Conversations with Chelsea O’Brien

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chelsea O’Brien

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
The Clarkston Family Farm is an inspirational story of true grassroots community effort and collaboration.
Chelsea O’Brien, a mother, passionate gardener and environmentalist and longtime educator had a dream of creating a space where kids, of all ages and abilities, could reconnect with the natural world and learn science, math, language arts, history and social studies through hands on experiences outside!

Clarkston residents agreed that this mission of educating and inspiring youth about the value of nature, healthy food and sustainability was powerful and worth getting behind.

The Clarkston Family Farm, nonprofit 501c3, farm by kids for kids, began in 2018 with support from like minded nonprofits, Clarkston Community Schools, local businesses, teachers, scouting groups, farmers and master gardeners.

Located on an eight acre parcel of historic horse farmland, now owned by Clarkston Community Schools, the newly created Clarkston Family Farm found a perfect partner in education. The farm currently leases this parcel of educationally zoned land from CCS district.

6800 Hubbard Rd is right on the corner of Main Street and Hubbard, and is nestled in the heart of residential suburbia and just 1/2 mile from downtown Clarkston.

This urban location is juxtaposed with the farm’s rural history and bucolic esthetics and it’s this unique, easily accessible farm environment, along with the warm and welcoming atmosphere that draws so many to its farm market and welcome center, The Sunflower Market.

Because Chelsea, and her board of directors, created this nonprofit farm for kids from the ground up, the early years were filled with intense building, fundraising, curriculum creation and a tremendous amount of good old fashioned hard work.

In the first year of operation the CFF team build a small greenhouse, updated the tack room attached to an old horseback to be the Sunflower Market and Welcome Center and planted a small organic fruit tree orchard, purchased a dozen free range chickens and worked with boy scouts to build a small chicken coop. That first year the farm saw 560 students. It was the beginning of something very special and the surrounding communities knew it.

Each year the Clarkston Family Farm continued to create the infrastructure needed to support a growing and thriving place of learning.
Now into its 8th year of existence Chelsea O’Brien and her team serve over 15,000 students and engage approximately 35,000 community members with their many large free family fun days, innovative and award-winning nature-based programs, field trips, camps, classes and workshops.

The farm market offers a CSA to many hundreds of families and collaborates with local farmers, beekeepers and artisans to provide sustainably sourced and organically grown produce, art and bakery items.

The farm now boasts a state of the art year-round growing facility, seven interactive teaching gardens as well as a caudre of farm animals from baby goats to pigs, miniature donkeys, horses, ducks, dozens of heritage breed chickens and even a rabbit breeding area called Bunnyville!

What started as a dream, a vision and a mission, has become a hub of laughter, beauty, growth and fellowship.

Chelsea O’Brien makes it her mission that everyone who comes to the Clarkston Family Farm follows the two most important rules, have fun and be safe!

Anyone who has ever spent time at the Clarkston Family Farm knows that they are welcome and no one ever leaves without a smile.

One of our favorite sayings at the Clarkston Family Farm is that “all the flowers of tomorrow start with the seeds of today” and it truly is a beautiful space to grow not just fruits, vegetables, flowers and farm animals but many hearts and minds as well.

We know you will “dig it!”

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Funding is always a struggle with any nonprofit and ours is no exception. With the number of students that we are able to engage and the multiple expansive Gardens and Orchards that need to be maintained as well as the many furry, fluffy and feathered farm animals that require constant care, so they can live their best lives, our yearly expenses are very high.

The Clarkston Family Farm is blessed with a wonderful Advisory Board, Executive Board and a committed group of friends of the farm that work tirelessly to fundraise to support the important work that we do for our community.

Without question the biggest challenge that we have however is funding.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My professional background is somewhat varied and now that I am in my fifties it’s interesting to look back at my educational background and my professional experiences and how they seemed to
have perfectly aligned to have cultivated the skillset I needed to successfully create abs run a nonprofit farm for kids!

Graduating from Western Michigan University’s Lee Honors College with a degree in biomedical science and a focus in exercise physiology my early career was in healthcare and specifically working with cardiac patients. This gave me a foundation of knowledge and passion for healthy lifestyle choices especially the importance of time outside in the natural world and healthy quality food and nutrition.

I’ve lived in several States including California, where I honed my sales marketing and business skills working for Stryker medical. This experience gave me the confidence and business acumen to start a nonprofit and run that nonprofit with a balance of fierce optimism, financial savvy and creative vision. Oh yes, and self directed work ethic!

My early childhood was spent on a 200 acre farm in Traverse City, MI and being able to take those rich positive experiences from my childhood and translate those into the work that I do today has been greatly rewarding.
The most profound influence on the work I do today, and it is my life’s work and legacy, has been becoming a parent.

I am the proud mother of three amazing children and I have an incredible partner in my husband of over 25 years.

My family has been exceedingly supportive and helpful with moving this idea of a interactive farm for children to actualizing it into a thriving hub of learning thinking growing and connecting with the community in a positive way. Especially during the harsh and difficult covid years when our farm.was still in it’s naicensy. My family literally “saved the family farm” by baking bread and growing food and feeding people!

My background in education came to a fruition after becoming a mother.
I have a degree now as a certified environmental educator along with my bachelor’s degree in education and it’s been one of my greatest pleasures and privileges to be able to create curriculum that helps to support kids with hands-on, student directed learning opportunities in the natural world.

It is often said that the nature of childhood is changing there is no more nature in it! I have made it my life’s work to try to change that reality and even in a small way in a small community like Clarkston kids will be given opportunities to get their hands in the dirt put their phones away and have a childhood that does have nature in it!

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I am so proud to live in Oakland County and Clarkston is the biggest small town you’ll ever live in.
One of the things I love best about Clarkston is how the residents and community members here really support each other. Love Clarkston? Then buy Clarkston! You see that slogan all ocer and we live that.

I can’t imagine being able to start a farm from whole cloth like we have, and in such a short amount of time, anywhere else. I live that our farm has become a ” third place ” for people.
Not your home, not your job but that third place that you know you can go to , to unplug …to relax.. and to really feel calm and at peace and always welcomed.

There’s not that much that I don’t like about Clarkston or Oakland County I suppose if pressed it would have to be the weather in January and February so dark and cold after living in California it definitely feels like winter lasts forever!

Pricing:

• Farm market and visiting hours are evey Wednesday-Saturday
• Most Family Fun Days (events) are free
• We do offer special evfbt rentals on weekends for weddings, bsby showers, birthday parties etc
• Field trips, workshops, camps and classes are varied in process, check our website to get involved
• We always need volunteers- gardens,animal care and teaching opportunities

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.clarkstonfamilyfarm.com
• Instagram: Clarkston Family Farm
• Facebook: Clarkston Family Farm
• Youtube: Clarkston Family Farm
• Other: https://linktr.ee/clarkstonfamilyfarm?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0lSW0OT9inw7_XoM39v0myfok6kYQMjGNt9JtdlF-T5MhDet6Pmf3dHSs_aem_-8VgYy7L7-BkucekxH83YA