Hello, I'm Irish Dave and welcome to Experience Michiana.

We have a really fun show this week.

And I'm Courtney.

And I'm so excited.

I got to try out a new place in downtown South Bend, the EarlyBird eatery.

And honestly, I have not been able to stop talking about it.

It was so delicious.

But we're standing here at Unity Gardens.

Yeah.

And I know we're going to get down and dirty.

Here we are.

Yeah, we're going to do some gardening.

We're going to volunteer.

I believe there's even some potatoes.

But you know what?

Kelly is trying to kick me into shape this year.

And I got to go to the LaPorte and try something very interesting called Go Aerial Fitness.

Sounds like a whirlwind.

I was upside down.

what have I signed up for.

Did you ask for my help?

I do.

I want twenty twenty one to be the year that I get in shape.

But what is this?

This is going to be one of the best moments of your life.

And mine, too.

It's go aerial fitness, aerial aerial as in off the ground.

And I heard you llove flying.

Don't you get up in the airplanes.

In the air.

I do.

But I don't like when my arms are the horsepower.

Oh.

Because I'm afraid that I will fall to the ground.

Well, guess what.

Well too bad going in there and we're going to try it.

And today you're going to fly yoga style.

Let's go.

You're so angry.

I am.

Let's go.

This is no joke get you in shape.

April, we are so glad to be here and so grateful that you can help us, too, because Dave wants to get in shape.

I want to lose a little pound here, too.

So.

So we are so glad to be here.

And it's all about yoga in this place, isn't it?

We have a lot of yoga.

We have other fitness classes.

So we have TRX.

Zumba.

Right.

What's TRX?

TRX is these yellow straps.

So it's kind of neat.

We can use our aerial rigging to use these.

And this is more of a fitness class.

So it's all about like body weight, squats, push ups, you know.

Oh, wow.

I might want to take a look at that.

Yeah, I'm interested in that.

Right.

So this one here, though, this is the aerial yoga.

Right?

Aerial yoga.

This is an aerial yoga hammock.

So this is our kids use this in our aerial circus class and adults use it for our aerial yoga.

OK, so I'm going to try today.

Right.

I'm very excited.

I like this.

I like anything that allows me to lie down.

Well, see, that's the problem.

Looking at this like it's a hammock, it's just going to get to lie down.

You said it's a hammock so But I'm excited for it.

It's good to get out and have fun while trying to get in shape.

Yeah, I agree.

So do we just throw ourselves in a hammock or so?

Let's start.

I like to start us off with a little trust building exercise just to get a little bit of comfort and familiarity with our yoga hammock.

So if we walk right up to it and wrap our arms around it like you're giving it a hug, OK, open your palms towards me and grab through the pinky side and don't hold on to tight.

Keep your grip pretty loose and the hands are about shoulder, distance apart.

Reach in your arms, out ahead of you and start to fold forward, just like you're talking a bow.

So we're going to keep solid on our feet and just feel the stretching and the hamstring feels good.

And then if your shoulders feel pretty safe, you can start to hang a little bit more in the arms, maybe bending the elbows or so I feel this really in my shoulders.

Is that.

Oh, definitely.

Wow.

And then if it feels still pretty good, you could start that sways side to side, stretching out the sides of our torso.

The shoulders definitely hamstrings.

This is surprisingly relaxing.

It really is.

Can I ask you, April, how many pounds does this hold?

All aerial equipment should be rated for at least six hundred.

OK, yeah, right.

I'm good.

I've got a ways to go just about.

and get in the swing, so I'm going to go ahead and put it right behind your butt and hopefully your heights are pretty good.

So where we're going to keep it bunched up for this, how are we going to keep it bunched.

Yeah, OK. And just kind of push it under your hips.

You'll find that like one hip hikes a little bit higher than the other and see if you can get it.

Oh, OK. Get into that right.

Now, one thing that you might not think of is the pressure points.

So it's really common to sort of feel this is biting into your body a little bit.

Yes, yes.

Yeah, I practice regularly.

The pain actually does pretty much go away.

But with your first class, you're going to be kind of like, oh gosh, that that's something.

OK, so let's move.

That'll help.

We're going to hold on about Temple height.

OK, OK. And just lean back.

Kind of like you're swinging on a swing lean lean back and let your arms totally straighten.

Whoa.

So you can engage the core here keeping your glutes engaged so that we don't slide off.

Oh and then if you were to release one hand, your hammockis going to turn to try not to let that startle you.

And let's see if we can release the right.

Oh, my gosh.

OK. Once you are ready, go ahead and sit up, and that's going to let your core take a little break and then we'll do for the other side.

So hold on.

You're like Temple height as you lean back.

I don't want you to slide your hand down at all, straighten your arms completely.

So that'll be a little bit easier.

Then let's see if we could release the left hand.

OK.

I don't trust my arms strength here.

I didn't tell anybody this is all worked out already.

I mean, did you feel that in your triceps and everything?

Oh, yeah.

I'm holding my body up.

I like to teach things in a progression.

So that's like the first step is leaning back.

If we're feeling comfortable with that, then we're releasing a hand.

If that seems like it felt pretty easy to you, maybe a little bit more difficult for dave.

So if we want to try the next position, I would be leaning back until both arms are straight reaching your right arm toward the floor.

what?

and turn on to your right hip.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

Say good morning to your IT Band.

Right.

So if it really hurts a lot, it can actually be thought of as therapeutic.

Like massage therapists pushes into your body sometimes to the point of pain.

So that can actually open up some things there.

What are the benefits to doing aerial yoga instead of doing it, let's say, on the mat on the floor?

I think the first benefit is the most important one to me is fun.

Yes.

And this is like this kind of combines yoga with circus arts.

And where I learned and was trained in aerial yoga, my teacher was very much it's all about yoga.

And how can we use the hammock.

Yeah.

To focus on our yoga practice.

But just my personality immediately was like, how could I use the yoga hammock for a circus tricks, you know?

So I immediately wanted to add more of the fun.

I wanted to teach it to children.

We even do some programs out in the community where we have this like twenty five foot rig and we're climbing.

And so we kind of take it a little bit extreme and in the group classes a little bit more, you know, attainable for everyone.

And you also have hot yoga.

Yeah, that's upstairs that's going on right now upstairs.

I love hot yoga.

Seriously, I lived in Asia for a year and I did hot yoga every week and I love it.

Yeah, it's my favorite.

Our Hot Yoga is one hundred and eight degrees.

Wow.

Far infrared radiant heat.

So it's like top notch state of the art system.

Nice.

Wow.

I have to do everything I do.

I have to do it, like, all the way, you know, I like that.

So let's do this.

Let's see.

OK. Is that another fun thing?

Usually when people come to a class they want to get upside down.

Yeah they do.

Yeah.

Right.

I'm just jump in and then.

Yeah.

Sit up in here.

I go in and then the other hip end and now I want you to lay down but your head is going to be out and your shoulders are going to be in OK. And then you're going to hold gently right here in here.

OK, mess it up now this looks pretty good, so just lay heavy, OK?

And then you're going to hold your hands just like this.

I'm sorry.

OK, so now the pressure point is going to be a little bit in the back of the neck just to warn you.

And you're going to try to get your Achilles heel onto this railing.

So if you put your feet up into the air and then kind of like happy baby kind of hook your Achilles heel there and there are perfectly guys now slide you slide your feet up to invert.

Candlestick like straight up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

OK, now the next step of this is going to have you lay your legs into this long sleeve of fabric and put your legs in, and then I'm going to put a blanket on your feet, tuck in your little feet.

Now as we're talking, let me hold this out for you, Kelly.

Go ahead and lay your legs.

And to put them in April, lay your legs right in like you're just laying down in a hammock and straighten up straight.

OK, I'm gonna put the little blanket on your feet.

OK, now, kind of like the candlestick, but we're going to keep it up pike otherwise it'll be a little bit like a like a tree falling and it won't be very, very relaxing.

You're going to put your feet straight up in the air with the blanket on, OK?

And then you're going to pike your feet toward the window and lift up your hips.

Don't scream.

OK, come on further.

My body wasn't meant to be this.

So you're so you're going to feel yourself hanging from your toes.

Go a little further Kelly.

can can any can people at any level do this.

I really do.

Uh Hello.

Welcome.

People of all fitness levels.

So the part of the reason I teach things in a.

Progression, kind of how we went through sitting is the first step leaning back as a second step, everyone can do at least a couple of the steps, you know, so on your first class, you might not be able to do every single move that I'm showing to the whole class, but you can do some of it.

And I really encourage everyone to work at their own level, taking whatever steps of that progression are appropriate for their fitness level.

But as you showed me, you're here to help as well.

So even if I can't reach back all the way where my feet are pointing out onto the road.

Yeah.

How you help me.

I do do a pretty intensive Justine, and it's just kind of my teaching style.

No, and I really like that because it showed me straight away that I was able to do it.

I was physically able to do what I just needed to get there was amazing is we didn't even do a whole hour class.

And I think the other workout, but my heart was beating faster.

Interesting, because people with a lot of time see pictures or videos of it and they go, oh, that looks so free and easy.

And, you know, hopefully we make it look that way.

But it is quite a workout.

It is quite a workout.

Now, speaking of helping, you also have baby sitting here for those that have kids.

We do, yeah.

Since we reopened after being closed from covid, we have reduced our babysitting just because of reduced demand.

We used to have it for every class.

Now we just have a weeknight.

So what are the days and hours that are open?

We have our schedule online at Go Aerial Fitness Dotcom.

We are open seven days a week.

We have morning classes, evening classes and all those are listed.

I think we have maybe forty five classes a week, so we have a ton.

That's wonderful.

Well, thank you so much for helping us with our fitness journey.

How do you feel, Dave?

I feel like, you know, we did about seven minutes and I feel like I could definitely I'd love to try it again, honestly and do a full year because, yeah, it's there's nothing better than getting in shape while having fun because that makes you want to keep doing it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The things I will do to Experience Michiana and we're still silkie.

I think I'm still sweating actually from doing Go Aerial Fitness but I'm excited for today.

Yeah I am excited for today.

And the EarlyBird eatery man.

Oh this food is amazing and they've transformed the dainty made company building in downtown South Bend.

You kind of got to check it out.

It.

If you've been to downtown South Bend, an old staple is the dainty meat company, but a lot of that has changed now because the EarlyBird eatery is now in this space.

And I have with us one of the owners, Jennifer, and this is just incredible.

I've been here through many years, but walking into this space, I'm just blown away by this whole thing.

How has this been for you to transition into this building?

And it's been pretty amazing, actually.

Mike and I are both really happy and excited with the turnout that we've had and the feedback that we've had.

The community has been so incredibly welcoming.

And then it's just nice, you know, this space in itself, having something that's really open, bright, airy, kind of modern.

And then, as you can see, the front doors, you know, in the summertime, we'll have the ability to open those up and bring some fresh air.

So, yeah, I think in this day and age, it's really fortunate for us to have the ability to be in this space.

And you guys are not new to the Michiana area, you know, so we we're we're actually both originally from St. Joseph, but we started the early bird in Richmond, Michigan, and we were there for about two and a half years.

And yeah, June would be our third year that we were in business.

So June 1st.

So what made you guys decide to come to South Bend?

So last year in the fall, we were kind of looking at opening a second location.

And then obviously with covid, those plans changed a little bit.

And with our lease ending in the Bridgman area, we just decided that we would kind of take the job.

We had this opportunity here in the main building and we decided to go for it.

And we're really excited.

We're happy we did.

Well, I'm very glad that you're here because I've heard many good things about you guys.

And I think it's really been great for your business to to come into the South Bend area.

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah.

I mean, we haven't really skipped a beat as far as business.

And like I said.

Reviews and the feedback and the excitement from the community has really made it worthwhile for.

And I love the early bird eatery is all about brunch, so if you want to get, you know, breakfast at lunchtime, lunch at breakfast time, brunch is the place to be.

And that's.

What's your menu offer?

Yep, yep.

We serve breakfast and lunch all day.

So if you want a hamburger at eight a.m. or you want French toast at one thirty, you can do that.

Yeah, perfect.

And I know we're going to be talking about the menu because you guys have a great menu, but you're expanding it all the time, too.

Yeah.

Yeah, we.

So we have our kind of general favorite regular items, but Mike likes to add different things, change things up with seasonality.

So, you know, you might see some different options from time to time.

And this space is so wide and open, you're able to share it with other businesses, too.

Yeah, that was actually one of the appealing things for us coming in here is that, you know, we have a deal with people, many pastry's who's got different breakfast, pastries, macaroons, things like that.

And then, you know, our our restaurant is also with Adara and we are the exclusive kind of brunch people breakfast and lunch.

But there will be nighttime vendors as well in the near future.

So it's just kind of cool to be able to have that collaboration.

And then if people do want to come a little bit later past our hours, they will still have other options as far as eating.

And I love the idea of the collaboration of the space.

And this is just it's so wide and open in here and so welcoming.

You can definitely social distance and eating, too.

Definitely, yeah.

I love that there's options for people to to check out.

Well, I'd love to try some of the things I've heard, especially about the is it the lemon, blueberry pancakes, blueberry pancakes.

Those are definitely my favorite.

If you're a pancake person person, they're they're a really tasty.

Yeah.

I said, well, can we try some things out?

Yeah, let's do it.

Awesome.

Well, this is a great example of brunch.

This is what I call brunch, all of it at once.

But I have with us Mike, who is the executive chef here.

And this is just an incredible display here.

What is the most popular dish that you guys produce, man?

Seems like a lot of stuff on our menu is very popular, but Benedicts and our pancakes seem to be the most popular, especially our blueberry lemon pancake, which is what we have here, have here with lemon curd, blueberry compote, almond and oats, drizzle and vanilla glaze.

And here we have our Ham and asparagus Benedicts, OK, our eggs come from reconciliate farms out of north, our new liberty.

So you guys are using local vendors, too, for a number of your products?

Yeah, yeah.

And our ham also comes from Jake's Country Meats out of Cassopolis, Michigan.

It's a cold smoked product and it just it kind of speaks for itself.

Yeah, sure.

OK, and then what do we have here?

So we have our bagel and locks.

The locks are made in-house pastrami glaze, so it's not smoked.

I do preserve lemon capers, red onion, cucumber and dill, and that goes on a sesame seed bun.

And I think what's so unique about the EarlyBird eatery here is you make so much and you were just talking about the lemons, but you did that in house, too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We preserve them in house.

It's about a 30 day process.

You know, it just kind of take those small steps or extra steps just to create a heightened product and on a heightened brunch.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So what is this here?

So this is our breakfast greens.

It's a small version of the arugula salad.

So you have arugula, a grapefruit, avocado, pomegranate, apples, feta cheese and then some mint.

And then we do a strawberry tarragon dressing for vinaigrette.

Everything sounds delicious.

What's your favorite man?

So being a chef, I never get a chance to really sit down and eat some biscuits and gravy are just usually my go to just because I can just put it on a plate.

You have some great options for biscuits and gravy here too.

How does your menu rotate?

How are you going to be constantly changing it with your plans?

Yeah, so I kind of design our menu just based on the seasons.

So the winter months, you know, kind of a little bit more hearty and and heavier items, some summertime.

You know, we're going to start to get more like fresher and summery, you know, lighter items as well.

So the next month or so, you'll see some changes on our menu.

Well, I'm hoping this one doesn't go.

I'm going to bite into this.

Is that OK?

Yeah, I'd probably be thinking things about this.

I've had friends who have tried.

It seems like it's the talk of the town here for this one.

So you said there's there's a lemon custard, lemon curd lemon in the job.

So it's it's lemon sugar.

Cream cheese.

I can get a piece of it.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, my gosh, it's like lemon pudding in my mouth.

Do you think it would be overly sweet but perfect?

Yeah, it's a perfect balance.

Awesome.

Everything looks delicious and it smells delicious.

And I'm really excited to have you here in the South Beach community.

But you guys have been here a while and so it's really great to have this expansion here.

Yeah, it's been a nice welcome from everyone in the community and we're super excited and proud to be here.

Awesome.

Thank you so much, Mike.

And I look forward to eating all of this now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

OK, the lemon blueberry pancake.

I swear I am having dreams about it afterwards.

makes me very hungry.

This show is such a mixed bag.

You know, I'm trying to get in shape and you're like eating all the delicious food.

So I think what we should do right now, talking about delicious food, you know, the best food is the one that you make yourself and grow yourself.

So let's go and find Sarah and Mitch.

Yeah.

All right.

We're going to check out the Unity Garden next.

I'm so excited to be in the space here at the Unity Gardens, officially the Unity Gardens Welcome Center.

And I feel very welcome.

With us here today, Sarah Stewart, the executive director.

And this space is just coming along.

Oh, my gosh.

It's surreal, you know, to be in the business of free food and then to have a resource like this where we can connect our community to healthy food.

This space here will be filled with the unity gardens, products and food.

Imagine over here on the west side where we can have like our farmer's market at the South Bend Farmer's Market, the honey from the hood, the produce and all the other delightful things you can get.

So it'll be available here as well.

Absolutely.

We'll have that east side, west side presence.

Awesome.

Awesome.

And there's so much space in here.

Yes.

Now.

And I know and a little bit we're going to go outside and I'm going to go back to my roots, no pun intended.

But what else is over here?

I'm over on this side.

We envision a gathering area.

The Unity Gardens Welcome Center is all about making sure that everyone has can be comfortable here.

And yet so we anticipate a seating area that then we have enough malleable space for pop ups.

I so imagine a little coffee shop.

Yeah, but for once you learn type thing where we can have area, community, local shops, et cetera here and as you said, is a welcome center.

That was the name that was chosen by the supporter.

They wanted it to be literally a center that welcomes the community.

Right.

We always have envisioned this is just an extension of being a community resource, not only our free food, the porch that's so welcoming, but really being able to use this space.

Absolutely.

We're missing somebody I think mitch might be hiding behind.

Oh, wow.

That's great.

Helpful tool to be able to do.

Absolutely.

Our classroom and the way we're able to reconnect people after five generations of being displaced.

So farm, it's just classes that really highlight how to grow your own healthy fresh food.

How to cook in this classroom space will be amazing.

This is amazing.

And I think we're ready to get down and dirty because there are a lot of work still to be done in the gardens, isn't there?

Oh, yes.

And we can't wait to get in the door and start feeling better.

Welcome, Spring.

Hey, you need volunteers today.

Excellent.

We'll put you to some work.

I got to get my we're not going to just start seeds.

We're going to start something more exciting.

It's time for potatoes.

Oh, potatoes.

Oh, my goodness.

I'm ready.

All right, You'll Need them.

All right.

So, Mich, volunteering is what it's all about here at Unity Gardens.

Getting your hands dirty, right?

Get your hands dirty.

We have so many volunteers that come out every year, organizations, a team, but we can always use more.

Lots of digging, lots of planting going on.

So, yeah, we're we're always using lots of volunteers.

These are all potatoes we're working on now.

Early potato.

We figured that's why we get Dave out here.

You know, and I appreciate this.

I've eaten lots of potatoes, but never actually grown any.

But yeah, we hear They fail over there.

Please don't remind us of our terrible past.

We'll need you for anyone watching this who doesn't know what Unity Gardens is.

Can you just explain that for us as well?

So you need Gardens is a network of gardens that we have in this area and mostly the St. Joe County area where we're all free open gardens.

We're at about forty something this year.

Free, open for anybody.

Come pick.

So this is our flagship garden.

So we've got two acres of food that we plant every year and people anybody just comes out and harvests whatever they want.

So that's pretty much it.

In a nutshell.

We've added all kinds of things because as early on we got in, we learned that people need to learn about gardening because there's no way we can grow enough food for everybody.

So we're teaching people how to grow their own food.

We work with kids, teaching them about food and all that.

So it's it's a bigger getting bigger every year.

So we're just going to be so great to have that space inside.

And you even have outdoor opportunities.

We've been outdoor kitchen that we're putting in this year.

Our building is coming up.

So we've got all kinds of things.

We have an accessible garden going in.

So this is going to be a big year for us.

It's going to be really busy this year.

And you guys need lots of helpers and really we as an opportunity.

If they can do that to you, so your week is coming up, so we took our growing segment, which was usually in March and covid kind of shut it down last year.

And we thought we still aren't ready to put a crowd of people in.

So we took a two day event and we're spreading it over an entire week.

There will be volunteer opportunities.

There will be classes every day and things to do in the garden every day of the week.

And then on the last day, Saturday, it'll be like an all day event with vendors and everything here.

So, you know, a whole week to get in May to get the garden going.

Do you often do summer camps and different activities?

I know you've been doing the zoom online classes.

What do you have coming up?

Not only no, we're not doing camp this year because again, that's tricky.

But what we learned through covid was how to create programing right here in the garden.

So we'll have stations where the kids can do a scavenger hunt or make a salad or tasting tours or hold a chicken, all those kind of things.

That's very exciting because the Unity Week will have those stations and then we'll continue them through the summer for those that want to visit.

How difficult is it?

Because I'm intimidated by gardening.

So Courtney is clearly intimidated by using the shovel, but I am intimidated by gardening.

How much work is it really difficult for the average Joe to just do this?

I think starting small is a key.

Mitch has some more feedback on that, too.

I think gardening is easy and hard at the same time.

So it's you know, you can make it as hard as you want.

We always say start simple with simple things, you know, like green beans and zucchinis and tomatoes and stuff that are pretty easy to grow.

It's really, you know, it's about knowing dirt and soil and watering, reading a few things.

I mean, it gets more complicated as the pests show up and things like that.

But it's not that intimidating.

And I love that you guys have the resources to.

I know whenever I have a question, I can just go to your website or go to your Facebook page and you guys have plenty of video tutorials and all that kind of stuff, too.

But you also have something that's going to be driving around soon.

Yes.

Our Edgy Veggie, our mobile programing is going to be so exciting.

There's a lot of people that don't have access to one of the unity gardens throughout the community.

So edgy veggie will be a mobile unit that will be able to take our best programs and veggie tastings and chef demos and planting activities on the road.

We are very excited about it.

We have so many team members that are supporting this LUPER component's has been really involved now in making our vision a reality for me.

We have a lot of work to do.

Yeah, you know, I've done a lot already.

You've got to catch up to me.

By the way, is the vehicle a Ford Edge?

Is that what you call the edge?

You think it might be a Ford?

It might be for sure.

Other than that.

And you hope you get more information about volunteering and all of the different locations around the Michiana community.

On your website, on our website, the phone number, the email, just reach out and we will connect you with our volunteer team.

Thanks so much for your round of it and give a little bit dirty.

We got to put a little bit more back into it.

Yeah.

Yeah, good.

I have some ideas as to what I want to put in here afterwards.

she's wearing this.

That's how you win.

That's how you win.

She's wearing pink.

She's going to end up in here.

You know, I really love the fact that people like Sara and Mitch, all the volunteers, will offer these healthy produce and also educate the community on how to make their own products as well for free.

Exactly.

Anybody can come and grab what they need from the unity gardens, and they're all over the community, which is just a fantastic resource for us.

Hey, this was a great show today.

And I know there's plenty more things for us to explore and Experience and Michiana, if you have some ideas that you'd like us to share so we can visit them, show them off to the community, go on to our Facebook page.

You can share them with us there.

You can use the hashtag Experience, Michiana.

We'll find it there, too.

And if there's anything that we can do that's fun, that also helps me burn some more calories.

Hashtag Experience, Michiana or just more lemon blueberry pancakes.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.