Earth Nourishes, Teaches, and Transforms

Grow Ogden Earth Day

April 18, 2026 - Farmer Karl's Remarks

Two Grow Ogden Staff Members with Farm Intern at Grow Ogden Earth Day 2026. "We are Farmily!"

Thank you all for being here today. And a special thank you to our exhibitors for sharing your passion and knowledge with our community, to Weber State University's Botany Department for the beautiful herb spiral, and to Tree Utah for the life-giving work you do every single day.

Fox TV News Utah Video Coverage - (3 minutes)

The Ogdenite Article. - "Grow Ogden Farm Celebrates Earth Day"

The Salt Lake Tribune Article - "Helping a Community Grow"

My remarks today center on three things: 

• awareness of Mother Earth, 

• the gifts she offers us, and 

• an invitation — to be transformed, individually and collectively, as we steward her.

Herb Spiral Grow Ogden - Designed and Built by Weber State University Botany Students

Do we realize how deeply connected we are to this Earth? We came from her. And after a hundred years or so, we will return to her.  Every single day, the energy of the sun — captured by plants through the miracle of photosynthesis — feeds and nourishes us and every other creature on this planet. The life-giving water that falls from the sky, soaks into the soil, and rises through roots has been cycling through this world since long before any of us arrived.

Mother Earth's Gifts

Mother Earth provides beauty and balance. And she keeps me grounded — teaching me, again and again, what is real. Earth is a one-in-a-billion planet. Think about it: the unique presence of water, our precise distance from the sun, the tilt of the earth's axis and the seasons it creates, the magnetic fields that shield us, the gravitational pull that holds us, the moon and her tides. This is not an accident. This is a miracle!

Peach Tree Planting - Thanks to Donation by Tree Utah

If you've ever looked through a microscope at the cross-section of a root, a stem, or a leaf — and watched those chloroplasts moving busily within the cells, capturing light, translating energy, creating sugar and oxygen — you've witnessed something sacred. 

Where would any of us be without photosynthesis? We owe our every breath and our energy to a leaf.

Mother Earth's gifts are marvelous and many.

• She gives us rhythm — sunrises and sunsets to pace our lives, the moon's cycles to mark our seasons. She gives us spring — that annual reminder that life always returns, that rebirth is real, that hope is rooted in the soil. 

• She gives us relationship — to one another, to all of creation, and to the Earth herself, from whence we came and where we will return.

• She gives us meaningful work — the kind that heals us, grounds us, and satisfies us in a way that few other things can. 

• She gives us peace — a refuge from the noise and stress of daily life, a place where the mind and spirit are refreshed. 

• She gives us belonging — a home, an address, a sense of purpose. She offers a relationship to each one of us. 

Earth is our playground. But it can also be our garden.

Painted stone as part of Herb Spiral Garden

So here is my invitation to you today.

Be grateful. Be filled with wonder. The Creator gave us something glorious and beautiful, fruitful and abundant. Pause today — and regularly — to marvel at it. Take time to be in nature. Let her teach you. Let her restore you.

Be good stewards. Protect, sustain, and responsibly manage the finite resources entrusted to our care.

Regenerate the Earth. Put carbon back into the soil. Reduce your emissions. Plant trees, flowers, and vegetables wherever you can. The more you connect with Mother Earth, the greater the return of life-force.

Lettuce growing in Grow Ogden raised beds

Bring forth more life. Dig in the earth. Put your hands in the soil and be healed — in spirit, in mind, and in body. Keep planting seeds. 

Let us be partners in ongoing creation with the Creator himself. Let us work together to make this corner of the world a garden like Eden.

Photo courtesy of Novica Gijevski

Earth is a gift. She is a doctor, a provider, and a transformer.

Let us till her and take good care of her — for how we do so will dictate our health, our wellbeing, and our very character.

Thank you.

Parker Goss- Grow Ogden Operations Manager with Farmer Karl at Grow Ogden

Eden Streets relaunches lives through farming by empowering communities to grow food, jobs, connections and hope. Eden Streets envisions farms everywhere that cultivate vibrant, connected communities. Grow Ogden is a project of Eden Streets, an urban-farm based job-training program that enables people facing homelessness and/ or in recovery to find stable employment.

Collett's Story - Farming for Life - 4 minutes - YouTube

Farming that Relaunches Lives and Builds Community - 50 minutes - YouTube

• Presented at The Intermountain Sustainability Summit - March 19, 2026

• Co-Presenters: Farmer Karl Ebeling, Rachael Dixon

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