Ideas and volunteers needed please

Hi all

I have had an idea, which came to me after my holiday in Cornwall. I was impressed by the fact that many of the pubs and restaurants there were serving food that had, as far as possible, been sourced locally and was super fresh.

Many here will of course know the difference between fresh stuff and the rubbish that comes from supermarkets, and I reckon many of us here have grown some of our own.

Here's my idea, and I'd really like it if you could bombard me with ideas for this:

I have decided to build a website to promote proper fresh, locally sourced food. It won't be a forum as such because I want people to be able to search a database of local suppliers in their local area. I know that some farms and small holdings stick signs at the end of their drives advertising all sorts like fresh eggs, spuds, and various fruit and veg. I know one or two little independent shops that supply local produce too.

What I want to do is:
* Help motivate people to grow some of their own stuff, even if they have very limited space or expertise.
* Link people up with local producers (farms and market gardeners and the likes) so that they can incorporate the grocery shopping with a run out to their local countryside

I've started building a website (not published yet, still on my machine), but I'm struggling for ideas about the finer details (the two points above are the main things, but I just need to flesh the idea out a bit).

It would be ace if you could just post up your ideas. Anything from additional aspects to consider, any legal issues that you might know of that I'm not aware of (I'm not planning on running the site as a business, I mean legal in the sense that I don't want to inadvertently get any of the produces into hot water). I'm also extremely short of visuals for the site. Some photos of nice fresh produce either growing, or harvested would be appreciated (obviously there are loads on the net but as this is a not for profit idea, I don't want to pay royalties for images).

What do you all think? I can take criticism so just speak your mind.

 

....and then what...?

 

And then what what? I don't get what you mean?

 

hi clueless1 : your idea is great for all the parts concerned I think. It is just that it isn't clear to me the reason why...to be good to the environment, to sell your produce, to revive your area...?

 

My motives are numerous. Some of the things I hope to achieve include:
* We all get to eat better. If you eat well you feel better. If you feel better you treat others better.
* Food is getting pretty pricey these days. Putting people in touch with local producers cuts out some of the middle men and thus lowers the overall food bill.
* Local producers, especially independent ones (many of whom are just allotment keepers whose chickens have laid more eggs than they (the allotment keeper, not the chickens) can eat) get a better deal.
* The local economy is boosted - more money to those that do the work
* We help the environment because local produce is promoted, so 'food miles' are reduced.
* We become less vulnerable to global market effects - for example last year prices went through the roof because while Britain was doing its Atlantis impression, much of Europe was on fire, resulting in large scale crop losses.

I got the idea partly because I was inspired by what I saw down in Cornwall - lots of local produce and very tasty food, and partly from an article on the BBC news website that said in Britain alone, our food collectively accumulates 20 billion 'food miles' per year.

 

Hmm! Looks like a good idea but our locally produced goods (Farmers Markets, Organics, etc.) cost about 3 times as much as the Supermarket goods. I'm not sure that eating produce that is that much more expensive will make me feel better.

 

That's sometimes the case. Not always though. Perhaps there could be a price rating option for all the suppliers listed on the new site.

 

I think it's a good idea, people are being alot more health and carbon foot print consious, it's not for everybody but what is It's just a shame that some of it's soo expensive.

You mentioned about allotments.....I'm not sure how it works for eggs but I saw on a programme that allotment holders aren't to sell their produce to make a profit ( as allotments were provided to produce food for the family) not sure if it applies to all allotments groups/districts but it's worth checking out. but like I said it might be different for eggs.

 

Is this the sort of thing you aim to do clueless.
http://www.northernharvest.co.uk/

 

That's a good site, thanks for pointing it out.

It is kind of the same thing, sort of. It would certainly be a site that I would link to from my site. I am aware that there are all sorts of enterprises ranging in scale from the local small holding owner that puts a hand painted sign at the end of his/her drive, to large scale cooperatives with fancy shops that source from a range of suppliers. I don't plan to exclude any. The site you refer to looks great because it takes all the hard work away from the shopper, even in so far as that they deliver the produce and take payments online. That particular example only covers the north west though, and I'd like to cover the whole country (i.e. someone could indicate where they are and what they want, and my site would list suppliers in that area that supplied what they were looking for).

I also want to promote the idea of growing your own. That's one of the areas where I need as much input as possible from people more experienced than me. I'm not talking about getting everyone to dig up their entire gardens to make a veg plot (although there's nothing wrong with that if they do - just some people like their flower beds). I mean to raise awareness that, for example, peas are about the easiest thing in the world to grow, require very little space, and can look nice in the right setting. I've only ever grown a very limited range of food stuff (potatoes, peas, courgettes, various herbs) and I'm no expert, but I do know that the sense of satisfaction from harvesting and eating something you grew yourself from next to nothing, is quite a good feeling. Not to mention the financial and environmental advantages.

It would also be great if anyone has ideas to build on what I've already thought of, if they speak up. I want the site to ultimately be a valuable resource for anyone looking for a better way than the weekly torture of trailing round Morrisons when they should be out enjoying the fresh air (say I, sat at my computer on a sunny afternoon:( ).

 

It sounds like a good idea to me, a worthy cause to set yor mind to aswell - it's hard to get information on local stuff like this sometimes.