Local Fallbrook Farm Seeks Community Engagement from College, Partners with Campus Programs

Shannon Chanler and her daughter Melissa Hughes co-own Fallbrook Farms, which has been in their family since the early 1800s. The business is founded on transparency and regenerative farming. Chanler operates Geneseo acupuncture out of Fallbrook while Hughes focuses on The Little Fruit Stand. Chanler developed each formula that is sold and has several years of experience in the field.

After earning a three-year graduate degree in East Asian medicine in 2007, Chanler was licensed by the state of New York and nationally board certified in Acupuncture and Oriental medicine. Chanler has nine years of experience working in the Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, and several more on her farm.

            Hughes is largely responsible for community outreach and public relations. She runs the farm intern program, a partnership with the Office of Sustainability at Geneseo, and the social media presence of Fallbrook Farms.

            “I’m just thinking about the farm and the direction we can go in, so I think I've kind of taken on more roles besides what we farm,” Hughes said. “What else can we do on this property to make it viable? We want to make it sustainable and regenerative, to make it also generate income to be able to pursue our farming and outreach program, because there's a big educational component to this farm.”

            While Hughes focuses on the future of the farm, Chanler’s current practices keep customers rolling in. Chanler considers herself an East Asian medicine practitioner alongside her work with acupuncture.

“[The medicinal practice is] very holistic, and that you're not just giving one herb, or one route to a person,” Chanler said. “You're generally coming up with a formula that has a multitude of different plants or medicinal herbs, working in conjunction with one another. I, it's not reductionist, and I think Western medicine tends to be very reductionist, —you have a headache we're going to give you this aspirin which is literally just aspirin.”

            Among the products sold by Fallbrook, the most beloved come in the form of medicinal teas.

“We have a metabolism tea that people really love, it has a great flavor, it's matcha based, and you know matcha lattes are delicious,” Chanler said. “But it also is kind of packed full of East Asian medicinal herbs that, you know, really jump-start your metabolism and energy and all that.”

In addition to their everyday tasks and responsibilities, Chanler and Hughes have formed many partnerships around the community and the college. One such partnership is with Geneseo’s Adopt-a-Business intern program, which provides businesses with assistance in social media and marketing.

Business administration major senior Emma Janusz explained that she and her fellow Adopt-a-Business interns handle a lot of email marketing, search engine optimization and social media marketing, such as posting content and reaching target audiences.

“Our role is that we’re helping them figure out how to reach their audience beyond that,” Januzs said. “Instagram was a really big emphasis for us, like making sure that they were following similar accounts because that's a good way to grow. Also posting a lot on their stories and posting regularly because people want to follow like active accounts.”

Adopt-a-Business intern and junior business administration major Valentina Chavez said that Fallbrook collaborates with many small, local businesses to promote and sell each other’s products.

“She's really big into having mainly women-owned businesses join with her,” Chavez said. “She sells other people's products as well, not just her own, and she's really big into women-owned or minority-owned or indigenous-owned businesses.”

            According to Janusz, Hughes works hard to create partnerships that attract their target audience—mainly college students.

            “I love that they have seasonal rotating products, so it's changing all the time,” Janusz said. “In the winter, they paired up with this woman who did these knit beanies … I got one, and it was so warm and nice for the winter. They're pairing up with this pizza place and they're gonna do pizza pop ups in the summer. I just really like how they keep adapting to the seasons, and they have a really strong understanding of their target audience.”

Other Fallbrook Farms partnerships with Geneseo include working with the Food Security Advocates associated with the Office of Student Volunteerism and Community Engagement and planning future initiatives with other Geneseo departments.

“We've been talking a lot with Garth Freeman, Dan DeZarn and Nicole Manapol over at the college for different ways that we can get more active participation with the students, whether it's saying, ‘here's an acre, [or] you know, do some kind of test garden,’” Hughes said.

Many volunteers and workers also come collaborating with the Rochester community, according to Chanler.

“We had some kids from the inner-city program in Rochester come down and participate in a program last summer,” Chanler said. “We're really interested in having people learn how we harvest these herbs, how we work with the land in a more productive and healthful way. So, we're very much about education, and Melissa has been really spearheading that for us.”

            Chavez said that Fallbrook Farms has another program with Rochester schools for interns.

“[Chanler] has another program which was another school...where they intern for her and they work for her, so they kind of see what it's like to work on a farm and stuff,” Chavez said. “The staff is always really nice... it's going to be mostly her this time but she is looking for people to hire, so if any Geneseo student [is] staying over the summer and interested in learning about the farm and like working with fresh foods, you could work there.”

While they have been expanding programs for interns and volunteers, Chanler and Hughes have also been developing more events and ideas at Fallbrook Farms.

Chavez explained they’ve been developing a vending machine that will be run out of the Little Fruit Stand.

“It's like this really nice big vending machine,” Chavez said. “[It will be open] for after hours when they close the stand, and they'll have products in the vending machine. And you can just go and purchase [the products].”

Hughes said she hopes the community will enjoy the new vending machine.

“[We hope] people will be excited about being able to just drive up and grab something,” Hughes said. “We're hoping to have some, some fun things in the vending machine that are a little unexpected, so that you know you are encouraged to kind of keep checking back and get something that you never thought you'd get out of a vending machine before.”

Janusz said she was excited about the new picnics the four of them have been working on because picnics have become a popular activity as a result of the pandemic.

“We don't really know how we're going to frame it yet, but you rent out or book a little picnic area,” Janusz said. “We're going to have an option where you can rent a picnic basket. So, they'll make bread and a charcuterie board. If you're 21, you can get wine.”

Fallbrook Farms is also offering low-cost tours of Fall Brook Gorge in partnership with Trail Otter. Not only is the Gorge on private property, but it can be very dangerous when wet, according to Hughes.

“They're not super expensive, but [they’ll help] minimize the impact that has been felt in the Gorge in terms of trash, in terms of taking things out of the gorge that shouldn't be taken out and disrupting the natural habitat,” Hughes said. “Also, just from a danger standpoint. It's shale, and it's very slick and slippery, and it really terrifies us to imagine anyone coming to harm there.”

Other than occasional trips to the Gorge, the Geneseo community is largely respectful of Fallbrook Farms. Melissa was thrilled to see the community acclimate to the farms’ unique practices and products.

“It's great to see young kids and sixth generation dairy farmers and just all walks of life [at the farms] because [East Asian medicine] is different for this area,” Hughes said. “But I think people see a lot of a lot of value in it, and they see results. Aand so they keep coming back, which is amazing.”

Community members who are not yet familiar with Fallbrook Farms usually become introduced to the business through the “fruit stand,” which ironically doesn’t sell fruit.

  “The little fruit stand, which is kind of our most visible outpost on the farm, pivoted to more of a general store model where we sell our herbs and some other local products,” Hughes said. “We sell maple syrup and locally made soaps and sheepskin and that sort of thing. So I think it's been a little bit of a reeducation [for the people of Geneseo]. In general, I think the community's been really warm and we're really always looking for ways to partner more.”

            Geneseo students, like Janusz, are more than happy to nourish this warm community connection. Janusz said she’s enjoyed working with Chanler and Hughes because of their strong values, such as donating proceeds to Black Lives Matter, and they’re extreme enthusiasm for what they do.

“It's just really refreshing meeting with them,” Janusz said. “They're so sweet. I always look forward to when I have meetings. They're busy, so we do like bi-weekly, even like bi-monthly just because they have so much going on. When we do get to meet with them it’s so fun.”

The Little Fruit Stand will reopen on Saturday May 8 from 11 a.m. to 5 pm is open Fridays, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., according to their Facebook page. Follow Fallbrook Farms on Instagram to stay up-to-date on other upcoming events and new products.