Unity Gardens holds holiday market, local Christmas shopping

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. --- Unity Gardens is encouraging you to do your Christmas shopping locally this year!

“We want to have like a sustainable, local holiday season,” says Micah Niespodziany, Event Coordinator at Unity Gardens. “We try to do things in a way that is environmentally sound, that we do things that are beneficial for everyone included, we’re here for our community and trying to build our community.”

Over a dozen local vendors showcased their sustainable stocking stuffers; from hand-poured holiday scented candles to up-cycled mittens, to custom-made jewelry.

For lunch, the Ivy Tech Hospitality and Culinary Program shared dishes with clean recipes that folks can take with them and make at home.

“This gave us an opportunity as students to showcase our skills and build on what we learn in class, we tried to focus on some healthy things with winter coming up.,” says Eden Mast, Culinary and Hospitality student at Ivy Tech.

It can be a lot more difficult to eat green when it’s white outside, so the chefs and students at Ivy Tech used a grilled cheese sandwich to show how easy it can be to add to veggies into comfort food.

“Like the sandwich today, I took a handful of greens and added it to the sandwich, and there I automatically got at least a fourth cup of my needed greens for the day,” explains Mast. “It’s making small little decisions like that that build up for the day that you can incorporate pretty easily without being overwhelmed.”

They say it’s all about incorporating sustainability into your everyday lifestyle, but especially during the off-season for fresh garden produce.

“You just have to take the time to eat healthy,” says the Hospitality Program Chair at Ivy Tech, Brent Spring. “For soup, you can make a big pot of it, freeze some of it, put some of the fridge eat it for a few days, come back in the next two weeks and have some more.”

“Remember there’s a lot of local stuff going on, there are a lot of other local growers who grow in houses, and you can still get your fresh stuff,” Niespodziany says.

Unity Gardens Website

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