Show HN: Fruits and vegetables in season in your zip code • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Fruits and vegetables in season in your zip code

#41

Post by swalsh » Mon, Nov 20, 2017, 4:49 PM UTC

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.

Re: Show HN: Fruits and vegetables in season in your zip code

#42

Post by stevenwoo » Mon, Nov 20, 2017, 4:58 PM UTC

codingdave wrote: post #3

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.

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?

Re: Show HN: Fruits and vegetables in season in your zip code

#43

Post by paulirish » Mon, Nov 20, 2017, 5:15 PM UTC

on the ZIP code field would be fantastic for your mobile users. (At least until you support non-US zips)

https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/design-and-ux...

Re: Show HN: Fruits and vegetables in season in your zip code

#44

Post by w0m » Mon, Nov 20, 2017, 5:17 PM UTC

I love the concept. Rather than just listing what's 'in' season, listing what's out (among staples, fuzzy definition of what that would include) would be valuable to.

My wife tends to give me a grocery list and includes things that - when i get to the store, are overpriced/look like crap as they're significantly out of season anywhere remotely close.

Re: Show HN: Fruits and vegetables in season in your zip code

#45

Post by JoeDaDude » Mon, Nov 20, 2017, 5:21 PM UTC

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.

[1] https://www.localharvest.org/csa/

Re: Show HN: Fruits and vegetables in season in your zip code

#46

Post by gabemart » Mon, Nov 20, 2017, 5:23 PM UTC

noahmbarr wrote: post #31

gabemart wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question - would you pay for it?

Probably not... but the list created / produce box people / farmers would be amazing. I could see building a business on top of this FOR SURE. Awesome MVP

thanks!

Re: Show HN: Fruits and vegetables in season in your zip code

#47

Post by memco » Mon, Nov 20, 2017, 5:28 PM UTC

Not sure if it is my ignorance here, but I was actually pretty happy with the results for my zip in southern CA. There are certainly results that are not convenient traveling distance from me, but the value to me isn't in knowing exactly which farms to purchase from, but in knowing what produce I should look more closely at when I go to the market.

Re: Show HN: Fruits and vegetables in season in your zip code

#48

Post by gabemart » Mon, Nov 20, 2017, 5:36 PM UTC

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #37

codingdave wrote: post #3

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.

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: http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/predicted_2017_apple_harvest_da...

Ah, that might explain it - I actually have varietal information in the database, but I'm not using it yet because it adds a ton of complexity and I really wanted to show this to people before spending more time on it.

So "peak season" might better be interpreted as "as least one variety is in peak season", at least for now. And "peak season" is a bit nebulous due to how hard it is to normalise between different data sources, but it's something akin to "most active harvest period"

Re: Show HN: Fruits and vegetables in season in your zip code

#49

Post by gabemart » Mon, Nov 20, 2017, 5:38 PM UTC

kreeWall wrote: post #23

Very interesting! Can you talk a little bit about the reliability of your data?

I would say that the data I have at the moment are reliable in the sense that they are collated from informed, reasonably up to date sources (mainly US government sources at the moment). I would say that they are not very complete and not very granular yet, but this is something I am working on.

Re: Show HN: Fruits and vegetables in season in your zip code

#50

Post by maxxxxx » Mon, Nov 20, 2017, 5:40 PM UTC

JoeDaDude wrote: post #45

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. [1] https://www.localharvest.org/csa/

I would like that too. In the LA area I have no idea where to get veggies that have been grown locally.