D Pecot

Aurelia Robu wrote:

Hey, really appreciate this — especially coming from someone who’s also straddling tech and small-scale ag 🙂

On the cost side, I haven’t locked in a model yet, but the intention is to keep this as a community-first, non-profit type of project. If it grows, I’d lean toward lightweight approaches like donations or optional support rather than anything extractive. I’m trying to be careful not to introduce incentives that would distort the local dynamics.

Visibility is definitely something I’m actively working on. I’ve started adding separate pages for communities, and featuring more active ones on the homepage. The idea you mentioned — geo-based landing pages like “local microgreens in Boston” — is very much in line with where I think this should go.

On the AI/search side, I haven’t gone deep into it yet, but I’m thinking more in terms of making the content openly accessible and well-structured so it can be indexed naturally (rather than locked behind the app). The logged-out limitation you noticed is a really good catch — that’s something I’ll need to rethink.

And yeah… totally agree on seeding being the hardest part 😄 That’s pretty much where I am right now.

Out of curiosity — have you seen any platforms that handled this kind of local discovery well?

You may be able to get some inspiratjon from Chip drop getchipdrop.com

Aurelia Robu wrote:Thank you so much for the warm welcome and kind words, I really appreciate it 🙂

This idea actually started from wanting to use something like this myself. For example, I buy eggs from neighbours, they buy milk from my parents, and so on, so I kept thinking there should be a simple way to connect people locally.

I’m really glad you like the idea, and I’d love to hear any thoughts or suggestions after you’ve had a look around the site. I’ve already changed quite a lot based on feedback from people here and elsewhere, so it’s slowly becoming more aligned with community values.

When I first started, it was basically a marketplace where people could post products. Now it’s moving more toward a sharing model, where people can post both what they offer and what they need, and get notified when there’s a match.

If you have any ideas on how it could be improved, I’d really love to hear them.

Howdy, fellow techie here!

Love the concept, I've also had one foot in the tech world and another in small scale ag, so this resonates with me a lot.

How are you planning to finance admin/hosting/moderation costs? Have you considered ways to make the farms more indexable to AI tools/search outside of just the web interface?

When I click in to view a region and the listings available, I'm not able to see any details on listings from logged out (which I'm assuming crawlers wouldn't be able to access either).

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with an ad model in my opinion, especially if it allowed me as a grower to advertise my goods somewhere hyper local (based in the USA here, Facebook Marketplace as an example is hit or miss with what they allow you to list).

I think what I'm gravitating towards is optimizing the content in a way that it's able to get eyeballs on it outside the web app, like if I were to search "local microgreens boston" would there be a way on your side to have some nice landing pages for different geo regions that would be either to educate folks in an area of what's available, OR be able to encourage them to be a "root member" or something catchy like that.

Having done a lot of projects, seeding is always the hardest part 😆

I bought a yellow squash relish at a farmers market once that was absolutely phenomenal. Put it on toast with pimento cheese, one of the best combos I've come across.

Nancy Reading wrote:

Nina Surya wrote:Teleportation. Just walk through a portal and zooommmmmmmmm! - appearing at the destination in a blink of an eye.

Oh - I wanted that one!

How about to be able to see four dimensionally which plants are going to thrive and which fail? I'm getting better at it, but am always hopeful I'm wrong!

Similarly, I'd love to have multi spectral vision. Being able to see near infrared / infrared would be a survival game changer

John F Dean wrote:Hi D,

Although I have a canoe, I am not great using it.  If the water gets at all rough, I am upside-down. I have zero judgement in evaluating rapids and how to approach them.  To add to that problem, I am not a great swimmer.  And to maximize those two issues, I am fearless …not because of being brave but because of being stupid.

There's a fine line between bravery and insanity.

I was having exactly that convo when talking with a friend about long distance hiking yesterday 😆

John F Dean wrote:I have done the AT.  Tried it from Maine to Georgia and washed out in Mass.  A couple of years later began in Georgia and made it.  Hiked the Boundary Water Canoe Area West to East. Took the Grand Canyon a number of times . Also spent a good deal of time in the Canyonlands of Utah.

That's awesome! Hats off to you for attempting a SOBO hike on the AT. Going south on any trail is tough. I thru'd the AT NOBO and have also done a few smaller trails spontaneously since then.

Boundary Water Canoe Area looks really cool, never heard of that one. Why did you hike as opposed to paddle if you don't mind me asking?

John F Dean wrote:I envy you.  The PCT is one I never crossed off my list.

Have you hiked any other long trails?

Howdy!

I'm going to be hiking north on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2026. I'm starting early in the season, and I anticipate reaching Kennedy Meadows South early in the season before it's traditionally passable. Given I may need to wait 1-3 weeks (or longer) for the snow to melt, I wanted to put feelers out and see if there were any permies in the area that would be willing to host me while I wait out the snow to melt. I'm basically working off of this https://www.postholer.com/snow/Pacific-Crest-Trail/1 to estimate my entry, but I won't really know until I've reached Kennedy Meadow South what the actual situation is.

I'm currently anticipating arriving there late May/early June, with the average entry time into the Sierras around June 15th.

I currently am living on my family's homestead in South Louisiana. I've been down here the last two years helping out on 10 acres. Some of the things I've worked on down here:

- Hugelkulture mounds, I'm obsessed with them!
- Lots of experiments with polycropping
- Electrical for our workshop/office
- Automated chicken coop (water, food are covered up to two weeks alone, door that automatically lets them in and out at night/morning respectively)
- Currently rebooting a citrus orchard after a particularly bad winter last year
- Converted my Chevy G30 van into a camper van w/ solar
- Built a drone

My day job has been as a freelance web developer, but I've also worked with other small farms in the area with various projects like helping out with their livestock, digging canals w/ excavator, repairing boats, repairing and using farm implements, basic metalworking skills, etc.

I'm a pretty handy guy and am comfortable with minimal training on most tools, but I primarily have an affinity for electrical projects, permaculture/garden stuff, and mechanical repair (tractors, cars, appliances, etc). Also of course happy to help with any tech related problems

Given that I'll be coming through off my hike on the PCT, I won't have any of my tools with me, but my intention is to meetup with like-minded people and spend some time meeting others and sharing stories and skills while on my hike across the west coast.

Even if you're not exactly around KMS but are near the PCT corridor, feel free to reach out!

Not experienced in much at all here, but throwing in some food for thought anyway cause I like the idea 🤔

If had access to wood, would be interesting to build a demilune/hugelkulture mound hybrid of sorts. Not only would it give you some nutrient release into the mound, but youd get a little bit more height on the demilune for wind capture/redirection. And I guess in sandy soil the carbon material could "hold" water more efficiently than just the dune alone?

As for thoughts on companion planting and natives, I'd think that trying to track down some native legumes to act as ground cover, nitrogen source for other plants, and green mulch would be a good "foundational" plant. I've had fair success planting into white clover, which was essentially acting as a living ground cover to block weeds while also providing nitrogen.

Doing a quick Google, Astragalus crassicarpus aka Ground Plum seems to be a native legume in your region, no idea how aggressive it is, tho I guess aggressiveness isn't too much of a concern when just starting in barren land.

Love this, glad we are focusing more globally.

When I lived abroad, I learned to introduce myself as being from the Southeast USA. Broad and also specific enough to give people an out if they just wanted to know my country, and an in if they knew about our legendary Cajun food

American is a misnomer as anyone from North and South America is an American technically. My Latino friends would get a bit irritated when I introduced myself as American out of habit.

Also, LA is very contextual. You have to listen to their accent to infer whether it's Louisiana or Los Angeles they're referring to.