Grace Seeds Ministry

06/07/2026

June is Pride Month! At Grace Seeds Ministry we set a wide table where all are welcomed as beloved children of God. We celebrate and welcome the gifts of LGBTQIA+ siblings as we work together to share God's love, hospitality and abundance -- and embody God's justice and peace.

06/01/2026

Gardens evolve and change over time. The garden at New Generation Church of God in Christ and Mt. Zion Lutheran Church in Oak Lawn has been growing and changing over its many, many years of faithfully sharing its harvests. This year, they're giving their tomato plants more room for their roots! Bob Smith took on the job of building a new frame to hold 15-gallon grow pots. Great job, Bob!

06/01/2026

Celebrating the garden team at the Louis S. Viverito Senior Center (STOA) in Burbank! We're so glad and grateful they're Share the Harvest Growing Partners. Here are a few photos from planting day!

05/19/2026

Our hearts are with the Islamic Center of San Diego, the victims and families impacted by today's horrific act of violence, and Muslims everywhere as they prepare to celebrate Eid al-Adha later this month.

Muslims, like all Americans, deserve the religious freedom to worship and practice their faith safely.

Anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence is on the rise across the United States. It's on all of us to push back against any and all hate against the Muslim members of our communities.

05/14/2026

Great job yesterday at New Hope UCC, one of our Share the Harvest Growing Partners! They got their garden beds prepped for a new growing season! Fresh produce from their garden goes directly (down the church sidewalk!) to Pilgrim Faith Food Pantry, now located at New Hope UCC. Blessings on your growing and harvesting!

05/12/2026

Great reminders!

When heading into the great outdoors, plan ahead and check for ticks afterward!

Tick activity has been higher than usual this spring, according to reports from the Illinois Natural History Survey and Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).

To avoid ticks:
• Use insect repellent.
• Wear light-colored, long-sleeved shirts/pants.
• Wear a hat and pull back hair into a ponytail.
• Avoid deer trails and tall grassy areas.
• Check clothing and pets upon returning home.

If you are bitten:
• Remove the tick as soon as possible.
• Use tweezers to grasp the tick close to the skin and pull it out with steady pressure.
• Clean the bite area with disinfectant.
• Take a picture of it and then flush the tick down the toilet or freeze it in a plastic bag for future identification.
• Check with your doctor if symptoms such as a rash, fever, or flu-like symptoms appear.

Report tick bites at https://bitemap.illinois.edu.

Learn more about tickborne illnesses at https://dph.illinois.gov/topics-services/diseases-and-conditions/tickborne-illnesses.html

05/09/2026

Among the most cited passages in the contemporary scholarship of Indigenous knowledge and environmental ethics is one from Robin Wall Kimmerer's 2013 book Braiding Sweetgrass:

"In some Native languages the term for plants translates to 'those who take care of us.'"

— Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Milkweed Editions, 2013)

Naming practices encode entire cosmologies. In Western botanical taxonomy, plants are classified by their utility to humans — food crops, medicinal species, invasive weeds. The category system organizes the living world around human assessment.

In the Indigenous framework Kimmerer describes, the naming runs the other direction. The plant is what takes care of us. The relationship is built into the word. Reciprocity is not aspirational — it is grammatical.

Interdisciplinary research at the intersection of linguistics, botany, and ecological education has been clear that this is not a softer way of describing the same reality. It is a different ontology, with measurably different consequences for how communities relate to the more-than-human world.

What does the language of your discipline assume about your relationship to the world it describes?

Explore the Forum's work at fore.yale.edu

05/09/2026

More photos of our Share the Harvest Growing Partners getting ready for the seedlings we'll be delivering beginning next Friday! These photos are of a BIG compost delivery being made to Calvary Church's Share the Harvest garden in Oak Lawn. The remainder of the compost will be shared with the community garden plots Calvary also provides to neighbors. And they have a fabulous pollinator garden, too!

05/08/2026

We love that our Share the Harvest partner team here is inviting others to be part of their great outreach ministry!

Harvesters Needed: The Garden Team is excited for the fifth year of growing produce in the Grace Garden! We are looking for volunteers to harvest the peppers, eggplants and herbs this summer and deliver them to the food pantry. Please consider signing up for a shift—you can tailor it to your own schedule!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FxMbGzMRC6JWfy9_Bp00HO3NbGZkuEu3__559vG8ym4/edit?gid=0 =0