Over the past year a lot of people have learned that Pocono Organics is a great place to eat gourmet organic meals from a renowned chef.

But like a plot of their organic tomatoes, there’s a lot more happening beneath the soil.

Founded by the family behind Pocono Raceway, and located just across Long Pond Road, Pocono Organics is a farm, market and cafe with an educational mission.

Ashley Walsh, the granddaughter of Drs. Joseph and Rose Mattioli, found a way to manage chronic health problems by changing to an organic diet. Diagnosed with gastroparesis, she faced the prospect of major surgery. But the dietary change also changed her life.

Food as medicine

As she learned more, she also became focused on the importance of sustainable farming practices. She created the farm as a way to educate people about both.

“You’re healing yourself, you’re also healing the earth, by using the food as medicine,” Walsh said.

Through the market and cafe, Pocono Organics provides an organic menu to residents and visitors to the Poconos.

It’s also where they sell the fresh organic produce grown in their fields and greenhouses.

The Executive Chef, Lindsay McClain, was a champion chef on the show “Chopped.”

The restaurant is open year-round. They cater events and provide food to Pocono Raceway. Walsh is excited to provide a healthy alternative to fast food or the nearby Wawa.

“You get a choice three times a day of what you put in your mouth; you can make it good or make it bad. The more good decisions you make, the better health you have,” she said.

Even before their grand opening last June, they started developing a following in the area. They opened an online store to sell their own produce and other organic food.

On the day of the grand opening there was a line outside the store. Walsh said she was touched by people who told her that they had been waiting decades for someone to bring such a selection of organic food to the area. Many of the foods they offer previously required a drive to specialty stores in major cities.

Learning about farming

“People think of food deserts as inner cities. This is a food desert up here that people don’t think about,” she said.

The cafe is also where they educate people about the importance of eating organic. It doubles as a classroom where they hold culinary classes for adults and kids.

They also host veterans through a program organized by the Rodale Foundation.

A program called “clean food, dirty hands” teaches about farming in a healthy way. Teaching kids is important to Walsh, because she hopes that the next generation will develop habits that are healthy for themselves and the earth early on.

“We can set them up to take off if we train them right, make them aware of everything. They’re going to be the changemakers,” Walsh said.

The farm itself is 380 acres located just north of the raceway, where they grow organic fruits, vegetables and industrial hemp. And the growing season continues inside eight greenhouses totaling 40,000 square feet.

The greenhouses are powered by the Pocono Raceway solar farm. Rainwater is reused to water the crops, collected in a large cistern beneath the farm and UV treated for use on the crops. The sloped roof of the facility is part of the rainwater collection.

“We’re about as off the grid as you can be. We take care of all the tools that Mother Nature gives us. The sun and the rain,” Walsh said.

Closing the loop

While food from the farm goes to Pocono Raceway, some of the food waste from the raceway comes back to the farm in the form of compost, forming a closed loop.

In addition to fruits and vegetables, the farm also has a large crop of industrial hemp.

Industrial hemp has one important difference from marijuana; it lacks the compound THC, which provides the “high.” But it retains the compound cannabidiol or CBD, which many people now use to treat many conditions. Pocono Organics uses CBD in creams and balms as well as food and tinctures. In 2019, they harvested 16,000 pounds of hemp.

In the future, they hope to produce hemp fiber, an alternative for many plastic products.

Pocono Organics is one of the largest farms in the U.S. to be certified as regenerative organic - a practice which goes beyond organic to include soil health, animal welfare and social fairness.

They also try to grow different variations of the foods commonly found in the supermarket, with the goal of providing more nutrients. They call it agrobiodiversity.

They grew centuries-old varieties of corn, beans and potatoes for a cooking challenge between notable chefs.

They’ve grown uncommon varieties of cucumbers, tomatoes, and even gluten-free grains as part of an initiative by the nonprofit Food Forever. Thousands of chefs have pledged to use the foods in their restaurants, with hopes that diners will respond positively and demand more diversity in the foods they can buy.

“We’re showing people what the future of food can be,” Walsh said.