Would you like to help support your own community by eating more local food?  Do you wish you could cut out the middle man by buying food straight from local farms, but aren’t sure how to find them?  LocalHarvest.org is a website that helps you find sustainably grown food near you with a massive online directory of small family farms, farmer’s markets, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), and more.  According to Local Harvest:

LocalHarvest is America’s #1 organic and local food website.  We maintain a definitive and reliable “living” public nationwide directory of small farms, farmers markets, and other local food sources.  Our search engine helps people find products from family farms, local sources of sustainably grown food, and encourages them to establish direct contact with small farms in their local area.

You can search by location for: Farms, CSA, Farmers’ Markets, Restaurants, Grocery/Co-op, Wholesale, Meat Processors, and Others.  Local Harvest also features discussion forums, an events calendar, an email newsletter, a blog, a directory of other great blogs, photo galleries, and more.

http://www.localharvest.org/

Do you spend far to much time figuring out your grocery list and planing what to have for dinner?  Does it seem like you’re always missing an ingredient or two when you go to make a recipe?  Get.ZipList.com is a website and mobile app that work together to organize your meal planning, grocery shopping, and recipes, saving you time and making sure you always have what you need on hand.  According to ZipList:

ZipList makes meal planning and grocery shopping a breeze.  Create your weekly meal plan, organize your grocery list and get money-saving coupons, all while waiting for your kids to get off the school bus.  Sync your list and recipes up with your cell phone and you’re off to the store in minutes…  Search more than 300,000 recipes and add your favorites to your personal recipe box.  Grab popular shopping checklists to be ready for camping trips, football parties and more.  It’s never been easier to get in and out of the grocery store (and on with your life).

ZipList has partnered with over 100 popular food websites so you can use recipes from trusted sources.  There are apps for Android and iPhone.  ZipList also has a blog.

http://get.ziplist.com/

Do you like the idea of eating local food seasonally when it is at its peak of freshness? Have you found that putting the idea of seasonal eating into practice is a bit harder than it sounds? EatTheSeasons.com is a weekly updated website that tells what foods are in season and at their peak right now. According to eat the seasons:

With an increasingly urbanized population, awareness of when and where various foods are produced has dwindled. Imports from around the world ensure that supermarket shelves look the same week in week out. eat the seasons aims to promote an understanding of food seasons. Each week we list the seasonal foods that are at their peak, and share enlightening facts, useful tips and enticing recipe ideas picked from the web and our favourite books.

There are currently two versions: Canada/USA and UK/Ireland. eat the seasons covers: Vegetables, Fruit & Nuts, Meat, and Fish & Seafood. In addition to viewing what’s in season now, you can also browse by food and see when a particular food is in season.

http://www.eattheseasons.com/

Are you a foodie?  Would you like to visit some of your city’s top restaurants more often but find it difficult to find people who share your strong passion for fine dining?  Grubwithus.com is a social networking website for foodies, where you can sign up for group meals featuring tasting menus at top restaurants in your city.  According to Grubwithus:

Grubwithus is a social dining network that brings people together over tasting menus at top restaurants.  Pioneering the “in real life” movement, Grubwithus aims to take your online social networks back offline…  Grubwithus is a site that allows users to meet awesome people, while dining at some of the city’s best restaurants.

Grubwithus is looking to add more cities so if your city isn’t covered yet you can suggest it for consideration.  If your city is covered but there are currently no meals offered you can start one yourself.  You can also join groups of people in your city based on a shared interest and browse profiles of other diners.  Grubwithus also has a blog.

https://www.grubwithus.com/

Have you made some good friends online that live far away?  Have you ever wished that you could buy them a beer?  Tweet-a-Beer.com is a website that allows you send a beer to anyone anywhere in the world by using Twitter to send five dollars to their PayPal account.  According to Tweet-a-Beer:

Tweet-a-Beer was brewed and bottled by tenfour and Waggener Edstrom, longtime drinking buddies in Portland, Oregon.  Tweet-a-Beer connects your Twitter and PayPal accounts together to ensure that distance, agoraphobia, and gang rivalries no longer prevent you from sharing a pint…  Tweet-a-Beer is powered by Chirpify, a commerce platform for Twitter.  Chirpify is the magic that connects your Twitter account to PayPal in order to pre-approve payments.  When you Tweet-a-Beer, you are sending $5.00 to another Twitter user, and ultimately, their PayPal account.

If you have a friend that for some inexplicable reason doesn’t like beer you can still use Tweet-a-Beer and send them five dollars for something else.

http://www.tweet-a-beer.com/

Do you love farm-fresh eggs but lack the time or space to raise chickens yourself?  Or perhaps, you have a small flock of chickens in your backyard that produce more eggs than you can use?  Eggzy.net is a website that connects egg connoisseurs with local chicken flock owners, and an online flock management tool.  According to Eggzy:

Eggzy is a movement to make our food system personal again…  We take pride in the places we call “Home”—the sights, sounds and seasons.  By eating more of what’s grown locally, we also begin to restore our sense of community…  Eggzy’s mission is to aggregate backyard chicken flocks so neighborhoods can always find fresh local eggs…  With Eggzy, you’ll be able to manage your flock, share pictures, eggs and stats with your friends and family, or, if you’re a foodie, find local eggs — the freshest most delicious local eggs.

You can find eggs near you simply by entering your zip code.  You can use the flock management tools to manage your egg production, record your expenses, calculate & project costs, and more.  There is Chicken Breeds section with information on egg color, egg size, productivity, hardiness and more.  There is also a resources page with links to lots of other sites that have information on raising chickens.  Eggzy also has a blog.

http://www.eggzy.net/

Are you a fan of distilled beverages, liquors, and spirits?  Would you like to learn more about them, their culture, and their history?  Distilus.com is the world’s largest online interactive archive of distilled beverages, which currently includes over 1500 spirits with pictures and detailed descriptions.  According to Distilus:

Distilus is an interactive catalogue dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and culture of distilled alcoholic beverages.  We represent the largest collection of distilled spirits in the world comprising of over 1100 brands located in 100 countries.  We have undertaken the immense task of archiving every known alcoholic spirit in the world.  With the dedication and passion of our community we have now become the most comprehensive archive of distilled spirits online.  Our goal to protect the history and culture of brands from the world for everyone to enjoy is our key motivation.

Distilled beverages can be searched for or browsed by name, distiller, distillery est., alc/vol, country, or volume.  Distilus aims to archive every distilled beverage ever produced, so if you know of one they missed you can send in a suggestion.

http://distilus.com/

Is your cooking becoming a little predictable?  Could you use some new flavor combinations to spice things up a bit?  Perhaps you’ve recently discovered a new ingredient but aren’t sure what to put with it?  Foodpairing.com is a website that explains which other ingredients pair well with a chosen ingredient, based on scientific flavor analysis and displayed in an interactive food tree.  According to Foodpairing:

Foodpairing is based on scientific flavor analysis.  It is based on the principle that foods can be combined when they share major flavor components.  But the nice thing is that is you don’t have to understand anything from these complicated scientific analyses to use Foodpairing.  We created easily understandable, structured visualizations of all the resulting possible pairings, what we call Foodpairing trees… an interactive visualization for each ingredient.  …These dynamic trees give you in one overview all the possible combinations you can make…  If you’re passionate about food and want to make new combinations, this website will fire up your creativity.

The free version lets you save your flavor combinations, and covers 100 ingredients and 15 alcoholic beverages.  Complementary ingredients in a food tree are categorized as: Dairy, Meat, Herbs spices flowers, Fish, Fruit, Beverages, Condiments,Vegetables, or Pastry bakery chocolate.  Foodpairing also features some complete recipes and a blog.

http://www.foodpairing.com/

Do love bacon?  Do you dream of bacon every time you close your eyes?  Do you believe that the candy of meats is the greatest culinary invention in the history of the world?  BaconToday.com is a website that is all about bacon and all about spreading the joy of the most succulent mouthwatering food ever created.  According to Bacon Today:

We have dedicated this page to all things bacon and things related to bacon…  You love bacon.  We love bacon.  Therefore, we bring you Bacon Today: A world where bacon is king and we bow down and observe its meaty, bacony goodness.  The world is a much better place with bacon in it.  With its sizzling and succulent taste, we truly believe that it could end war, bring peace, and help the lonely find love.  It truly is the miracle meat.  Bacon, we love you.

On Bacon Today you can find a Bacon News section with all the latest news and articles that have to do with bacon, a Bacon Recipe section full of great recipes where bacon is a key ingredient, a Bacon Desserts section with more recipes and articles that feature bacon in sweet dishes, a Bacon Books section that reviews the latest books on bacon, and much more.

http://bacontoday.com/

Do you absolutely love cookies?  Are making and eating Christmas cookies your favorite part of the holiday season?  Could you use a few new recipes to liven up your Christmas cookie repertoire?  Christmas-Cookies.com is a massive online database comprised of the best Christmas cookie recipes found on the web, from the beautiful and artistic to the just plain delicious.

There are far too many categories to list here but some of the best include: Bar Cookies, Candy & Fudge, Cookie Cutter, Cookie Press, Cookies in a Jar, No-Bake Cookies, Refrigerator Cookies, Pies, Savory recipes, Treats for Animals, and Baking Tips.  Cookies can also be browsed in alphabetical order or searched for.  There is a Recipe Box feature that helps you create a shopping list and lets you save recipes.  Christmas-Cookies.com is taking submissions so if you have a great Christmas cookie recipe send it in and share.

http://www.christmas-cookies.com/