GROWN IN THE HEART OF WNY
In our Niagara County greenhouse, we combine premium seeds, technology, food safety and sustainability to create a farm like no other. All Pick’d™ products are New York Grown and Certified, and follow USDA Harmonized GAP Plus+procedures, ensuring both a local product and one grown in compliance with the strictest global food safety standards.
Wheatfield Gardens, based in the Buffalo, N.Y. suburb of North Tonawanda, is an Indoor Ag-Tech R&D Campus with 12.5 acres of cultivation area and 40,000 SF of post-harvest processing and manufacturing area. The mission is to develop and validate technologies that improve the energy efficiency of indoor farms. Wheatfield Gardens has been growing high-quality, sustainably-grown agricultural products indoors using state-of-the-art production systems since 2016.
We run our business with an inclusion philosophy that values input created by personnel from all walks of life. Wheatfield employs refugees from places such as sub-Saharan Africa and southwestern Asia; Spanish, Swahili, Karen and English are among the languages spoken. Employees hail from India, Burma, Burundi, Rwanda, Puerto Rico and the US and nearly one third of employees are female, including holding key positions such as Quality Control Director and Packing Supervisor.
We have a formal internship program with a local community college, teaching - and in some cases hiring full-time - students with an interest in the burgeoning Ag-Tech industry. A sister company (Tropos™ Technologies) is working with Western US Native American populations on new greenhouse locations to promote economic development. And locally, Tropos has also been advising the Seneca Nation on CEA. The company is color-blind when it comes to hiring effective talent and/or working with partners who can bring economic opportunity to those who historically have not had that chance.
THROUGH CLEAN HYDROPONIC FARMING
Using hydroponic farming systems, we work year-round in a clean, controlled environment to grow produce the way that it’s supposed to be. Natural splendor meets Ag Tech to make Pick’d™ something special.
The company is an Advisory Board member for Cornell University’s Controlled Environment Agriculture (“CEA”) GLASE program and is also a USDA Advisory Board member for CEA workforce development. The company’s campus currently features several cultivation areas focusing on sustainable production. Its patented Tropos™ Technologies’ air-handling system precisely controls indoor heating, cooling, humidity and CO2 and is estimated to cut energy usage by 30% from a typical greenhouse, facilitating a more sustainable farming approach for greenhouse agricultural operations.
PICK'D AT THEIR PEAK
Pick’d™ products are harvested at the peak of freshness so our produce is minutes – not weeks – from your door. Other produce is often harvested prematurely and shipped cross-country. That results in stressed, tasteless products which often use chemical ripening agents and lack meaningful flavor and nutrition.