INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Each and every Saturday, WISH-TV highlights a local company together with our partners at Indiana Grown.

This week, Josh and Mindy Ellis from Modoc Gardens join News 8 at Daybreak!

Modoc Gardens, located in Modoc, an hour east of Indianapolis, is a small family farm that focuses on using environmentally friendly and sustainable practices to produce beautiful flowers and agricultural experiences available to the area.

The Ellises say the gardens offer many activities, including a sunflower trail, a petting farm, a pumpkin patch, play areas, and a pick-your-own flower garden.

Many events are open to the public, but the gardens also host private affairs such as weddings, birthday parties, and more. The Ellises say they are currently booking private events for the 2025 year, which can be done on their website.

To learn more, visit their Facebook, and enjoy the full interview above!

INDIANAPOLIS — Cole Swider wasn’t sure where he would be for training camp in 2024, yet he still knew he would be in a familiar situation.

During both of Swider’s first two seasons in the NBA, he had to fight to stick around on a roster through camp. His rookie year was in Los Angeles with the Lakers, and Swider was on a two-way deal at the time. Last year with the Miami Heat, Swider was impressive during preseason action and had his Exhibit 10 contract converted to a two-way deal. He has exited training camp in a better spot than he entered it twice.

This year, Swider shared that he had a few teams that were interested in his services. Yet he chose the Indiana Pacers, and he hopes to repeat his early-practice success from past campaigns. The 25-year old has been with his new team for two months now, and he is starting to get acclimated to a new system and roster.

“Your conditioning has to be at a high level… Overall, just just getting adjusted to it,” Swider said of his adjustment to the Pacers high-paced style. That way of playing is actually what guided Swider to Indiana as opposed to another franchise — he believes he can fit in well in the up-tempo style. “It’s been great… Just learning how to play with each one of these guys, it’s going to keep on being a learning experience, but it’s been a good one.”

Swider’s high-level pitch to teams is that he’s an elite shooter. From beyond the arc, he’s lethal, and he is working on being a better shooter when moving. He plays a low-turnover style and keeps the ball moving while finishing well around the basket.

Head coach Rick Carlisle sees it the same way. “Cole’s a third-year guy who’s established himself as a specialist,” he said earlier this week. “[He’s] been a great addition. He’s a guy competing for the 15th [roster] spot. This is an opportunity.” Carlisle has already seen the 25-year old fitting in during training camp.

Prior to joining the Pacers, Swider had a few relationships with members of the team. Through his agency, he knows Jarace Walker and Kendall Brown somewhat, and he has been playing against Andrew Nembhard for years — since they were juniors in high school. He met more of his teammates throughout the summer and in the players-only minicamp held in Orlando. He’s starting to fit in well and has done work with assistant coach Jim Boylen as well as center Myles Turner after practices.

Swider, a Syracuse product, likes that he joined an established program. His entire career has been with teams in similar spots, and he’s found a way to fit in before. This isn’t much different. It’s just like his past camp experiences battling for roster spots.

“[Guys were saying] they have a solid core foundation. Rick’s been the head coach for a while

The Rhode Island native thinks his overall shooting ability will help him fit in with the team. In his view, he can replicate some of the things that Doug McDermott did for the Pacers last year as a movement shooter, though he will hope to be more accurate when letting it fly from deep. He hopes to be scrappy on the defensive end, too.

The outlook for Swider is fairly clear given his contract status. As Carlisle alluded to, he’s in the battle for the 15th roster spot. He and Kendall Brown are the obvious candidates for that slot, though in theory two-way contract players could sneak into the mix. The head coach noted that a few factors will influence who gets the final roster spot (if anybody), including general performance, compete level, how players manage game situations, and more. Someone will have to earn the final opportunity on the roster.

It could be Swider, who adds a shooting element hard to find at the back end of the team’s bench. He, and the rest of the players competing for roster spots, have been going hard in camp so far.

“I’ve been in this position every single year of my career. So this isn’t anything new,” Swider said of his battle to make the team. “Just want to continue to improve and try to earn my spot here.”

For his career, Swider has averaged 2.0 points per game. He has 25 appearances under his belt, He’s now angling to join his third team and knows exactly what it will take to be a part of the squad come opening night, and he will try to prove it across the rest of training camp and preseason play.

Northwestern won eight games last season; Indiana won three. NU was 5-4 in the Big Ten; IU was 1-8. One team, surprisingly good; the other, hopelessly bad.

Now forget all that, OK? Because if the Wildcats beat the Hoosiers Saturday in Evanston, few, if any, will have seen it coming.

No. 23 Indiana (-13½) at Northwestern (2:30 p.m., BTN, 720-AM) is a prime example of how much things can change from one year to the next in the transfer-portal age. The 5-0 Hoosiers are ranked for the first time since the 2021 preseason — hilarious, in retrospect, given that team failed to win a single Big Ten game — and three good hours from their first 6-0 start since 1967, the year the Cream and Crimson last ended up in the Rose Bowl.

If Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer is the “it” guy in the crowd of new coaches, IU’s Curt Cignetti is right behind him. Cignetti added 31 players from the portal — 13 of whom came from the soaring program he left, James Madison — and the results have been mind-blowing. The Hoosiers are ninth in the country in offense (513 yards per game) and eighth in defense (239.6). They haven’t faced a murderer’s row, but they hung 42 points on both UCLA and Maryland, have a trio of running backs with 15 rushing touchdowns between them and have tormented opposing quarterbacks with 17 sacks. Most of those sacks — 10½ of them — have come from JMU transfers, a striking example of the portal at its most beneficial.

“Coach Cignetti has done an incredible job,” Wildcats coach David Braun said. “It’s a hot football team right now.”

Braun’s team has changed, too, but seemingly not for the better. Their last outing, a 24-5 loss at Washington two weeks ago, dropped the Wildcats to 2-2 and raised doubts they can score enough to be more than a speed bump in this Big Ten season. This defense can get after the passer, too, putting up three sacks per game — a strength that should keep the Hoosiers from piling up a big score — but the 123rd-ranked offense isn’t even averaging 300 yards. The Wildcats are desperate to establish the run and will keep things simple out of necessity in the schools’ first meeting since 2019.

The Hoosiers are different animals than they were then.

“This is a team that’s on a little bit of a mission,” Cignetti said, “and Northwestern’s the next one up.”

The mission isn’t to win nine games, but doing so would be a first for IU since the aforementioned Rose Bowl season. At a basketball school, nine would be more than fine. Hoosiers by nine — 26-17.

OTHER WEEK 6 PICKS

All games are Saturday.

UMass (+17½) at Northern Illinois (11 a.m., CBSSN): Not many are paying attention to this one with the Minutemen at 1-4 and the Huskies back down to earth at 2-2. Worth watching, though, is visiting quarterback Taisun Phommachanh, who is huge, dangerous as a dual threat and once upon a time was a blue-chip recruit bound for mighty Clemson. He sure gets sacked a lot, though. Huskies, 31-17.

Rutgers (+7) at Nebraska (3 p.m., FS1): The 4-0 Scarlet Knights have won at Virginia Tech and beaten Washington, impressive stuff so far. They have a real shot to win again here because of their run game, one of the Big Ten’s best. Can the Huskers load up and shut it down? If not, it’s a total tossup. Huskers, 24-20.

No. 10 Michigan (+1½) at Washington (6:30 p.m., NBC 5): It’s a title-game rematch! Sort of. Michigan is far from what it was last season, and Washington had faded even further. In case you were unaware: Michael Penix Jr. and that Rome Odunze character don’t play in Seattle anymore. When these Huskies aren’t dinking, they’re dunking, not the greatest approach against a defense as tough as the Wolverines’. Maize and Blue, 24-17.

My favorite favorite: No. 3 Ohio State (-18) vs. Iowa (2:30 p.m., CBS 2): Kirk Ferentz has been coach at Iowa since 1999, longer than any other current major-college coach has been on the job. You know what Ferentz has never done? Win at OSU; he’s 0-6 there. His last crack at it in Columbus was in 2022, when the Buckeyes destroyed the Hawkeyes by 44. What does all that have to do with Saturday? Nothing, clearly. Buckeyes by 44.

My favorite underdog: No. 9 Missouri (+2½) at No. 25 Texas A&M (11 a.m., ABC 7): OK, so it’s not the most mouth-watering slate of games around the country; this is Week 6’s only Top 25 matchup. Mizzou struggled to beat Boston College and Vanderbilt in its last two games, both at home, but it’s hard to forget how great the Tigers were on the road last year en route to a top 10 finish. Also, there’s this: A&M is 0-4 against the spread at home this season. The Zou, that’s who.

Last week: 5-1 straight-up, 4-2 against the spread.

Season: 22-11, 17-16.