday. It also offers catering for meetings and events of as many as 400 people. New on the menu for fall: coconut curry sweet potato soup, organic green tea smoothies, and a grain-free salad packed with dark leafy greens, seeds, and avocado.

The newly opened Float Toronto is all about floating as relaxation, making it an alternative to traditional spa gifts and outings. Dubbed “flotation therapy,” hour-long sessions involve lying in a spacious, soundproof tank filled with water and 900 pounds of dissolved Epsom salts. Float gift cards are available, or small groups of as many as five people can book sessions at the same time (in separate tanks, of course).

Known for its Canadiana design offerings, the Drake General Store recently launched new landscape tableware that makes a memorable corporate gift. The tree- and mountain-focused collection includes an Arctic bowl, a Rockies side plate, a Yukon dinner plate, and a Halifax teacup and saucer.

If lineups at local brewpubs are any indication, Toronto's obsession with craft beer isn't slowing down. Enter certified cicerone and beer sommelier Crystal Luxmore, who can host groups of as many as 500 for a tasting or teambuilding event. Customizable fall themes include Locavore Fall Brews, Pumpkin and Harvest Ales, and Best Turkey Beers. Tastings can be paired with food; cheese and chocolate are popular choices.

Rachelle Soucy of Botany Floral Studio prefers to arrange flowers in a “loose and organic style” using a combination of local, seasonal, and unusual blooms. Some of her favourite fall plants to work with include bittersweet and viburnum berries, dahlias, garden hydrangeas, zinnias, and amaranthus. The studio also offers hands-on floral arranging workshops for groups of as many as six.

Summer may be over, but Be Good Gelato keeps frozen dessert seasonal with made-from-scratch flavors like pumpkin five-spice, maple butter tart, and cranberry swirl. Owners Lauren Walter and Kevin De Clippeleir offer two catering options for events large and small: serving prepackaged gelato in cups (or as sandwiches) via bike or using a portable dipping cabinet with staff scooping out cups and cones. Branded packaging is also available.

The Four Seasons Hotel Washington, D.C., serves blocks of peanut brittle that guests can break apart with hammers.

At the grand opening of the Miami Airport Convention Center in April 2012, a "garden" was created out of toasted pumpernickel bread for dirt and included planted baby carrots, asparagus spears, and zucchini, as well as baby tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella flowers.

At the Conservancy of Southwest Florida's fund-raiser at the Southwest Florida Nature Center campus in March 2012, shrimp salad, topped with sprouting greens, was presented in "flower pots," aka edible cups by Windows Catering Company.

The Pot Pie Garden dessert from Barton G. LA features six individual pies (pecan, key lime, cherry jubilee, banana cream, rosemary apple, and Mississippi mud). Each pie is baked into an individual flower pot and topped with chocolate "soil" and a sprig of fresh herb. Muddied (aka chocolate-stained) gardening tools and gloves complete the platter.