What Is Local Picks and What Can You Do on It?

Updated

Local Picks is a community directory that connects people with local producers of fresh food — farms, markets, and gardens — in their area. If you want to find nearby producers, save favorites, or list a farm you own, you can do all of that on the platform. It's built for two audiences at once: people looking for local food, and producers who want to be found.

What Local Picks actually is

Local Picks describes itself as a community connecting local producers of fresh, affordable products with the people who want to enjoy them. The directory covers farms, markets, and gardens, and the site reports over 18,000 listings (its marketing copy elsewhere cites "over 14,000 farms and markets" for the producer network).

The core idea is simple: instead of searching across scattered farm stands and market pages, you browse one directory organized around your area.

What you can do as a visitor

The platform's homepage highlights a set of features aimed at everyday users:

  • Find farms and products — browse listings of local producers near you.
  • Save your favorites — keep track of the farms and products you care about.
  • Read and leave reviews — see what other community members recommend. The homepage shows recent reviews, such as a user's note about an orchard being "an amazing spot for apples."
  • Follow friends — see their favorite farms, reviews, and products, and invite others to join.
  • Get notified — receive updates when new products and listings appear in your area, or when your favorites become available.

A free account is what unlocks these features. The site states you can "get started with a free account" to access them, and it also offers a log-in option for returning users.

What you can do as a farm owner or supporter

Local Picks isn't only for shoppers. The site invites both farm owners and local-agriculture supporters to help keep the directory current:

  • Create listings — put your own business or a favorite community farm on the map.
  • Claim listings — take control of a farm you own for enhanced visibility.
  • Suggest edits — propose improvements to existing listings.
  • Market your farm — the site says it's free to get started and describes joining a network of over 14,000 farms and markets to reach more customers.

How to get started

  1. Go to localpicks.org.
  2. Sign up for a free account (or log in if you already have one).
  3. Search for farms, markets, or products in your area.
  4. Save the ones you like and follow friends to see their picks.
  5. If you own a farm, create or claim a listing; if you just want to help, suggest edits to keep listings accurate.

The bottom line

Local Picks works as a two-sided directory: shoppers use it to discover and track local food producers, while producers use it to get discovered. The features that matter most — searching, saving, reviewing, and listing — all sit behind a free account, so signing up is the practical first step whether you're buying or selling.