Rising Stars: Meet Chelsea Young

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chelsea Young.

Hi Chelsea, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was in corporate finance out of college working for General Electric then turned yoga teacher, turned yoga studio owner in Cincinnati before we moved to Nashville in 2016. When we moved, I started sharing mom and yoga and food life with others on Instagram and organically grew my brand (movement, nourishment, and empowerment).

Growing our food just fits with all of the whole food-based recipes I share on my website Chelseajyoung.com. Funny story but this farm adventure all happened with a pandemic garden in early 2020. My family and I got the okay from our HOA to go ahead and put a vegetable garden in our side yard. We very quickly fell in love with growing our food. I have 4 children and at that time they were 6,4,2, and 5 months. We would garden and eat vegetables together every morning, it was something I knew was special for us. That ended pretty quickly when our grouchy neighbors across the street complained about the garden and vegetables and made our HOA shut it down.

It was a blessing because it gave us a taste of growing our food and how empowering it is. We started looking for land in 2021 and at the end of the year, we found 18 acres in Arrington TN, 20 minutes from our home in Brentwood. It was perfect for getting us started. We closed on our farm at the end of November in 2021 and in January of 2022, I had my high tunnel installed and started growing food again with my children in the spring of 2022.

I’ve been sharing all that I have learned with my followers and subscribers on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook and people got curious just like we did and started to grow food in their backyards. I wanted to make it feel like we were learning together, and making mistakes together. Sharing the highs and the lows of owning a farm and growing your own food is something people really want to root for (no pun intended!) There were LOTS of mistakes, I would’ve made great reality tv.

Beyond just growing food on the farm, we started community events where invited others to come to learn and move together. We’ve hosted some great events; Mushroom foraging, Intro to herbalism, sourdough-making classes, yoga classes, community bonfires, farm-to-table dinners and so much more on the books.

Our goal is to continue to offer educational workshops and courses and seasonal events for the surrounding Nashville community. We love to open our farm for others to have a place to learn with us and enjoy our delicious homegrown food.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
So many obstacles! Not getting the hoop house on even ground it was very easily flooded every time we had rain so we needed a French drain, 1700 tons of gravel later… yeah didn’t think through that one.

We needed to get our well serviced and pump working for irrigation. Then we had to dig from the well to the hoop, that was a big mess but worth it! It’s so nice to have well water on the farm.

There was 3ft of horse manure in each of the barn stalls, we had to clean out and scrub the top of the barn that had over 500 bails of hay in it so we could have a yoga spot. Lots of clean up but the space is amazing and a perfect spot for yoga on the farm.

I didn’t till the hoop house properly on the first go and within a couple weeks the whole thing was weeds, so the entire year of 2022, I felt like all I did was weed buttercup out of the hoop house. We grew lots of food, but I felt like the weeds were going to be there forever.

I planted fruit trees in early 2022 without doing a whole lot of research if they would produce in TN. Most likely they will. not. I won’t forget putting those trees in early February and my hands freezing trying to plant them by hand.

I am humbled every day I am on the farm and learn something new.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a full-time Stay at Home Mom to four children ages 9, 7, 5, & 3 first and foremost. I coach my girls soccer teams and feel like I am the professional car uber driver for all of their activities.

Beyond that I teach yoga for a living and have private clients in Nashville, lots of yoga parties I get to teach on the weekends (bachelorette yoga) and I also teach for 3 yoga studios here in town. I teach Hot 26/Bikram Yoga, Buti Yoga, Vinyasa Style, and for Lifetime a yoga with weights class. I also have an online library of classes and courses for postpartum women wanting to bring their bodies back into balance after having children.

I am part of a couple of direct sales companies that coincide with my health and wellness brand that I run @chelseayoungyogi along with my website where I offer all of my free content and recipes to followers.

I make our food from scratch and I love to share easy and simple recipes with others and my newsletter that goes out.

I’m most proud of starting the farm after getting our garden shut down. The farm can house all of my health and wellness goals of bringing like-minded health-oriented people together and learning alongside them. I’m not sure what sets me apart from others versus just sharing the things that I’m into, ideas, concepts, recipes, workouts that can help others on their health journey.

What makes you happy?
My kids and my husband make me laugh and keep life interesting everyday. I love learning with them and sharing this new farm space with them.

Cooking makes me happy because it is a creative outlet for me and my tastebuds. Growing food makes me happy because it is an absolute miracle it grows from seeds to your plate. Every time I’m so impressed.

Moving with others in a group setting makes me happy. I love teaching others yoga, I truly love the energy in the room and the way everyone feels afterwards.

Serving others makes me happy, it fills my cup.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://chelseajyoung.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chelseayoungyogi/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chelseayoungyogi
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ChelseaYoung 

Image Credits
Janet Henry