'Vertical farm' in Braddock to serve as Penguins' official greens partner

The Pittsburgh Penguins are partnering with a local farm that will provide greens for the team during the upcoming season.

Fifth Season, a “vertical farm” based in Braddock, will serve as the official greens provider for the Penguins during the 2020-21 season. Team chef Geoff Straub will use Fifth Season’s greens in pre-game meals.

“Proper nutrition is critical to peak performance, and having access to the freshest, highest-quality and most nutritious produce available will help position our team for success throughout the entire season,” said Mario Lemieux, NHL Hall of Famer and Pittsburgh Penguins co-owner. “In addition to feeding our players, this partnership represents another way the Penguins are cultivating strong ties with our local Pittsburgh community. Fifth Season’s farm in Braddock not only provides delicious, fresh greens, but is helping to revitalize an area of our city forgotten by other businesses.”

Fifth Season is unique because it relies on new technology for more efficient and fresh produce production, according to CEO Austin Webb.

“We are a fresh food company that’s creating a whole new fresh food experience,” he said. “We’re able to do that given that we’re driven by a very unique technology platform that we’ve created. We are able to redefine, rewrite the rules, about what fresh means, what that tastes like, what that experience is.”

Their produce is grown indoors in an environment carefully curated by their robotics system. It’s a human-free environment, Webb said, which eliminates the chances of human contamination.

“We’re controlling every aspect of that environment — air temperature, air humidity, the nutrients that we’re providing the plants,” he said. “And we do all of that in automated fashion.”

Fifth Season employs a vertical farming system, with plants growing on levels like a bookshelf, Webb said. Plants are stacked up to 30 feet high, with shelves of nine to 16 levels.

“We can do a lot more with less space, less water and less land,” he said.

The company began working with Lemieux last year to discuss community involvement. Everyone who works in the Braddock location is from Braddock or the surrounding community.

Webb said Fifth Season works with the Free Store and 412 Food Rescue and has donated over 10,000 pounds of greens. He plans to offer STEM and agricultural education programs for the public and youth once covid-19 restrictions ease.

“What we stand for as Fifth Season and what the Penguins stand for as an organization — there’s a lot of alignment there,” Webb said.

Fifth Season’s products, the same ones the Penguins will be using, are sold at Giant Eagle and on the company’s website.