Very cool. Not sure if your motivation is to "promote local eating" or if you're trying to build a cool product that would bring in some cash... but if you're looking to monetize, I'd pay a small amount (about the cost of a magazine) for a HIGH-QUALITY set of recipe suggestions that use 6 ingredients or less, and take ~1hr to cook. (because I cook for a family every day, I don't have all day to cook, and I don't want to buy 100 ingredients I'll only use once)
The last point is important to me. Food porn is common these days, they put out these recipes with beautiful pictures, but the recipe is so impractical I'll probably never make it. Frankly, if I never make the recipe... it's of little added value to me.
But clearly what you mean when you say that is you really want a long-form article filled with OPs life story about how they discovered vegetables, best ways to prepare vegetables, pointers for the recipe, etc. interspersed with ads before finally delivering the recipe somewhere towards the bottom of the page (possible behind a link to a second page with the actual recipe). /s
I use cooksmarts as a recipe service. Weekly menus have reusable items. Sometimes you make double of one item one day use in the next days dinner if it stores well. Also to seasonal cooking into account.
But you've got some work to do to get the data in there. I put in my Southern Indiana zip code and got 12 results back. Only one was actually anywhere near my zipcode (or even in my state). The rest were anywhere from 200 - 500 miles away. Sorry, but I don't consider Maryland to be local to Indiana.
I would suggest you work on getting data about local farms in there, and then tighten up the constraints for what is considered "local".
At the very least, in the results paragraph, change the display from "12 for your zipcode" which is just flatly false to "1 for your zipcode and 11 in the broader region" or something of that nature.
Thanks for the feedback - this is very first version, and there are a lot of improvements to make.
I think you're right about the wording, reading it with fresh eyes it is very confusing, and I'll change it ASAP.
Right now, all the farm information data is pulled from aggregated USDA data so there is a ton of work left to do to get better, finer-grained results. My plan is to look at which zip codes get the most queries and the most user sign ups, and improve results for those first.
The data wrangling aspect of this is definitely one of the biggest challenges. I've spent more time than I'd care to say extracting data from PDFs and other non-parser-friendly materials with regular expressions, and, often, manually.
I think part of the problem you're finding is just that nothing is in season in your zip code, maybe? I don't really know Southern Indiana but I wasn't surprised that there were no real local results around me here in SW PA.
I had a similar experience in Yakima county - According to this site the nearest local apples are in Chelan county which is funny because there are many many apple orchards here.
Just a small detail: The large subscription form popping up after a search made me think there are no results initially. Maybe make sure the results are higher up, and e.g. move the subscription form to the side?
Also, a softer (lighter?) background might bring out the fruit/vegetable images a bit better.
1. There is a field to enter zipcode and empty space below.
2. I enter zipcode.
3. Empty space filled with fields for an email and name and a "we found results banner".
4. Because all the results were off my screen I figured it was nothing more than another email harvesting page.
5. Later I saw it on the front page of HN and tried it again. It still looked like an email harvesting page on my laptop. Only because I had seen the comments did I think it might be possible to scroll down.
It might be worth delivering value (results) before asking for value (a visitor's email). Fresh fruits near me is awesome. Signing up for email isn't.
I like this! This was an idea I toyed around with in my head for a long time. I am glad to see you actually implement it.
One suggestion I have is this: it would be great if there was a way to "peek" ahead and see what other items will soon be coming into season within the next 1-2 weeks.
Very nice! Next step: steer users to where they can get the produce. I would suggest teaming up with Community Supported Agriculture [1] where people can buy stuff right off the farm with subscription.
I've used a CSA before and it was nice to get random assortments of fruits/vegetables that I otherwise wouldn't buy. But the convenience of just shopping online for what you want is lost.
That's why my friend started Market Wagon[0] which acts as a middle-man between farmers who have crops and people who want to buy the food. The experience is like shopping on Amazon but you're buying local.
I get that you don't want to show mostly empty pages(but that's going to happen most places in November), but 500+ miles seems to be stretching the definition of near. Being in Tennessee, I don't know that I'd consider various citrus fruits 572 miles in Florida to be very helpful.
No, not quite accurate -- the only results it returned are apples and cherries. Apples are 100% correct. Cherries are not. And there are a plethora of squashes and pumpkins recently harvested, as we just had our first frost last week, so the list is clearly incomplete.
The database is definitely incomplete - I have a ton of work left to do.
There is also the problem that just because a certain produce item is being harvested within x miles doesn't necessarily mean that produce is available at local stores, and vice-versa.
My hope is that if I can get some early adopters, I'll be able to concentrate improving the data in a smaller number of targeted areas. This is the first time I've shown the site to anyone, so I'm hoping I can get some feedback to make the most effective improvements first.
Apples are sort of correct, at least near me...but really only the late varieties. It lists apples as "In peak season", but peak apple season is late September, and the only ones really being harvested now are the Braeburns and Fujis and others that don't mind the frost so much:
I thought most apples one can get in any grocery store in the USA is typically retrieved from storage that has lasted 9-12 months. How does one guarantee an apple that is fresh from the tree other than picking it yourself?
How can I use this to help me eat locally? I put in my zip code for Raleigh, NC (27601), and it gives me a result of: Cabbage in Pasquotank County, but there is no contact information. How can I get some of that cabbage?
Easiest thing for you is probably The State Farmer's Market [0], corner of Lake Wheeler Road and Centennial Parkway.
We keep a copy of the NC seasonal produce chart [1] hanging in the kitchen, and sometimes remember to check it.
Seems like one option for the OP would be to let users (moderators) update the site with vendors. That's a can of worms, but it could provide local information not available from online sources.
Awesome idea. My zip (59718, MT) shows 250 miles away as the nearest food. Definitely as others have pointed out, needs a lot more data to be viable. If you are to take this more seriously, maybe target a single community and connect with local farms, i.e. https://www.strikefarms.com/
You just typed out my comment for me. I tried 59715. I like to cook entirely local meals for fun and Montana has plenty of readily available farm goods for that.
Would love to share this with my non-tech friends, but the data's just not there yet, and sharing with them would ruin their impression forever. Data is too sparse with respect to geography. No idea how you get the data, but increase your data density as a function of location, and you'll likely see wide adoption.
The results are kind of confusing. If I put in zip code 22003 (not mine, but close, and the results are the same) it tells me "1 Result from Georgia" which is bell peppers from a place 611 miles away, then "10 Results from other states" including one place 14 miles away, and another 36 miles away.
The wording seems to imply that it thinks 22003 is in Georgia and the top result is the best, but it's in Virginia and the top result is the most distant one.
I'd also suggest making the on-page results a bit more prominent. My first reaction after typing a zip code was that I was required to give an e-mail address to view the results, and nearly gave up and left the page before realizing they were also displayed at the bottom. (The fact that only the "1 Result from Georgia" was above the fold didn't help, since it looked unrelated.)
Ah yeah, the zip database I'm using is a bit out of date (as some other people have mentioned) and you're seeing this behaviour as it thinks 22003 is in Georgia. I had a hunch people might be more interested in results from their own state even if they were a bit further away, but clearly in this case that doesn't make sense.
I'll experiment with moving the email form to under the results, or putting it behind a button. I was trying to make it low friction, but I think I might have gone a bit far.
This is great - cool idea. I'll register as this is something I really care about and this saves me research and time. It also helps me consider which meals I'd like to make.
I'd be willing to pay a small monthly fee for this data being curated for me when you get the database a bit more fleshed out.
I have a suggestion which would make it very useful for me: hints on when to plant. Since you have the timing for "peak season" and (I assume) the growing times to get there, hopefully it would be easy to work backwards to arrive at planting times.
As a new gardener in Southern California, I could use some help planning my planting schedule. I can get away with planting a lot of things whenever I feel like it, but sticking with the ideal times would help optimize my yields.
As someone who frequents farmer's markets often, my suggestion would to visit one close to you. I often ask the local farmers for planting advice especially since it seems our temperatures are getting wackier each season.
About five years ago, a colleague had an idea for a social/user-driven app for seasonal food (produce, meats, etc.) He called it something like Local Bee, and then we created a version (for Windows Phone 7!) of it over the weekend at a Hack-a-thon. We actually won, though it was small (13 teams). We called it P2P Farms! We made another version (for Android Auto, before it was even called that) at another event, where it would actually alert you right in your dashboard when you got close to specified items. Then our employer started to turn it into "a real thing", and renamed it Fresh! However, I left the company around then and haven't heard much about it since.
At the time, I searched online, and found sites like LocalHarvest, Farmstand, RipeNear.me, LocalDirt, etc., each usually with a little different spin (some focus on specific food, some one farmer's markets, some on actual farms, and some on produce stands).
So you can see the challenges - data, use case, implementation, monetization, etc.
If it's from various feeds, they aren't standardized or consistent. They could update at different frequencies. They might omit huge swaths of geography.
If it's from the users themselves (i.e. you "check-in" when you find a local produce stand selling fruit or beef jerky or something), you need MASSIVE adoption and participation, and you'll probably have a 10-to-1 ratio of people that want to consume vs contribute. And how long is the data useful? Maybe they bought awesome watermelons but 15 minutes later, the last few sold out. Can you get people at the stands to update their listings?
What if you convince producers (farmer's markets, farmers) that it's worth their marketing dollars to get listed (and highlighted)? Does it follow the spirit of the app you envisioned?
And do you combine approaches? Multiple ways of getting data in, keeping it updated, etc? I'm curious where you'll take this, so create an "About/News" section of your site (or Twitter) and keep posting!
Edit: Also, I realize your approach "just what fruit is in season" varies from the above variations, and so the challenges and solutions do as well. I kind of went off on tangents there! Hopefully it gives you ideas anyway.
Love it. Might want to update the meta tags to remove the mention of the "preact-boilerplate." That's some prime real estate for describing your site when sharing it socially.
Very neat idea. I'd like to make the following suggestions:
1) Some vendors of said produce. If I can get grapes that were grown 5 miles away, awesome! Now where can I buy them?
2) A filter that lets me determine the maximum distance allowed. I ran a search based on a Northern Virginia zipcode and it recommended me some Bell Peppers from Georgia...609 miles away. We're not exactly "local" at this point. Simply having a filter option to stop it from showing me anything farther than 50 miles away would be useful.
[+] [-] swalsh|8 years ago|reply
The last point is important to me. Food porn is common these days, they put out these recipes with beautiful pictures, but the recipe is so impractical I'll probably never make it. Frankly, if I never make the recipe... it's of little added value to me.
[+] [-] shostack|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] platz|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] roshanr|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bobbles|8 years ago|reply
or the food amounts to cookies dipped in honey dipped in butter dipped in icing sugar.
[+] [-] tertius|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] dbingham|8 years ago|reply
But you've got some work to do to get the data in there. I put in my Southern Indiana zip code and got 12 results back. Only one was actually anywhere near my zipcode (or even in my state). The rest were anywhere from 200 - 500 miles away. Sorry, but I don't consider Maryland to be local to Indiana.
I would suggest you work on getting data about local farms in there, and then tighten up the constraints for what is considered "local".
At the very least, in the results paragraph, change the display from "12 for your zipcode" which is just flatly false to "1 for your zipcode and 11 in the broader region" or something of that nature.
[+] [-] gabemart|8 years ago|reply
I think you're right about the wording, reading it with fresh eyes it is very confusing, and I'll change it ASAP.
Right now, all the farm information data is pulled from aggregated USDA data so there is a ton of work left to do to get better, finer-grained results. My plan is to look at which zip codes get the most queries and the most user sign ups, and improve results for those first.
The data wrangling aspect of this is definitely one of the biggest challenges. I've spent more time than I'd care to say extracting data from PDFs and other non-parser-friendly materials with regular expressions, and, often, manually.
[+] [-] zodPod|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] LeifCarrotson|8 years ago|reply
> We found 9 results near your zip code...
> 3 Results from Michigan: (my county, my county, neighboring county...sure!)
> 6 Results from other states: Wisconsin, New York, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New Jersey.
That's 3 results with 6 that are hundreds of miles away.
[+] [-] crankylinuxuser|8 years ago|reply
But yeah, I like it, but "NEEDS MORE INPUT"! :)
[+] [-] travbrack|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] blauditore|8 years ago|reply
Also, a softer (lighter?) background might bring out the fruit/vegetable images a bit better.
[+] [-] brudgers|8 years ago|reply
1. There is a field to enter zipcode and empty space below.
2. I enter zipcode.
3. Empty space filled with fields for an email and name and a "we found results banner".
4. Because all the results were off my screen I figured it was nothing more than another email harvesting page.
5. Later I saw it on the front page of HN and tried it again. It still looked like an email harvesting page on my laptop. Only because I had seen the comments did I think it might be possible to scroll down.
It might be worth delivering value (results) before asking for value (a visitor's email). Fresh fruits near me is awesome. Signing up for email isn't.
Good luck.
[+] [-] zild3d|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aluminussoma|8 years ago|reply
One suggestion I have is this: it would be great if there was a way to "peek" ahead and see what other items will soon be coming into season within the next 1-2 weeks.
[+] [-] gry|8 years ago|reply
Not only was collecting the data time intensive, but determining the feature ingredient(s) was a challenge.
[+] [-] JoeDaDude|8 years ago|reply
[1] https://www.localharvest.org/csa/
[+] [-] tomdre|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] styfle|8 years ago|reply
That's why my friend started Market Wagon[0] which acts as a middle-man between farmers who have crops and people who want to buy the food. The experience is like shopping on Amazon but you're buying local.
[0]: https://marketwagon.com
[+] [-] flanbiscuit|8 years ago|reply
This is very location specific to NYC but I've always used this site to get local farmer's market info: http://www.whatisfresh.com/
[+] [-] maxxxxx|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bsharitt|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kunal88|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] codingdave|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gabemart|8 years ago|reply
There is also the problem that just because a certain produce item is being harvested within x miles doesn't necessarily mean that produce is available at local stores, and vice-versa.
My hope is that if I can get some early adopters, I'll be able to concentrate improving the data in a smaller number of targeted areas. This is the first time I've shown the site to anyone, so I'm hoping I can get some feedback to make the most effective improvements first.
[+] [-] LeifCarrotson|8 years ago|reply
http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/predicted_2017_apple_harvest_da...
[+] [-] stevenwoo|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] paulirish|8 years ago|reply
https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/design-and-ux...
[+] [-] nerdponx|8 years ago|reply
Harvest: https://itunes.apple.com/app/harvest-select-best-produce/id3...
Seasons: http://www.seasonsapp.com/
Locavore: http://www.getlocavore.com/
[+] [-] navaati|8 years ago|reply
Uh oh…
[+] [-] motardo|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pjmorris|8 years ago|reply
We keep a copy of the NC seasonal produce chart [1] hanging in the kitchen, and sometimes remember to check it.
Seems like one option for the OP would be to let users (moderators) update the site with vendors. That's a can of worms, but it could provide local information not available from online sources.
[0] http://www.ncagr.gov/markets/facilities/markets/raleigh/ [1] http://www.ncagr.gov/markets/chart.htm
[+] [-] aj_g|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] d-sc|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] charris5|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikeash|8 years ago|reply
The wording seems to imply that it thinks 22003 is in Georgia and the top result is the best, but it's in Virginia and the top result is the most distant one.
I'd also suggest making the on-page results a bit more prominent. My first reaction after typing a zip code was that I was required to give an e-mail address to view the results, and nearly gave up and left the page before realizing they were also displayed at the bottom. (The fact that only the "1 Result from Georgia" was above the fold didn't help, since it looked unrelated.)
[+] [-] gabemart|8 years ago|reply
I'll experiment with moving the email form to under the results, or putting it behind a button. I was trying to make it low friction, but I think I might have gone a bit far.
[+] [-] nemo44x|8 years ago|reply
I'd be willing to pay a small monthly fee for this data being curated for me when you get the database a bit more fleshed out.
[+] [-] ajtaylor|8 years ago|reply
I have a suggestion which would make it very useful for me: hints on when to plant. Since you have the timing for "peak season" and (I assume) the growing times to get there, hopefully it would be easy to work backwards to arrive at planting times.
As a new gardener in Southern California, I could use some help planning my planting schedule. I can get away with planting a lot of things whenever I feel like it, but sticking with the ideal times would help optimize my yields.
[+] [-] palidanx|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] neogodless|8 years ago|reply
At the time, I searched online, and found sites like LocalHarvest, Farmstand, RipeNear.me, LocalDirt, etc., each usually with a little different spin (some focus on specific food, some one farmer's markets, some on actual farms, and some on produce stands).
So you can see the challenges - data, use case, implementation, monetization, etc.
If it's from various feeds, they aren't standardized or consistent. They could update at different frequencies. They might omit huge swaths of geography.
If it's from the users themselves (i.e. you "check-in" when you find a local produce stand selling fruit or beef jerky or something), you need MASSIVE adoption and participation, and you'll probably have a 10-to-1 ratio of people that want to consume vs contribute. And how long is the data useful? Maybe they bought awesome watermelons but 15 minutes later, the last few sold out. Can you get people at the stands to update their listings?
What if you convince producers (farmer's markets, farmers) that it's worth their marketing dollars to get listed (and highlighted)? Does it follow the spirit of the app you envisioned?
And do you combine approaches? Multiple ways of getting data in, keeping it updated, etc? I'm curious where you'll take this, so create an "About/News" section of your site (or Twitter) and keep posting!
Edit: Also, I realize your approach "just what fruit is in season" varies from the above variations, and so the challenges and solutions do as well. I kind of went off on tangents there! Hopefully it gives you ideas anyway.
[+] [-] AustinG08|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gabemart|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AdmiralAsshat|8 years ago|reply
1) Some vendors of said produce. If I can get grapes that were grown 5 miles away, awesome! Now where can I buy them?
2) A filter that lets me determine the maximum distance allowed. I ran a search based on a Northern Virginia zipcode and it recommended me some Bell Peppers from Georgia...609 miles away. We're not exactly "local" at this point. Simply having a filter option to stop it from showing me anything farther than 50 miles away would be useful.
[+] [-] gesman|8 years ago|reply
As soon as my wife heard about it - voice of joy!
Definitely solution to existing problem + tons of potentials for business (recipes, partnerships with stores, organics, deliveries)..