I couldn’t find any comprehensive resource for picking fruits and vegetables. However, I came across these:

http://www.dvo.com/newsletter/monthly/2000/july/freshfruit.html
http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetablepatch/a/HarvestTimes.htm
http://www.oldhouseweb.com/gardening/ripe-for-the-picking-tips-on-when-you-should-harvest-vegetables.shtml
[PDF] http://www.spokane-county.wsu.edu/spokane/eastside/Fact%20Sheets/C149%20When%20Are%20Vegetables%20Ripe%2005.pdf
http://aginfo.psu.edu/PSP/04psp/pr/04356_pr.html

I certainly wouldn’t mind assembling these into a chart of sorts. Now that I’ve found them, I’ll probably do it for myself to start. I’ll send you a link once I’ve got it going. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help!

I like the site you’re linking too… it’s very similar to the one I’ll be putting up to supplement the iPhone app.

I am looking into a couple recipe APIs as well. And also information about picking fruit and vegetables. I’m not sure where to get that information though. Any leads would be awesome.

For the main display, would it be possible to change the color of the bar depending on how long it is still in season? Like green, yellow, red for urgency. From an interface standpoint, I think it makes sense to have the “All Food” screen sort alphabetically but the “In Season” screen to sort by increasing amount of time until it goes out of season. Some type of reference for what will be coming into season would be great as well.

I don’t think people are about to travel across state lines for produce. But what might be helpful on the detail pages is info on how to pick that particular type of produce, pictures of the varieties with descriptions on how they differ, and links to recipes in a major recipe website using the item.

For example, I don’t eat avocados much and a few weeks ago I was at the market and had no idea whether I should be picking firm green avocados or wrinkly black ones and what degree of firmness is ideal. I had to browse through a few websites to get a general sense of what to look for to work with my particular recipe. A quick reference like “Underripe = green, few wrinkles, very firm, Ripe = greenish-black, more wrinkles but no cracks, firm with some give, Overripe = black, heavily wrinkled and/or cracked, soft” would have saved me a huge amount of time.

Photos of different varieties would be great for produce like mushrooms. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve wanted to make a mushroom recipe and just blanked on the matching the name of a mushroom with its appearance.

And lastly, people are often willing to try new things but often don’t know how to use unfamiliar produce. I don’t know if allrecipes.com or supercook.com have API hooks but maybe a simply URL link would be sufficient.

Down the line, maybe a notes section so users can scribble things down for various produce, ie. what place has the best X, “girlfriend loves this roasted”, friend is allergic/hates Y.

Sorry about the flood of ideas but seeing your screen just reminded me of all the things I’ve been doing manually with a smattering of different iPhone apps so the possibility of having them all in one would be incredible (and something I would definitely shell out money for).

Cheers!

I’m torn on throwing in a few more silly things that come in season, like sports.