The new year always brings new trends in eating, and we thought we'd tip you off on what the table spread is about to look like. The continuing emphasis on locally grown, sustainable food merges with the suppressed economy (which curtails restaurant-going), and the result is fresh and creative fare that is more diverse than ever before. Expect to see the following items coming soon to a menu near you – and maybe even your own kitchen table!

Olive oil may come to you in a bottle, but its source (the olive) is a fruit; and just like any other fruit, it has a season. Late winter is the peak of the olive harvest season, which means that there is no better time than right now to get fresh extra virgin olive oil. Read on to learn why fresh olive oil matters, and how to get your hands on some.

We hope you all enjoyed your countdowns as the clock turned from 2011 to 2012... but this is a different kind of countdown. Filled with appreciation for all that last year was, OrganicAuthority is soaring into 2012 with more passion and enthusiasm than ever. But we've got to give our most-loved articles one last hurrah. Here are the top ten articles from the 2011 OA ranks. We're so glad you enjoyed them, shared them and were inspired by them!

When I was growing up, my mother always told me, "We eat with our eyes first." While I still believe this to be true, I also think that our aesthetic has changed. Gone are the days when tomatoes need to be perfectly round, bright red globes; heirloom tomatoes, in all shapes, colors and sizes, have flooded the market and our tables. Why should beets not receive the same treatment?

The Colombian rainforest smells sweet. Dewy flowers burst with fragrances that made me think of warm apple pie, juicy ripe fruits and a steamy cup of tea...but the retreat kitchen served deep-fried plantains and flavorless iceberg lettuce drowning in raw onions at every meal. Just outside Mexico City, the pyramids of Teotihuacan conjured images of a civilization thousands of years gone, and the hotel restaurant served bread that tasted just as old. I'd all but guzzled the last of my emergency energy bars… so, what's a health foodie to eat?

Caviar has always been a ruse. It was fed to Middle Eastern and European royalty to boost the image of the higher classes (who seemed unfazed by the gross factor of eating fish eggs); 19^th century U.S. saloon patrons were given free gobs of it because the salt content increased their beer consumption; in the late 1800s, U.S. production dominated the world caviar market so much that exports to Europe were sold back to the U.S. as more expensive imported "Russian caviar," when in actuality, as much as 90 percent of it was American until production pushed stateside resources to the brink of extinction making real Russian imports the dominant option; Hollywood's booming golden era of the 1920s and '30s delegated caviar as a decadent must-have food for anyone interested in increasing their glam-appeal and quasi-wealthy appearances. By the counter-culture revolution of the 1960s though, even many self-respecting billionaires let their taste for fish eggs sink. But a resurgence in caviar, now with an ethical twist, is bringing this food back into fashion despite the one question no one seems to be asking: Do we really need caviar?

People have differing opinions about coffee; I'm one of those people who can't live without it. The smell of coffee brewing in the morning makes my day, and a bad or bitter cup can ruin it. Which is why I've taken the time to seek out three different organic coffees that are tasty and pack the punch to get you going in the morning.

Christmastime and food are inextricably linked, not only in our hearts and homes, but in pop culture. “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire”… “I brought some corn for popping”… “The Wassail Song”... all elicit food memories as they are tied to the holiday season, and they are almost all references of foods from days long ago. In our kitchen’s today, we expect to find a very basic list of modern foods: ham, turkey, greens, potatoes and breads (plus or minus the vegan Field Roast in the mix). But one or two hundred years ago, the Christmas tables of our ancestors looked very different. If you think that the references to chestnuts or figgy bread from your fave Christmas carols are odd, just read on to see exactly what Americans were eating back then. It's a very retro Christmas menu.

You’ve probably heard about the current food trend of “head to tail” eating, but have you sat down to dine on pig head for dinner?

Currently at The Gorbals restaurant you can order a half-cut, roasted pig head for $52. The dish takes 60-90 minutes to cook, so you probably want to save this indulgence for a long, lingering dinner with friends. In the meantime, nosh on confit of cow tongue, roast neck of lamb, fried chicken gizzards or sturgeon battered in squid ink.

I confess: I am a huge KitchenAid fan. When I registered for my wedding, at the top of my list was the KitchenAid Stand Mixer. The woman at Bloomingdale’s who walked me through the store, actually tried talking me out of registering for the stand mixer saying, “you should only register for this if you do a lot of baking... and you really need to do a lot of baking.” And she repeated again, “… you really need to do a lot of baking to get this stand mixer.” I thought to myself, “Honey you don’t know who you’re talking to, I love to cook and bake!” Little did she know I would go on to culinary school and launch a New Media company and write recipes and publish articles about delicious food.