So I'm here at the Gillespie Conference Center, just off 933, in South Bend, and I'm here with Michael and Jamie, and they're both on the board of the Michiana Veg Veg Fest.

And Michael, I remember interviewing you last year.

We were at the farmer's market.

I think I had my daughter with me.

You did?

You did.

She's not here today.

But it's crazy how quick time goes by.

So.

And how did last year's festival go?

And what's so different about this year or what?

It went very well.

We had, two and a half, thousand people come through.

And this year we're expecting somewhat more than that.

We've got a really good headline speaker, Doctor Michael Klapper.

We've got 60 vendors already lined up, well over 20 of which are food vendors.

So, it's going to be an exciting event again.

Yeah, I feel like again, farmers markets in general over the last kind of, couple of years have really come back into the focus again.

And what do you think it is about this festival that attracts, you know, almost 3000 people to it?

Yeah.

We, we think that it's, it's people are curious about plant based lifestyle and plant based living.

What are these?

Vegans?

And it's a it's a really good chance for people to come out and try some food and discover that you can have wonderful tasting food, with, with no meat and no animal cruelty.

It's good for your health.

It's good for the animals.

It's good for the planet.

So I think we attract all kinds of people who, come for those different reasons.

Yeah.

Jamie, how did you get involved with this?

So I got involved last year.

Just because I have been vegan, I've been living the lifestyle I'd been previously to an event, and so they needed some board members.

I reached out and they said yes, please come.

Okay.

Awesome.

And so what's your role that you play in this.

And so it's multifaceted.

Our group is really we kind of all do a lot of things.

But I do a lot of the secretarial work and communications.

And this year we're really excited to feature a Kid's Corner.

So we will have things for all ages.

And so we will have a sensory table.

There'll be a scavenger hunt.

There's an opportunity for the kids to be a food critic at one point.

And really great partners with the Saint Joe County Public Library.

We'll have a seed library and an opportunity for them to be showcased as well.

And so why did you decide to live a vegan lifestyle?

Why was that important for you?

That was a health, lifestyle.

So I was, chronically sick.

And so we had done an elimination diet.

And come to find out, I had a lot of allergies.

Yeah.

And it just, I felt so much better afterwards.

And it's been over a decade, and I've never turned back.

Nice.

That's great.

And has a lot of your ailments that you had gone.

They're gone immediately.

I think that's my problem.

I think I need to go the vegan lifestyle and try it, you know?

Yeah.

But again, it's it's also like the quality of a two, right?

Like, I mean, like there's, you know, when you go to a store, I mean, you think you're getting something healthy, but if you grow it yourself, you definitely, you know, but how do you really ensure that you can do it in a way that you can be as healthy as possible, but also be conscious of the fact that you can't be a full time farmer either.

Right.

And that's that's the wonderful thing about a plant based lifestyle is getting fresh vegetables.

Fresh fruits.

Beans, legumes, all kinds of things like that, that are unprocessed.

Yeah.

And if you start, you know, we've we've seen all the research that says ultra processed food is really bad for your health.

So, it's really good to go back to the basic ingredients of good food.

Yeah, but that's where I feel like, you know, when you talk about vegan, I feel like it gets this initial reaction of like, you know, but but there are people that love plant based diets, but also like me too, right?

I mean, but I mean, so I feel like in a way it comes across sometimes a little bit judgmental or something like, you can't have meat, you shouldn't eat meat.

But but what about people that also in a healthy way, and like meat too, or.

Yeah, I think, you know, we try not to be dogmatic about being around people who enjoy meat.

Yeah, we try and persuade them that that's not the way to go.

But we don't do it in a in a in a bad way.

Yeah.

I think that's the important thing about Veg Fest is that we give people the opportunity to see what you can do without meat.

Yeah.

And as I say, I think a lot of people are intensely interested in the environmental issues surrounding, animal agriculture.

They're interested in, the cruelty free environments and for a lot of us, health has has improved dramatically on a plant based diet and inflammation.

Right.

Like, I know that's a big thing that yeah, people talked about.

So, tell me when this festival is coming up this year, what are the dates?

And it's here at Gillespie, right here at the Gillespie Center on Sunday, April 26th, from 11 to 5.

We will have speakers starting at 1115 all the way up until 330, I think, are the speakers.

And again, lots of activities and a 60 vendors, food trucks.

You can come out the entire time, come out a short amount of time.

We'll, we'll have, some raffle prizes again.

Not just food vendors, but also community, vendors as well.

Lots of great partners.

Unity gardens, the library, will be here as well.

And just to emphasize, it's a free event.

Yeah.

We like people to register through Eventbrite.

And you can find the link on, Michiana Veg fest.org.

Go there, go to invent write sign up for tickets.

But it is a free event.

Yeah.

And it's a free event because we have some wonderful sponsors that enable us to keep it free.

We have a big supporter in vegan grants.

We have lots of local support.

The, Hillman Family Fund, Beacon Medical logistic, girlie leap.

They've come on board this year.

It's wonderful to see the local community who support us.

We've got a lot of individuals who support us as well through donations and sponsorship.

And I know that we can't talk about it without actually sampling some of the food.

So I know that we have one of the food trucks that's here.

We associate food trucks with kind of fast food.

But, you know, these guys have been coming for three years or so.

So we're going to find out some of the food that you can experience here at this year's Michiana Veg Fest.

So Korean Mexican fusion is that does that come from you guys being married together or was that already in existence before you got married?

Robin.

No, actually, that was Harrow's brainchild for things.

I, I, yeah, he he's more of the chef for everything.

It's kind of an unusual mix to have.

Karina Mexican together.

Is it?

Or is is that pretty unique?

Yeah, it's pretty unique.

Especially in this area in South Bend.

Yeah.

So it's, but, you know, you go to places like Los Angeles and it's pretty common.

It is.

Yeah.

And so we just thought we'd bring some of that, you know, fusion culture here and thought we'd make a business out of it.

How do they work together?

The Korean in Mexico.

It works pretty well.

I mean, Korea and, the Korean culture uses a lot of, chilies in there and, and their, food.

So, all we had to do was basically transition.

Okay.

So we'll take, you know, dried chilies from Mexico and apply it to, Korean dishes and nice and, and are you both from this area originally?

You talk about LA.

I don't know if you're out there, but are you both from this area?

I was adapted from South Korea and raised in South Bend my whole life, so hire was my actual into learning my first Korean dish.

And it's, our take on chop.

This is the k noodles that we call it, but, Yeah, he he made it for me when we were first dating, and I thought, this is a little bland.

If I made it, I would change the sauce a little bit.

So we we did our own version.

Wow.

Way to break his heart.

Telling him that the food tasted bland, right?

I was just doing traditional Korean.

Yeah, yeah.

And I was.

Yeah.

You know, but that's how that's how this works.

Because we, we get to try each other's, different, creations.

And it's like, that's quite the mix, you know, let me cook this for you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so you're from originally Michigan?

Yeah, yeah.

His family came as migrant farm market worker.

So we we traveled a lot.

Yeah.

So, yeah, I've never been to LA.

And so you've been coming to this festival for three years now, I believe.

How did you get involved with this?

Is is everything you do here vegan or do you also do meat as well?

When we first started the business, I wanted to keep it more vegetarian and vegan.

But, my husband obviously was like, we got to make food for everybody.

So I do like that we still keep that as, heart to always have vegan, vegetarian, gluten free options for anybody who comes to the trek.

And can you explain what these three are?

Sure.

Yeah.

So yeah, we already talked about the Korean glass noodles.

We have a lion's mane mushroom taco here where you get, ingredients sourced from local farms whenever we can.

And we have the bowl this is our rice bowl.

We've got bulgogi, tofu, a couple little side and type of things like the spinach, daikon, pickled daikon, some charred carrot and cucumber salad.

I like it.

Yeah.

And again, where are you guys?

Usually just out and about at all different kind of events and stuff.

We have catering all year round.

We have the track when it's warm and nice.

Yeah.

It's kind of warm today.

Yeah.

It's good.

Yeah.

We're we're excited to bring the truck back out for the season.

We do a lot of festivals around South Bend like Art bee, Rebel Arts Fest, things of that nature.

But we'd love to to be at more places, so I like it.

Well, thank you so much and thank you for showing us these and and, best of luck.

What?

You're a Korean Mexican fusion, both in your marriage and in your food truck.

Yes.

Thank you, thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you.