- Last Updated on Saturday, 31 May 2025 20:59
Triple B Farms is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2025. The popular attraction in southern Allegheny County has a farm market, pick-your-own fruits and vegetables, children’s activities, wagon rides, farm animals and a fall pumpkin festival. Triple B Farms also sells wholesale produce to many grocery stores in the region.
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A Clairton High School graduate, Ron Beinlich studied metallurgical engineering at what is now Carnegie Mellon University and worked for U.S. Steel as an engineer. On the side, he had a hobby farm, then called West Bend Stock Farm, where he raised beef cattle. As the steel industry was collapsing in Pittsburgh, Ron and his wife Carolyn used his severance pay to plant the farm’s first strawberry crop.
The farm’s first year open for business was 1985. The new name was Beinlichs’ Beef and Berry Farm, later shortened to Triple B Farms. The only crop was strawberries. A small crew of high school students picked strawberries sold to churches for strawberry festival fundraisers. Otherwise, the crop was strictly pick-your-own. Ron converted an old box truck bed as a tiny sales stand.
The next year, the Beinlichs added pumpkins, which they sold from the upper level of their historic beef barn. Carolyn, a North Hills High School and Slippery Rock University graduate, put her elementary education degree to work by offering school field trips. To this day, at age 78, she continues to lead both spring and fall field trips for school children and is renowned for offering a day of true education. Students learn about honeybees and crops as well as having fun on the farm.
Seeing a need to remain open through the summer, the Beinlichs next added sweet corn. But the 1988 drought presented the farm’s most serious challenge, all but destroying that year’s corn crop. Adding a second irrigation pond kept the Beinlichs from facing such dire straits again.
After graduating from Penn State University in 1997, the Beinlichs’ son Bill joined the business. He and his wife Sue, also a Penn State agriculture alumna, represent the second generation on the family farm. Over the years, the farm has also added raspberries, blueberries, tomatoes, apples, peaches, broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, peppers and other fruit and vegetable crops. Bill has also added fields of flowers for customers to cut. Bill, Sue, Ron and Carolyn all retain active roles in the daily operations of the farm.
The farm market still stands on its original location, but it was expanded in 1999 and again in 2004 and boasts an exterior makeover this year. Triple B’s market has become known for its fresh-baked pies and muffins featuring farm-fresh produce. The children’s play area has seen several expansions over the years, as has the fall pumpkin festival.
The Beinlich family is proud to celebrate 40 years of providing the Pittsburgh region with high-quality produce and family fun. Visit their website for more information: triplebfarms.com.
