A handful of culinary students from Mississippi have concocted a sure-fire recipe for fresh produce: Growing it themselves in an aquaponic garden they created out of PVC pipes, 55-gallon drums and goldfish.

The student chefs configured a makeshift greenhouse in which plant roots suck up fish poop from a fish pond, which provides organic nutrients to fruits and vegetables. The roots, in essence, filter the water, and that freshly filtered water is then recirculated back into the tanks, making the fish healthy and happy. In the tank, the water receives more fish poop, which provides more fertilizer to the plants, and so on. Might sound gross but it yields many pounds of produce. The guys have grown so many tomatoes, cucumbers herbs and more that they’re trying to unload some of it at the farmers market.

James Sehrt (left) and Paul Viviano in the aquaponic garden they built in Mississippi. (Photo by ANDREW BOYD, The Times-Picayune)

We have used nearly every inch of the greenhouse to grow something,” student Paul Viviano told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “Our system has worked better than we ever could have imagined at this point.”