Help!

We've put together some answers to common questions here, if your question isn't answered here, you can contact us directly. More details here

About Lourish

What is Lourish?

At Lourish we're passionate about the food we grow, rear and eat.

We believe that the best food in the world comes from the allotments and gardens of grow-your-own gardeners and private smallholders and that such local growing is the key to cheap, sustainable food for everyone.

However, we also understand that it's difficult to get the most out of what your grow when you have limited space or time and that's where Lourish wants to help.

So, Lourish connects the people who are producing their own food - whether it's by growing their own fruit and veg or rearing a few animals - with local people who want to share what they produce. We call it "share your own" — find out more here.

The first thing we've done on lourish.com is create the Lourish Exchange so you can swap your produce with other Lourish members nearby. Find out more about the Exchange here.

What's "Share Your Own"?

Share your own is the next step from grow your own. If you grow your own food it's likely that you will already have shared some of it with friends, colleagues or neighbours and that's the sort of sharing that the Lourish Exchange wants to help you do more of.

Share your own is more than just about coping with gluts, it's about low food miles, less waste, pooling resources and sharing knowledge to create a sustainable food community that doesn't involve supermarkets or industrial farming.

To find out more about how the Lourish Exchange helps you share your own take a look here.

Who can use Lourish?

Lourish is open to anyone, anywhere. If you grow your own food or even if you simply eat fresh food then Lourish is for you!

Since Lourish is an online community we suggest that minors only use the site when accompanied by an adult and that they do not make exchanges unaccompanied.

How much does it cost to join?

Nothing, it's free!

Who's behind Lourish?

Lourish is run by Dave Bower, near Cambridge, UK and the site exists to help grow-your-own gardeners and private smallholders get the most from what they grow through sharing what they produce.

We have a small veg garden at Lourish HQ, which occasionally features on our news blog, we're not experts, we just enjoy growing and sharing our food.

We believe strongly in growing sustainably and that means growing organically and without peat. (And we think that you should too!)

How can I get in touch?

If you have a question about Lourish, what we do, how we do it or even if just want to say hello, you can contact us through the site here.

You can also get in contact with us:

through our blog
via Twitter
or on our Facebook page

If you have a problem that isn't addressed in this help section, use our support form to send us a message and we'll try our best to help.

Can I help?

Yes, you probably can! If like us you're passionate about sustainable growing you can help spread the word about Lourish and "share your own" growing:

If you only have a few moments

Tell people about lourish — click some of the "spread the word" links on the home page to get the word out about Lourish on Twitter, Facebook and a host of other networks here.

If you use Twitter follow us @lourishment here.

If you're on Facebook, become a fan of Lourish here.

If you have a couple of minutes

Invite your friends to join Lourish — the more people on Lourish who are sharing their own, the more benefit there is to the whole community. We've created a page on Lourish to help you invite your friends here.

Say hello! — it's always nice to hear from people who are using the site, whether it's to say they've found a problem, like a feature or think that we should add something to the site, hearing from you really gets us excited. Send us a message here.

Write about Lourish — if, like us, you feel that more people should hear about Lourish you could blog about us, post a message on a newsgroup or forum about what we do or comment on our Facebook page here.

If you have more time

We're always looking for Lourish evangelists who can spend some of their spare time helping to get the word out about Lourish. If you would like to help promote Lourish in your local area, maybe through your local clubs and societies or on your allotment then we can help by sending you information to help you promote sharing your own in your area.

If you think you can help, contact us here.

How can I stay up-to-date with the latest Lourish news?

As well as subscribing to our occasional newsletters, you can read the Lourish news blog here. Also, lourish is on twitter and facebook and we post the very latest about what's going on there.

Is Lourish on Twitter?

Why, yes, I'm glad you asked, follow us on Twitter @lourishment here.

Is Lourish on Facebook?

Yes, we are! Become a fan of Lourish here.

Is Lourish available world-wide?

Yes!

That said, we only have a UK English site and no other language translations. If you think you can provide a translation for your language get in touch here.

Your Account

I've forgotten my password! How do I reset my password?

Go to the reset password page here and follow the instructions.

I can't remember my username, what do I do?

Get in touch with our support team and provide us with your email address and we'll try to help you out. The support form is here.

How can I leave Lourish?

Don't Leave... We can change... It's not you, it's us... Just give us one last chance...

Alternatively, go to edit your account details here and click the button at the bottom. We'll be sorry to see you go so please leave us some feedback so we know what we could do better.

Can we still be friends?

How do I subscribe/unsubscribe from the newsletter or other emails?

The last thing we want to do is annoy you with unnecessary email and we understand that sometimes the emails we send might be an unwanted distraction. That's why we provide a way in your account preferences to turn off some or all of the emails we send - you can find the options here. You should also find unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of all our newsletters.

Sometimes we may still get in contact with you, for example if there's a problem with your account, a change to the terms of the site or if you contact us, of course!

What's a Gravatar?

Some parts of the lourish site display a picture when referring to you, this picture is a Gravatar. They're probably best described by the people at http://gravatar.com/ themselves.

If you want to change the picture on your account, just create a Gravatar account and set up a picture for the email address you use with Lourish.

What's Flickr?

www.flickr.com is a very popular online photo sharing community. We integrate with flickr to allow you to add pictures of the things you're exchanging on Lourish.

For more information see "Adding Pictures" here.

How do you use my personal information?

Full details of how we use and store the information you provide to us is described in our privacy policy here.

What are the terms and conditions for using lourish.com?

The lourish.com terms and conditions are here.

The Exchange

What is the exchange for?

The Lourish exchange lets you swap, give and receive food, seeds and plants with people in your local area. If you have too many tomatoes and not enough new potatoes you can create a swap. If you have a tree full of plums just going to waste, create a giveaway.

How I start an exchange?

First you need to decide if you're going to swap something or just give things away:

Swaps

To create a swap you offer something (e.g. some tomatoes) and ask for something in return (e.g. some salad).

For example, you could say you're offering "5 courgettes", "a handful of tomatoes" or "a bulb of garlic"

You can be as exact in the quantities as you like. Then you say what you'd like to receive in exchange, for example "salad leaves" or "1lb of runner beans".

Giveaways

Sometimes you just feel benevolent and Lourish is here to aid you in your philanthropy!

To give something away, just describe it then wait for the offers to come flooding in for your orchard full of apples or your mound of marrows.

How do I add a picture to my exchange?

To start adding pictures you'll need to have a flickr account (see "What's Flickr").

When you have a Flickr account, just add your Flickr account name to Lourish in the networks section (here).

Once you've done that, upload your picture to your flickr.com account and then on lourish.com just click the button to add a photo to your exchange when you create it and all your Flickr photos will be available for you to choose from.

Why do you need my location?

We use your location to help you find exchanges in your area, we never share your exact location with anyone, we just show the town or locality.

See our privacy policy for more information.

How do I make an offer for an exchange?

If you see something you like, you can make an offer!

If it's a swap you'll need to offer something

It might be exactly what's been asked for, but it doesn't have to be - if someone wants runner beans but you have a loads of french beans you could try offering those instead.

Try to offer something close to what's been asked for; if someone wants cucumbers and you offer tomato plants your offer is probably not going to be accepted!

You can make as many offers on an exchange as you like until one is accepted, but don't just bombard the other person!

If it's a giveaway, just say when and where you can pick up

There's not much more to it, just remember to say thank-you!

How do I accept an offer on my exchange?

If you have offers on your exchange you can choose to accept one of them by clicking on the "accept" button.

I've accepted an offer on my exchange, what happens next?

Once you've accepted an offer you need to arrange to meet up to physically exchange your items.

You can send private messages to the person that made you the offer to arrange meeting up.

We recommend that you don't arrange to meet on your own, after dark or at your own home if you are at all uncomfortable about meeting strangers.

Take a look at the community guidelines for more tips on happy, safe exchanges.

Why can I only write messages of 120 characters or less?

While we like a good read here at Lourish, we want you to be short and sweet in your comments and messages as that way exchanges can be made really quickly and easily.

Limiting the amount you can write means you can concentrate on the important details and not worry too much about minor annoyances like spelling and grammar!

So, when you are sent terse messages the other person is simply being efficient and playing by the rules!

Can I accept more than one offer for my exchange?

Yes! You can keep accepting offers until your exchange has expired or you've run out of whatever it is you're exchanging.

When you don't want any more offers, just click the button to "close" the exchange to new offers.

Can I give my produce to local charities through Lourish?

In the future we would like you to be able to give produce to charity through Lourish, but right now it's not possible.

If you want to give your food to a charity in the UK you may be interested in our friends at foodshare.

If you're interested in talking to us about giving food to charities get in contact here

Is there any way to be alerted when there are new exchanges in my area?

There is! You can use our exchange RSS feeds to receive notifications when a new exchange is added which meets your search criteria. Look out for the RSS carrot at the bottom of the exchange listings:

To set up a alerts using RSS:

Go to the lourish exchange
Set the location and any search terms to narrow the results down to just those you're interested in
Click the orange RSS icon or the RSS carrot
Your browser will provide you with some options to set the feed up in your favourite reader. If you're new to RSS you could try Google reader
And you're all set up! Now when new items are added to Lourish matching your search they will appear in your RSS reader

There are no exchanges in my area - what can I do?

Start one yourself, then tell the world!

We're still in the early days of Lourish so we don't expect to have exchanges happening everywhere immediately, however don't be put off if there's nothing in your area yet, there are still things you can do.

Start off by creating an exchange yourself and then promoting it to friends and colleagues in your area using our invite form, Twitter, Facebook or other networks and see if you can encourage others to take a look at what you're exchanging. The "How can I help" section has some more ideas.

If you want to be alerted when new exchanges appear in your area you can do that too! Take a look at "Is there a way to be alerted of new exchanges in my area?" for more information.

What if no-one takes my exchange?

If your exchange isn't taken don't been disheartened, it could be for any number of reasons:

Try broadening what you're willing to accept - exchange for "any offers" and see what comes up
Make sure that what you're asking for is actually in season! Check out http://www.eatseasonably.co.uk/ if you're not sure
If you've got a glut, maybe others do too, or possibly no-one likes the stinky Durian fruit you're offering. You could try giving it away instead, then people with no garden or allotment can benefit from your beautiful home grown produce
Add a picture to make your exchange stand out, see "How do I add a picture to my exchange?"
Get more competitive and offer more for less if there are lots of exchanges offering the same thing as you
Promote your exchange, see "How can I promote my exchange?".
If all else fails look for a local Foodshare in your area. Read more about Foodshare here.

How can I promote my exchange?

It's always worth getting doing a bit of promotion to make sure people know what you're swapping.

When you create an exchange, you'll see a list of ways to let people know what you're exchanging using Facebook, Twitter and by inviting people to Lourish

We also provide an "exchange link" which will take people directly to your exchange wherever they click it. Copy the exchange link that is shown next to your exchange and send it to your friends by email or post it on your social networks and people can follow the link to see a few details about what you're exchanging. Exchange links look like this:
http://louri.sh/ex/1

What can I exchange?

In general if you can grow it or eat it you can exchange it.

Any of the following things are exactly what the exchange was made for:

Herbs, fruit and vegetables - home-grown or foraged!
Seeds, gathered or left-over
Plants, cuttings and seedlings
Compost, manure and home-brew fertiliser
Home produced eggs, milk and cheese
Fish, as long as it's been legitimately caught!

Although they're not strictly what lourish is for, we don't mind the odd flower or bulb popping up too.

Also, if you don't have a garden but want to join in you can offer home-made foods like

Chutneys and pickles
Jams
Cakes
Biscuits

What can't I exchange?

If it's not to do with growing or eating then it doesn't belong in the Lourish exchange. Instead you could try your local freecycle network. Additionally, some edibles are not allowed on Lourish:

Alcoholic drinks
Anything illegal

If we find that you are swapping items that are not allowed we may block access to your account and for illegal items we will inform the relevant authorities.

More details are in the community guidelines and terms and conditions.

Can I sell things on Lourish?

No, at the moment Lourish is strictly non-commercial.

I've swapped some things but the exchange is still there, what do I do?

You just need to go to the exchange and mark it as closed to offers. While you're there, why not thank the people you exchanged with!

Do you have an API?

At the moment we don't have one, but watch this space. If you have any suggestions we'd love to hear them; you can send us a message here.