Food Apps Review of the Week: Farmer’s Market Locators

The push for eating local has been going on for some time. Now, we have apps to make that job even easier. Thanks to GPS-equipped smartphones, it’s like we have homing beacons to direct us to the freshest local blueberries. Since app developers have made it easier to find your local food, we’re doing our part to help you find the right farmer’s market app for your needs.


California Farmers’ Market Finder
Developer: Darwin 3D, LLC
Cost: Free
Runs on: iPhone
Website: www.pasotours.com
California is one of the greatest agricultural plots in the world. It’s not surprising then, that there is an app dedicated just to this region. The California Farmer’s Market Finder includes over 500 farmers markets. If that’s too much to swallow, you can filter the results by county or you can scroll through lists arranged by city or day of the week they’re open. If you’d like to get a bird’s-eye view of things, a map will pinpoint all the markets around you. Using the phone’s built-in GPS, this app will even offer directions to your market of choice. On the downside, you can’t search for a market and it doesn’t automatically suggest markets based on your current location. Also, this app only provides location and hours with little else.

Toque Rating: 3/5

Farmers Market Finder
Developer: Apptika, Inc.
Cost: Free
Runs on: iPhone
Website: www.apptika.com
If you’re looking for a little more information on what’s around you, the Farmers Market Finder offers just that. For free, you can access 865 markets in California. These listing provide the usual details, such as hours and location, but also offer contact information upon availability, one-touch calling, website links, and a chart of amenities that the market provides. For example, my local market offers poultry, vegetables, fruit, a bakery, and more. It even indicates that I can pick my own food. You can search for listing, scroll through a list, view by map and mark for later reference your favorites. If you travel, the developer, Apptika, Inc., offers add-on regions that expand the number of markets to over 2,700. These, however, will cost you $4.99 per state expansion or $9.99 for the United States.

Toque Rating: 3.5/5

Farmers MarkIt West Coast
Developer: 2 Tablespoons LLC
Cost: $0.99
Runs on: iPhone
Website: http://farmersmarkitapp.com
I was really excited to try this app since the first two were free and worked really well, only lacking in robustness. This app actually required a micropayment so the expectations were much higher. Shockingly, this app fell way short of the first two. No search, no list, no list of amenities. What this app does have is a map that automatically detects markets around your current location. Clicking on a pin will provide directions. What this app also has that’s really neat is a list of what’s in season that month. It provides a list of vegetables, fruits, nuts and herbs. Unfortunately, a list is all you get. No description of the items or other helpful information like how you know if something is ripe.

Toque Rating: 1.5/5

Farmers Market Locator
Developer: Whagga Software Inc.
Cost: Free
Runs on: iPhone
Website: www.whagaa.com
Farmers Market Locator opens to a page with three main buttons: Recipes, Shopping List, and Farmer’s Market Finder. Clicking on the Recipes button brought up a message that I had to visit their store to get a recipe—each one costing $0.99. No thanks. Because I refused to pay for a recipe, I also couldn’t add anything into my Shopping List. That left only the Farmer’s Market Finder and I have to admit, it’s the one I like the best. Using your GPS or a zip code, it will automatically sort out your local markets—and includes a whopping 5,000-plus in its database. Clicking a market listing will offer the usual information of location, website, hours and other contact information. Also nice is that the map doesn’t kick you out of the app like the above farmer’s market finders. What this doesn’t provide are amenities. This app is far from perfect, but is a fine farmer’s market locator.

Toque Rating: 3.5/5