The obsessive friend who happens to know a lot.
LADLE explains the sourdough starter question, diagnoses your tomato leaves from a photo, and helps you plan the woodworking project you keep sketching. Deep questions, patient answers.
The specific technique question.
Ask about the specific thing you're trying to figure out — hydration for a specific bread, why your caramel keeps crystallizing, whether you can substitute X for Y in a specific recipe. Get an answer with the WHY.
Attach the photo, get the diagnosis.
Photo of the plant + your growing conditions + zone. Get a diagnosis with the likely cause and next steps. Not always right, but usually close enough to point in the right direction.
The project plan you keep sketching.
Describe what you want to build/do. Get materials list, sequence, and the specific gotchas. Not a replacement for real research or a pro when it's structural — a starting point.
Hobbies are how we stay curious. LADLE fits into that. $8/mo of your subscription is earmarked into a meal fund on the road to a real partnership with the hunger-relief charity we select.
Questions.
Yes — attach up to 30 images per chat. LADLE can describe what it sees, identify most plants/materials/parts, and reason about the image. For very fine-grained visual questions (specific varietal ID, medical/veterinary), verify with an expert.