A peer-to-peer marketplace for heirloom seeds, herbal remedies, preserves and off-grid goods, designed around one persona from first launch to repeat engagement.

The problem

Home gardeners and homesteaders who want locally grown, chemical-free goods mostly find them through farmers markets, word of mouth and scattered social groups. Mass-market grocers and general marketplaces carry “natural” products with little proof of where or how they were made. Buyers have no easy way to check harvest dates, growing practices or who actually produced an item, and sellers have no shared place to teach what they know.

Persona: Elena

Elena is a home gardener in Marshall, NC. She wants to preserve her surplus harvest, learn herbal remedies, and buy heirloom seeds from people nearby. Her interests are medicinal herbs, seed saving, food preservation and off-grid water.

Her journey in the prototype: she signs up, picks those interests, finds Cherokee Purple tomato seeds ($4.50) from River Valley Homestead and an elderberry tincture ($18.00) from Willow Creek Apothecary, checks out once for both, picks up the tincture at the farm stand, has the seeds mailed, then gets storage advice and an invite to the Spring Seed Exchange.

Client: Homestead Harvest