From the neighbour's garden to your own table

Grit Heinig & Thomas Seidel

Thomas Seidel and Grit Heinig are the founders of a platform that uses simple means to combat unnecessary packaging waste and food waste: "Direkt vom Beet". Using the app and the website of the same name, you can, for example, swap apples for mowing the lawn once or a bunch of radishes for weeding. But that is by no means all that is possible with "Direkt vom Beet".

What came first: your allotment or "straight from the bed"?
Thomas Seidel: Straight from the bed, definitely. We've only had our garden since last year.
Grit Heinig: Two years ago, we went to an event in the Lokomov cultural pub where the concept of "cradle to cradle" was presented. The idea behind it is that if you use resources from nature, you have to return them to nature in the same or better quality.
Thomas Seidel: The event that day was also about avoiding packaging waste and there were heated discussions because we often bought tomatoes in particular from the supermarket at that time. Back then, you couldn't really defend yourself against all the packaging waste. Then a friend there told us that her grandad always grows an incredible amount of tomatoes in his garden and can't actually harvest them and that they therefore have to throw a lot away. That was the trigger for "Direkt vom Beet". We simply had to bring these two target groups together: Those who like to eat fruit and vegetables but have to buy them at a high price, and those who have so much of it in their gardens that they can't use it up on their own.

How did you realise your idea?
Thomas Seidel: I first researched how many allotment gardens and how many plots there are throughout Germany. I counted up around 20 million private plots and allotment gardens at the Federal Statistical Office. I thought to myself that if there was an apple tree on each one and 5 kilograms were passed on, then you would have 100 million kilograms of apples that are not packaged and are on site and don't have to be transported here from New Zealand or South Africa. Then Grit set off with a friend with a rucksack, while I started to programme the website.
Grit Heinig: We set off to the allotment gardens with the idea of the website and the first thing that always came up was: "An allotment garden is like a living room, I won't let anyone in there." The second thing that came up was: "I don't even have internet." But the result within a few minutes was always that we were invited into the garden anyway and asked to take some of the harvest with us and "a bit more if you like". The bottom line was that older people have little or no affinity with the internet. So we thought about whether there was an analogue alternative.
Thomas Seidel: Last year, we designed the "Anhänger von Frische" (trailer of freshness). In a partnership with the Chemnitz allotment gardeners' association, we wanted to build a bridge between the Internet and older people. I had trailers printed and the city association sent them to the 186 garden associations in Chemnitz with the request to hand them out and put up a notice with information. One or two gardening associations took part. With the tag, gardeners are signalling that they can be contacted because they would like to give away some of their harvest. And city dwellers, in turn, were to be encouraged to walk through the gardens. The aim was to build this analogue bridge and bring people together.

What is the idea behind "Direkt vom Beet"?
Thomas Seidel: It can't be right that fruit and vegetables have to be imported and bought at high prices at the same time - even in the harvest season - and at the same time food is thrown away in the garden due to an over-harvest. We want to counteract this.

But fruit and vegetables are by no means everything that is offered on "Direkt vom Beet". If nothing grows in winter, you can also swap seeds or plants. You can also advertise your own garden if you want to give it away or look for helpers for a shared garden. The most unusual advert so far, however, was a live chicken for four euros.

How did you create the app?
Thomas Seidel: After the first users had registered on our website, the wish kept coming up that it would be much nicer if there was also an app. Then people would be informed much more quickly about new offers in their neighbourhood. I'm a programmer, but at the time I had no idea how to programme apps because I had nothing to do with it. Then someone told me: "I was ill for 14 days and programmed an app." So I thought, surely I can do that too. So I created the "Direkt vom Beet" app over Christmas and it went online on 3 January this year.
Grit Heinig: Thomas has been doing all the programming work in the evenings, at night, at weekends and on holiday for more or less a year and a half. It's purely voluntary work.

To take part in "Direkt vom Beet", all you have to do is log in with an email address and password or via your Facebook account - that's all the data you need. The ad-free app has over 2,400 members so far, and the community is growing every day:

Thomas Seidel: "After registering, you immediately have the option of browsing through the offers or requests, writing a message to someone or placing an offer yourself. All you have to do is enter a headline and a short text as well as the postcode and location so that users can find it on the map.
There is also the possibility that, for example, a beekeeper who cannot afford his own website is welcome to offer his honey. People who want to earn a little extra money for their favourite hobby can offer their goods here for a price. Primarily, however, it is still about giving away for free or harvesting yourself in exchange for weeding, for example.
Many people have contacted me via social media and said: "It's a shame that we don't have this here." And I always write back: "You'll have it as soon as your neighbour joins in." "Direkt vom Beet" is from Chemnitz, but not just for Chemnitz. It has the greatest effect if everyone uses it.

A new feature is that allotment garden associations can create their own profiles via the website and the app. Thomas Seidel came up with the idea during the coronavirus pandemic when he realised that many association websites were too outdated to share information with members. He wanted to help. Anyone who registers as a club can create their own homepage on the platform, so to speak, and share news there.

On 18 June, "Direkt vom Beet" became a non-profit association, how did this come about?
Thomas Seidel: I had been thinking about founding an association for a long time, because there were a few people who wanted to become founding members and help out. We now have nine members and are happy to welcome anyone who wants to join. The preparations took about three months. We drew up a set of articles of association and defined our main objectives as protecting the environment by reducing packaging waste and curbing food waste. Social aspects also play a role, of course, and we want to work more closely with other organisations.
Grit Heinig: I can imagine that friendships or at least social contacts will develop through "Direkt vom Beet", which will then be positive for both sides. My thought was also that if someone has been cultivating a garden for years, they have an incredible amount of knowledge about everything that grows here, what you might or might not do for good growth and others could share in this knowledge while they mow their lawn or pick the apples.
Thomas Seidel:If you take this simple approach of a non-gardener meeting an allotment gardener - either through the trailer or through the app - then a lot has already been achieved and the rest happens by itself. We deliberately didn't create a shop and didn't draw a line just for Chemnitz or just for Saxony. We do it all over Germany and beyond, we've even had enquiries from Switzerland, Austria and Tyrol in the last year.

At the moment, Grit Heinig and Thomas Seidel are looking for neutral handover points in the Chemnitz city area where the food can be deposited. In this way, allotment gardeners and interested parties from different parts of the city can come together and hand over goods without having to exchange addresses.

What do you wish for "Direkt vom Beet" and for the city of Chemnitz in the future?
Thomas Seidel: For the people of Chemnitz, I hope that the prejudices between allotment gardeners and city dwellers will be broken down. That's why I founded "Direkt vom Beet" and am also on the allotment garden advisory board, because you can change things with a decision or advice to the city council. For "Direkt vom Beet" I would like to have a lot of supporters. And perhaps sponsors.