By the time it reaches a supermarket shelf, a lettuce has been on the road for days. It traveled around 2,000 kilometers on average and spent 5–7 days in the supply chain before getting to you. At CityFarm the journey looks completely different: the lettuce you get was harvested today at one of five vertical farms in Chișinău, and it arrives with its roots still alive. Here's what that looks like, step by step.
The seed
It all starts with a seed and clean water. Inside the vertical farm there's no field soil, no pesticides, no rain postponing the harvest. The seed takes root in a clean substrate, fed by a precisely dosed nutrient solution. From then on, the plant lacks nothing - and gets nothing extra.
The light that stands in for the sun
The sun is replaced by LED light, calibrated for each green individually. That means green all year: whether it's January or July outside, the plant gets exactly as much light as it needs, every day. It grows vertically, on stacked shelves, so a whole farm fits inside a city - close to you, not hundreds of kilometers away.
It might be winter outside. On our shelves, it's always the season.
The morning harvest
The lettuce isn't cut days ahead so it can survive transport. It's cut the day it leaves for you - harvested today, delivered today or tomorrow. And unlike store lettuce, its root doesn't get cut off. You get it whole, alive, exactly as it grew.
The one-hour trip
All five farms are in Chișinău, not on the edge of another country. From harvest to your fridge, the trip is measured in hours, not days. “An hour from you” isn't a slogan - it's the actual distance between the farm and your table.
A rooted lettuce doesn't wait on a shelf - it lives all the way to your door.
Why the roots matter
A lettuce with its root intact is still alive. It keeps breathing and hydrating, so it stays crisp in your fridge day after day - it was never torn from what keeps it alive. The root is also a promise: nothing hidden. You see exactly what you're getting, where it comes from and how fresh it is. That's all we do - living greens, grown an hour from you.
Want to see this journey end in your own fridge? Pick your box of living greens →
