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Project

"AlimentaMapa" , your guide to local produce

Author: Javier Bateman Aramendia Published: May 6, 2025 Status: In Progress
Project Goals
To setup a marketplace where farmers can build relationships directly with consumers and put themselves literally "on the map"
Description
Three years ago I came up with the idea of forming a marketplace where we could connect businesses and everyday retail consumers directly to local farmers. This idea was the result of seeing farmers routinely get dramatically underpaid by wholesalers, and watching local markets get flooded with cheaper goods brought in from thousands of kilometers away. 


What I would like this project to do when its completed

I want farmers to be able to
  • Setup an online "farm stall" where they can sell wholesale or retail at a set price.
  • Leave contact information so customers can contact them and negotiate a price for wholesale quantities of crops.
  • Use boilerplate template contracts that buyers and sellers can easily fill out.
  • Offer transportation at a better negotiated rate by leveraging a large user base on our platform.
  • Keep track of sales on our platform 
  • Place "pre-order campaigns" offers before its time to plant in order to gauge demand for new products and produce them on demand. We will expand on this concept below 

I want users to be able to
  • Find out when local crops will be in season
  • Find out where they can get their produce, and to get a better price on it than through other distributors 
  • Easily make purchases with the guarantee that our platform will protect their purchase 


The objective of this market isn't to replace grocers, supermarkets, or butchers, but instead to add another way for local farmers to reach their market.

Check out our current open Beta!



Project Updates
16
Mar
2026
The Debut of Subscriptions, Disputes, and Major Upgrades!
We’re excited to announce some major updates to AlimentaMapa! We’ve launched new features that will improve the experience for both farmers and customers. Take a look at everything we’ve been working on!

Subscription Boxes & Event Memberships

Farmers can now offer their products in the form of subscription boxes, allowing customers to receive fresh, local produce on a regular basis. From seasonal vegetables to farm-made products, it’s all delivered directly to your door! We’ve also added event memberships, so farmers can offer recurring access to workshops, farm experiences, and more.

Subscription Cancellations

Flexibility is key! Customers can now easily cancel their subscriptions whenever their needs change, giving them more control over their purchases.

Purchasing Disputes

To improve transparency, we’ve introduced purchasing disputes! If a customer has an issue with their order, they can open a dispute, submit photo evidence, and our admin team will mediate to resolve the issue fairly. This ensures both farmers and customers feel supported!

Major UI Upgrades & Farm Management Improvements

We’ve done a complete overhaul of AlimentaMapa’s user interface, making navigation simpler and more intuitive. Plus, our farm management tools have been optimized to make it easier to manage inventory, orders, and customer relations.

Improved Greenhouse Production Calculator

If you haven’t already, check out the enhanced Greenhouse Production Calculator! Here’s how it works:

  1. Create Your Plan: Define the size of your greenhouse and set up a service area reserved for tanks and equipment.

  2. Choose Crops to Plant: Select the crops you want to grow, including area, selling price, and estimated annual cost (which you can override).

  3. Greenhouse Layout: The system provides a personalized floor plan layout for your greenhouse to make the most efficient use of space.

  4. Production & Profit Estimate: Get an estimate of annual revenue and profit, including running costs (seeds, nutrients, energy, etc.).

For example, if you choose lettuce (using the hydroponic NFT system), the calculator will provide details such as:

  • Annual Yield: 

  • Estimated Revenue: 

  • Estimated Profit: 

  • Annual Costs:
    Additionally, you’ll see a harvest cycle calendar, which shows approximate growing windows to help you plan your harvests.

This calculator is an invaluable tool for farmers looking to optimize their greenhouse production and improve profitability.

In the future we will be adding water use, greenhouse light supplement calculations (cost and yield boost), CO2 cost and yield boost, and more variables to best estimate greenhouse earnings. 

We hope these new features and improvements help you get the most out of AlimentaMapa and streamline your farm management!



25
Feb
2026
Exciting Farm Management Update: New Features to Enhance Your Experience!
We’ve just rolled out one of our largest updates to date, supercharging the Farm Management page with some fantastic new features that will make it easier for farmers to manage their operations and increase their income. Here’s what’s new:

  1. Events Management: Farmers can now add and manage events directly on the farm. This feature is designed to help you host anything from wine tastings, yoga sessions, and aquaponics classes to farm tours or any other event you can think of. It’s a great way to engage with the community, promote the farm, and increase revenue.

  2. Bed & Breakfast (BnB) Hosting: We’ve introduced a new feature (working title "BnBs") that allows farmers to capitalize on extra space by hosting a bed and breakfast. Whether you have spare rooms or want to build a countryside studio, you can now rent them out to guests. It’s a fantastic way to diversify your income and share the farm experience with visitors.

  3. Dynamic Product Shipping: Shipping just got smarter! With the power of Shippo, we’ve integrated dynamic shipping rates, so your customers will receive accurate shipping costs at checkout. No more guesswork—customers will know exactly how much they’ll pay for shipping, based on their location.

  4. Order History for Farmers and Users: We’ve made it easier to track purchases and sales. Both farmers and users can now view their order history at any time. Whether you’re looking for past orders or want to check on your purchasing history, everything is now right at your fingertips.

  5. Quality of Life (QOL) Improvements: As part of this update, we’ve also worked on various small quality-of-life improvements. This includes fixing minor bugs and broken visual elements to ensure a smoother and more pleasant experience for everyone.

  6. Terms and Conditions Page: We’ve added a Terms and Conditions page to ensure that all users are clear about the rules and guidelines when using the platform. 

  7. Greenhouse Calculator: Planning a greenhouse? Now you can use our new Greenhouse Calculator page to visualize the floor plan of your greenhouse, choose the type of growing media, and calculate potential earnings and growth. It’s a valuable tool to help you plan your farm more effectively.

8
Jan
2026
New year new features!
New year, new features! 

Farmers can now add a cover image, product images, and a carousel of farm images to their farm profile. They say a picture is worth 1000 words, and we want farmers to really tell a story on their profiles. 

Major progress has been made on finalizing the purchase system. Customers can now chose Pickup or Delivery depending on what the farmer offers, and organize a pickup with the farmer. In the future we would like to implement a pickup calendar where farmers say when they will be available for pickup and users can click on the date and time. 

There's a few details to iron out which should be resolved by March, by then we will have officially exited beta and the marketing push can begin!





17
Dec
2025
Quality of life improvements + backend progress

We’ve made significant progress since our last update and are excited to share a series of major enhancements across the platform. These improvements strengthen our marketplace foundation, improve usability, and prepare us for future growth.

Marketplace & Payments

  • Fully functional marketplace launched
    Farmers can now sign up, connect their accounts via Stripe Connect, and begin earning real revenue by selling their products directly through the platform.

Map & User Experience Enhancements

  • Improved map interactions
    The map page now supports rubber-band plotting when drawing search areas, making location selection more precise and intuitive.

  • Click-to-interact behavior added
    Accidental zooming and scrolling issues have been eliminated, allowing users to browse the page smoothly without unintended map movements.

Email & Communication System

  • Professional email system implemented
    We’ve launched a fully functional emailing system using our own domain. Users can now:

    • Reset passwords

    • Receive important alerts and notifications

    • Get reliable, professional communications from the platform

Registration & Security Improvements

  • Enhanced signup and authentication flow
    We’ve added several critical front-end and back-end improvements, including:

    • Phone number validation

    • “Repeat password” confirmation

    • Password reveal toggle for better usability

    • CAPTCHA protection to prevent abuse

Performance & Search Optimization

  • Location search speed increased by 99%
    Through proper indexing and optimized search queries, finding nearby farms is now nearly instantaneous.

Stability & Reliability

  • Bug fixes and endpoint stabilization
    All known buggy endpoints have been addressed (knock on wood!) to ensure a more stable foundation before expanding functionality further.

3
Dec
2025
"Chat, Social Media, and Reviews: Now Your Opinion Actually Counts!"
Another week, another batch of shiny new features!  You can now chat with farms that actually want to hear from you (if their mailbox is open, of course). Aside from just saying hi, the chat feature is great for making special requests, and asking questions about their products. Farms can also flaunt their social media links (or even their own website, because why not?). And the best part? You can now leave reviews—because who doesn’t want to share their opinion about that perfect farm-fresh lettuce?

26
Nov
2025
Check out our checkout page!
We've officially completed the preliminary workflow for a product purchase for AlimentaMapa. You can now go to a farm, put products in your cart, go to the cart, and finalize a purchase (in test mode). Additionally we've made some UI changes to the home page (added a parallax image) and general improvements to the database. I am pleased with progress since the last update, this website is quickly becoming more polished and production ready. 
20
Nov
2025
Massive overhaul!
We've made a ton of progress here on the Evocultiva site! Here's a list of all the new features we've added

-UI rework, things are looking far more dynamic a users friendly. I even added a little animation that happens as pages load
- Added filter features for the map such as a "delivery" option. Now you can look for all farms, farms that deliver, and farms that don't deliver (usually farm stores) 
- Added a "list" feature on the map so you can see all the farms in a given area (with filters) in list form. 
- Added a "draw your own area" feature on the map so you can draw the area you want to find farms in. 
- Added the start of Stripe integration (the payment gateway and marketplace code for this site).
- Added preliminary code for messaging function between farmers and buyers. 
- Added Pages describing the purpose of, and reasons to use AlimentaMapa from a farmers perspective, and a buyers perspective. 

A lot of backend magic happened for the website as well, however I won't get into that as its not relevant to the project, however I have to say I am proud of the progress especially considering I was struggling to figure out how to do most of this stuff and do not have a degree in computer science. 


With how things are right now my next two big hurdles are as follows.
-Finishing the stripe marketplace integration
-Deciding on the architecture for my mailing system

These are the two big chunks of work stopping me from making this Beta functional. Once, I've overcome that I can start marketing to farmers and users to test the website out. Hopefully before the end of February I can make it happen. 
16
Oct
2025
Functioning location filter with radius
Finally I have a functional location filter! you can look up any town, city, airport, and most hotels in the US, Spain, France,Italy, UK, Ireland, Portugal, and Germany. I will add more countries as soon as I can. You can also set a custom radius on the location. For example if you want to see all the farms within a 20 km radius (thats the default set, but it can be changed) of your home. The next step would be to add custom location drawing on the map, however I think that for now I will focus more on making the transaction, inventory, and sales system usable to really get this Beta going. 
Functioning location filter with radius