Fulham couple Alistair and Helena Martin have started the website, Ripe Near Me, which connects people with fresh produce growing in local back yards.
Alistair Martin writes:
One thing I have loved from the time I was small is fruit and veggies picked straight out of the garden. Growing up we had an abundance of fruit trees in our yard and I spent many summer days with my brothers and the neighbourhood kids gorging ourselves silly. I know what an apricot tastes like, and the bland, tasteless imposters we see hitting supermarket shelves are not it. Nothing compares to produce grown and ripened as nature intended.
My love of fresh fruit (and vegetables) has turned into a passion and a curse, because all too often I’m confronted with scenes of fruit trees beyond fence lines laden with fruit that is left to the birds or to rot on the ground. It wasn’t too long ago that I started thinking “How can we better utilize the fruit trees in our backyards?” and “What if every available urban space were used to grow food?”. Imagine that! How many people could we feed?
So, we went about creating a solution to bring this about. We want to make homegrown and urban foods a large, viable and profitable part of the modern food system. It’s time to make this food resource mainstream, and we’ve launched (and continue to work on and improve) a tool to do it: www.ripenear.me
RipeNearMe is a means to share, swap or sell what you grow, while allowing you to find, pick or buy fresh produce that is growing in your neighbours’ yards. More than just an online marketplace it’s also a suite of social and engaging tools. Foraging online becomes an interactive experience, and you can see what’s growing and ripe nearby at a glance. You’re also able to make connections and friends, and subscribe to foods that you’d like to buy when in season.
Our video explains it best and you can find it here
It’s completely free to join and add as much food to share as you like. Being new there are blank spots on the map, and we’d love your help to fill it up. It doesn’t need to be a grandiose contribution – that lemon tree that goes bonkers in winter, an olive tree around the corner growing on a verge, or a patch of parsley by your porch is a great start. If we all share a little bit we end up with a lot!
Given time, community involvement, feedback, and continuous improvement on our part, we hope to see RipeNearMe evolve into a force for fair, local food around the world. You’re invited to join in the fun, and share in the spoils! There’s treasure in that thare map.
Aye Martin is right – I have free chard on there right now me hearties – Iain
Repost of Ripe near me by Kitchen Gardens SA
Calendar subscribe
