Food-sharing and gardening idea ‘Magic Beans’ blooms nationwide
Excess produce app now being used all over New Zealand
Two women who run a Hawke’s Bay-based group for sharing food and tips for gardening have now launched an app to spread their community nationwide.
Anneliese Hough, from Napier, said she first made the Magic Beans Facebook page “on a whim” in 2016 to get rid of excess produce in her garden.
She was joined soon by Sarah Grant, who was the manager of the Hastings environment centre at the time when the group first started growing.
Now there are 3900 members. Anneliese said she got the idea to create a Magic Beans app at the start of last year after seeing an increased need for food security under the pandemic.
“It’s just so much more important now, food security, people have really gotten a lot more interested in being self-sufficient.”
They set a crowdfunding goal last year to build an app from scratch, but had to rethink their options when they were unable to meet it.
“Although we got a massive amount of support, it just was not great timing to be crowdfunding and we didn’t meet our goal.”
They chose an app beta online as
It’s just so much more important now, food security, people have really gotten a lot more interested in being selfsufficient.
Anneliese Hough
a more affordable option. “We wanted to release something so that all of New Zealand could get involved rather than just the Hawke’s Bay group, because there was obviously a real calling for it.”
Sarah has a background in environmental science and business
management, while Anneliese is a digital product designer.
There are no limits to the kinds of garden goods exchanged on their page or app, and she said donkey poo was a common trade on the page.
However, her favourite exchange was a more meaningful one.
“I swapped some grapefruit curd for some tamarillo relish and when the woman gave me the relish, she said to me it was made up of ingredients from other Magic Beans swaps.
“For me to get that to come back to me was pretty mindblowing, I was like “wow”.
She said it was also “so much more” than a food exchange platform.
“There is the ability to share recipes, inspiration, garden tips and it’s easy to find if you are looking for that stuff in particular.”
She said the app already had almost 400 users across the country, from Northland to Canterbury and Dunedin, just over a week after the beta launch.