About a decade ago, Natasha Nicholes moved with her family from East Garfield Park to West Pullman, where they settled across the street from a vacant lot filled with litter. “I grew up in a time where you could really get shamed for littering, and now it seemed people didn’t care, so I wanted to transform that [vacant lot] into something people could really care about,” she said.
Nicholes and her husband started a community garden in their backyard and then expanded to the vacant lot. “We wanted to get to know our neighbors, have people saying hello and interacting with one another, and make sure our neighborhood was growing stronger through connection,” Nicholes said. “That was supposed to be, if you pardon the pun, an organic thing, without forcing people. And so far we have done that.”
Over the years, We Sow We Grow has grown into a full-fledged urban farm. It is incorporated as a nonprofit, and a new expansion will bring it to five lots, making room for an educational farm, a production farm, a community gathering space, a fruit orchard, and a Zen garden. (“My husband will say that he just wanted to grow tomatoes and cucumbers, but he’s married to an extreme person,” Nicholes joked.)
We Sow We Grow sells seasonal produce on site every Saturday and hosts various events. But Nicholes, now executive director of the nonprofit, also thinks of it as a dining table for the West Pullman community.
“That is where you aired your grievances and worked things out, at the dinner table, you know. That’s where the civil rights movement started—at the dinner table,” she said. “It didn’t have to be super public at all, and it didn’t have to be super expensive or super elaborate. You got into a restaurant, you talked business while having a good meal, and stuff happened. The elders gathered, stuff happened. And that’s essentially what we wanted.”
But if We Sow We Grow is a place where people can go to be with community, it’s also a place where they go to just be, Nicholes said. “We wanted some place in the neighborhood and on the Far South Side of Chicago that had greenery because we deserve it.”
We Sow We Grow. 11958 S. Union Avenue. Farmstand Saturdays 9am–1pm. (312) 522-5159. wesowwegrow.org. @wesowegrow
Jermaine Nolen is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised on Chicago’s South Side. His work—spanning visual art, writing, and design—is grounded in a deep connection to his community and the legacy of his ancestors.