The students at the Barrack Obama School of Leadership and STEM showed off the skills they learned at the school's horticulture program.
"This is actually my favorite class," student Epiphany Hawthorne said. "So every day, I go home and tell my sister about everything, about horticulture she'll be like what is horticulture and I'll be like you don't have its."
What started as an afterschool activity is now among curriculum options with five gardens.
"I'm trying new food, I tried recipes, like cucumber and tajin... oh that was good," Logan Jamison said.
On Wednesdays, the students host a farmers' market.
The students planted the seeds in the spring and they harvest and learn how to market their goods.
"They are learning how to do a cost analysis like, what are the groceries stores charging for cucumbers and what can we charge," said Ericka Patterson, superintendent of Park Forest - Chicago Heights School District 163. "It builds leadership capacity, and we are about building leaders."
Darius Thomas is a parent and market supporter. He says gardens are also teaching invaluable lifelong lessons.
"Sometimes you don't see the fruits of your labor right away," Thomas said. "So, learning how to have that patience and how to just be able to believe you are going to see the results from the work you put in."
The students also learned about the reality of produce deserts around them.
So, in addition to the market, they give some of the harvest to neighbors in need.
"It's really exciting and amazing what we have done I never thought it would be this successful and look at it," horticulture teacher Peyton Riegler said.