Research & regeneration at Pocono Organics

Ashley Walsh never thought a career in organic farming was in the cards. Her work as an assistant director at Fox Sports kept her on the road, and she rarely gave much thought to what she ate.

“I couldn’t even keep a basil plant alive,” she said.

But when she was diagnosed with gastroparesis, a rare condition that makes it impossible to digest most foods, she had no choice but to get serious about her nutrients. Food as medicine is a principle she learned firsthand. Upon realizing how wide spread the use of chemical additives and preservatives was, she figured the best way to fight for food justice was to start growing. She leased a 50-acre parcel of family land, consulted the experts and Pocono Organics was born.

Regenerative farming is an old idea, though that particular description is only just starting to catch on. Reciprocity is the natural law that keeps the world in balance. Where there is give, there must be take – what is used must be replaced. The soil that provides us with nutrients must be replenished, especially now.

“Sustainability is not enough. We need to start regenerating,” Walsh explained. “Everyone has to do more to make things better.”

At Pocono Organics, this principle is put to work. Their eight greenhouses cover 40,000 square feet of soil beds and are 35 feet tall. The height of the greenhouses diffuses the light to keep winter shadows away from the plants, which further benefit from the way the light bounces off the walls. Situated on a plateau amidst the Pocono Mountains, the freezes come early and leave late. But in the greenhouses, winter crops like brassicas, lettuces and carrots thrive alongside microgreens and mushrooms.

Outdoors, garlic still grows, and cover crops nourish resting fields.

Walsh knew from the beginning that getting this operation up and running would require plenty of support, so she reached out to organizations that shared her passion for the cause. A key partner has been the Regenerative Organic Certified Alliance, an organization whose mission is to spread the word (and material capacity) for regenerative farming across the world.

With predictions that if current practices continue topsoils will be utterly depleted within 60 years, the regenerative organic ag movement is on the move to reverse the trend and give our soil some much needed love. The philosophy consists of three pillars: soil health, animal welfare and social fairness, and to be certified a farm has to embrace each one. Walsh does so proudly.

“We make sure everything on the farm is cared for, from the farmworkers to the healing the planet by rebuilding the soil,” she said.

Another of the operation’s critical partners is the Rodale Institute, which selected Pocono Organics as their fifth regional research center to advance learning in regenerative organic techniques.

“They were there helping us from day one to design and build the farm,” said Walsh.

The partnership is evident in the efficiency of the operation and forward thinking. What started as a 50-acre project has increased to 380, and every aspect of the farm is interconnected.

“We’re vertically integrated and strive to be as waste-free as possible,” Walsh said. The growing operation is accompanied by a grocery store, and by cutting out the middleman, they can offer locals access to all those homegrown nutrients at prices they can afford. They also have a café, where their skilled chef highlights their offerings while also getting creative with the farm’s excess.

“If we have a surplus of cucumbers or tomatoes, our chef makes tomato jam or pickles,” she said. “Our zero-waste game leveled up with our new composting program.”

Having recently purchased a state-of-the-art composter, what would have once taken two years to decompose now takes just five days. Kitchen waste goes back straightaway to the garden beds, closing the regenerative cycle.

Microgreens have also been an im-portant feature of the Pocono Organics offerings. They are kept in production to sell to locals and garnish dishes at the café. But Pocono Organics also produces microgreen powders that easily out-compete bigger brands with more hype and less nutrients.

“A lot greens powders out there have so many fillers, but ours is pure – no fillers at all, just concentrated microgreens. It’s great for kids or elders,” said Walsh. “You can really add it to anything.”

Hemp, however, is the superstar of Pocono Organics. “I love hemp,” Walsh declared. “I see so much potential in it.”

And no wonder. One of the harshest side effects of her illness is nausea, and while she has come a long way since her diagnosis, she still suffers frequent bouts of it. But thanks to CBD, there is a holistic option to take that pain away. Whereas nausea medications come with plenty of side effects, CBD soothes without making you pay for it.

Walsh sees the medicine produced at Pocono Organics as one of the most important aspects of the work. In addition to growing excellent hemp for CBD, their research center developed a cutting-edge delivery system to hasten the onset time.

“The nanoparticles absorb before getting to your stomach – it hits you within a few heartbeats,” she said, inviting you to imagine the difference for the afflicted between immediate relief and the indeterminate waiting period for edibles.

With the spirit of innovation alive and well at the lab, 20 acres of hemp provide plenty of other possibilities. “Hemp can do so much,” Walsh said, explaining that while one varietal might be the perfect medicinal plant, another could be suited to textile production and still another a great candidate for the growing field of bioplastics. Pocono Organics has started production on backyard biodegradable cups.

It should come as no surprise that hemp is one of the few materials capable of intervening in the plastics deluge plaguing our ecosystems – it’s a plant that always seems to want to help. In addition to offering its medicinal qualities for some human ailments, hemp also is extremely useful for healing the soil, which brings it full circle into the regenerative mission of Pocono Organics and its partners.

“Hemp is a powerful soil remediator,” Walsh explained, citing the promising research into hemp’s capacity for phytoremediation in heavily contaminated soils like in Chernobyl.

There’s a whole lot of good news coming out of Pocono Organics. But perhaps even more importantly, Walsh and her team know better than to be pushy with their point of view. Before her health forced her to question how what she put in her body affected her, she assumed that whatever she was consuming was safe.

“We have no idea how broken our food systems are,” she said. “But when I started using food as medicine, the results were undeniable.”

Now she wants to make that knowledge freely available to her community, and she does so by offering good prices at the market, one of the only places to access fresh foods for miles around.

“People around here haven’t had much choice besides Dollar General,” she said.

But after opening in 2019, the operation was up and running enough during the pandemic to get vegetables to the quarantined people of the Poconos. The community’s gratitude was obvious once they were finally able to have their grand café opening – there was a line snaking around the building.

They take their role as a center for regenerative research seriously and regularly offer workshops and symposiums.

“It’s amazing to bring farmers into the conversation,” said Walsh, who believes progress in regenerative agriculture will only be possible if the movement is an inviting community, open to learning from each other. She knows how far her own learning has come, and when she looks out at the expanse of farmland that welcomes everyone from local community members and tourists in for a ski weekend to journeyman growers hoping to learn new techniques, she’s grateful to know the fruits of her labor can be shared by all.

by Holly Devon