Monroe County's Pocono Organics farm is celebrating Earth week. With celebrations that will end with Saturday's Earth Fest a free music and food filled event for the community. Pocono Organics is one of the largest regenerative organic farms in North America.
"Here we have 40,000 square feet of our greenhouses that are three and a half stories tall, the highest twin peak greenhouses in North America," Ashley Walsh, President and Founder of Pocono Organics said.
The farm originally sold their organic produce to stores and restaurants, but at the beginning of the pandemic they decided to pivot their efforts. This week they are celebrating one year of opening up their online store that offered Barn Side Pick up to help people in the community at a time when it was hard to get produce from the grocery store.
"We decided to open a regenerative organic farm because not only is it producing more nutrient dense produce for human health, but growing in this way sequester more carbon and we're helping more planetary health. We are helping sequester more carbon into the ground and take it out of the atmosphere and help neutralize some of the climate crisis that is happening," Walsh said.
Pocono Organics has already provided over 45 jobs for people in the area. Their café chef is food network's season 20 Chopped Champion, Lindsay McClain. "Moving towards their regenerative farming is very much something that I have done most of my life not even knowing before it had a name, that's the way my family farmed," Kim Trinidad, Produce and Hemp Team Leader said.
"We are as sustainable and off the grid as we can be. We reclaim all the water off our 70,000 square feet of roof and reclaim and reuse that for greenhouse irrigation. We run off of 3 megawatts 25 acre solar farm, so we are trying to be an example for other companies. Hey there's ways that you can help the environment and still go on with your business as well," Walsh explained.
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