one, two, 34.

Get my shoes on at the door, I'm Lapchick, 78.

Feels great.

I'm gonna shine after I do it, I'm gonna do about do it again.

Yeah, look at this guy with a beautiful collar about more than just for me, said, gonna share it with another guy to show you give that out?

I want to finish.

I'll take a look at, say, beautiful party that turns to a beautiful evening and look at the big, beautiful light.

And if you wanna see the come along with me, that's right.

Well, welcome to another amazing week here at Experience Machina.

This is an amazing experience.

I've never felt this close to the panda.

So the red pandas were here at the Potawatomi Zoo and Josh, this is just an amazing thing.

They really thrive in the winter.

They do that.

So when you come in the summertime, they have these air conditioned boxes.

So a lot of times they're in these air conditioned boxes that I've been telling everyone.

If you come to a winter day, this is when you want to see red pandas.

They live high altitude to China Day three.

I mean, they were out here just frolic.

They wouldn't even know that it's as cold as it is out here.

So and now you guys have a couple more winter days coming up before the start of the season.

I know it's coming up so quickly, it seems like one of your next upcoming winter days.

So we have two in February and we have two in March.

And what we do is we do a Saturday and then we do a Sunday.

So if you just check out our website, it'll have all the dates on there, OK?

But yes, we do, which we I guess we have four more before we open one.

So April first and it's coming two more months.

I know it's hard to believe, but we're really excited.

We'll be opening the new giraffe exhibit when we open.

We've got the traps are already here acclimating.

But yeah, so these winter days are just fine because it's a different perspective.

At the zoo, the tigers are out playing in the snow.

You get to see the red pandas and it's this what kind of animals here at the zoo are more acclimated to the winter weather?

Which ones can they expect to see?

So it's really where they come from, from continental.

So like the talk in the tigers that come from, from armored, from Russia.

Have we got the the leopards that also come from Russia?

So they're just used to colder climates and the ones that you won't see as much as some of the tropical monkeys that would be on islands.

But if you go in the learning center, we've got three slots.

We got monkeys on their tails.

So, you know, and it just depends on how cold it is.

I think people are surprised by like the rhino can come out if it's in the twenties, as long as there's heat to go to.

Sometimes you see the flamingos out in the snow, so every experience, every every visit is just a little bit different.

Yeah, yeah.

Sounds weird to kind of come to a couple of them because it might be a different animal.

Exactly.

And I'm saw the last one year you guys had.

I don't know if there was snow on the ground.

There was, yeah, here we got the I don't know, maybe coming down here had the baby.

Yes, these are both babies, believe it or not.

So we had cubs this year.

They're full grown now, but they're about seven months old.

But yeah, these were from this year.

But yeah, we are.

So we have we added just snow, all that snow right before our last winter day and we had a nice turnout.

Kids are out here and their snow boots in and around the zoo.

So OK, so now this one's this one's RYA.

Yeah, so right.

If she had had some health issues when she was born, so we actually had a hand-raised or so she was hand raised in our clinic.

Our vet and our animal curator did a great job.

They had to take her home every night.

She was eating every two hours and now we were able to get her back in with the family group so she can grow up living like a normal person.

So she was quite the success story for us.

That's awesome.

People can come see the red pandas at the upcoming winter days and they can get all the information on your website.

Yep, go right to our website and we'll have those.

There's going to be like I said, a Saturday on a Sunday in February and then Saturday, Sunday in March where we opened.

Awesome.

Thanks so much, Josh.

I know.

Even though it is in the middle of winter and it's cold, but still things are growing, and today we're at the Unity Gardens with Sarah and Mitch.

And one of the things that we're talking about is preparing ourselves for the next upcoming growing season because you don't wait until it's growing season to start thinking about growing season, right?

Right.

We start our classes early.

Plus it's a great time of year to do it because it's it's it's a little bit of downtime for us with all the snow.

So we we are kind of in the middle of a series of classes and then we have some more classes coming after that.

So, yeah, so the next class we have coming up is going to be about seed starting, but then we'll talk about composting.

We're going to talk about soil health.

We're going to talk about pest in the garden, how to care for your garden.

And so this year, if you can go on to our website, we have a whole host of classes because this week we're doing this year we're doing a little bit more classes than normal because some of the branch libraries have asked us.

So we're going, we're doing them a Germantown chip library.

We're doing one at Mishawaka Library, we're doing it at Lakeville and North Liberty, and we'll probably do some of the main branch.

So we've got a lot of classes scheduled in the next two months, all the way into March and April.

So one of the things that I really love that you guys have done is you've taken the learning and and taken a little bit.

And so it's not too much for people who want to get started.

It's not too much.

Learn this little bit if that's your interest and get started because you don't need to know the whole thing.

That's exactly right.

Sometimes building a new skill, whether it's a hobby or you're wanting to do it to feed your family, it just seems insurmountable.

So we try to make our classes free and accessible to everyone, whether they're zoom or virtual.

We also try to cover the gamut in terms of people who are interested in cooking or nutrition or kids and the gardening.

Sometimes people just want to know about soil health or sometimes how to start a seed.

They don't need everything and they certainly don't need to buy everything.

That's right.

And you mentioned there's a long list of all kinds of classes and places to get classes, but we're standing in the new community center and this is the first year really for classes in-person here.

Yeah.

So we're doing in-person.

Believe it or not, both of us had COVID and our first two classes.

We did them from our house on Zoom, but we actually had somebody in the building that put a screen up so that if somebody wanted to come in, the class.

Numbers have been high this year, but more on Zoom than inside.

We set it up where people are separated pretty far, but we so we're doing all of our classes, both virtually and online, and we've got that virtual thing down pretty well.

We did it last year, all virtual and they they worked out so well.

The other thing that we're doing is this my plate one, which is kind of fun.

This year we have one of our employees is doing one that's all about eating, but it's apparent it's on Saturday mornings, which we haven't been able to do the classes on Saturday mornings for a long time.

It starts February fifth and it'll be every week and it's parents and kids together.

It's great learning how to cook healthy meals, and you talk in that, not just about, you know, that that is healthy for you, but you kind of reference back to where things come from and the importance of knowing the garden and what you put in the garden.

And so it gives those those kids.

This is their first opportunity to think back to where does my food originate?

It's not just on my plate.

Absolutely.

What we find is that when we do classes and the welcome center is just such a good symbol of how that happens.

People get more comfortable coming here.

And then when spring and summer comes, everything starts sprouting, not just the food or plants, but the joy of holding a chicken or feeding the goats.

And then they start incorporating wellness into their family, lifestyle or family ethos, if you will just be around.

Now we've talked about there are a lot of different classes.

Will one of the things that we're kind of set up for here is you have a class on seeds and getting seeds started.

So Mitch, give us some tips as far as what are some of the things that we can do or think about when we want to start prep and seeds?

Well, so that's next week's class.

And so what were we're going to talk about?

I always hate to give my tips away online, but what we're going to talk about, we'll talk about like what kind of trees to use and what kind of fire or what not to.

Yeah, because I'm, you know, I mean, a lot of people are in love with these, you know, ones that are made out of cardboard , but I'm not a big fan of them.

So we talked about why and some of that these ones are the ones where they actually pop up and explode.

I like them better than I used to.

So I'm on a learning curve.

We'll talk about some different tips, like one tip that took me years to learn was using hot water to start my seeds with because the soil temperature is what really makes the seed Germany.

In the higher end, it likes to be like 75 degrees.

Nobody keeps their house at 75 degrees.

It's hard, so we use heating mats underneath it.

We use good quality seed starting.

So we've got some seats, mics over here, we use Queen's bigger bags and you have to bowl well, but but we use a good, you know, good quality seed throwing makes a lot of people like, Oh , we'll put it in their potting soil and they wonder why they have problems.

But there's a lot of fungi and stuff they can grow.

So we talk all about like, you know, we usually go out, we went shopping and we buy a bunch of different stuff that other people have so we can see what we like and what we don't like.

A lot of times the stuff I don't like, I'll give away in class.

I like this.

This is an interesting it's a new, reusable one.

So I bought one of these last year and used it.

I'm going to reuse it this year.

So who knew that they're, you know, trying to write because a lot of people are really opposed to plastic?

Yeah, and that's why they like these.

I just don't like the way these water and the way they work very well.

So I like the plastic, so we'll reuse the plastic over and over.

So that actually is pretty cool.

Well, most people have problems with plastic because of a lot of times it ends up in the trash.

But if you're responsible with it and it ends up in the recycling, then it can still be your friend or better yet, reusing.

And we find that these as long as we're washing them out.

He'll tell more about all of that to prevent disease.

Yep.

So we talked about how these classes are all the way to help us get started thinking about the season coming on.

And over the years we've talked about, well, when do we start?

And I remember you saying later than everybody thinks everybody's anxious to get out there.

But when when does Unity Garden start coming alive?

Because you do a lot of prep before we actually are planning anything in the garden, right?

We start inside and it is.

It is.

I mean, I.

Both of us are guilty of it.

I promise you, somebody watching has already started their tomatoes.

When we started our tomatoes in in March.

I mean, so a lot of people, I think, wasn't even close where you put them in in May, you know, six to eight weeks before.

So we'll start a lot in March, late February.

Other things like hot peppers, super hot pepper, and we'll start earlier because they take a longer time to Germany.

But most of us know a lot of people are into this wanting to start things in January, and they end up with these monster plants that they can't do anything with, especially squash.

So like, you have always a warning for us going up here, so start to early.

There is nice charts.

There's the USDA chart to tell you when they start your stuff.

Don't start until early July.

In the gardens, it's completely different.

So when we talk about composting or caring for your garden, part of the reason we do those classes early is because once it hits like March and we can get out here even now, we canceled our volunteer day for tomorrow because it's going to be subzero, but off and on.

But we're still out covering with leaves, making sure we're preparing the soil, etc.

We'll be doing that regularly.

We don't want to spend the time teaching classes when we all should be outside playing.

And I think it was last year that you guys came right around, right around St Patrick's Day and we were planting peas and potatoes with the Irish name.

Yeah, we so you so much more early and sometimes we push the envelope a little bit out in our garden.

We're so excited to get food to people, but we we do watch very closely because you spend a lot of money on this if you start your own seeds.

Yeah.

And we'll also talk in our classes about purchasing plants from other places because, you know, sometimes it's not practical to start seeds.

That's true.

I mean, it should be two tomato plants.

I mean, you know, just go buy them right?

Right.

So let's get back to the classes just as a reminder to people, if you want to learn more about getting involved in your garden, how you can get things started.

There's a lot of different subject matter you can get on the Unity Gardens website and find out the list of places, as well as subject matter for the classes, and then remind me one more time about this class that you have coming up for the families, the families.

Yeah, this is exciting for us because Deb is one of our new hires from last year.

She's in the nutrition and nutrition is what she's been studying, but she's also the one who ran the garden last year.

So what she's trying to do is actually connect the food and the kids so that they understand there's things like Discover my plate, eat your colors, meet the five friends of the food groups.

You know, one of them is called, and I don't know what this one's about.

Let's play.

Let's party, you know?

So it's a fun class, and I believe she's going to try to do these on Zoom also.

OK.

It's going to be a little harder.

We're trying to work.

We get some advice from you guys on camera and stuff.

How do you move a camera around?

We had a cooking demonstration here a couple of weeks ago and I'm like, Gosh, I wish I had a camera that could see in that pot, right?

Yeah.

So, yeah, so, you know, so that, you know, we're going to learn.

But yes, these are going to be these are exciting for us because we it's been a long time since we've been there since it started evolving to more adult classes.

And so we're going to try to get back to more kids classes this year.

And I know in the future, as this space continues to become closer and closer to finished, we'll see more and more ways to connect with the community.

And so we're thankful that you guys are doing that.

Yeah, yeah.

We've set up and we've set up a little library.

Where people can come in and read books and sit and just relax and just be here.

Well, thank you so much for that.

Thanks for keeping the gardens growing.

And remember, you can find more information on our website.

We'll link to theirs and check out the Unity Gardens for all the different things that are growing this season.

The Civil Rights Heritage Center is a gem in our community, both capturing what's happening now, as well as looking back at where we have come from, and they have lots of things going on all the time.

And two things that are highlighted right now.

We're going to bring in George Gardner from the Civil Rights Heritage Center.

George, thank you so much for being with us.

Also, good to be with you again.

Thank you.

So, George, I wanted to talk about a couple of things that are kind of going on or coming soon to the area through the Civil Rights Heritage Center.

And the first one is kind of a look at August Wilson.

And for people at home, if you recognize the name of the Southland Civic Theater has been doing some of his plays, he's just a tremendous talent that has also kind of captured the history of our country.

And so tell us about what's happening and how people can find out more about August Wilson.

Yeah, August Wilson is an amazing playwright, and our friends at the South Bend Civic Theater are bringing the ten plays in his century cycle.

This is one play per decade of the 20th century that speaks to the African-American experience so deeply and so vividly.

They're bringing one of those plays every year throughout this decade, and the next one is Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and they're going to be doing in June.

So we're supporting them by doing a showing of the documentary about August Wilson called The Ground on which I Stand.

So it's a really deep look at his life, his legacy, his work, how he grew up, what was important to him.

We're going to have some members of the cast of Joe Turner that are going to join us after the film to answer questions, to talk with the community and to learn more about how they can get involved with sharing August Wilson's legacy right here.

Now, this event is free to the public, but it is an in-person only event, right?

This one is in person on February first.

Correct?

Right.

And so we want to honor those who have produced the film and the people who are in it.

But this was just really a cool way to look kind of behind the scenes of what went into some of these things, as well as some really well known people who talk about August Wilson as well.

Yeah, he's called America's Shakespeare and yet is not nearly as well-known or as well-read as Shakespeare.

So we appreciate it was the South Pacific is doing to try to help share and spread his legacy.

Now, another thing that's happening there at the Civil Rights Heritage Center and has been over the years is seminal local poetry through the poetry.

Then the next one's coming up February 27th.

But in the meantime, people can check out some of the ones that have happened in the past, right?

Yeah, it's this is run by a wonderful poet named Pam Blair, an artist and so many different ways.

She's been working for well over nine years to bring local poetry and local poets together in a safe and warm space.

She creates this amazing stage where no matter where you're at, whether you've been involved in poetry for decades or you're brand new, whether you want to sit and listen, whether you want to share your own words doesn't matter where you're at.

You'll find a really warm, welcoming stage.

And we've been happy to host Pam and to share this with her for almost five years now.

So this is kind of an open mic style where people need to sign up ahead of time in order to get on the list as far as being able to share.

Now you come to the Civil Rights Heritage Center or come online, this one's a hybrid event that we do.

You know, Kelsea in 2020, when the pandemic started going for a place like ours for the Civil Rights Heritage Center, for a place that used to be a segregated swimming pool.

What we do now out of this place that excluded people is try to bring people together, but we couldn't do that in 2020.

At least we couldn't do that safely, right?

We would be.

That would be a dangerous thing for us to do, and it's really important to us to value people and to keep people safe.

So we weren't able to do that for so long, and it was really not until about October or September of 2020 that we were able to start gradually bringing people back and then bringing the poetry to end back to us.

So we switched it entirely online.

And then now we have it as a hybrid.

So if you're able to come in person and that's something that you can safely do while you're wearing a mask, you can do that.

But if it's unsafe or if it's difficult to travel here for whatever reason, you can also watch and also participate online.

And no matter where you're at in person or online, come on, then you can sign up to share if you would like.

And it makes this wonderful open Mike and also a featured artist at the end of it to someone that Pam selects beforehand to take, you know, 2030 minutes and share their work.

So George, in addition to it happening on the 27th, I mentioned that people can look back at some of the previous ones.

You guys have a YouTube channel playlist for that now, right?

Yeah.

You know, so we're since we're taking a break in January to not do a live poetry dead since we've been having these online since October of 2020 means we've got about 13 months worth of recordings are just some wonderful, wonderful local poetry.

So anybody can go to YouTube and search Civil Rights Heritage Center and find it and, you know, pick a month at random, click the shuffle button.

Maybe there's a featured artist that really speaks to you that you know of doesn't matter how you enjoy it, but you can just take that time for yourself to bask in some beautiful words spoken by local poets.

Now is, are these a certain length?

Do they vary?

Yeah, they vary a little bit, but always somewhere around 90 minutes give or take, which is a really, you know, that's a good amount of time, right?

It's like sitting back and watching a movie.

But instead of watching a movie you've seen, you know, 100 times already, find something new, find something local.

Now, the last couple of years have been a challenge for all of us, but I think one of the blessings that has come out of it is we really have some added opportunities to participate in things like the poetry design or otherwise that we might not have, whether it's because it's too far of a distance or just timing and things.

We just are so thankful that there's the opportunity to both be in person as well as join online.

Absolutely.

And that's something that's been really important to us as a place that honors and values sharing and honors and values justice.

To be able to provide this for people who aren't able to physically be here is really, really important to us.

Well, thank you so much for all the work that you guys do.

Now a reminder that poetry then happens again on the 27th of February.

Where can people find out more about that?

You know, go to our website, which is see our H.S.

USB Dot Edu.

And in addition to that, remember, February first is when you can come and watch the August Wilson documentary as well.

George, thank you so much for your time.

Thanks for all the work that you guys are doing and for sharing about it here.

Thank you, Kelsey.

It's really good to see you again.

Valentine's is just around the corner and hopefully you are starting to put those plans in order.

If you haven't yet, we have the perfect opportunity for you.

Nick is here today and joining us is the general manager at a winery.

And you have an amazing romantic dinner planned coming up.

Yes, we certainly do.

Saturday, February twelve, from four to 9:00 p.m. will be hosting our annual Valentine's dinner.

We have some amazing things on the menu this year.

Entrees include Chilean sea bass, morales stuffed chicken and of course are popular surf and turf.

We do have crab stuffed lobster tail and filet on that for this event, and we also have some really great appetizers the lion pepper prawn cocktail, smoked blueberry lollipop chicken.

So it's going to be a great event.

It's $120, a couple and appetizer super salad entrees, and then you also get a bottle of our sparkling cherry wine to take home with you.

That all sounds so delicious, though, I have to ask you, were you able to sample everything before this?

That's part of the requirements.

Yes, yes, I've tried everything.

Everything is fantastic.

We just wrapped up our big New Year's Eve dinner.

So I love when we have these events coming up because I get to try everything.

And for this one in particular, people, obviously this is a one shot opportunity.

So you're just doing it for one day, for a few hours.

What is the timeframe for it and how can people go about making reservations for it?

Yeah, definitely.

So 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. is the hours for that event.

People can go to our website and keep up to date on all upcoming events, but just call for reservations.

It's 2694221161.

Wonderful and everything sounds so delicious and and this isn't the only opportunity that you have for people to eat at the restaurants to tell us more about what you guys are doing during the wintertime.

Definitely, we have a lot going on.

We just launched our new Sunday brunch series.

But what does that include?

I love brunch.

So we have our contact list brunch buffet every Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.. And the menu changes weekly.

But we do have some favorites that are always going to be there.

So we have prime rib chicken and waffles.

We have an omelet station.

We have our signature bloody marys, of course, and then we also have a mimosa flight, which is super popular.

We do also have a little taste of home dinner series that we're launching actually next Friday.

So if you can't wait till Valentine's Day, please come see us next week.

So a little taste of home series.

Nick, do you need reservations for that one too?

We would.

We would definitely recommend making reservations, but the little taste of home dinner series, we're highlighting food from different areas of the country, so we're kicking it off with the Midwest.

So next week, we'll be highlighting some cuisine from all across the Midwest.

We have potato and cheese pierogies, sweet corn.

The Cincinnati Chili.

Kansas City smoked ribs.

So we're really excited about that.

We have East Coast, West Coast and south coming up.

That's such a fantastic idea.

I love I love when people can pull into other regions into local regions, too.

That's amazing.

Definitely, this time of year, it's a little hard to travel in Michigan, so we're trying to bring that taste of home wherever you may be from here to Southwest Michigan.

Now I know it's winter, but are the wine trails open or what can people do on the grounds?

Definitely.

So both tape-recorded mainstay and brown and mini-state, we have our igloos set up outside, so you can definitely enjoy those.

The trails are open.

People are free to cross country, ski or snowshoe.

It is a beautiful time of year out here.

It is.

I think that's one of my favorite things about the Midwest and especially Moceanu here is really getting all four seasons.

But it's even better when you can get out and explore all four seasons and seeing how it changes between the seasons as well.

Definitely.

If it's a little chilly, don't worry, we have some mulled wine waiting for everyone when they come inside to warm up.

And what are your hours during the wintertime now?

Yes.

So at Tabor Hill, we are open Thursday through Sunday.

The The Tasting Room and the Winter Lounge are open from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Thursday and Sunday, and then Friday and Saturday.

It's 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. And then the restaurant.

We are open Thursday, four to nine, Friday and Saturday eleven to nine and then Sunday eleven to free.

And like you said, people can make reservations in all of this.

Information is also available on your website or your social media pages, too.

Yes, you can definitely follow us on Facebook or Instagram.

We keep everybody up to date on all the happenings.

And then our website as well.

And then for reservations, just simply give us a call.

And what's your website?

The website is Taber ELLE.com.

Perfect?

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much, Nick.

I'm so excited for this.

I know I'm already working with my husband to figure out what our Valentine's Day plans are.

So the Valentine's Day dinner that you guys are putting together is awesome, but I love the other opportunities that you have coming up to to really still be able to eat at the facility too.

Definitely.

Thank you so, so much for having us on and we'd love to see you out here.

It's April.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So many things to do here in Michigan, especially for the month of February.

Don't forget to check out the winter days as well coming up on the fifth and the 20th of this month.

Thanks for joining us and a wonderful experience, McKenna.

We'll see you back here next week.

The.

Experience miss is made possible in part by the Community Foundation of Saint Joseph County and the Indiana Arts Commission, which received support from the State of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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

Thank you.