>> Funding for "Journey Indiana" was provided in part by: The WTIU Vehicle Donation Program.

Proceeds from accepted donations of a car, or other vehicle, make this program possible.

Most vehicles are accepted, and pickup can be arranged at no cost.

Learn more at WTIU.org/support.

>> Charitable IRA rollover gifts, individuals aged 70 and a half or older may make a tax-free charitable distribution from their IRA to WTIU.

Consult your advisor and visit Indianapublicmedia.org/support for more details.

>> WTIU sustaining members, committing to regular monthly contributions, providing WFIU and WTIU with reliable ongoing support.

Becoming a sustainer is one of the most effective ways to support public media.

>> And by viewers like you.

Thank you!

♪ >> Today on "Journey Indiana," we're exploring all things made in Indiana.

Pop into an Indiana popcorn farm.

>> People eat popcorn because it's good to eat, number one.

It's just a very satisfying snack.

>> Hear from handcrafted musical instrument makers.

>> Building musical instruments is a really interesting mix of modern technology and old-world craftsmanship.

>> Meet an artist connecting with her heritage.

>> And I'm so grateful to be a storyteller, carrying the stories and the traditions forward that my grandmother whispered to me as a little 3-year-old girl while she was braiding my hair.

>> And discover a spectacular workshop dedicated to the art of iron.

>> Art is great and sculpture is great, but metal casting, like, you don't do that anywhere else, and you can't do it the way that we do it here anywhere else.

>> That's coming up on this episode of "Journey Indiana."

♪ >> First up, we'll meet popcorn farmer Brian Lehman.

He's one of many farmers who have helped to make Indiana a leading producer of this classic snack.

>> Indiana makes many things.

The state is a leading producer of hardwood furniture, RVs, and caskets.

But there's one other thing that Indiana does better than anywhere else... popcorn!

That's right, in 2021, Indiana passed Nebraska as the country's leading producer of this beloved snacking staple.

Planting a kernel-popping 97,000 acres across the Hoosier state.

And few farmers do it better than Brian Lehman.

Brian is the owner and operator of Amish Country Popcorn in Berne, Indiana.

>> Each ear will have -- if you count the kernels around, it's always in multiples of two.

And I'm not really sure why Indiana is -- it must be location.

It isn't that we have any better growing conditions or -- it just works for us.

♪ >> And whether he knows why or not, it's been working for more than 40 years.

>> My parents put it in the ground when I was 6 years old for me, they don't know why.

Growing up, I remember my sixth grade school teacher was a real fan.

I'd take it to school to her.

I got out of school, I wanted to farm.

And my daddy was just getting his break, and he said, there's not enough for both of us.

Let's plant more popcorn and see if we can market it.

And it turned into what we're doing today.

>> These days, Amish Country Popcorn produces some 8 to 9 million pounds of these iconic kernels each year.

But let's back up.

What exactly is popcorn?

And how does it go from this... to this?

>> Just like vegetables, it's like there's all kinds of peppers, jalapeño peppers, bell peppers, hot peppers there's all kinds of corn.

Popcorn is actually different.

It's harder.

The shell is harder.

So it will hold the moisture inside the kernel long enough.

When it -- when it gets hot, it actually creates an explosion, which is what makes it pop.

>> But not all popcorn is created equal.

Amish Country grows a number of varieties, each with distinct differences.

>> So we have one we call mushroom, and you don't know what it is, but you've seen it.

It's round, pops in a ball.

Then the rest we would call butterfly, where they just spread out like a normal popcorn kernel would.

The red, the blue and the purple -- for whatever reason, especially the purple, is higher in antioxidants.

It intrigues people, and it gets people guessing.

>> Popcorn will grow high all summer long, but as the weather starts to turn, the plants and the corn dry out until they are just right.

>> We use the same type of machine to harvest our popcorn as you would regular corn or soybeans.

So there's slight differences, but not major.

>> Once it's harvested, it's up to you to decide how to enjoy it.

But Brian does have some expert thoughts.

I like a popper that has a stirrer in it, and vents for the air to get out.

It seems to me, it makes the best popcorn.

>> Whatever way you prepare it, remember, popcorn is a whole grain snack.

So go wild and enjoy!

>> So I think people eat popcorn because it's -- it's good to eat, number one.

And depending how you pop it and what you put on it, it can be very healthy for you.

It is -- it's just a very satisfying snack.

>> Next, we're touring the Fox Products factory, where they've been making world-class double reed instruments since 1949.

♪ >> Building musical instruments is a really interesting mix of modern technology and old-world craftsmanship.

It's a lot of highly skilled artistic people.

It is wood turning, and it is jewelry making, but it's -- it's also manufacturing.

So we're trying to do it efficiently and at scale.

>> The story of Fox Products begins with Hugo Fox, a native Hoosier and a bassoonist with the Chicago Symphony for nearly 30 years.

♪ >> And upon retiring from that position, he moved back to South Whitley, where he was born and raised to the Fox family farm, which is the property we are on today.

>> For most of his career, Hugo played a Heckel bassoon, made in Germany.

In the 1940s, and for decades prior, there were no bassoons made in the United States.

Hugo's dream, world-class instruments made right here in Indiana.

>> I like to envision him just sitting at his kitchen table, looking at his bassoon and thinking, you know what, I could do this.

I could pull this off.

And it took him two years to make the first instrument.

All in rather humble surroundings.

>> He actually converted one of the farm's chicken coops into the first manufacturing setting for Fox Products.

>> But after nearly a decade of production, Hugo's health began to decline.

In the early '60s, his son Alan returned to South Whitley to learn and ultimately grow the family business.

During Alan's tenure, which lasted more than 50 years, Fox expanded into international markets, built a new factory, and developed their first contrabassoon, oboe and English horn.

>> Alan incorporated all the product families that we currently produce and really grew the company exponentially.

>> In 2012, Tony Starkey, a fellow South Whitley resident and business owner, acquired Fox Products.

And in 2024, Fox celebrated 75 years of manufacturing instruments for a variety of customers.

♪ >> We have brighter sounding instruments; we have darker sounding instruments.

And those words themselves mean different things to different people.

But we have instruments that offer different results in terms of sound concept.

♪ There's also the different levels of player.

So a student needs just a real stable instrument that's gonna respond and gonna help them become a good player quickly.

And a professional probably needs something that has a lot more flexibility where they can play with the tone color, they can play with the pitch if they need to.

And we can accommodate all those things with our various models.

>> All the instruments made at Fox, bright or dark, student or professional, have a common starting point.

>> We get in raw materials.

We get in wood that is going to be the body of the instrument, and we get metal that is going to be on the keys on the instrument.

>> From these simple raw materials, things get, well, complicated.

>> There might be five people who touch any individual single key component, and that little key component is going to go into a subassembly that is what a person would call a key, and probably two to four people touch that.

And all of that times 40-some odd keys.

And then it takes at least a dozen people to do the finishing process.

So it's many hands and many hands multiple times.

>> And the real magic at Fox is in all of these hands.

In the hands drilling tone holes, the hands making bocals, and in the hands doing the final play testing.

♪ >> Everybody on our team takes a lot of pride in what we do, and they take a lot of pride in the part that they are playing in, something that's world-renowned like our products.

So it's something that's really engrained in the DNA, and it speaks to the high caliber of people on our team, and just their overall dedication to the quality and the mission of providing the most high-quality instruments to the music industry.

>> The team at Fox is around 140 strong.

And while many are focused on traditional instrument building skills, an increasing number are transitioning to more modern methods.

>> The process has changed dramatically since I've been here for the last 18 years.

We are automating so much more.

There's so much more precision and control due to the introduction of CNC mills and lathes.

>> A more recent expansion brought Fox's silver plating in-house.

>> And that's actually the facility that my father owned in his previous business venture.

So it's kind of coming full circle.

I remember riding my scooter around there when I was a kid and shooting baskets and all that.

So it's been pretty fun to have that facility back in the fold.

Our business strategy is to put our arms around just as much as possible so we can really control the outcome and the quality.

So silver plating was a daunting thing for us to bring online, but we have a really dedicated crew that has worked their tail off to dial that in, and we are really happy with that decision.

>> 75 years and counting, tens of thousands of instruments built, and countless musicians challenged and inspired.

All right here in South Whitley.

>> It's amazing, the transformation the company has made since starting out in a chicken coop to where we are today, and it also speaks to where do we want to take it in the future.

For a company likes ours to be around for 75 years, and to be still a small family-owned business, really takes a constant evolution of not only how we do, but also what we do.

>> Next up, artist Emily Guerrero explains how she connects with her past through the art of ofrendas.

♪ >> An ofrenda is a sacred space dedicated in your home, that you would place your flowers, your candles, your loved ones' pictures.

It's a sacred space that you create, and you go there for lifting up your prayers or giving thanks or honoring the lives of people you love.

>> Most folks keep old yellowed photos of their family's ancestors tucked away in a dusty photo album.

But Fort Wayne artist Emily Guerrero proudly showcases her heritage all over the living room amid bright colors and rich textures.

>> It is about praying for people who you love, into guardianship around them, sending them the energy and the protection, but it's mostly about the celebration of life because these people who we love, family and friends, they come into our lives with their gifts and their talents and their happiness and their hardships, and we love and support one another.

We celebrate who they were and what they accomplish and what they gave to us.

>> Emily designs large-scale tributes to the past through ofrendas, ornate displays of one's family heritage that weave historical photos and heirlooms with intricate and colorful artwork.

It's a rich tradition that surrounds le Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, an ancient practice from Mexico, that Emily first learned from her grandmother when she was just a little girl.

Her ofrenda was right next to her bed, and it had the candles, and it had pictures of family.

And she had little saints and her rosary and candles.

And she -- I would ask questions, like, what is the water for?

She'd say, the ancestors journey far.

They're thirsty.

What is the salt for?

It's for purification.

What is the candle for?

To light the way.

She always had an ofrenda in her home.

And the pictures changed, the flowers changed, but it was always there.

And I'm so grateful to be a storyteller carrying the stories and the traditions forward that my grandmother whispered to me as a little 3-year-old girl while she was braiding my hair.

And that was my earliest memory ever of her and her home, and she was such an important part of my life.

The Dia de los Muertos is much more elaborate and many more traditions happen here, but on the day to day, we do have candles lit, pictures of loved ones, flowers, raising them up during times of grief.

We give thanks for celebrations, new births, new babies.

We light a candle to give thanks for life, the breath of life.

>> Art has always been a part of Emily's life, but she spent much of her early career in the business world, until a near fatal car accident, which compelled her to embrace a full-time career as a folk artist and storyteller.

>> If you want to make it at home, so you can pick yellow, blue, red, which you would like?

>> I realized that my life was spared, and I made a promise that night that I would live with joy and love, that I would create art.

I had to recreate myself.

Art healed me.

What gave me joy was creating art, and I quit thinking about the pain because I was creating, and it helped me to heal.

>> Do you want to pick a color?

>> Sure.

>> Okay.

>> Emily's ofrendas, which she often creates with her granddaughter Avery, retrace her family's history back more than seven generations.

>> Life is a circle.

There's a beginning, the breath of life; there's the end, the last breath.

And Indigenous people honor that.

We know.

We don't fear it.

We teach our children the importance of the circle of life, and that we do have a beginning and end.

>> I'm from Fort Wayne, originally from Chicago, but I've been living here for over 27 years.

>> Today, Emily proudly shares these rich traditions through large public art displays, school group activities, and community festivals.

>> I want all children to feel the celebration of their ancestors and the good traditions.

Everybody has something to bring forward, to gift to the world and to share and celebrate with one another.

It's an honor to come into a classroom or a museum and be a storyteller for those who are wanting to hear and listen.

I can bring that to the classroom, and it isn't a person telling my story.

I get to tell my story.

I feel like it's an obligation that I have to my family past, my family present, and my family future, because I'm talking about seven generations out that I know are coming and some day will meet me through a story and my artwork.

>> In our last story today, we'll spend some time at the Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum for their annual Cast Iron Workshop.

♪ >> The Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum, located in southern Indiana's Greene County, offers visitors a fresh alternative to a typical fine art gallery.

>> So Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum is -- it's a nonprofit.

It's designed to help the community learn about sculpture in a hands-on way.

>> Sculptor Gerry Masse created the museum in the early 2000s, when he began installing his and his colleagues' work here on family property.

Today, the museum boasts three miles of trails and nearly 200 sculptures.

>> If you love the arts and you love nature, it's a really cool place to come and hang out.

♪ >> But each summer, these quiet hills are brought to life as dozens of artists gather to do something spectacular, design and pour their own cast iron sculptures.

>> Woo!

>> Thank you!

>> So when artists want to cast iron, a lot of times they can't in their own studio all by themselves, mainly because it really takes a team.

>> And that's why for more than a decade, Gerry has been inviting aspiring cast iron artists from around the world to come to Sculpture Trails for an intensive four-week internship.

>> This internship program is a fantastic opportunity, because there's literally 20 to 30 artists the whole entire month working together as a team.

Producing stuff that there's no way they could produce on their own.

And, in fact, they may never produce something like that again.

By the time they're done with their internship, they will have cast at least 20 to 30,000 pounds of iron, produced over 60,000 pounds of sand molds, and that's usually more than students will get in five years of college.

So the internship has become quite known around the world.

>> The process of creating a cast iron sculpture is long and labor intensive, and it starts with sourcing raw materials.

Each morning scrap iron is broken up and sorted into tidy batches for melting.

Coke, a coal-based fuel, is also sorted into batches.

As for the sculptures, they usually begin with a pattern.

>> A lot of artists like to use Styrofoam, wax, oil-based clay, wood, and it's usually whatever they're comfortable working with.

>> The finished patterns are carefully packed with a sand-glue mixture which dries into a rock hard mold.

Once the sand is set, the patterns are removed, and the hollow molds are prepped to receive molten iron.

♪ >> Then comes the fun part.

As night sets in, the furnace is loaded with layers of coke and iron and ignited.

As temperatures rise above 2200 degrees Fahrenheit, liquid iron drips its way to the base of the furnace, delivering several hundred pounds of molten metal every few minutes.

>> When we pour at night, it feels like magic.

You just finished pouring one ladle, and then another one is coming straight from the furnace.

So it's like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

But then there are moments where you can just stand and look at the furnace, and you're like, wow!

This is really happening right now.

There's molten metal in that furnace, and I'm gonna have it in about ten seconds flat.

Art is great and sculpture is great, but metal casting, like you don't do that anywhere else, and you can't do it the way that we do it here anywhere else.

>> Professional artists can also book one to three weeks on site, taking advantage of this temporary iron foundry to pursue any projects that they wish.

>> I'm coming from west Texas.

That's where my studio is.

This is my ninth year.

I love Sculpture Trails because it's -- this is a place where I can experiment, right?

That means I get to test ideas, see something being made.

Pour this thing, crack it open the next day, and then respond to it.

And that really fits the way that I'm an artist, and there aren't other places that I can do that.

>> That freedom to experiment isn't accidental.

>> Cast iron is new, I would say since the 1950s and '60s.

Iron really gives sculptors a chance to be free, and really don't worry about history.

Another thing that they can put aside and just use their own artistic voice.

And to me, Sculpture Trails is here to help that push.

>> I've never worked in a place where you've got people who are in charge, who are so passionate about what they're doing.

They aren't looking for people who are extremely knowledged in the sector.

They are using the space to teach people who are interested in it, and I think that that is exactly what internships are about.

And it's hard to find internships like that.

>> Once the casts have cooled, the molds are broken up to reveal the new sculptures within.

And many of them will find a home at the Sculpture Trails.

>> All the cast iron sculpture that's made this month, it will either end up in two spots.

It could be entered into our cast iron exhibition, and that's a two-year ongoing show for these artists.

We'll only pick maybe 10 to 20.

All the other things, they just go off home with the artist.

They sell 'em, they put them in galleries, who knows.

They could stick 'em in the garden.

>> Whether they end up in a garden, a gallery or right here on the trails, these sculptures will remain sturdy reminders of all the hard work and community building taking place here summer after summer.

>> I think the exposure to a lot of people that are just like them is what -- the main thing they are going to get out of it, besides all the experience and an awesome resume.

They don't realize, they're going to stay working in this field, and they're going to need each other's help.

>> Thanks for watching.

We'll see you next time on "Journey Indiana."

♪ >> Funding for "Journey Indiana" was provided in part by: >> The WTIU Vehicle Donation Program.

Proceeds from accepted donations of a car, or other vehicle, make this program possible.

Most vehicles are accepted and pickup can be arranged at no cost.

Learn more at WTIU.org/support.

>> Charitable IRA rollover gifts, individuals aged 70 and a half or older may make a tax-free charitable distribution from their IRA to WTIU.

Consult your advisor and visit Indianapublicmedia.org/support for more details.

>> WTIU sustaining members, committing to regular monthly contributions, providing WFIU and WTIU with reliable ongoing support.

Becoming a sustainer is one of the most effective ways to support public media.

>> And by viewers like you.

Thank you!