LITTLE VILLAGE — Tucked away in the northwest corner of Little Village near Douglass Park, Rodeo Farm has been growing fresh produce for West Side neighbors since 2013.

But for the past two growing seasons, a slice of the farm at 2600 S. Washtenaw Ave. has been dedicated to cultivating a swath of plants not found on most urban farms, from thimbleweed to little bluestem and nodding wild onion.

The plants, all of which are native to Illinois’ tallgrass prairie, make up one of the nation’s only urban seed propagation farms, said Sam Creightney, of Windy City Harvest, which owns and operates Rodeo Farm. By harvesting and replanting the seeds from these native plants, farmers and scientists in Chicago are hoping to restore the region’s ailing forests.

“Whether it’s urban or outside the city, [our goal] is really the land preservation and being able to grow food and plants that are native to the area,” said Creightney, director of operations at Windy City Harvest, the urban agriculture arm of the Chicago Botanic Garden.

To passersby, the crops at Rodeo Farm might look like nothing more than weeds. In fact, Windy City Harvest’s first attempt at growing native seeds was shut down about 10 years ago due to opposition from neighbors, who assumed just that.

“There’s a lot of contention in the city of Chicago around” growing native plants, Creightney said. “I have native plants in my front yard, and people are telling me that I should cut down my weeds. It really is a matter of perception.”

Until 2021 , when City Council passed an ordinance to create a native and pollinator garden registry , Chicagoans who grew native plants in their yards could be fined for violating the city’s weed ordinance.

But restoring the region’s prairies is a crucial mission, experts say.

Illinois is home to thousands of square miles of tallgrass prairie — one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. For every 10,000 acres that the Prairie State boasted before European colonization, there’s just 1 acre of prairie left today, said Kay Havens, the Chicago Botanic Garden’s chief scientist.

Much of this habitat loss is due to human-caused urbanization, pollution and the spread of invasive species. Without enough native plants in the ecosystem, the already at-risk prairie soil could wash away or become overrun with weeds.

“Our remnant ecosystems don’t produce enough seed to then restore all of those acres,” said Andrea Kramer, senior director of restoration ecology with Windy City Harvest. “If we try to collect seed from those remnant populations, we could negatively impact them. They need to continue to have seed so they can continue to thrive.”

Creightney and her colleagues at Windy City Harvest help provide job training and fresh produce at several of their urban farms across the city. At Rodeo Farm, they’ve partnered with the Chicago Botanic Garden to reseed the native prairies that define Cook County’s natural preserves.

Rodeo Farm’s native plants have been thriving so far. During its first growing season in 2023, the farm produced 8 pounds of native seed, including four species. Last season, the output jumped to 50 pounds, including seven species. It may sound like a small amount, but 1 pound can include anywhere from 10,000 to 18,000 seeds. And since perennial plants often reach peak output in their third year, the team is expecting big results in 2025, Kramer said.

Once farmers and apprentices at Rodeo Farm harvest the native seeds, they’re brought to the Chicago Botanic Garden in Northbrook, which houses the nation’s largest seed bank — a storage facility for native seeds. They’re then carefully cleaned, sealed, dried and placed in a freezing-cold storage facility.

The seeds can be preserved like this for decades, said Havens, who helps manage the seed bank. But the ones grown at Rodeo Farm are replanted in the Forest Preserves of Cook County — or even planted again at seed farms.

“The amount of each species we have in the bank isn’t enough to do a large-scale restoration, and so it goes through an agricultural process to bulk it up,” Havens said.

Through growing processes like the one at Rodeo Farm, a relatively small supply of 5 pounds of seed can be increased to nearly 500 pounds in just five years, Havens said.

Windy City Harvest’s latest venture into native planting hasn’t attracted opposition, mostly since it has few direct neighbors, Creightney said. But views on urban farming also appear to be shifting. In July, Illinois lawmakers passed the Homeowners’ Native Landscaping Act, barring any homeowners associations in the state from prohibiting native plants.

Creightney and her colleagues at Rodeo Farm are trying to focus on education and continuing to build awareness about the importance of native plant cultivation, she said. Windy City Harvest operates a job training program for Chicagoans interested in learning about agriculture and sustainability. Teaching apprentices about seed farming helps spread the word that there are “many different types of farming,” Creightney said.

“Right now, there’s not enough seed just to do restoration, and that means that the seed that is available is not cheap, and it can be inaccessible,” Kramer said. “Getting more capacity and more seeds of those species that are being produced right here in Chicago will be a really useful next step for our team to do more good work.”