Why I built this
Hello — I'm Jiveen.
I live near Buchlyvie, and I built Kist Directory because I kept noticing the same thing: some of the best food in this area is made by people almost nobody can find. A butcher with no website. A croft that only exists on Facebook. A van that turns up in a different village each week, if you happen to know which one.
Meanwhile, the same handful of chains show up first in every search, every time, because that's what the internet already rewards.
I didn't think that was fair, so I've spent the last while building something to fix it — a directory of local food across Forth Valley and Stirlingshire, made for the people who make it and the people who'd love to buy from them, if only they knew where to look.
A few things I want you to know, because I think they matter:
This isn't a big company. It's me, one person, working from home in Buchlyvie. I'm not trying to build the next tech giant — I'm trying to build something genuinely useful for this particular corner of Scotland, and to do it honestly.
Every business here is listed for free, and always will be. Nobody can pay to appear higher than anyone else — that's not a marketing line, it's a rule I've built into how the whole thing works, and I intend to keep it that way.
If something here is wrong, tell me. If a business is missing, tell me that too. This works best as something we build together — locals who know their village, businesses who know their trade, and me, trying to make sure it all adds up to something genuinely helpful.
Thank you for being here. If you follow a business, or claim your listing, or just tell a friend about a van you found through this — you're part of how this grows.
Jiveen
If you'd like to hear what's about, you can follow the region.