(soft guitar music) There's just something about growing and making your own food from scratch, from harvesting it from your own garden, to cultivating your own creations in the kitchen.

It takes time, patience, and creativity.

That's what this chef is teaching everyone that comes to her classes at the North County Agricultural Center.

This is Chef Queenie.

She's a self-made chef and farmer who was discovered by a nonprofit that serves the North County area called A Red Circle.

It provides programs that helps build a stronger community.

And she invited us to her home in Ferguson to tell us more about it and her story.

But also I saw your bio on A Red Circle website, and so you do culinary classes with them?

- I do.

That was the first project of mine was to create a curriculum about bread and then make a breadmaking class.

So I started off with that.

I think I had 10 students the first time.

Another class that I do is Canning 101, where I'm just introducing people to canning, and it's just getting them over the fear.

It's not so much the recipe, that it is the process of farming it, cleaning it, prepping it, and then canning it and then learning how to store it.

And I also am in the process of working on teaching people how to dehydrate and how to store their food after they pick it or bring it home so they can make it last longer.

- [Leah] Queenie is one of the many instructors and specialists in their wellness program, and there are others who come in and teach and manage the farm that we went out to pick our ingredients in.

(soft piano music) Chef Queenie's story didn't just start in the classroom.

It was birthed from a turbulent childhood that led her to be a creative in culinary arts and agriculture.

She was born to a single mother in Moline, Illinois who eventually couldn't take care of her.

- People always say: "Queenie, you know, why did you chef?"

Or, you know, "Why do you cook or why do you do this?"

And really, at the end of the day, it was because I was hungry.

My mom was out on drugs, there was no father in the home, and we had to use staples like pantries and the Salvation Army.

And eventually I got taken away and end up getting adopted by a woman who married my uncle who stays here in St.

Louis.

And she ended up taking me in, and I end up being raised in Mexico, Missouri.

And that's where I graduated high school from.

And that's where I took horticulture class and kind of fell in love with like how to grow stuff.

And I end up meeting a lot of like farmers and ag people, and I'm like, "Man, this is a lifestyle?

"I didn't know you could get a job doing this."

And that's where my green thumb kind of sprouted from that.

- [Leah] It's sprouted into the lifestyle she lives today, from the safe haven she's created in her home, to feeding her community and teaching classes for everyone, including kids.

- When I had these children over to learn how to make a no-bake pizza, I realized: if they can touch the soil and cut and pick it, they now have a relationship with it.

When they take it in and they clean it, they now have a relationship with it.

And that relationship continues to grow as they're building their dish and as they get to eat it.

They take pride and ownership in that.

I wish that we would bring back home ec classes 'cause that is a place where I, you know, learned about food and just different things in general like kitchen safety.

- [Leah] And the craft that brought her power and healing is exactly what she wants to leave as a legacy.

- When I leave this earth, I don't care what they say about me.

I want them to say: "She brought it back, "she picked the ball up that was dropped, "and, boy, did she slam it."

And that's how I would like to go out.

I just want them to know like I love 'em and I'm gonna always care about my community in that way.

So how many of y'all gonna go home and make bread?

- [Student] I am.

- Okay.

(soft piano music)