MSU Extension Nutrition

Michigan Produce: Farm to Table

Author: Lanae Bump, Cody McLaren, Jacalenne Christian, Tammy Fletcher

This episode of Neighborhood Nutrition features one of the most talked about topics of the food world, Farm to Table! Hosts, Cody and Jax, speak with Chandra Bonnau of Mixter Market in Detroit to hear how students are learning how to grow, sell, and make Farm to Table produce. You will learn ways to bring Farm to Table into your neighborhood. Listen in to find out the importance of vegetables, gardening, and more.

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Show notes

• Mixter Market: Facebook
• Chandra Bonnau: chandra.bonnau@lpps.info
• MSU Extension Food Safety Hotline: 1-877-643-9882
• Michigan State University Extension EFNEP Facebook page
• MI Health Matters: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube

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Episode Transcripts

[Jax] Alright, welcome back to the neighborhood. We're here for another episode of neighborhood nutrition. As always, I'm your host, Jax. Just a regular old mom workin', livin' and gardening out of Detroit, Michigan?

[Cody] Hey everyone, Cody here, your favorite northern you upper, an avid gardener and outdoorsman. And Cody, outdoorsman. Speaking of that, we've got some fun stuff lined up for today. Don't we were talking about vegetables and farm to table. I know myself and Jax both run quite the garden and I was just kind of bragging up all the stuff that I had going and then I seen Jax's spread and she's got pretty much everything you need. And she was telling me about some unique species that she's been growing.

[Jax] Ya know , so let's get right into the good stuff here. I will snackin' on some. Well, Cody, You mentioned a nice roma tomato and so I went and got some some ground cherries to snack on. Now if you have never heard of ground cherries, they're great. Think of a cross between a berry and a tomato, but it's encompassed in a husk. Now, fun fact, and I was telling this to Cody a few minutes ago. We have some species of vegetables and fruits that are just going to be gone in a few years, right? They're not sold commercially. And so without us like home home gardeners like me and Cody, without a couple of these farmers, we're going to lose a lot of these native fruits and ground cherries are actually native in Michigan. So that's pretty cool, right? So we've got to keep some of these things alive. So prime example of what our topic is today, right, Cody?

[Cody] Yeah, I think you're right in line there Jax, but our topic for this week is certainly going to be farm to table and that of course, incorporate a lot of fruits and veggies. And as you can see, me and Jax are pretty excited about especially the veggie portion.

[Jax] Oh yeah. I think farm to table has become super popular in the past few years with kind of the, the big sustainability boost, especially here in Michigan. So let's talk about what actually is farm to table. If you don't know. We're here to tell you. So Cody, what do you think about when we say farm to table?

[Cody] Well, my personal definition is just getting a little bit more in touch with your food and kind of where it comes from. So we all see that vast spread of things at the grocery store. And maybe sometimes you know what it is and where it came from. But other times you're kind of out of touch. So I think it's always good that you can really see the entire lifespan of some of the food you grow and being active in your own communities and especially farmers markets is a great way to do that.

[Jax] Yeah, farm to table is pretty awesome. So basically, farm to table is exactly what it is. I don't think we can have an easier definition come from a phrase. It's literally taking stuff from the farm to your table. And it's a great thing to do because like Cody said, the kind of benefits us, right? We get to see the entire grand scheme of things from working with the soil. Notice I said soil and that dirt, right? So the soils got the good stuff. We got some nutrients in there that we need to growth stuff. We can see that whole lifecycle from seeds, creating a flower and having some fruit come from that. But farm to table does look a little bit different depending on where we're at, right? So even in Michigan, farm to table looks a little bit different. I'm down here in Detroit, in Cody's up in the Upper Peninsula there right off of the lake. So you guys do this cool thing too, right?

[Cody] Yes, we do Jax. I'm glad you asked. I was going to segment into that as well. So we do have our fair share a farm fields and areas to grow up here, but I'm sure that most of you know that is further. You go north, you get more water and you get more trees. So it's hard to grow much food off of a tree, but luckily there's a lot more in the water. And since most of our towns up here in our larger cities border the Lake Superior in the St. Mary's waterway. We do a unique program with our Sea Grant educator called boat to school. So it's kinda like farm to table only. When we eat locally source fish, you get to learn the entire food system of how fish is collected, processed. And how it actually winds up in your grocery stores or especially on your table.

[Jax]All right, so another kind of version of taking what's local to you, What's a good abundance in your, in your area, right? Because think about it. Even a Michigan we've got a couple of different, you know, I don't want to say climates, but climates like Cody's said up north, we've got a lot more trees down here and kind of middle of Michigan too. There's a lot of fields. Michigan is famous for a lot of different crops if we think about it. So when we think about a farm to table, you know, how can we support this movement, Cody?

[Cody] Um the best way to support your farm to table, or especially your local markets, is to stay local. And you know instead of outsourcing some of those items that you could find, maybe everywhere. If you have to go the extra step and find a local market from someone producing food near you.

[Jax]Farm to table, seems super easy, right? But we have to make sure that we support these initiatives. So let's think about how we can do that. One way we can do that is supporting restaurants that are using local places. Now, Cody, I don't know what you got going up there, but up here, like I said, in Detroit, it's been a really big movement. And so I'm not promoting anything, but, uh, you can find some really good restaurants like coriander kitchen or folks restaurant around here in Detroit. And they're basically growing and serving. So they might not have the same menu items every day, but you're getting the freshest stuff that they have available. So another way that we could support would be like local farmers markets, right Cody? I'm sure you've heard about like Eastern market down here, right?

[Cody]Yes, I have. And I'm quite jealous of the larger markets you have done there. We do have a handful of really nice ones up here, but I hear you have point the selection down there. Well, with our, ya know kind of growing, being different down here versus Upstate.

[Jax] I'm curious what kind of markets You've got up there. Sometimes you get some of the best stuff from the smaller markets, right? So speaking of smaller markets, we actually have a special guest with us today, meets my pal Chandra. She is from the mixter farmers market. And we're going to talk about what she's doing down here, the Detroit area to help with the farm to market initiative.

[Jax] All right, friends, welcome back. As promised. We're talking all about farm to table today. And so I brought a really special guest with us. And I actually know our special guests, ladies and gentlemen, you may have heard me reference master gardening. And so Master Gardening is a great program that Michigan State University Extension has the honor of facilitating. And I have the honor of actually sitting in front of our special guest when I took this class back in, I think wasn't 2019 Chandra.

[Chandra] It was, it was right before the pandemic.

[Jax] Right. Okay. Welcome to the podcast here from the Mixter Market Stand. I have Chandra. Chandra, talk to us about the Mixter Market Stand. and so our topic is the farm to table. And she has a super cool kind of program that's going on here downriver and Michigan.

[Chandra]I am a teacher for a program in Lincoln Park call mixter institute, a transition where a post-secondary program for students with autism. We teach students ages 18-26 vocational daily living skills through Lincoln Park public schools.

[Jax] There was no horticulture program before you started?

[Chandra] That's correct.

[Jax] Okay. So you decided that you wanted to start this program? 

[Chandra] Idid about four or five years ago and behind our school there was nothing but a field. And then in less than one year, we had 19 Raised beds featuring an assortment of vegetables, a pumpkin patch. Rows and rows of tomatoes. Our students built a beautiful split rail fence around the garden. And within the premises we also included a sensory garden to increase that take a break for our students that really need.

[Jax] Was this all done in one-year?

[Chandra] Yes, this was done in one year. We really expanded it. Currently, we have about 30 beds. A large hoop house. In the winter, we have hinge low tunnels above some of our raised beds. We even have an orchard. And this last spring we put in a really cute attractive shed. I like to call it a she shed, but it's really to help students with those organizational skills and how to take care of your gardening tools.

[Jax] Okay, so this is like amazing. I'm sure our listeners are like ya know like mind-blown right now because I know when I first kind of heard you talking about this in class, I was like, This is a great thing. First of all, you're working with students. So this is an entirely student able, right?

[Chandra] This is for the students. They have been part of the projects since day one, even back four or five years ago, they they had a vision and we kind of collaborated and worked together and researched and kind of came up with the gardens. And they again, we're just part of the part of the project.

[Jax] Okay. So I I can see that this came together so quickly.

[Chandra] It did, it was quite overwhelming. But I'm still 19 beds. That's I mean, I have six or seven beds in my backyard and that's overwhelming for me.

[Jax] So why was this important for you? Like it is farm to table, something that you like. Is horticulture to something you're interested. Why was it important to you to kind of bring this to Mixter?

[Chandra] Well, I had a vision that the Mixter horticulture program would have. All of our students have access to materials in programs to develop. Some of, you know, something that they can gain skills and horticulture and maybe get a job one day at maybe the garden section at Lowe's or Menards. Or one of the urban gardens that we potentially work with. My mission was to develop a program to allow for each student to gain those functional and social independent skills. And again, I would love to see any of our students take what they learn in my class and get a job one day. That is the goal.

[Jax] Awesome. So not only are we helping to equip our, our community with some skills for their life, were kind of imparting some life lessons, right? Because they've got to do organization There's a Lot that goes into gardening, right, I mean, you and I know this, I'm sure that you got listeners out there the garden too. So what are some of the tasks that these students are doing? What are the functions in the garden? You said it's all student run.

[Chandra] Yeah. So I just think it's important to keep the garden going for a job readiness skills. Gardening can be such a positive effect on our students, especially those with autism. They're building science, math problem skills, problem-solving skills, as well as focusing the attention of the garden. It's just a stressed relief, even for me, I just think it, it's a significant activity and they're able to learn how to take care of the garden which means They can generalize that into you know taking care of their homes or their future homes or in the home that they live in now.

[Jax] Okay. So when it comes to like tasks and whatnot, weeding and watering, is somebody directing them or do this or have they now just gotten a routine of the of the garden? They know like, you know, if I see we have to pull it. I water it on Monday at eight AM. Is there a schedule that's set up here?

[Chandra] There is a schedule. But it also depends on how many times they have taken my class. Some, some students are new to the program. Some students have had it a couple semesters. Some have had it once, you know, a couple of years ago. And we have these Transition Plans and if their transition plans indicate that they are interested in gardening, then they'll take my class a little more. So it really is student focused. So it just depends on each student. I have students that can go into the garden and know exactly what to do. And then some need a checklist, some need visuals, some need direct prompts.

[Jax] And so basically your, your meeting every individual student where they are and finding out what works for them. That's great. That's awesome. I love that gardening can be such a thing that brings everybody together regardless of where you are gardening it can meet you.

[Chandra]Yes. Yeah. There is a commonality. Yeah, there's a bond in our garden too. even with these students ya know. It is another class. It could be any other class. For example, has free time. I noticed they come into the garden and you know, they, they smell and they relax. And we've even had some yoga in the garden.

[Jax] Um, I want to do  yoga and the garden.

[Chandra] You are more than welcome.

[Chandra] Speaking of inviting myself, I did I did see that not too long ago. You guys were looking for volunteers? Yeah. So we're always looking for volunteers. So we are a master gardening approved project through MSU. Let me, let our listeners know what that means here. Master gardeners, our community volunteers, really, a lot of people do this class for personal knowledge. But a lot of us just like to show everybody the gardening can be a common bond between people. And so what Chandra means, what she says. MSU approved project. That means that we have kind of MSU has kind of scoped this place out. And it has great potential for volunteer opportunities. And so these master gardeners are required to do extended education hours just to make sure that they're up on their info. But also they're required to do a certain amount of volunteer hours to just make sure that we are present and in this community. So if Master Gardening is something that you're interested in, go ahead and look that up on MSU's website and know that, you know, Chandra sounds like somebody would like to meet I promise She's a heck of a good time. Mixer Garden is a great place to kind of earn some volunteer hours. It's an approved project, right? 

[Chandra] Yeah.

[Jax] Good. What else? Yes.

[Chandra] So we have actually had some master gardeners from our class come to our gardens even in the winter to help out. It. You know, there's so much to do in the garden especially in the summer. There has been times where the garden is kinda looking like the Amazon. And we've had, or have are our students and our volunteers and parents just come in and help out with weeding. Weeding is a huge part of keeping our garden's up keep. They don't have to be.

[Jax] So if we had somebody listening right now that's in the area and they're like man It sounds like a lot of fun. But I don't really know what I'm doing. Is there a process for them to go through to become a volunteer with mixter?

[Chandra] They can just e-mail me and we'll just have to give a quick background check.

[Jax] Okay, so not something super crazy people. You can get out here. And we'll have Chandra's contact information at the end of our podcast today. We'll have in our show notes and we'll grab her info right before she leaves us for the day. So Mixter, what I've gotten so far as that Mixter is great for the kids. It's great for the school. And you rattled off a couple of numbers that were incredible. First year you had 19 beds. Now you're over 30 beds. So tell us a couple of the things that are, are growing. What is kinda like the biggest thing that you grow?

[Chandra] Yeah. The Mixter Market Stand again is a student, ran farmer's market And were typically open on Fridays for fresh farm Fridays or a special event for if we have something going on that we can showcase our students and what they grow and what they do and what they make.

[Jax]Chandra just dropped a bomb on you. The mixter horticulture program and gardens actually have a market stand. So the stuff that they grow, they actually sell. And it is available for us on Fridays.

[Chandra] So typically on Fridays, Yeah, when harvest is plentiful. We will be open more and I usually will post that on our Facebook page just so that I can let the community know what's going on and what kind of updates that we have. But going back to your question about what we grow, it really depends on the season and what has been donated to us. So as far as veggies, we offer a ton of leafy greens and we usually sell them in bundles. Fresh herbs, dried herbs, fresh lavender tomatoes, zucchini, squash and garlic egg plant, corn, carrots. Variety of produce. It just again, it depends we do donate a lot to Lincoln Park community members, a need for family meals on wheels. So a lot of it is donated to people who need them. But not only do we just felt vegetables or donate vegetables, we also make products from our garden. I like to call them our Mixter Made Products.

[Jax] I love it!

[Chandra] We've made lavender salt, lavender candles, other products made from herbs. Lavender sachets are very popular. C bombs, we've had garlic and parsley salt We even had a class once make marinara sauce. And it was delicious from all the tomatoes that were being produced in the garden . Salsa So some of our pumpkins have been made into decorative pumpkins for your porch and blue, we'd sell those in the market stand. Which is great.

[Jax] Because when we're talking farm to market, it really depends on seasons and what's growing and what's going to be the best. So I really liked that you have are catering to that. Pumpkins are going to be ready in the fall. So we're making fall products and I love it. And so if somebody wants to shop at the market stand, what kind of payments do you guys take?

[Chandra]We take cash, we take checks made to LPPS. Lincoln Park Public Schools. We also just recently have a PayPal account and a square, and I have yet to figure that out I will have that ready for you.

[Jax] Technology, I'm telling you. And I think we will be able to update the show notes. So if you guys are listening to this podcast and this a little bit further past when we've released this, check the show notes, we will have all the information that we can get from Chandra down in there. So all of our proceeds benefit all of our students at Mixter, I love it, right. Because you said checks are made out to the public schools and so yeah, that that ties in with Mixter being part of LPPS well. So I just want to backtrack a little bit more. We said 30 beds now because I'm still astounded at a lot of these numbers. And now 30 beds. And now I remember back in 2019 you were talking about maybe having a hoop house. But now you said you had hoop houses.

[Chandra] We have a hoop house Yes, we do. So it extends our gardening season for the entire year. So we're out gardening in January, February, and when it's snowing, we're still gardening. I love it. Okay, So basically, we have no excuse not to come and help Mixter It's not just this volunteer opportunity. We can get people in here January through December. So I love it. So Chandra, I just want to thank you for taking time out of life. Dropping in with me. I will tell you before I met you, even with me being into gardening, I had never heard of Mixter. I had never heard I go into public schools. I've never heard of the school. I'd never heard of the garden. I've never heard of the market. So not only are we building a connection through community and through to stand, but the community gets to see what Mixter is all about. People get to come see and meet our growers and our students. And for people that aren't really into the farm to table aspect I think this is a great little introduction, right? Because they eat to see where the market is in the garden, that grew it right behind it, right? I'm assuming that markets not far from the garden.

[Chandra] Ah. The market is on the front of the building and the garden is on the back of the house. It's great. It's come straight from the back of the house to the front of the yard.

[Jax] So does Mixter have any kind of more upgrades in the future? Like how big are you seeing this go? You got 30 beds. and hoop houses.

[Chandra] I do think that it's important to keep expanding for the sake of the students, just being able to teach where food comes from and having that connection to me is priceless. As of now, I am probably just going to maintain and students and I obviously will maintain what we have now and in the future will be, will definitely expand. Maybe with more beds, maybe with a green house. Maybe I can write a grant for a, a greenhouse.

[Jax] My listeners, if anybody wants to donate a free green house, we will have Chandra's information in the show notes. People.

[Chandra] I'll gladly take it. Love it.

[Jax] So Chandra real quick, drop the Facebook because I think you mentioned Facebook a couple of times. Where can they find you to make sure that they're keeping up with any announcements for the market volunteer hours. Well, I would love for all of your listeners to follow us on Facebook.

[Chandra] So we are mixter garden/marketstandASD post-secondary. If you type that in it comes right up. Or you can email me at Chandra that banner at our PPS info. And I will have the correct spelling for that in the show notes.

[Jax] Go ahead and drop it one more time for them with the correct spelling, Chandra.

[Chandra] It's spelled CHANDRA.bonnau@lpps.info That it.

[Jax] Awesome. All right. I want to thank you so much for being with us today.

[Chandra] Thank you for having me!

[Jax] Of course, it was a pleasure um catching up with you because I haven't been able to catch up with you since we we graduated. So yeah, keep us in mind if ever you want to drop by and say hi to the listeners and keep us updated with what Mixter is doing. I think it's great. My listeners are going to think it's great. And with that, we're going to let you get back to gardening.

[Chandra] Thank you. I'm in my own garden right now, but yeah.

[Jax] I better get out to mind too. Thank you so much.

[Chandra] Thank you.

[Cody] So there's other ways to support your local food systems and farm to table. Other than than your restaurants and local growers, you can even reverse that around and just go ahead and support yourself. And one of the best ways of doing that is to grow your own garden and try growing your own fruits and vegetables. For You and your families to enjoy. Jax I hear you're pretty good at this. What do you know about gardening?

[Jax]Listen. If you guys could see my face. Smilin' over here, man. Okay. Garden to table is where it's at. People. Gardens to table. I mean, we cut to commercial break a few minutes ago and I was chomping on some of these black cherry tomatoes, right? So gardening table, the taste. There's just so much better, isn't it, Cody? Like you might not even like tomatoes before you garden.

[Cody]Absolutely. It's one of the great transition transition ones. Especially if your children are a little bit reluctant to try new things. Have them try a garden fresh fruit or a garden fruit vegetable. And a lot of times the flavor is way better than store bottom ones and then they might even going on to liking them. So try your own fruits and vegetables. They're delicious right.

[Jax] So gardening to table can be super inexpensive too, right? I mean, there's not much that you need besides some seeds, soil. What are some other things that you keep on hand to help out with gardening?

[Cody]Well, up here, Jax it stays cold for a fairly long time. So if you could start them indoors or get them out of the harsh weather to get them started up here for our short growing seasons, that's really advantageous.

[Jax] I mean you don't technically have to. There are some species that you can grow with a 30 to 60 day period. But if you've got those longer ones, like those delicious tomatoes we were talking about, or even certain varieties of peppers. You're going to want to start them a little sooner. So any tools you can get for that, grow lights, heating pads, anything to save them from those harsh conditions. So Cody mentioned a couple of extra things there that might cause a couple of bucks out of pocket, but there's resources available. So I know down here, we have things like keep growing Detroit the garden resource program. And they have like online classes you can do. Family and community gardens. They can pay like 15 or 20 bucks for a year and they get supplies of seeds and transplants. And so if you guys are new to gardening, transplants are kind of Cody was talking about with starting seeds indoors. So you basically have a little plants and let me just transplant that into the ground. We can actually use snap dollars to go towards the purchases of seeds and transplants. So if this sounds good, go back and watch some of these YouTube videos. Msu Extension, like we said, it's got a hotline, will have that info for you down in the show notes and check out some of the classes and stuff that they've got go. And like we said, it's really inexpensive, right? If you can get reduced priced seeds and transplants, growing them is so much cheaper. Things like tomatoes and peppers and lettuce. So much cheaper to grow at them by it. I don't know if you guys have seen these prices in grocery stores, they can get crazy growing. It is certainly the best way to do that. Like we said, all that information from growing to resources to management. You can find that all through MSU, an extension. I mean, we have every source of media you can think of. You can call us, you can e-mail us, or you can take some of our local classes and learn a little bit more as well, right? Shameless plug. We do have a master gardener program.

[Cody] Yes, we do. And it's even second added benefit of doing your own gardening. As most of you already know, if you have your own garden, it's a little bit of physical activity as well. You get some cardio, you get sweatin, and you're certainly picking up some heavy things and hopefully some ripe fruits and veggies when you're done. So that's an added bonus.

[Jax]So yeah, so it's not just good for our wallets, right? It's good for our bodies and our minds to sow farm, they say, Well people, that's where it's at. We told you this was a good topic for today. I'm sure all of you have also heard the direct nutritional benefits of fruits and veggies. So we know growing it's good. We know supporting people who grow It's good. But what about what it does for your own body from what's actually in there. Almost all fruits and veggies as a whole are high in fiber. Which of course is a great thing for complex carbohydrates and really good for your metabolism. We also know some other effects of fiber that are good for metabolism, but we don't need to go into full detail on that. And one of the best sources of vitamin, vitamins and minerals that there are and are certainly low and natural fat. Yeah.

[Jax] Low low in sugar for the most part too. Right, at least it's natural sugar. So we are trying to eat the rainbow, right, Cody?

[Cody] So yes, what are good stuff there? So we say to eat the rainbow because we want people to have a variety of fruits and vegetables. We know that all fruits and veggies are good for us. But if all you ever eat has bananas, you're gonna get a lot of what's in the bananas and a not a whole lot of what's in anything else. I can't just live off bananas. My son would argue that you could.

[Jax] My daughter would too. 

[Cody] The best way to do it is to get a good variety. And of course with kids, what they can see and smell is a great way to do it. So we tell them to eat the rainbow. Because in all actual reality, every color, different color of fruits and veggies have a certain nutrient profile that's a little bit different. So from our red stuff we say is good for our heart and has a lot of potassium in there, which is of course great for balancing out sodium, which we all probably get too much of. And orange you can always think of your eyes and your senses because with that, carrots, that is going to help your night vision out. It's got a lot of vitamin a in there. It's really good for your eyes. What else?

[Jax] Well, so blue and purple, my favorite color, does help with memory. So I remember starting here at MSU 6 or 7 years ago. One of my colleagues was like, eat blueberries, that's good for your memory. And I remembered that. I guess all the blueberries did pay off and so are your mother shameless plug farm to table blueberries. I really big crop of Michigan. So blue and purple, four-year memories. Why about yellow? So Cody talked about bananas, right? So we're helping our immune system. So kind of our whole body fighting some stuff off. What about green? Now there's so many vegetables. Green.

[Cody] Yes, when we think of plants, we think of green. And it's also good for money as well. But we say, I think there's nothing that can't be carried with some dark leafy greens. And that's because they just contain a lot of calcium and other vitamins that are really important to us and it's easy to get them because most of them are green, at least at 1 in their life.

[Jax] Yeah, so It's actually super easy to do a good mix, right? So we need to have like five cups of this stuff a day. Okay, so that's three cups about veggies, two cups of fruit. It's actually met so hard to do, right? Like I said, our snack event, some black cherry tomatoes and some ground cherries. And so use that stuff as a snack. Don't just wait for a meal. Have that stuff ready hanging around so you can pop open the fridge and grab grab a couple of little baby cherry tomato.

[Cody] That's right. Yeah, you can get almost a full serving from many whole fruits and veggies because when we grow them, we'd like to let them get to full size and most of them are about a cup anyway. So if you have some very few grounds as well, you think about all that airspace in between there. It's not that hard to do.

[Jax] Now, I mentioned eating these as a snack, right? But you can do some really simple quick recipes with all of these fruits and vegetables to, right? So I know at least one of the staple recipes in my household. And not just because I have Hispanic background, but because I always have vegetables hanging around. Are quesadillas because you can put anything between a tortilla with some cheese and it makes it amazing. Agree or no?

[Cody] Oh, I completely agree with you Jax. I like to make mine with a little bit of shredded zucchini in there. I feel like if there's any vegetable that doesn't get used enough, it's probably the squash family. So your talk and yellow squash zucchini, you'll get a giant one from your friend at the farmers market. You have no clue what to do with it. Well, shred it up and put it in some quesadillas. It's fantastic like Jax says. Don't forget a little moderate jack cheese in there. And it'll taste great.

[Jax ] And theres our pro tip Cody.  I don't know, but I could use that. Yeah. You have a giant zucchini. But I've been growing like Monster tomatoes and eggplants. So remember guys to keep your scraps if you don't finish a whole tomato chop it up, put it in there at the end of the week, make a bunch of quesdillas with all these little pieces of leftover veggies. Again, it's good for your wallet, right? If you don't use food, waste food, which means wasted money and nobody likes that.

[Cody]And another quick tip right before you eat those fresh veggies is make sure that you rinse those off. We don't need any soap because their skin is kinda porous like ours, so just water will do. You never know if there could be dirt or something even worse on there? So give them a rinse.

[Jax] We gave them a lot of information this week. So check out my recipe. What do we have going on next week? This is your episode next week. Right?

[Cody] Yeah, I guess you might say that. So I'm a little bit more of a physical activity person than a nutritionists. So we're going to take a break from the food groups next week and we're going to get into physical activity. We're going to try to cover as much as we can. We got exercises, we got ideas, and we just got general ways to increase your physical activity.

[Jax] And if there's something else that you guys want to know about or that you want us to know about or you have any questions about, make sure to go into our survey in the show notes as well. We realize this is kind of condensed episode and any other edit information you need should be down there for you. So like Cody said, there is a survey down there. And if you got feedback or questions or even topics. If you've got a good topic you think we should cover, give us some info, let us know. Speaking of info, we added a couple of other ways for you to get a hold of some more information from us. If you're looking for some family stuff, check out our Michigan State University Extension EFNEP page. We're on Facebook too or check out our main page. Most of our social medias or main page is going to be MI health matters. That is MI Health Matters. So my health matters because your health matters, right? Our health matters. And that's pretty much all we got for you today, right?

[Cody] Yep! Thanks. Everybody will talk to you next week.

[Jax] Yeah, we'll see you next week around the neighborhood.

[Lanae] Neighborhood nutrition is a part of educational media for Michigan State University Extension. The neighborhood nutrition team is made up of Lanae Bump, Jax Christian Cody, McLaren, Tammy Fletcher, and Erin Powell? This episode was produced and edited, by Lanae Bump content was written and edited by Lanae Bump Jax Christian Cody McLaren, and Tammy Fletcher. Our music is happy, funky background energetic music. Ig version 60s by less FM. Play -Doh Meets Dora by Carmne Maria and Edu Espinal. And upbeat ukulele, by les FM. Here from pixabay.com. The cover art was created by Lanae Bump image from Jane wrap and special thanks to Chandra Bannou for joining us. This podcast was funded by the USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as snap, and by the USDA's expanded food and nutrition education program, otherwise known as EFNEP Msu, is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer committed to achieving excellence through diverse workforce and inclusive culture that encourages all people to reach their full potential. Michigan State University Extension programs and materials are open to all without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, religion, age, height, weight, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, or veteran status issued in furtherance of MSU Extension work acts of May 8th and June 30th, 1914 and cooperation with the US Department of Agriculture, Quentin Tyler director MSU Extension, East Lansing, Michigan. For 48824. This information is for educational purposes only. Reference to commercial products or trade names does not imply endorsement by MSU Extension or bias against those not mentioned.