About Us
Leah's Lettuce and Fungi is a small scale farm started in 2018, but became fully established in 2023 starting with a small road side stand where we made our first sales. We have been expanding rapidly from there. We run two greenhouses, about 1/2 acre of intensively planted grow space, in addition to the laying and fruiting yard for Shiitake bolts in the shade of the Pocono hemlocks.
On the banks of Dotter's Creek, a wild A trout stream in the Southern Poconos, we practice sustainable agriculture through natural composting, seed saving, a no till approach, and sillage tarps to supress weed pressure and rotate crops. We feed the soil with natural fertilizers and amendments inspired by JADAM, a Korean technique that uses natural low cost inputs found naturally in the region where the farm is located. But most of all, a passion for food from the ground, not the factory. The farm functions with the ancient process of heirloom seed saving, locally sourced plant and animal based composts to feed the biology, and no mechanized equipment except a chainsaw and Earthway seeder. The major inputs are primarly labor through hand seeding, broadforking, hand weeding, and traditional harvesting: anything to avoid disturbing natural mycellial networks and earthworms. The pest and weed management on this grow space is entirely natural. There are absolutely zero synthetic pesticides or herbicides on the premises. The black collie mix, Bear, keeps the deer at bay, works 365 days a year with no vacation, and keeps a border.
The head grower Jake is an industry trained chemist, microbiologist, and a full time teacher at Tamaqua Area High School. He is nearing completion of a master's degree in analytical chemistry. His passions for growing stem from very early childhood where he was constantly surrounded by food and ag, whether that was foraging for morel mushrooms in the blue ridge mountains with his dad, helping in the kitchen with his mom, or helping stake and tie tomatoes with his late grandfather in Middletown, MD.
The vegetable gardening and mycological operations are approached from the scientific perspective where conditions of the soil, chemically, physically, and biologically, are closely monitored to produce artisanal and a focused product line. We specialize in Romaine lettuce, buttercrunch (Boston) lettuce, Brandywine heirloom tomatoes, Muncher and Marketmore cucumbers and the most prized product the Shiitake mushrooms using modern Japanese innoculation methods on Red Oak trees from this 6 acre property. We grow a little bit of everything but overtime have focused our efforts on a few choice products. We work with local school districts to improve food quality with the farm to school program and will go toe to toe with distributors in the restaurant space. If we can't beat their price, we'll be the taste of their product everytime and customize based on your menu. We are looking forward to making some more proper fitting restaurant partners.
The administrative lead and head harvester is Jake's wife Annie. And of course the owner, and CEO Leah. We look forward to doing business with you...
