How to Find Local Farms and Fresh Products Near You on Local Picks

Local Picks is a community directory that connects you with nearby farms, markets, and gardens. To find producers and products in your area, you can browse listings, read community reviews, follow friends for recommendations, and set notifications for the farms you care about. Most of these features sit behind a free account, so signing up is the practical first step if you want to save favorites or get updates.

Create a free account first

The site states it is free to get started, and a free account unlocks the features that make searching useful rather than one-off.

1. Go to the Local Picks homepage.
2. Select Sign Up (the page also shows a Sign Me Up! button).
3. Complete registration to create your free account.
4. Log in when you return so your favorites and notifications persist.

Without an account you can still read what's on the page, but saving farms and receiving availability alerts requires being signed in.

Find farms and products

Local Picks describes itself as a directory with thousands of active listings (the homepage references both "over 14,000" and "over 18,000" listings in different sections), covering farms, markets, and gardens.

• Use the site's search and browse functions to look for producers in your area.
• Open a listing to see the farm or market and the products associated with it.
• Check the listing details before visiting, since hours, availability, and product ranges are set by each producer.

If you already know a farm's name, searching directly is faster than browsing. If you're exploring, start from the listings near you and narrow down by what you want to buy.

Use reviews to find what's actually good

The See what's happening section surfaces recent reviews from other community members, which is useful for judging a farm before you make a trip.

• Reviews include a star rating and a short written note. For example, one listed review gives a farm five stars with the comment "Amazing spot for apples!"
• Reviews also show reactions (the page displays counts for heart, clap, and broken-heart responses), so you can gauge how others responded.
• You can page through reviews with the left and right arrows to see more than the most recent ones.

Treat reviews as a starting signal, not a guarantee — a farm that's great for apples in one season may have little else available at another time.

Follow friends for recommendations

Local Picks is built around people as well as producers. Following others lets you see the farms, reviews, and products they favor, which can surface places you'd never find by searching alone.

1. Go to the Find Friends on Local Picks section.
2. Use the search field to look up someone by name, email, or username.
3. Follow them to see their activity.
4. To bring someone new onto the platform, use the Invite option: enter an email address, and Local Picks prepares a message for you to open, review, and send.

This works best if the people you follow share your tastes or live nearby — a friend's favorite farm two hours away is less useful than one down the road.

Set notifications so you don't miss new products

The Stay Up to Date feature notifies you when new products and listings appear in your area, and specifically when items from your favorites become available.

• Save farms and products you like so they can trigger updates.
• Watch for notifications about new listings near you.
• Because availability is seasonal and set by each producer, notifications are more reliable than checking a farm page on a fixed schedule.

If you own or know a farm

The directory depends on community contributions, and you can help keep it current:

• Create a listing for your own business or a community farm you want to see on the map.
• Claim a listing you own to get enhanced visibility.
• Suggest edits to correct or improve existing listings.

The site says it is free to get started for farm owners as well, and frames listing as a way to reach more customers.

Quick reference

The main limitation to keep in mind: Local Picks is a directory and community layer, not a store. It tells you who's nearby and what others think, but you still confirm current products and hours with each producer before you go.