Website to connect people to local produce - "Ripe Near Me"

I'm new here, so I hope I am not breaking any rules here and I am putting this is the right place.

I have come across a website which aims to connect people with local produce, the idea is fairly simple, when people have produce they need to get rid of (either by selling it or giving it away) they list it on the site along with their location, and it then shows up on a map, and people can see what produce is near them hence the name "Ripe Near Me".

It also has the capability to have something listed as "growing" which can then be changed to "ripe" when it is ready to be picked.

The website was created in Australia, but I believe as it is map based it can be used anywhere in the world, and the more people that use it the more useful it will be.

Thought it might be of some use/interest to some here.

This is the site: http://www.ripenear.me/


Vanessa

Welcome Vanessa. This sounds like an excellent resource. It might be wise to also run an ad on Craigslist or other high traffic sites, as a means of bringing people to the smaller site.

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Edit--- Lots of bugs to be ironed out. I tried to sign up and got this.

The page isn't redirecting properly. Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.

I counted 26 U.S. users and 6 Canadian users. Half of Canada's users are on my island and one is 5 miles away. I didn't expect that. One listing in Toronto was a message letting people know that a large area of service berries in a park were ripe. When I first typed in Canada, no results were found. Individual province searches worked. The site will have to get many more users to make it useful.

I checked out many of the listings and none contained a review. I assume that few know about the site and that when someone does find out about it, they don't find a grower near them.

If you click on the cherries on Vancouver Island, a map will come up. Zoom out three times and you'll see the Nanaimo River near the bottom of the map. There I am.

Hi Dale,

Thanks for the welcome, and its great to see that even over the other side of the world it is able to be used, and my post was helpful.

I do know that it hasn't been out for that long and there is plans to to add more to it (and iron out bugs) but still keep it user friendly, so it is a work in progress, and yes I think you are right in that if people don't find something near them they don't want to use it. I have just listed a few herbs I have growing, they may not be in abundance at the moment but hopefully some time in the future I will be able to mark them as "ripe" and offer them to others.

=Edit--- Lots of bugs to be ironed out. I tried to sign up and got this.

The page isn't redirecting properly. Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.

I counted 26 U.S. users and 6 Canadian users. Half of Canada's users are on my island and one is 5 miles away. I didn't expect that. One listing in Toronto was a message letting people know that a large area of service berries in a park were ripe. When I first typed in Canada, no results were found. Individual province searches worked. The site will have to get many more users to make it useful.

I checked out many of the listings and none contained a review. I assume that few know about the site and that when someone does find out about it, they don't find a grower near them.

If you click on the cherries on Vancouver Island, a map will come up. Zoom out three times and you'll see the Nanaimo River near the bottom of the map. There I am.

Hi Vanessa & Dale,

I'm one of the Co-founders of RipeNearMe. Thanks for the post!

Just thought I'd respond here with some thoughts. Firstly, you're right about this particular bug. We found it occurred when a person with an account that wasn't yet validated (or brand new) attempted to send a message to another user. We've just fixed it and now registration is working without a hitch. When you say "Lots of bugs", though, I'm concerned that you might have found others? Please let me know if so and we'll get it fixed asap. We feel that they're few and far between now, so if you've found a lot we'd be particularly concerned. Part of the reason we're in Beta is to gather feedback from users to iron out bugs and also improve the features/usability, so feel free to drop us a line anytime (contact {at} ripenear.me).

The site itself is quite new, as Vanessa mentioned. Our launch was timed better for the southern hemisphere growing season, so we've had a much better uptake there - and also because we're based Down Under. Things should pick up in North America as we get closer to Spring, and we'll be investing a bit more energy in promotion there at the same time. It's great to hear that you found some listings nearby though! Maybe you can be the first to review the cherries?

One of the challenges of a community based site is that we need the community to add content. If you have excess to share, please consider adding it. As you correctly point out Dale, no content is discouraging, but the opposite is true also; the more content there is the more others are encouraged to share and connect. We do need many more users to make it useful, and so forums like this are a fantastic help.

Thanks again and happy growing!

Alistair

I guess by "lots", I meant three.

1. Sign up difficulty

2. National search didn't reveal all Canadian users.

3. Most local searches will be fruitless until numbers increase. So, this one isn't a computer issue.

I tried to do 3 things and 2 didn't work. The third, the local search, isn't currently possible for most users, due to distances.

I'm sure that once users increase to a few thousand, many will be in my area. I'll often have plants to give away.

I didn't see ads on the site. How will you pay the bills ?

Alistair,

Nice job with the site. It looks great!

The local, organic, permaculture, etc. movement needs more techies like us.

Good luck with the beta.

Cheers,

Chris

Welcome to permies.com Alistair.

I have split this thread, so that it also appears in our "Austrailasia" forum as well.
Hopefully this will help spread awareness in Oz.

As we get into our growing season here in the northern hemisphere, hopefully the site will grow here also.

I signed up with no trouble at all. I haven't put any of my crops up yet but there's not much ripe right now. We've got sunchokes and parsnips in abundance on warm days.

Nothing in my area but I bet if I did some footwork I could get farmers and folks in my state to sign up.

Matu, I have only having played around with the site a little bit, but I have found that there is a "growing" and "ripe" function for produce you list, I think it gets listed as "growing" when you first list it as a defult, and then you can change that to "ripe" when it is ripe, I think that if people have "subscribed" to your produce they get notified when you mark it as ripe.

Thanks for the reply and for clarifying Dale - much appreciated.

Dale Hodgins wrote:2. National search didn't reveal all Canadian users.

For performance reasons the map will only show a limited number of results at any one time. Not everyone has a browser/device capable of handling so much data. When searching for Canada the US displays too, so not many of the Canadian pins show, unfortunately. We'll check into it, though.

Dale Hodgins wrote:3. Most local searches will be fruitless until numbers increase. So, this one isn't a computer issue.

Yes, we're working on it. If you think of a good way to connect with more like minded people and share our message let me know.

@Chris Badgett, thanks for the kind words! I wish you all the best with Organic Life Guru too!

@John Polk, thanks for the welcome and help!

Matu Collins wrote:I signed up with no trouble at all. I haven't put any of my crops up yet but there's not much ripe right now. We've got sunchokes and parsnips in abundance on warm days.

Nothing in my area but I bet if I did some footwork I could get farmers and folks in my state to sign up.

Thanks for registering Matu! We have some poster designs that I'd be happy to forward to you if you'd find that helpful(?). We're all about being local on a global scale, so let me know if there's anything we can do to make it easier to get community of growers on board there. I think we can really shake up the food system and put it back in the hands of the people - that's the plan, anyway.

Oh, and Vanessa is spot on - you can add your produce before it's ripe and collect subscribers. See the video on our homepage and our FAQs for more info on this.

I listed turnip greens on there for 2 bucks a pound.
See if you can find them.
My zip is 32055

-might be an hour for it to show up.

Seems to be working.
I'll be putting this to much use.

Ken Peavey wrote:Seems to be working.
I'll be putting this to much use.

I see you there in Lake City Florida. I like that it gives the street address.

Any chance getting this in French ?
Maybe I could help with this . Or maybe find someone who can help more likely

David
Angers
France

David Livingston wrote:Any chance getting this in French ?

We have plans to make the site multilingual/international. I can't give you a time frame for this just yet, but it's on our todo list.

Great thread for an exciting service! The timing is great too as this will be the first year we'll be offering our garden goods to the permies. When I was first checking it out I was reminded of the website http://www.cropmobster.com/ .

Alistair... What kind of "upgradeable or paid plans" are being imagined for Ripe Near Me? Too soon to tell?

Thanks Ryan!

We have a lot of cool ideas that growers on a commercial scale will like, and we will be getting feedback from our community and growers to learn what they feel is missing. If you've got something in mind that you think would be neat let me know. We're still a little way off, so it's not possible to say what will/won't make the final cut.

The site now has user uploaded pictures.
Ken's Turnips

I'm not sure I'm keen on putting my exact location into a map. I love to show people around my place but I don't want random members of the public roaming around. Hmmm. I like the general idea.

I went for it, here's a beginning
http://www.ripenear.me/produce/amber-collins/blueberries

My marketing plan includes Pick Your Own vegetables. Getting my address out is important.

I'm not zoned for that, first of all, and I am not interested in inviting the general public here anyway. People take a lot of work

Matu Collins wrote:I'm not sure I'm keen on putting my exact location into a map. I love to show people around my place but I don't want random members of the public roaming around..

This is one of our frequently asked questions http://www.ripenear.me/faq#t5n41

pretty awesome idea, ill have to make a profile sometime this year after talking to the property owners of the property in cheyenne i have going, im sure i could get some kale and radishes sold this year at the least....

I gave up some years ago with RIPENEARME.Com as I'd been quite active, with zero response.  Now I open the page, to find its still in "beta".  And still no more activity.  The couple of locals have listed produce that's totally out of season, so they're not active either.
I don't have any suggestions, as I sell my produce on Facebook.  You have to be in your customers face to sell food - they're all so programmed to want 365day supply for their every need.
Canberra district - Australia