By Karen Parr-Moody
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Perhaps you want assurance that the chicken you just ate lived happily, pecking at beetles on a big stretch of land, before it was baked into a casserole. Perhaps you simply think free-range chicken tastes better.
Either way, the Tree of Life Center has you covered.
The 4,000-square-foot Tree of Life Center is perched above the Cumberland River at 30 Crossland Avenue at the corner of Riverside Drive. It is the brainchild of Yvonne Chamberlain, a mom of two boys, who created the concept to offer customers local, non-genetically modified foods, including locally-sourced meat, milk and eggs.
“I was more concerned about whether the product was non-GMO certified as opposed to whether it was a really popular brand,” Chamberlain said from her office above the grocery store. “I wanted that kind of labeling, that kind of check and balance.”
The Tree of Life Center is currently being readied for its projected opening date of Wednesday, March 26. Its refrigerators are filled with grass-fed meats produced on the Baggett Family Farm, which is located in the Sango area of Clarksville. Giving Thanks Farm, also located in Clarksville, supplies the store with pork, free-range chicken and eggs.
Another supplier, Terry’s Dogwood Hills Farm, is a veteran-owned operation out of Southside, Tennessee (Chamberlain, a military veteran, feels it’s important to partner with veterans). Another regional farm, in Logan County, Kentucky, supplies JD Country Milk.
Shelves are also stocked with scads of organic dry goods brands that shoppers of such foods will recognize, including Annie’s, Near East, Eden Organic, Delverde, Muir Glen and Ancient Harvest. The store also offers bulk spices and bulk reverse osmosis water, as well as sections for health, beauty, pets, babies, cleaners, gluten-free products and paper products.
Noah Chamberlain, her 15-year-old son who works in the store, said, “Every time I go in I want to eat everything.”
While certain products are certified organic, others are not; however, Chamberlain has put criteria in place. She wants to work with are farms that don’t use pesticides or herbicides.
Chamberlain’s guiding spirit is simple: “To go back to local and keeping the chemicals out of our food and out of our soil and practicing upgrading the natural way of producing our fruits and vegetables.”
Her 11-year-old, Ethan Chamberlain, once asked, “Mom, do you think this pig that gave us this bacon was happy when he died?”
To that end, Chamberlain also believes that animals raised for our food should be well-treated during their lifetimes, even though she realizes that farm animals are not pets.
“But you can still be humane,” she said. “You can still let them eat the types of foods that are good for their bodies, which would be grasses rather than GMO grains or GMO wheat.”
Chamberlain does not have a grocery store background; she’s a professional photographer and entrepreneur. But she grew up in northern Maine surrounded by organic farms, so she has been exposed to that lifestyle.
“Maine has one of the highest percentages of organic farmers in the country,” she said. “I grew up in farm country. It’s known for its lobsters, but I was picking potatoes during harvest season at age 9.”
The Tree of Life Center also houses a 450-square-foot professional kitchen that will be used for classes; Pam Holz, who is the store’s creative director, already films her cooking show there.
Looking to the future, Chamberlain has readied two studio spaces in the building for yoga and other classes geared toward mindfulness. She will either hire teachers for those or rent the space to them.
Kris Foust, the store’s director of operations, said, “It’s going to be a healthy mind-body place.”
“The store will offer things that will bring you back into alignment with your true self, with your core,” Chamberlain said.
For more information on the store, call 931-919-2836 or visit the website at www.treeoflifeclarksville.com.
Kevin Benson, the store’s assistant manager, stocks the shelves at the Tree of Life Center/Yvonne Chamberlain
The Tree of Life Center, which is still being stocked for its March 26 opening date, contains 4,000 square feet dedicated to healthy eating and mindfulness/Yvonne Chamberlain
Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.