Farm-to-Pantry Widget

The Harvestation widget is a web-enabled scheduling application through which farmers and home food processors meet and match up. Via resource scheduling, a technology used in business project management, producers and consumers are able to locate each other, reducing the time and money spent on both sides. The site includes a preorder function whereby consumers can agree in advance to buy from a farmer. The preorder function allows vegetable farmers to adjust seed orders, planting schedules, and harvest times to accommodate this submarket and help meat farmers plan butchering schedules and optimize freezer space. For farmers, Harvestation provides direct access to a bulk-buying consumer pool. Farmers will be able to post what products they will have and when. They can also review a summary consumer wish list designed to help target and focus farming efforts. For example, a pork farmer whose piglets will be ready for market in the fall can access the Harvestation consumer wish list the previous spring to contact consumers looking for sides of pork. For consumers, a search engine assists them to locate products of interest. For example, if a home processor seeks 300 pounds of tomatoes so she can make a year’s worth of tomato sauce for her family, she can go to the web site, specify a few characteristics (e.g., “Roma” and “organic”), and receive a list of farmers who are growing tomatoes, their anticipated harvest dates, pick-up locations, prices, and ability to supply the quantity she desires. Once the preorder is in place, the buyer will be assured of obtaining the produce she needs at a known price. As the season progresses, she can touch base with the farmer about anticipated harvest dates through IthaCan’s website. If the tomato farmer has a PayPal account, electronic payment will simplify the transfer of funds for her as well as for the farmer. Organized groups of home food preservers can also use Harvestation. Events such as large-scale cider pressing and pressure canning can be planned weeks (possibly months) in advance through Harvestation. Preplanning has the capacity to increase attendance at scheduled events and allow home food preservers to reserve borrowed/rented equipment and kitchen space. In the case of IthaCan, the network in which we piloted the widget, the involvement of the local community was ensured by participation in discussion groups and other social networking activities. We added new features in parallel with the Harvestation widget, such as a local farmer resource list, and a “chat with the programmer” online feature, to increase visibility of the project on IthaCan. http://ithacan.ning.com/group/harvestation_discussion Farm-to-Pantry is a “widget” because it is embeddable in other web sites. For example, if the local Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) wanted to broaden access or just show report statistics, it could embed a widget on its own site. The database and server processes would still operate on the IthaCan site; the widget at CCE would provide another window into the same data. The Outreach Coordinator and Project Manager for the project recruited farmers and enlisted home food processors for the effort through a targeted marketing campaign. Farmers listed in the Tompkins County CCE’s publication “Guide to Foods Produced in the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes” were contacted directly. Home food processors interested in bulk buying were reached through promotional postings on the IthaCan website and through support activities such as tabling at local fairs, bulletin board posters, and food events and IthaCan workshops on bulk buying.