It feels like a no-brainer, as in, “you mean they haven’t done this already?”, but The Grateful Dead are getting their own branded “Grateful Greens” salad blend — featuring Dead-inspired packaging and all — thanks to a new partnership with Gotham Greens. So Deadheads the world over might want to take a long, strange trip… to the grocery store.
Gotham Greens — which specializes in sustainably-focused indoor farming at greenhouses across the country — explains that the new Grateful Greens lettuce blend is essentially the company’s best-selling Gourmet Medley (featuring butterhead, green, and red leaf lettuce) but repackaged with plenty of Grateful Dead-related upgrades. The packaging features the band’s iconic Dancing Bears along with a QR code that points towards additional content, including a custom Grateful Dead playlist. (Don’t expect any unreleased cuts; it’s just a Spotify playlist.) Additionally, Gotham Greens says that for every package sold, they will plant trees in partnership with ForestNation.
Gotham Greens says this Deadhead collaboration was born out of a shared commitment to sustainability, community, and plant-based eating. “As a huge Grateful Dead fan, I’m thrilled to see our launch of Grateful Greens,” Jenn Frymark, the company’s chief greenhouse officer, stated in the announcement. “The Grateful Dead champions a sense of community that has been inspirational to our values at Gotham Greens. We have worked hard to build a community-minded ecosystem at Gotham Greens that creates a strong sense of camaraderie across our greenhouse locations, partnerships within the neighborhoods we operate in, and designs that respect our relationship with our planet.”
David Lemieux, the Grateful Dead’s archivist and legacy manager, also chimed in on the collaboration. “It’s not always possible to ‘think globally, act locally’ — but Gotham Greens puts this into action,” he added. “I love that they grow healthy food near you in incredibly sustainable ways, so the greens don’t have to travel far to get to your plate. Just as the Grateful Dead changed so much of how things were done within the music industry, Gotham Greens is an innovator, too, in making local food possible on a grand scale.”
Grateful Greens will be available nationwide until September at major grocers including Whole Foods, Kroger brands, Albertsons Companies, and Sprouts Farmers Market, and online through additional platforms like FreshDirect, Instacart, and AmazonFresh. Then, after the Grateful Dead salad leaves shelves, Gotham Greens says other partnerships with iconic bands and musicians will follow.
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