Seek wildlife, garden seeds or cooking with syrup. Then do Polar Plunge.

Joseph Dits, South Bend Tribune
·4 min read

In the coming weeks, you can learn how to detect wildlife, catch a tasty fish, gather garden seeds and pick up new recipes with local maple syrup. Later, in February, take a brisk jump in an outdoor pool.

Read on for these invigorating tips from this week's Outdoor Adventures column.

The main column:Growing in ❜23: Coal Line Trail, Love Creek cabin/shelter and Bertrand park.

Signs of wildlife

Learn how to spot the signs of wild animals on a moderate, 1.1-mile hike with the Harbor Country Hikers at 2 p.m. Jan. 21 at the Chris Thompson Memorial Preserve, 7592 Warren Woods Road, Three Oaks.

It will be led by Grace Ball, education and community outreach coordinator for Chikaming Open Lands.

From Three Oaks, drive north on Three Oaks Road, then left on Warren Woods Road. Look for the preserve on the left after passing Warren Woods State Park.

Scott Skafar of Valparaiso shows off the record-breaking burbot he caught in Lake Michigan in Porter County on Dec. 30, 2022.
Scott Skafar of Valparaiso shows off the record-breaking burbot he caught in Lake Michigan in Porter County on Dec. 30, 2022.

Record burbot caught

It's a good time to look for burbot, a fish that's good for eating.

Scott Skafar of Valparaiso fished a 10.2-pound burbot out of Lake Michigan in Porter County on Dec. 30, breaking the prior record set for burbot in 1990 by 2.5 pounds, according to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Then he caught a second burbot that broke the old record by nearly two pounds.

Then, on Jan. 10, Phillip Duracz broke that state record again with a burbot weighing 11.4 pounds, which he also caught in Lake Michigan, Indiana's DNR reported. (Duracz also holds the record for the biggest lake whitefish caught in Indiana, a 9.34 pounder that he’d fished from Lake Michigan in 2021.)

Burbot, with firm white flesh, are the only freshwater fish that’s part of the cod family, or Gadidae. They’re usually on the lake bottom in deep water.

The DNR advises anglers to seek burbot from November to April when the water is cold enough for them to move close to shore to feed.

Different kinds of garden seeds will be available to acquire at the annual Michiana Regional Seed Swap on Jan. 21, 2023, at Goshen College.
Different kinds of garden seeds will be available to acquire at the annual Michiana Regional Seed Swap on Jan. 21, 2023, at Goshen College.

Swap seeds and learn about plants

The public is invited to swap or acquire seeds and connect with fellow gardeners at the Michiana Regional Seed Swap from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Jan. 21 at Goshen College Church Chapel, 1700 S. Main St., Goshen.

At this free event, participants can learn about seed saving techniques and gardening practices and browse resource tables and vendors. There will be educational sessions. The speakers include Tony Fleming, a geologist, naturalist and homesteader who will illustrate when and where to grow cover crops and how to manage them.

Tacos El Portal food truck will be on site from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and McIntosh Lane Bakery will be available, too.

Find more event details at www.goshen.edu/merrylea/seedswap5.

Learn to cook with pure maple syrup

St. Joseph County Parks will teach you how to use pure, local maple syrup to cook different kinds of sweet and savory foods in a program from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Jan. 28 in the nature center at Bendix Woods County Park in New Carlisle.

The program will cook three sisters soup and make maple snickerdoodles. Three sisters soup often is a Native American reference to three crops: corn, beans and squash.

Space is limited. Registration is required by Jan. 25 at 574-654-3155. Cost is $15 per person.

Polar Plunge to benefit Special Olympics

Four Winds Field at Coveleski Stadium will host the South Bend Polar Plunge to benefit Special Olympics Indiana on Feb. 25 at 501 W. South St. It will be one of 18 Polar Plunges across Indiana to aid the charity. Pool-jumping participants who raise the minimum of $85 will receive a T-shirt, with additional prizes for those who raise more.

Anyone who donates at least $30 or more in the local plunge will be entered to win an outdoor suite to a 2023 South Bend Cubs game between April 12 and May 4, including up to 16 tickets and throwing out the first pitch.

Registration begins at 10 a.m., and the plunging begins at noon.

Register or donate at soindiana.org/polar-plunge.

Find columnist Joseph Dits on Facebook at SBTOutdoorAdventures or 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Find wildlife swap seeds catch fish cook maple syrup and Polar Plunge.