The New Forest Food Challenge site is a social network that aims to facilitate communication between everyone who is interested in supporting local food in the New Forest area and beyond. It's run by New Forest Transition.

How To Get Started

In a small nutshell (e.g. a peanut shell):

1. Make yourself a profile page.

2. Join or start a local group (crucial!) to be in the loop and make some Food Challenge friends.

3. Discuss, learn and share food-growing bits and bobs with people locally and globally. Let people know what you’ve got spare for swapping. Take up an offer to collect someone else’s excess veg and fruit bounty. Ask for help with how to get started or a particularly difficult plant. Share some seeds. Watch an educational video. Chill. Hang. Grow. Eat.

4. Bask in being a Food Challenge legend.

Read on for a bigger nutshell (e.g. a particularly generous walnut)…

I’m new here, how does it work?

Welcome! The way the site operates will be familiar if you’ve used F*cebook or any of the other popular social networking sites. You have a profile page; you make friends; you join groups with likeminded people; you use the convenience of the online experience to enrich your offline life.

Okay, what should I do first?

Firstly you should create your own page. Let your community (and the whole world!) know who you are and what your experiences and aspirations are in the realm of food growing! Your profile page is where others can learn about you and how they can contact you. Click to sign up via the link in the top right of the page. When you sign up you’ll be asked to submit some info just to make sure you're a human being not a spam bot! Be aware that your personal profile page is viewable by everyone on the web so please make sure you only put up information/images that you are happy to for anyone to see.

So I’ve made my profile page. What next?

You should now be able to find your personal profile page by clicking on the “My Page” link in the navigation at the top of the screen. So next, it’d be nice to see who you are and what your garden looks like. You don’t have to if you’re shy but it helps to bring your page alive for others. And it might just get us salivating at your veg-bounty too. Go on – make us jealous. Or even just pity you!

All you have to do is scroll down to the Photos part of your personal page and click “Add photos”. Follow the directions from there and if you have problems feel free to leave a message here on the Getting help with using this site board.

And have a play with the FoodTalk feature. You can read posts from other members and you can write up your own fabulous yarns.

How can I contact another Food Challenge member?

There are two main ways of contacting another member.

1. Leave a message on their Comment Wall. Go to their profile page, scroll down to their wall, type your message and hit “Add Comment”. This sort of message is there for the whole world to see. If someone leaves a comment on your wall then you can hit “Comment back” and you will then leave a message on their Comment Wall.

2. Send them a private personal message (only available if they’re one of your friends). This is do-able using the link on the left hand side of their page. If you’ve been sent a private message then you’ll be able to find it by looking in your Inbox which you can find on the top right whenever you’re logged in. Also, if you are communicating through any kind of forum then you can communicate there (just like any old message board) as a third way.

Is there anything more to find on the Food Challenge site?

Yes, heaps! Above are just the basics for getting hooked up. Flick around the site for recipes, videos, events…..

How will I know when new stuff is on the site?

Depending on the groups you are in you’ll get notifications at the email address you supplied when there are new posts, comments, messages etc. You can amend the emails you receive by clicking on the Settings link in the top right (when you’re logged in).