What Community Features Does Local Picks Offer for Connecting With Others?

Updated

Local Picks is a directory and community platform for connecting people with local farms, markets, and gardens. Beyond finding food, it offers several community features: you can follow friends to see their favorite farms, reviews, and products; invite people by email; browse recent reviews from other members; and help the directory grow by creating listings or suggesting edits. Most of these features sit behind a free account, so signing up is the practical first step.

Following friends and seeing their picks

The platform explicitly frames itself as being about more than farms: it's also about "connecting with the people who love them." The Find Friends feature lets you search for people by name, email, or username.

Once you follow someone, their activity becomes a signal for you — the site describes following friends as a way to "see their favorite farms, reviews, and products." In practice, this means a friend's review of a farm or a product they saved can surface in your view, which is useful when you're deciding where to shop or what's in season nearby.

To use it:

  1. Create or log into a free account.
  2. Open the Find Friends search.
  3. Enter a name, email, or username.
  4. Follow the person to see their farms, reviews, and products.

A likely snag: search works on the identifiers above, so if you only know a nickname that isn't their username, you may not find them. Asking for their exact username or email is the reliable route.

Inviting people by email

Local Picks builds invitations directly into the platform. The Invite feature works like this: you enter an email address, and the platform prepares the message for you. You then "open, review, and hit send" — meaning the message isn't fired off automatically; you get to check it first.

This matters if you're trying to get a friend, neighbor, or a farm owner you know onto the platform. You control the final send, so you can confirm the recipient and wording before it goes out.

Browsing reviews from the community

The See what's happening section shows recent activity from other members, including reviews of local farms and products. The site's own example is a review of Sprangers Orchard described as an "amazing spot for apples," with reactions (hearts, claps, and similar) attached to reviews.

Reviews are the main way the community shares first-hand experience. If you're new, reading a few recent reviews is a fast way to judge which nearby farms or markets are worth a visit — and if you've already been somewhere, posting a review is how you contribute back.

Helping the directory grow

Two features let any member — farm owner or not — improve the platform:

  • Create and Manage Listings — add your own business or a favorite community farm so it appears on the map.
  • Claim Listings and Suggest Edits — suggest corrections to existing listings, or claim a farm you own to get enhanced visibility.

The site states it's free to get started for farm owners, and that its network covers over 14,000 farms and markets (the homepage also cites over 18,000 listings). If you own a farm, claiming your listing is the step that gives you control over how it appears; if you're just a supporter, suggesting edits is the lighter-weight way to keep the directory accurate.

What you need before any of this

Every community feature above assumes an account. The site's own call to action is "Get started with a free account," which it says unlocks the features described here — saving favorites, managing listings, claiming listings, and staying notified when your favorites become available.

So the sequence is: sign up, then follow friends, invite others, read and write reviews, and contribute listings or edits. If you only want to browse farms and products without participating, you can still explore the site — but the social and contribution features are tied to having an account.