Your family is sick of peaches. Your freezer is crammed with ’em. Your coworkers and neighbors have started politely refusing your cobbler. Solution? The internet, obvs!
The site Ripe Near Me aims to connect peeps trying to sell (or just plain give away) their backyard bounty with people nearby. It’s the digital version of driving past a local raspberry stand. You can search by your favorite fruit, follow someone in your area who’s growing it, and get a notification when it’s ripe. You can even offer to trade some of your own homegrown produce.
Ripenear.me launched in Australia (hence the charming accent in the video above) and has since spread to the U.S. and parts of Europe. But since it’s still in beta, there aren’t many users yet. You can help by posting excess food you’ve grown (or seen on public land). Or if you’re stuck with a black thumb or tiny fire escape, spread the word to your friends with the awesome backyard garden!
Not only do fresh eggs, berries, and greens taste better than the old stuff in your supermarket, but you’re saving emissions from food transportation, and there’s a good chance your neighbors aren’t dousing their garden in industrial-strength pesticides. Let’s make flavorless tomatoes a thing of the past.