00;00;00;00 - 00;00;15;20 Voiceover Support for pop of culture comes from Stallings Wealth Management. Daniel Stallings, financial advisor, securities and advisory services offered through Satara Advisors, LLC member, Finra. SIP C, a broker dealer and registered investment advisor. Satara is under separate ownership from any other named entity. 00;00;15;22 - 00;00;20;23 Michelle Kinsey This week on Pop of Culture, we leave the studio for the fresh fall air. 00;00;20;26 - 00;00;23;04 Andrew Montavon How much cider do you usually sell every week? 00;00;23;07 - 00;00;27;04 Samantha Jacobs Oh. It depends. I mean, we're going to make 1500 gallon this week. 00;00;27;06 - 00;00;30;08 Kara DuQuette We bring you audio from an apple orchard in Newcastle, 00;00;30;09 - 00;00;31;26 Michelle Kinsey a chocolatier in Muncie, 00;00;31;28 - 00;00;33;29 Kara DuQuette a cartoon exhibition in Anderson, 00;00;34;00 - 00;00;37;18 Michelle Kinsey and from the artists at our recent pop fest arts market. 00;00;37;21 - 00;00;43;02 Kara DuQuette Grab your earbuds and take a walk while you listen. Our fabulous fall feature is coming up. 00;00;43;05 - 00;01;09;04 Luke Jones Support for Pop of Culture comes from Stallings Wealth Management and from you. Funding for public radio has always been a little different, and in the past year it's been even more confusing. What's clear is this without federal or state funding, your support is essential in keeping local programing on the air. Pop up culture exists for you and because of you. 00;01;09;11 - 00;01;14;21 Luke Jones Become a supporter at Indiana Public radio.org. 00;01;14;24 - 00;01;19;15 Michelle Kinsey From Indiana Public Radio. This is pop of culture. I'm Michelle Kinsey 00;01;19;18 - 00;01;25;02 Kara DuQuette and I'm Kara DuQuette. We're doing the show outside today in this beautiful fall weather. 00;01;25;03 - 00;01;37;28 Michelle Kinsey Oh, beautiful indeed. And we're looking at the less spooky side of the season like apple orchards. You drive there, you buy some fresh cider. But what's it like for the people who work there? 00;01;38;00 - 00;01;50;12 Kara DuQuette We sent our producers, Andrew Montavon and Luke Jones, to Jacob's family orchard in Newcastle. 00;01;50;15 - 00;01;52;18 Andrew Montavon Offers. 00;01;52;20 - 00;01;56;13 Luke Jones This is a dangerous. 00;01;56;15 - 00;01;59;07 Andrew Montavon Are you Samantha? I'm Andrew. 00;01;59;09 - 00;02;00;20 Samantha Jacobs Hi, nice to meet ya. 00;02;00;22 - 00;02;01;16 Luke Jones Thanks for doing this. 00;02;01;18 - 00;02;02;28 Samantha Jacobs Sure. No problem. 00;02;03;00 - 00;02;03;11 Samantha Jacobs Well. 00;02;03;12 - 00;02;10;12 Samantha Jacobs Here, we'll go back here. Let's go back here and get out of everybody’s way. 00;02;10;15 - 00;02;29;28 Samantha Jacobs We have some apples on the grater there. That's what we grate. I've sent them out to pick apples right now. So that's where we grade two apples. This is where we make cider. We put one of those big bins on this. Go through this box, which washes them off. This flips over, and there's a chopper right there. 00;02;30;01 - 00;02;43;10 Samantha Jacobs Chops them up, and they fall between these two belts. That great big tank right there is sets underneath. It catches all the cider. And then we put it in that tank right there, which has about 475 gallon in it right now that we made yesterday. 00;02;43;17 - 00;02;46;08 Andrew Montavon Wow. How much cider do you usually sell every week? 00;02;46;15 - 00;02;56;10 Samantha Jacobs Oh it depends. I mean, we're going to make 1500 gallon this week. We've been making anywhere between 8 to 10,000 gallon. 00;02;56;12 - 00;03;16;29 Samantha Jacobs So we have a large activity area. Try to have games and things out there that mom and dad and kids can enjoy together. I want them to go out there and have fun together. I don't want them to just turn the kids loose. I really like for that to be a. You'd be surprised how many people don't understand that, but that's okay. 00;03;17;01 - 00;03;41;07 Samantha Jacobs And we have a food trailer that we serve food out of, usually just on the weekends. But this week we're doing during the week since this fall break. On back behind the playground, you can see those bushes like, that is a lavender field. There's about 800 lavender plants out there. And we had a lavender festival in June where people came out and cut lavender, and and we had things for them to wrap it and decorate it with. 00;03;41;08 - 00;03;56;10 Samantha Jacobs And then behind that last year in late March. First part of eight, first week or so of April. And we'll do it again this year. We'll have a tulip field and we will have a tulip festival for about two and a half, three week, probably three weekends. 00;03;56;12 - 00;04;00;02 Andrew Montavon So you guys keep people coming back during the non fall. 00;04;00;03 - 00;04;18;11 Samantha Jacobs Well that's the first time we've done that. And we we've got a facility here that could be utilized. It's not this in here is not winter. It's not a winter thing really. And when it gets really hot in the summer it's really hot in there. But you can get by heat, you can get by on. The cold is a little different. 00;04;18;12 - 00;04;38;23 Samantha Jacobs And that's really cold and well, and it's really hot. The crowds are it's hard to get people out too. It's just, you know, but, the other thing is in the summer, really busy around here too, with a lot of farm work. And we got the apples to take care of. We'll have a about 2 or 3 acres of vegetables that we have to, you know, take care of. 00;04;38;25 - 00;04;56;15 Samantha Jacobs Get the pumpkins planted in June was 20 acres of pumpkins. And so, there's a lot of actual work that needs to be done on the farm at that time of year. So it makes it hard to do the big one. We added this year because we've always wanted to do it, but we haven't done it was to be do more baked goods. 00;04;56;22 - 00;05;10;12 Samantha Jacobs Oh yeah. And so we've got apple pies in there now. We've got cinnamon rolls. We've got muffins, pumpkin bread, coffee cake. So we've really added a bunch of that stuff. 00;05;10;15 - 00;05;11;16 Andrew Montavon And the donuts as well. 00;05;11;18 - 00;05;15;10 Samantha Jacobs And the donuts, we've always had the donuts. So donuts have been here for as long as we have. So. 00;05;15;15 - 00;05;16;25 Andrew Montavon And how long have you guys been here? 00;05;16;26 - 00;05;35;02 Samantha Jacobs We bought this place in oh two. But there's been an orchard here since right after World War one. And the gentleman. What? Ice came back from World War One and started it. And the ice family owns they still own a couple hundred acres around us. But Jesse Ice was original owner of a lot of this ground around here. 00;05;35;02 - 00;05;45;00 Samantha Jacobs Jesse Owens Jesse Ice was the founding father of Mount Summit. And so it's a one of his descendants is the one that had the got this one of his sons down the line there. 00;05;45;00 - 00;05;50;19 Andrew Montavon Awesome. And did they have as much going on here at the Orchard before you guys got it? 00;05;50;20 - 00;06;14;20 Samantha Jacobs When we got it, Anderson Orchard, Rex and Patty Anderson owned it. They had bought they had had it for 20 years before that. The ice family had had it all along. And, so he had he was mainly just selling apples. He had he had got the donut machine originally. He probably had donuts for 5 or 6 years at least when we got and he had made cider. 00;06;14;22 - 00;06;39;00 Samantha Jacobs But as far as the what I'll call agri entertainment, he didn't do any of that. No. And my daughter came back in 17, I think it was. So when she came back. She's the manager of the Orchard. She takes care of the apple trees. I said, we have to have a activity area. And so she did most of that original back to the combines where it was. 00;06;39;01 - 00;06;49;05 Samantha Jacobs And then we added on to it again. And then we built a shelter few years after that for people to sit under, and have, you know, lunch or drink or slush set and watch the people. 00;06;49;07 - 00;07;01;19 Andrew Montavon And you mentioned your daughter coming back here a few years ago. What is the importance of it being a family business to you? I know I got an email from Samantha Jacobs was like, oh, wow. The Jacobs family orchard. 00;07;01;23 - 00;07;28;14 Samantha Jacobs Yeah, we are the Jacobs, Oh, it's it's it's fun. It has its moments. I mean, any family. But I was in this wine industry for a long time. Worked with a lot of family farms and, you know, brothers and dads and mainly on that side. A few daughters involved some of them. But, you know, I mean, it has it's great that you can do it together, but you gotta gotta realize it's family and the times it gets a little heated and, you know, and, well, I want to do this. 00;07;28;15 - 00;07;35;17 Samantha Jacobs Well, you know, can't afford to do that or you gotta, you know, you got to work through it. But we get along. We do. Okay. 00;07;35;20 - 00;07;41;25 Andrew Montavon What's your favorite part of the orchard? Whether it's like the physical location or just like, the feeling that you get here. 00;07;41;28 - 00;08;01;17 Samantha Jacobs Oh, I, I hope we are doing something that is relatively affordable for most people. Not too far out of line. I mean, we know what the others that drown charge, and I don't think we're out of line on that. I, I mean, I'm a farmer at heart. I love the growing part. And doing that, that's probably my favorite part. 00;08;01;17 - 00;08;17;16 Samantha Jacobs But then the next is getting to see families come out here. And, you know, there's a lot of people I, you know, come back a year after year after year. And I like that, you know, and I know there's one girl that comes in here and she's got a daughter now I don't know. So I can remember when she was coming in here and she was only ten years old, you know. 00;08;17;17 - 00;08;23;13 Samantha Jacobs And now she's bringing her daughter in here, you know. So it's I like that I. That we can have that. 00;08;23;15 - 00;08;24;20 Andrew Montavon Yeah, totally. 00;08;24;23 - 00;08;32;09 Luke Jones So you bake everything, right? And you started baking way more things this year. What was that process like? 00;08;32;12 - 00;08;51;25 Samantha Jacobs Well, I didn't I didn't do any of the baking, so. But, for some reason this year we've got about 3 or 4 girls that are, that have been in the kitchen or back again, but we had about three more the hires that they want to help in the kitchen, which okay, that's great. And they've been very good. 00;08;51;27 - 00;09;16;10 Samantha Jacobs So that's kind of how that started. And the pie recipe, I mean the pie filling, you know, we kind of figured that out. And the dough we make it. My father in law was a baker in the army. And well, I say he was an air force. And, it's his dough recipe that he used when he baked in the service. 00;09;16;17 - 00;09;27;08 Samantha Jacobs And, I had to go find another mixer. That was the one thing they want a dough sheeter. We haven't found a dough sheeter yet because they said that gets hard rolling all that out. And I said, oh, you're doing all right. Don't worry about it. 00;09;27;11 - 00;09;37;02 Andrew Montavon I mean, you talked about like, new equipment, new employees. What is what is the growth been like here, weather over the last few years or here in the future? 00;09;37;04 - 00;10;00;25 Samantha Jacobs Well, we hope to grow every year. Some, we don't think we've reached the potential of what this building can handle or what our equipment that we have can handle. We're probably getting maxed out on our donut. And that donut machines as big as I can get for that kind of machine. I mean, we used to have people standing in line for 30 minutes to get donuts because we couldn't keep up. 00;10;01;00 - 00;10;17;19 Samantha Jacobs We did rearrange the store. This will be the second year of that, and our flow through the store is better now. We had an in and outdoor that was the same. So now it's in. You walk through and get out and we added a register so we don't have the weights that we used to have is bad. There will be a little bit of way, I don't know. 00;10;17;20 - 00;10;30;12 Samantha Jacobs I'll walk in there and they're lined up, you know, 15 deep. And then I go back in there a half hour later and there's nobody in the store. And you're like, where they all, you know, well, they got them out, I guess, or whatever it they come and flows. Sometimes they're all looking at their watch. I think it's time to go. 00;10;30;14 - 00;10;46;25 Samantha Jacobs We all go. We'd like to grow every year. Yeah. I mean, if you're not growing, you're you're sad. And, And we got to grow. I mean, all the costs to do this, it don't get any better. It doesn't. It doesn't get any cheaper. 00;10;46;28 - 00;10;55;18 Luke Jones I feel like the, like, the joke about Indiana is, you know, if you don't like the weather, we turn around 15 minutes later. How how how the hell do you grow things in that kind of environment? 00;10;55;20 - 00;11;18;18 Samantha Jacobs ...a challenge. I really thought we have a really good crop this year. I mean, it's not quality wise is great, but I got bushels pretty good. We've had at least three times in the. What's this year, 23 for us? No. 24 I know at least three times, maybe four. We've had no crop, no apple crop at all. 00;11;18;20 - 00;11;21;14 Andrew Montavon Just in your first years or like even throughout the whole. 00;11;21;14 - 00;11;42;27 Samantha Jacobs About the 5th year that happened. This is the first year, like the vegetables and that stuff. We'd gotten that rain like that, that just. Yeah, unprecedented 100 year rain or whatever, 15in. And, you know, basically a day and a half. Well, I just can't go nowhere. And, but that's part of farming. I mean, it's you're always fighting the weather. 00;11;42;29 - 00;12;03;21 Samantha Jacobs Drought doesn't really bother the trees. It might the next year's crop, but it probably won't bother if you had a really bad drought because it's setting Bud's now for next year. Well, if it was under stress, it may not set the buds, but, and all of our vegetables, most of them, we drip irrigate. So, I mean, we could survive on a but I can't pump the water out. 00;12;03;21 - 00;12;06;16 Samantha Jacobs That didn't work. 00;12;06;18 - 00;12;19;07 Andrew Montavon Well, what would be kind of your message to people who are maybe looking for something to do this fall? Coming from, like, a family owned orchard, some, some more locals that grows all your own products and stuff like that. 00;12;19;08 - 00;12;27;01 Samantha Jacobs Well, I think that's part of it. We do grow them all, and there's a lot of around that, don't you know? And, 00;12;27;03 - 00;12;28;21 Andrew Montavon I can see where it's grown from here. 00;12;28;22 - 00;12;45;20 Samantha Jacobs Yeah, you can see where it's grown. I wish we had. We don't we don't have you pick apples. I don't know if there are people that want to do that, but my trees, the age of them. I don't want people out there. I'm afraid somebody climb in one and they will. You know they will. And, break a limb off and get hurt. 00;12;45;22 - 00;13;03;27 Samantha Jacobs We just can't do it, and I can't. I really can't afford. There's a huge loss when you let them. You pick. So I just can't take that loss on the apples that I want. But we may get to that. We planted new trees that are of a different style that might be able to be. You picked eventually. 00;13;03;29 - 00;13;30;01 Samantha Jacobs The ones that do you pick, that's the kind of tree they got. Apples are all within reach. You really don't need a ladder or anything. They can't. And the treaty plant you really can't climb. So, I mean, that's one thing that we a goal down the road is maybe to get to more of that. But, I mean, a family come out, I mean, I don't I mean, there was a post somebody on something, I don't remember what it was, you know, and I said, well, it's $10 a person go to Jacobs. 00;13;30;01 - 00;13;48;02 Samantha Jacobs And one lady says, you don't have to spend the $10. Go across the road. There's pumpkins over there. We've got these little houses over there that you can get pictures with your kids and all these other says, you don't have to go in there if you don't want to come in and you get a free donut and buy a slushie and go sit in the shelter and have a an afternoon. 00;13;48;02 - 00;14;12;25 Samantha Jacobs You don't have to spend a lot of money if you don't want to, and still have time together with the family. So. I mean, or you can spend more money, I it's up to you what you want to spend. That's, you know, that's your call. So, you know, your your two adults go get you a drink and a donut or by a half dozen go in and shelter setting the shelter, and you can watch all the kids play, see what they do, see what they're having a good time. 00;14;12;27 - 00;14;29;05 Samantha Jacobs Maybe talk to the person next to you and make a new friend. I don't know, you know my husband's laugh. We've got we made hay across the road to make the parking lot bigger just a week or two ago. And, he left the bales over there. He says I've seen more kids climbing on those bales. And he says. 00;14;29;06 - 00;14;35;06 Samantha Jacobs He says there's a group of 20 girls. They were climbing all over him yesterday. And I said, well, and, you know, whatever. 00;14;35;08 - 00;14;37;00 Andrew Montavon Yeah. 00;14;37;02 - 00;14;55;21 Michelle Kinsey That story was produced by Andrew Montavon. 00;14;55;23 - 00;15;11;29 Michelle Kinsey The queer chocolatier is a chocolate and pastry shop. It was founded in Muncie in 2017 and has moved multiple times. Their team just celebrated the grand opening of their new location in downtown Muncie. So of course, I went to check it out. 00;15;12;01 - 00;15;15;26 Morgan Roddy Welcome to queer chocolatier. 00;15;15;28 - 00;15;19;23 Morgan Roddy Thank you. We’ve worked very hard on our shop, so yes, I know 00;15;19;23 - 00;15;22;20 Michelle Kinsey It looks wonderful, Morgan, I love it. 00;15;22;24 - 00;15;25;27 Morgan Roddy Thank you. 00;15;25;29 - 00;15;33;23 Morgan Roddy Yeah. So I can give you, like, a little bit of a brief tour as we stand at the glass. And I can point at things since we're not hair-etted up all of us. So I'll just kind of show you and point. 00;15;33;24 - 00;15;35;28 Michelle Kinsey That's perfectly fine. Absolutely. 00;15;35;29 - 00;15;58;01 Morgan Roddy So the back door is where we receive cocoa beans, and we'll get them in, burlap sack. So I'll show you an example of one. And they'll come anywhere between 50 kilo to 60 kilo, which is about 110 pounds, 132 pounds. Wow. So I need to maintain my powerlifting status. 00;15;58;03 - 00;16;04;19 Michelle Kinsey And now I get it. It's all making sense now. All of the power lifting. 00;16;04;22 - 00;16;19;27 Morgan Roddy And then, when we receive the beans, the first thing I've taught my team to do is work through sorting the beans. Because much like when you buy black beans or pinto beans at the grocery, you might get little sticks and stones in there because it's an agricultural product, right? 100%. So we'll go through and we'll sort those out. 00;16;20;01 - 00;16;43;07 Morgan Roddy And then also there are some subpar beans, beans that are what we call flats, which are just like the shell and nothing else in it or something we call doubles, which are just two beans that have just been kind of fuzed together during the on farm fermentation process. And much like cooking a steak that might be an inch thick versus a half inch thick if you cook them all the same rate, that inch thick one is going to be different, right? 00;16;43;12 - 00;17;00;06 Morgan Roddy So we'll throw those out just so we can keep a uniform roast. Once we've sorted our beans, we'll store them in these totes labeled the origin where the beans come from, the date we received them. And then we start the roasting process and the convection ovens, once they're roasted and it smells like brownies and human at roasts, it's not a. 00;17;00;09 - 00;17;12;13 Michelle Kinsey I was just. Yeah. Come on. I mean, to be surrounded by. And I have to say, this is the time when pop of culture needs, like, smell-o-listen, it's not smell-o-vision, but smell-o-listen. 00;17;12;14 - 00;17;12;20 Morgan Roddy Yes. 00;17;12;20 - 00;17;15;23 Michelle Kinsey So that you could I mean absolutely. Brownies. 00;17;15;24 - 00;17;16;11 Morgan Roddy Absolutely. 00;17;16;12 - 00;17;26;13 Michelle Kinsey Yeah. Were you surprised once you got into it and you started learning about the process that you just explained where you're like, oh, whoa, this. 00;17;26;13 - 00;17;41;25 Morgan Roddy Is. A it's like that dog that catches the car and you're like, I didn't pass my driver's license test. I don't know what to do with this car now. So I made my very first truffle in 2004, and I spoke about that during our pop up culture pop best panel. And I just made truffles just out of fun. 00;17;41;25 - 00;17;57;18 Morgan Roddy I didn't really have any goal or any idea of what even a truffle was, but I was like, oh, I can make this. It's three ingredients that shouldn't be too hard. But it sent me on a path, obviously to where we are today. But I started my business in 2017 and then was buying chocolate to then make truffles. 00;17;57;20 - 00;18;18;08 Morgan Roddy And that was what a difference between a chocolate maker and a chocolatier is. A chocolatier buys chocolate that's been made and makes whatever confections they want to make with it. And then during the early actually, honestly, just before the pandemic, but not quite during the pandemic, I started having supply issues because my chocolate sauce at the time came from Venezuela, and there's some geopolitics that kind of take place there. 00;18;18;14 - 00;18;33;04 Morgan Roddy So I was having disruption of supply even before the pandemic. And then once a pandemic hit, it was even worse. Yeah. So I was like, If I'm going to stay doing this, I'm gonna have to make my own chocolate. And I just started kind of like the general process of, oh, you need to get binging. So I'm like, where do I get beans? 00;18;33;09 - 00;18;50;21 Morgan Roddy And so I had to do some research on where to get beans that followed my, my vision and values ultimately. Right. Yeah. And then once I got the beans and I'm like, okay, what do I do with beans? And I could only buy like small quantities at a time because I had toaster ovens in the village. Like I had really small scale machines. 00;18;50;23 - 00;18;54;17 Morgan Roddy If you can see, there's a small, tiny melange over there that's spinning, that has a little orange band. 00;18;54;18 - 00;18;54;22 Michelle Kinsey Oh, yeah! 00;18;54;22 - 00;19;14;08 Morgan Roddy Yeah, that's how I started. That holds about 6 to 8 pounds. And each one of these bigger mélanges holds 20 to 25 pounds. Wow. So we've been able to scale up. But I started with roasting beans in a toaster oven and then letting them cool on that granite and then taking a Ziploc bag, putting those cool beans in and just bulgur, crushing them. 00;19;14;09 - 00;19;30;24 Morgan Roddy Wow. And then a bowl and a hairdryer to winnow the shell away. Like I was kind of tossing it like Jiffy Pop popcorn. And so I would just have a it was kind of like a challenge with, like, patting your head and rubbing your belly, like, I would accidentally spill beans all the time because I was trying to, like, dust the hairdryer over it. 00;19;30;24 - 00;19;44;17 Morgan Roddy And it was just it was challenging. But that's how I would do, like winnow a pound of beans at a time. And then I would put them in that small, and then I'd have enough truffle, enough chocolate to make truffles for the day, and then I'd have to start it all over again because I was just running out of supply. 00;19;44;17 - 00;20;04;06 Morgan Roddy I couldn't keep up. I just realized at some point you have to scale up your machinery. And then I received the American Rescue Plan grant funds, and that's where I got all these. Milagros, I got the convection ovens. I've got, a lot of these steel tables in here and a couple of other pieces of machinery that's helped me expand and grow my production process. 00;20;04;06 - 00;20;08;14 Morgan Roddy But yeah, a lot of it was really just once I have a problem in front of me. How do you solve the problem? 00;20;08;17 - 00;20;19;26 Michelle Kinsey Yeah. And I know that there have been like some stops and starts and moments when you thought, yeah, I'm done, I'm out. I'm not doing this anymore. Yes. This is, this is it. Yeah. What what kept you going? 00;20;19;27 - 00;20;42;14 Morgan Roddy I promise it's not just mental illness, but I think there's probably, like, I don't know, there's like a certain determination, but not. I want to be honest. It's not just determination. It's like I feel purpose with this. And I don't want to think that I could just give up when I didn't have, like, the best opportunities. Like if I, you know, stepped to the plate and I take three swings and I miss three times, I've struck out, that is what it is. 00;20;42;18 - 00;20;58;20 Morgan Roddy But if I can't get to the plate and I'm not putting the game or I'm not given an opportunity to do that next thing, then then I feel incomplete. I feel like I haven't been able to lay it all out. And so I think that it was just like this little grain of sand that's in my brain. It's just like constantly whirring away, like, I need to try. 00;20;58;20 - 00;21;18;09 Morgan Roddy I need to try, I need to try. I need to find that opportunity. I need to try. And you know, now that we've got this new space with new machinery, new team, new location, I really think that there shouldn't be anything that gets between me and success at this point. But if something does, I can't be mad about it, because now I've taken my three swings at the plate, you know what I mean? 00;21;18;12 - 00;21;24;16 Morgan Roddy And I would be able to leave this more fulfilled with knowledge, but I don't think I'm going to miss. I think all these get a base hit. 00;21;24;22 - 00;21;32;13 Michelle Kinsey Yeah. That's great. Yeah. Talk a little bit about your new location, where you're at, why you chose this, this particular spot. 00;21;32;14 - 00;21;55;12 Morgan Roddy Yeah. And I mean, let's be let's be real. I started in the village with my with my shop, and I loved it because it was a great space for Ball State students and professors, but also the academy kids and the boroughs kids. That was really great there. And being downtown does make me worry that I wouldn't be able to get some of those folks down here, but I hope so since I'm actually caddy corner from the midst transit station. 00;21;55;12 - 00;22;16;04 Morgan Roddy So I hope I can even encourage people that, hey, if you just got on a bus and rode it to downtown, you're going to be actually probably a shorter walk from the downtown Mitte station to my shop versus if you walked from campus to the village, like, honestly, you'll be a little bit of a shorter walk. And then being across from Ivy tech and a county building, I think I've got some neighbors who would like to have some chocolate at some opportunities. 00;22;16;05 - 00;22;42;16 Morgan Roddy Yeah. But this space, this physical space that I'm occupying is almost twice as big as where I was in the village, where at about 1800ft². And that allows me to have a considerable amount of space to produce the chocolate, too. Right. So this space is, one of the one of the oldest buildings in downtown, and it's just been a handsome, inviting space here on this corner, being able to see everybody on high in main going one direction or the other. 00;22;42;18 - 00;22;45;14 Morgan Roddy And then neighbors have been lovely all the same. Oh, great. 00;22;45;15 - 00;22;48;27 Michelle Kinsey Yeah. Great. And you've been open. When was your first official? 00;22;48;29 - 00;23;07;15 Morgan Roddy We had our grand opening on Saturday the 24th. So we're. This is now our first week of business now brand new, brand new. We're just a baby here. And it's like I said, you know this is a great start. Slash restart slash re restart of queer chocolatier. But it's every time it's new there's a newness to it every time. 00;23;07;15 - 00;23;11;09 Morgan Roddy Right. So. Oh I'm very excited. Yeah for sure I'm very excited. 00;23;11;09 - 00;23;29;07 Michelle Kinsey So tell me how you felt on the 24th when you opened the doors for the first time to the to the new, new new queer chocolatier that that feeling when you when you open the door for that first day, describe that feeling to me. 00;23;29;08 - 00;23;46;20 Morgan Roddy That's a great question and great, great prompt because I really there was like a, you know, there's a level of excitement that would be natural. But also there was like a settled feeling too. Right? Like it's like, I feel like I'm at home now. I mean, with my business as, as as you well know, I've had the highs and lows the whole time with the business. 00;23;46;20 - 00;24;05;22 Morgan Roddy Some things have been great, some things have been challenging, some things have been sent me to a despondency I can't describe. But there's been a leash throughout my business to and this time it's less about the highs and lows. It feels like I'm at a high that is sustainable. I don't feel like I'm going to be knocked off my, my, my seat here as easily. 00;24;05;22 - 00;24;18;17 Morgan Roddy I feel like we're growing. We've got a good purchase, like a good foothold being here. And so I just feel like this is. All right. This is this is where I have to make it happen now. And I think we were able to do it. We got all the pieces finally in place. 00;24;18;17 - 00;24;39;25 Michelle Kinsey You've had a lot of community cheerleaders that have followed you. I'm along the way. Right? Even when you weren't, you know, you didn't have a space or maybe things weren't going the way you planned. You were still showing up at markets. You were still making the chocolate and showing up. And people have been with you every step of the way. 00;24;39;27 - 00;24;41;20 Michelle Kinsey How does that how does that make you feel? 00;24;41;21 - 00;24;55;10 Morgan Roddy I'm glad we're not on TV because I was getting ready to start to tear up there too. But that's like a good feeling, right? Like there's like it's it's a despite the community, there's times it feels very lonely and it's not the fault of anybody in the community, but like, it just feels like a lot of pressure sometimes. 00;24;55;10 - 00;25;25;15 Morgan Roddy And I'm sure a lot of that pressure I'm just putting on myself with the people who have been regular customers since I first, you know, showed up at a farmer's market in 2017. Like, that's that's been something that has been that, sustaining boost of energy every time and their encouragement and their business and the way they talk about me and the community to people who may have not heard of my business, like it just feels like I do have those cheerleaders, and I just consider myself incredibly fortunate to have them. 00;25;25;20 - 00;25;35;26 Morgan Roddy Yeah, there'd be no queer chuckles here without the community for sure. 00;25;35;29 - 00;25;38;07 Kara DuQuette It's pop of culture. I'm Kara DuQuette. 00;25;38;07 - 00;25;55;04 Michelle Kinsey and I'm Michelle Kinsey. Among the many things to see and do at IPR’s Pop Fest a few weeks ago was the Arts Market, a room filled with local artists. Our co-host, KeAnna Mills walked around the room with a microphone for this special edition of our segment. What are you working on? 00;25;55;09 - 00;26;09;19 KeAnna Mills I am currently. At Pop Fest, a celebration of all things pop of culture, and today I'm going to be doing something a little different. I'm going to be speaking with some of the vendors at our lovely event and see what exactly are they working on? 00;26;09;20 - 00;26;25;05 Janessa Erickson Hi. My name is Janessa Erickson. I am working on a necklace that will be titled The Old Ones. It is a hand sea beaded original piece involving many hours of work already, and I estimate it will top out at about 200 hours when I'm finished. 00;26;25;09 - 00;26;31;10 KeAnna Mills So what inspired this piece of yours? Because I see it kind of looks like Dragon Eyes a little bit. 00;26;31;12 - 00;26;47;17 Janessa Erickson It is, hand-painted antique taxidermy eyes and little tentacles as I lashes. It's based on the HP Lovecraft novel. It was really cool, and it involves the Old Ones and Cthulhu. And so it's going to be like my horror necklace. 00;26;47;22 - 00;26;51;23 KeAnna Mills Is that your favorite piece that you've brought with you today, or are there any other pieces? 00;26;51;25 - 00;27;10;11 Janessa Erickson My favorite piece is the one with the toad, the one honorable mention art about Elena many years ago, and it was a collaboration between me and Chick Elbert. She makes glass. She also does painting. She teaches classes and she is a fantastic fellow artist. 00;27;10;16 - 00;27;13;28 KeAnna Mills Is there anything else that you want to start working on? 00;27;14;00 - 00;27;23;06 Janessa Erickson Yes, I have started working on more Dragon scale bangle bracelets, and I have a dragon scale necklace that I had to alter a pattern to create. 00;27;23;07 - 00;27;25;26 Madison Hi, I'm. Crystal. Cove, AKA Madison. 00;27;25;28 - 00;27;29;02 KeAnna Mills And what have you brought with you today for Pop Fest? 00;27;29;09 - 00;27;33;15 Madison Today I brought stickers, prints, keychains, and some button pins. 00;27;33;22 - 00;27;40;04 KeAnna Mills And what inspired you to start making button pins specifically? Because that's like the outlier in your collection here. 00;27;40;06 - 00;27;52;14 Madison I started making button pins because I actually have a lot of, like EDA bags and stuff. I collect my own pins and I was like, you know what? I want to make some designs of my artwork on them. And I said, you know what? People like them. I might as well sell them. 00;27;52;17 - 00;27;55;21 KeAnna Mills So do you have a favorite piece that you've brought with you here today? 00;27;55;24 - 00;28;06;00 Madison My favorite piece would probably be my jinx art, my jinx print. That is probably the favorite art piece I've ever done. I love the colors. I love the composition. It took me a while, so I'm glad I really love it. 00;28;06;02 - 00;28;12;28 KeAnna Mills And can you describe this jinx piece for me? Because I feel like you're talking about the character from arcane, but I'm not 100% sure. 00;28;13;00 - 00;28;30;27 Madison Yes, it is the character from arcane. It's her looking up at the camera, and there's a bunch of lights kind of all around her floating. And I had a lot of cool details from the show, like how she loses one of her fingers. Spoiler alert. Sorry. Art piece. You can see one of the lights goes through her fingers. 00;28;31;00 - 00;28;33;02 Madison And it took me a long while, and I really love it. 00;28;33;08 - 00;28;39;14 KeAnna Mills So is there anything else that you're looking forward to creating in the future? Is it more arcane or are you just going with the flow? 00;28;39;16 - 00;28;49;11 Madison I'm looking forward to actually finally releasing my webcomic, Crystal kingdoms. It's my passion project has been since middle school, and I'm really excited to actually finally get out there so people can start reading it. 00;28;49;17 - 00;28;51;10 KeAnna Mills And I'm here with. 00;28;51;12 - 00;29;14;14 Meg Meg, with Meg's motifs. Right now, I am in the process of selling artisan, made in one of a kind jewelry pieces, along with some amazing crystals that I have here ethically and locally sourced. Honestly, I started this business from the ground up with the hopes of inspiring other women that you know. If you see something, just go for it. 00;29;14;16 - 00;29;17;22 KeAnna Mills And what's your favorite piece that you've brought with you here today? 00;29;17;24 - 00;29;40;14 Meg Honestly, some of my favorite pieces are my pendulums. They tend to give all my customers the answers they need with the spirits and their handmade, one of a kind pieces with a real crystal chips, and they have little coils of copper in them to help with energy purification and manifestation. 00;29;40;16 - 00;29;45;19 KeAnna Mills And I'm noticing here these brooms really stand out. Is there a backstory to these brooms? 00;29;45;21 - 00;30;11;06 Meg Actually, yeah, there is a little bit of a backstory. I started getting into witchcraft when I realized that it has helped a lot of other young women with like, self-confidence and stuff like that, and I was inspired to make these brooms when I saw a lot of other witches and pagans in the community, finding that they needed custom made pieces for their altars to help cleanse their space. 00;30;11;06 - 00;30;25;03 Meg And so, it was just one of those things where I was inspired and I felt the need to make a product that would, kind of be not only decorative, but useful. 00;30;25;05 - 00;30;29;22 KeAnna Mills What's something new that you're working on or that you would like to start working on in the future? 00;30;29;24 - 00;30;47;01 Meg I absolutely want to get more into wire wrapping and more into intricate wire wrapped pieces. I respect the absolute crap out of people who take the time and spend hours on one wire wrapped piece, and I want to learn to perfect that craft myself. 00;30;47;08 - 00;30;48;20 KeAnna Mills And I'm here with. 00;30;48;23 - 00;30;49;20 Derek McNelly Derek McNelly. 00;30;49;21 - 00;30;52;25 KeAnna Mills And what have you brought today for Pot Fest, Derek? 00;30;52;27 - 00;31;01;12 Derek McNelly Yeah, so I run Record Parlor of Muncie. I've brought a collection of albums, cassettes, CDs, as well as some books and other music memorabilia. 00;31;01;16 - 00;31;06;24 KeAnna Mills So do you have a favorite album or cassette tape that you've brought with you today? 00;31;06;27 - 00;31;22;16 Derek McNelly Oh man. So one of my favorite albums, and I did bring a copy of it, is actually a Sergio Mendes in Brazil 66. Their first self-titled album is some great bossa nova, and it's something that my dad used to play a lot when I was little, and it was the album that made me fall in love with vinyl. 00;31;22;21 - 00;31;34;25 KeAnna Mills Yeah, bossa nova is just great. I know I used to listen to a couple of years ago. It was just awesome. So what's an album that you would like to acquire, either for yourself or for the general public to enjoy as well? 00;31;34;27 - 00;31;48;16 Derek McNelly Oh man. For myself and for others, it would be Ultimate Spinach. It's a great psychedelic rock album from the early 70s. It's something I've been hunting for a long time, but it's also just an album I would love to share with other people. 00;31;48;18 - 00;31;49;23 KeAnna Mills And I am here with. 00;31;49;28 - 00;31;51;25 Rachel Andrews Rachel Andrews. 00;31;51;28 - 00;31;53;18 Mike Brockley Mike Brockley. 00;31;53;20 - 00;31;54;14 Madison Sarah Renee. 00;31;54;22 - 00;32;03;10 Rachel Andrews We hear from the Humpback Barn Poets, which is a local, locally based group in Muncie, where we meet once a week to support each other in our work as poets. 00;32;03;12 - 00;32;11;03 KeAnna Mills So I see that you all have brought a typewriter here. Would you like to say anything more about what the typewriter represents? 00;32;11;05 - 00;32;24;27 Sarah Renee Oh, we were just. Looking for things or ways to engage individuals into the writing process, as well as, like, maybe peek their interest into poetry. And so we thought it would be fun to have a typewriter or two out just for people to play with and to write on. 00;32;25;05 - 00;32;34;24 KeAnna Mills Yeah, definitely. Typewriters are pretty cool and it's very tactile, so a lot of people will get engaged in that. So what is your favorite piece that you all have brought with you here today? 00;32;34;26 - 00;32;46;29 Mike Brockley Oh, my book is my favorite thing. I'm not being not being egotistical. I mean, it's just it's a nice book of prose poems written by a fantastic guy named Mike Brockway. 00;32;47;02 - 00;32;49;17 KeAnna Mills And it just so happens to be you, right? 00;32;49;19 - 00;32;52;13 Mike Brockley Yeah. As a matter of fact, it does. 00;32;52;16 - 00;32;58;01 KeAnna Mills And what's something new that you would like to start working on or want to start making in the future? 00;32;58;02 - 00;33;17;01 Rachel Andrews We're interested to find ways to bring poetry to Muncie and to share that. I think next year, with it being the 200th year of the of Delaware County, we'd love to see ways that the word can be brought into schools and brought into communities so that everyone can share words that are important to them about the place that we all live. 00;33;17;03 - 00;33;44;07 Mike Brockley We've been around for a long time, and we've done a lot of things. I think this is a real exciting time. We've got younger people here now and and we've expanded the kinds of things we do, not just poetry readings, but but put bars on the run and humpback bar and writing poems on demand kind of things. The things Rachel's done in terms of, of zines and all these different kinds of things. 00;33;44;14 - 00;33;46;26 Mike Brockley Or we weren't doing even probably a year ago. 00;33;47;03 - 00;33;59;05 KeAnna Mills And there you have it. That is just a collection of some of the very fine artists that we have here for Pop Fest. Thank you for listening and have a very nice day. 00;33;59;07 - 00;34;12;10 Michelle Kinsey It's time for the Arts calendar and what better place to deliver super fun things that are happening in and around Muncie than right here outside on a beautiful fall day at Ball State University. 00;34;12;11 - 00;34;13;09 Kara DuQuette We outside. 00;34;13;10 - 00;34;24;19 Michelle Kinsey All right, let's go. Masterworks chorale will present Middletown Chronicles The Making of Middletown, America at 7:30 p.m. Friday, October 30th at Muncie Central High School. 00;34;24;24 - 00;35;00;18 Michelle Kinsey This 10th anniversary revival of Middletown Chronicles will also feature the Ball State University Choral Union, and will be conducted by Doctor Andrew Crow. Originally premiered by Masterworks Chorale in 2016, Middletown Chronicles tells the story of Muncie through music, drawing from letters, diaries, poems, articles, interviews, and oral histories connected to the landmark Middletown studies. For its 10th anniversary, the cantata returns with a newly commissioned movement by Ball State composer Eleanor Tree, reflecting on the past ten years in Muncie. 00;35;00;20 - 00;35;06;15 Kara DuQuette Muncie Civic Theater is hosting a Stage Fright and Thriller night Friday, October 30th, 00;35;06;17 - 00;35;07;27 Michelle Kinsey (singing) Dun dun! 00;35;08;00 - 00;35;09;15 Kara DuQuette At the historic theater. 00;35;09;20 - 00;35;21;14 Kara DuQuette The party for adults ages 18 and older will include dancing, a live Michael Jackson tribute performance, karaoke costume contest, festive drinks and more. 00;35;21;21 - 00;35;35;09 Michelle Kinsey The Paramount Theater in Anderson is showing The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Friday and Saturday, October 30th and 31st. The show begins at 9 p.m. each night, and audience participation is encouraged. 00;35;35;11 - 00;35;38;19 Kara DuQuette (singing) Let's do the time warp again. 00;35;38;22 - 00;35;58;11 Kara DuQuette Illusionist Leon Etienne will perform Friday, October 30th at the Gas City Performing Arts Center. The show, called Magic Rocks, will begin at 7 p.m.. Leon is recognized for his on stage charisma, fast paced, high energy rock n roll performance style, and a no nonsense approach to magic. 00;35;58;14 - 00;36;16;12 Michelle Kinsey Richmond Civics Stage one Youth Theater is presenting The Lion, the witch and the Wardrobe November 6th through eighth. Based on the story by C.S. Lewis, the play tells us about four siblings who discover a wardrobe that acts as a portal to the magical world of Narnia. 00;36;16;14 - 00;36;21;12 Kara DuQuette Waka Waka Waka! (laugher) Just waka waka productions. 00;36;21;16 - 00;36;24;04 Michelle Kinsey You had to do it, you had to do it. 00;36;24;07 - 00;36;48;24 Kara DuQuette Waka Waka productions will present. Dead as a Dodo at 7 p.m. November 4th at Ball State Emmons Auditorium. Waka Waka specializes in bold and unique and unpredictable puppet theater, incorporating object manipulation, mask, and original music. The world of this show is created based on tales from the crypt, Dante's Inferno, and old Silly Symphonies cartoons. 00;36;48;25 - 00;36;49;03 Michelle Kinsey Wow. 00;36;49;05 - 00;36;50;06 Kara DuQuette I already have my tickets. 00;36;50;07 - 00;36;53;13 Michelle Kinsey Yeah. Same girl. 00;36;53;15 - 00;37;07;05 Michelle Kinsey Thursday, November 5th is first Thursday in downtown Muncie. Check out new exhibitions, shop makers markets, listen to original music, and much more. Beginning at 5 p.m. at various downtown locations. 00;37;07;07 - 00;37;16;12 Kara DuQuette Do you have something cool happening at your location? Tell us about it at Indiana Public Radio dot org slash contact, Then click Pop of Culture. 00;37;16;14 - 00;37;42;12 Luke Jones Support for Pop of Culture comes from Starlings Wealth Management and from you. Funding for public radio has always been a little different, and in the past year it's been even more confusing. What's clear is this without federal or state funding, your support is essential in keeping local programing on the air. Pop culture exists for you and because of you. 00;37;42;19 - 00;37;47;07 Luke Jones Become a supporter at Indiana Public radio.org. 00;37;47;10 - 00;37;52;20 Michelle Kinsey And that's our show. Leadership assistance for Pop of Culture comes from Heather Hunt. 00;37;52;23 - 00;37;59;29 Kara DuQuette This week was produced by Luke Jones, who thinks the spookiest thing imaginable would be a world without freshly made donuts. 00;38;00;05 - 00;38;03;12 Michelle Kinsey Indeed. We had production assistance from Andrew Montavon. 00;38;03;18 - 00;38;05;23 Kara DuQuette Our audio fellow is KeAnna mills. 00;38;05;27 - 00;38;08;08 Michelle Kinsey Our show was hosted by me, Michelle Kinsey, 00;38;08;09 - 00;38;19;14 Kara DuQuette and by me, Kara DuQuette. Pop of culture is a production from IPR, recorded outside on the beautiful campus of Ball State University. 00;38;19;17 - 00;38;23;02 Michelle Kinsey [Blooper] (singing) We got levels. 00;38;23;05 - 00;38;28;23 Michelle Kinsey Hey, kid on a bicycle where you're going with your backpack on? 00;38;28;25 - 00;38;30;03 Kara DuQuette A scooby doobie do 00;38;30;04 - 00;38;32;25 Michelle Kinsey Are you late for class. 00;38;32;27 - 00;38;41;09 Kara DuQuette I leave. I leave. He's going to slow to be late for class. 00;38;41;11 - 00;38;45;03 Michelle Kinsey You just like she was. 00;38;45;05 - 00;38;47;23 Kara DuQuette The little basket. 00;38;47;26 - 00;38;54;19 Michelle Kinsey This is this. This episode of pop of culture: commentary on passers by. 00;38;54;22 - 00;39;02;14 Michelle Kinsey Flip flops on. And I'm walking to class. It was a bad choice because now my feet are hurting. 00;39;02;16 - 00;39;07;02 Kara DuQuette But I got my socks. 00;39;07;04 - 00;39;12;27 Michelle Kinsey I got my dad socks on. Ain't nothing wrong. 00;39;12;29 - 00;39;15;21 Michelle Kinsey With my dad socks. And my flip flops. (laughter)