Year: 2024

Winter markets

Where to find farmers markets in colder months

One of the great joys of summer is shopping for fresh local food at farmers markets and visiting the craftspeople and small business owners who meet their customers there. Most farmers markets shut down for the year in the fall, but there are four area markets that offer produce after the weather gets cold.

• Canterbury Farmers Market (canterburyfarmersmarket.com) While it doesn’t stay open throughout the winter, the Canterbury Farmers Market will hold one more indoor market Saturday, Dec. 7, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Canterbury Elementary School gym (15 Baptist Road, Canterbury, just up the hill from the center of town).

• Milford Indoor Farmers Market (milfordnhfarmersmarket.com) The Milford Farmers Market will be open every other Saturday through the winter on the second floor of the Milford Town Hall Auditorium (1 Union Square, Milford), from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. More than 20 vendors will sell seasonal vegetables and fruit; meats, poultry (chicken), fresh cut fish, cheese, eggs, soups, prepackaged frozen dinners, loose-leaf teas and gourmet sugars, baked goods, crafts and more.

Adrienne Colsia is the manager of the Indoor Market. She said that the mission of the Winter Market is much the same as that of Milford’s Summer Market.

“Our goal is really to provide locally grown and made products throughout the year,” she said. “Obviously in the winter we’re unable to do so because there’s not a whole lot of produce, though we do have an organic farmer who brings carrots and lettuce and things like that. We have some really loyal customers and we’re always getting new faces in. We have a wide variety of good items and good products. We have gifts for the holidays and different celebrations. We have meats. We have seasonal fruits and veggies. It’s a wide variety. Nobody’s going to walk in there and say, ‘Oh, there’s nothing here.’ There’s a lot there.”

• Salem Farmers Market (salemnhfarmersmarket.org) The Salem Farmers Market is open every Saturday, all year. From November through April it takes place at LaBelle Winery’s Derry location (14 Route 111, Derry, 672-9898, labellewinery.com/labelle-winery-derry) from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The market offers meat, fish, dairy, specialty food items and crafts, and services such as knife-sharpening.

Bill Woodman is the owner of Woodman’s Artisan Bakery (4 Sunapee St., Nashua, 718-1694, woodmansartisanbakery.com). He sells European-style breads and pastries at the Salem Market.

“We have our baguettes, and our focaccias,” he said. “We do a few different varieties of sourdoughs and we have a couple nice German, heavy German ryes.”

Woodman credits the Salem Market with helping get his business off the ground.

“It’s a really good market to go to and to help support. It’s supporting a lot of local people, obviously, and a lot of local small businesses.” He likes the feeling of community at the Market. “There are customers,” he said, “loyal customers, who follow us around from season to season, which is great. For a lot of the vendors, we’ve been there for a while, we all know each other fairly well for working together at a farmer’s market.”

• Downtown Concord Winter Farmers Market (downtownconcordwinterfarmersmarket.com) The Farmers Market in Concord will be open all winter, every Saturday, between 9 a.m. and noon, through April, at 7 Eagle Square. Venders supply a wide selection of fresh produce, meat, dairy, cheese, baked goods, treats, soap, and crafts, from local farmers and craftsmen. There is live music each week. Interesting goods include locally distilled spirits, micro-greens, mushrooms, ostrich eggs and meat.

Cookie road trip

Tour inns, eat cookies at a Currier and Ives Cookie Tour

It is time for one of the most delicious holiday challenges, the Annual Currier and Ives Cookie Tour. Each year, inns, B&Bs and small businesses around the Monadnock area lure guests to visit them with homemade cookies. This year 17 local businesses will serve cookies to Tour participants who have purchased tickets and a tour map. At each stop along the way, each cookie tourist will get a cookie, the recipe for the cookie, and a stamp on their map. Participants who collect at least 10 stamps will be entered into a drawing to win a gift certificate that can be redeemed at any of the stops along the tour.

One of those stops is the Benjamin Prescott Inn in Jaffrey. Chris Neilson, the inn keeper and manager of the inn, said that aside from raising money for a good cause — The Helping Hand Center in Troy — the Cookie Tour brings people to the inn who might never visit otherwise. He said the 2023 tour was an eye-opening experience.

“We ran out of cookies last year,” Neilson said, “and I was giving tours all the way past the deadline of 4 o’clock last year because there were just so many people that just wanted to come in and see this place.”

Running out of cookies was a bit of a feat, because Neilson and his family had baked 800 of them. “So … we’re going to [bake] 1,200 to 1,400 cookies this year,” he said. “I’m not going to actually say what kind of cookies they are going to be yet, because a couple of those are still under consideration. We already have the dough made for roughly about 200-ish of the cookies already made up. It takes a little while to get the dough made for that many cookies, especially in a small establishment like what we have here at the Inn.” Neilson said baking that many cookies is a group effort. “It’s a family thing here. I have both of my daughters participating in it, I’m doing it, my girlfriend’s doing it, my mom’s doing it — it’s a family endeavor here at the inn to get the cookies made for the cookie tour.”

Tour participants can buy their tickets at three locations. One of those is the Park Theatre in Jaffrey, where Christine Witham is the box office manager. She said the staff at the Park is enthusiastically throwing itself into the Cookie Tour this year.

Currier and Ives Cookie Tour
When: Saturday, Dec 14, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tickets: $20 per person and are available at the following locations:
Park Theatre (19 Main St, Jaffrey, 532-9300, theparktheatre.org)
Frogg Brewing (580 Sawyers Crossing Road, Swanzey, 547-7639, froggbrewing.com)
Inn at East Hill Farm (460 Monadnock St, Troy, 242-6495, east-hill-farm.com)
Cash and checks will be accepted. For a list of stops on the Cookie Tour, visit currierandivescookietour.com/participants.

“We’re actually a unique stop on the Cookie Tour,” Witham said. “We have 12 volunteers making 12 different kinds of cookies. We’re anticipating 400 to 500 people coming through. We’ve had as many as 800 in the past.” She hopes the cookie tourists will exercise self-restraint when they visit. “Visitors can “show us the map and pick one cookie out of our varieties,” she said. Like Neilson, she is tight-lipped about what kind of cookies the Park will serve. “I don’t think I want to say. It will definitely have something to do with the Park Theatre and its history,” she hinted.

Debbie Byrne Jonson is the owner of The She Shed in Swanzey, a home and garden decor business. This will be her first year on the Tour.

“We’re really excited,” she said. “We’ve heard about it and we’ve been told about it, so we’re really looking forward to it.”

Because this will be Jonson’s first year, she is a little unsure of how many cookies the She Shed will need. “We’re anticipating something like 350,” she said. “One of our teammates is going to be baking the cookies herself, and she’s actually doing two cookies, chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles. The other teammates have volunteered that they’ll finish them if need be.”

More cookies
Make a weekend of cookie adventures with the 27th Annual Holiday Inn to Inn Cookie Tour on Saturday, Dec. 14, and Sunday, Dec. 15, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day at nine White Mountain inns stretching from Jackson to Eaton, with inns at least 15 minutes apart. See countryinnsinthewhitemountains.com/annual-holiday-inn-to-inn-cookie-tour.

The Weekly Dish 24/12/05

News from the local food scene

• Holiday wine tasting: WineNot Boutique (25 Main St., Nashua, 204-5569, winenotboutique.com) will host a Holiday Wine Tasting Party, Thursday, Dec.5, from 4 to 7:30 p.m. featuring 15 wines and light appetizers. Tickets are $20.

• Wine and glitter: Enjoy an evening of Tipsy Tree Making on Thursday, Dec. 5, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Barrel and Baskit (377 Main St., Hopkinton, 746-1375, barrelandbaskit.com). Decorate your own boxwood tree while enjoying wine picks and an appetizer bar. Tickets are $85.

• Strings and spirits: Canterbury Shaker Village (288 Shaker Road, Canterbury, 783-9511, shakers.org) invites you to a Merry, Merry Canterbury Concert + Cocktails, Saturday, Dec. 7, from 4 to 7 p.m., featuring a concert by the Symphony New Hampshire String Quartet in the Dwelling House Chapel. A festive reception will follow, with appetizers and drinks in the Hubbard Gallery. Tickets are $35 per person.

• Poinsettias and pinot noir: December’s wine class theme at Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com) will be Pairing Wine with Holiday Food. There will be five new wines and four new pairings. Each ticket includes a welcome sparkling wine followed by four bites paired with a carefully chosen complementary wine. These pairings will illustrate some of the techniques used to artfully pair food and wine. The wines featured will also be great choices for the holiday table. There will be classes Tuesday, Dec. 10, and Wednesday, Dec.11, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tickets are $40.

• Winter Wine Spectacular returns: Tickets are on sale now for the New England Winter Wine Spectacular on Thursday, Jan. 23, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the DoubleTree By Hilton Manchester Downtown (700 Elm St. in Manchester). Early bird tickets for this event, which raises funds for New Hampshire Food Bank and features more than 1,700 wines, cost $65 for general admission, $85 for admission with early entry (at 5 p.m.) and $125 for access to the Bellman’s Cellar Select Room at 5 p.m. (as well as early admission to the main tasting room). Prices go up after Dec. 15. See nhwineweek.com.

On The Job – Samantha Mckeon

Business Systems Analyst

Granite Stater Samantha McKeon is a Business Systems Analyst for A.W. Chesterton and spoke to the Hippo about her IT career.

Explain your job and what it entails.

I am a business systems analyst, and I would say an easy explanation of that is I am the bridge between maybe the non-tech business workers and the technical side. I basically translate the requirements and I work with IT to come up with solutions.

How long have you had this job?

I’ve been working at my current position for three years, but I’ve been in software for 12.

What kind of education or training did you need?

You should have a solid background on the tech side. So Excel, SQL, usually a visual reporting or data analyst skill. So for mine, it was Power BI. I was really fascinated with that. So I learned that by myself. Depending on what area of system analysis you want to get into would require different certifications, but I have some of the entry-level Microsoft certifications, which help me in my current position.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

Business casual, and if I’m on the factory floor, steel-toe shoes and safety glasses. I have an embarrassing amount of safety glasses and my steel-toe shoes look like fall booties so they work with my slacks and dresses.

What is the most challenging thing about your work and how do you deal with it?

Tight deadlines. I could be working on multiple projects at once. They all have different nuances and they usually are under tight deadlines. So for me, the most challenging part of my job is juggling those deadlines and not letting any balls drop.

What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your career?

That I wanted to go more into IT. I wish I had started my education in technology earlier. I didn’t realize that that was something that I would excel in, so I’m doing all of that now.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

What it is. It’s not a common position and there’s so many branches of it. So for me, I work more on the software side. I do a lot of implementations for newer software. But a lot of people don’t know what it means in my position. They just assume it’s project management, which it’s really not. I do a lot of the work independently. I have to be able to have a basic understanding of the code so I can send it to development. I have to have a foundation of understanding the business and the technical side to test it before we launch it. Because if anything happens, that’s on me. So it would be cool if people had a better understanding of what business system analysts do. And it would be cool, too, to see more women in the field as well.

What was your first job?

Waitressing at a diner.

—Zachary Lewis

Five favorites
Favorite book: The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas.
Favorite movie: Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I love Audrey Hepburn.
Favorite music: Noah Kahan
Favorite food: Eggs Benedict
Favorite thing about NH: The foliage. Sometimes I’ll just be driving and look around on the highway and be like, ‘This is beautiful.’ We also have really good lobster rolls.

Featured photo: Samantha McKeon. Courtesy photo.

Treasure Hunt 24/12/05

Dear Donna,

Could you give me some advice? I’m looking to market my Cape Cod bracelet. I have worn it since the 1980s. Now it’s time for a change.

Because I have worn it a lot it has some wear but no broken parts.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you, Donna.

Sylvia

Dear Sylvia,

Because these bracelets fall into the collectible category, I did some research for you. I wasn’t very familiar with them myself.

Original Cape Cod bracelets started in the 1960s in Dennis, Mass. They are very popular and collectible today as well. They have an interesting story to them if you research them.

Being made of sterling silver and 14kt gold, the bracelets are very hardy and made to last. From the research I did the original bracelets have a gold tag attached that has the name of the maker. I didn’t see one on yours.

I’m sure you know it’s an original but without a tag it could be tougher for resale.

Sylvia, if it’s an original the secondary market value is in the $100+ value. I hope you find a new home for it. The twisted ball is a plus.

Donna Welch has spent more than 35 years in the antiques and collectibles field, appraising and instructing. Her new location is an Antique Art Studio located in Dunbarton, NH where she is still buying and selling. If you have questions about an antique or collectible send a clear photo and information to Donna at [email protected], or call her at 391-6550.

Kiddie Pool 24/12/05

Family fun for whenever

Holiday happenings

• Zach Umperovitch, builder of contraptions of all shapes and sizes, is inviting everyone to join him at SEE Science Center in Manchester (200 Bedford St., 669-0400, see-sciencecenter.org) on Thursday, Dec. 5, from 5 to 7 p.m. for a free public event to celebrate the launch of his new book. Zach worked for three and a half years with Rube Goldberg’s granddaughter Jennifer Goerge and illustrator Ed Steckly to create a fun book that anyone can use to build 25 machines. Zach will have several machines on display from the book for visitors to try, and attendees will be able to purchase a book and get it autographed as they enjoy the Science Center’s exhibits, according to their website. The “Special The Big BOX of Building,” a materials kit that includes all the necessary items to build the machines from the book, will be available for purchase as well. Advanced signup is required for this free event. A News Q & A with Zach Umperovitch can be found in the June 13 issue of the Hippo at hippopress.com. Check out @ZachsContraptions on YouTube and @zachscontraptions on Instagram.

• The Millyard Museum’s (200 Bedford St., Manchester) Holiday Open House is on Saturday, Dec. 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event will include children’s holiday crafts, cookies and cider, old-fashioned board games, and a special visit with Santa Claus from noon to 1 p.m. Admission is free. Visit manchesterhistoric.org.

• Millyard Museum (200 Bedford St., Manchester) will also host “Home for the Holiday: An American Girl Tea Party” Saturday, Dec. 7, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Participants are invited to bring their dolls and join in a tea party. Tickets are $20 per person. Visit manchesterhistoric.org.

• Hooksett’s Light Up the Village celebration will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7, featuring a Santa Parade, photos with Santa, food and drink from The Robie Store, musical performances, a craft fair, a holiday storytime, caroling and more. The goal is to raise $20,000 to light up key buildings in Hooksett. These include Congregational Church of Hooksett, Holy Rosary Catholic Church & Parsonage, Hooksett Town Hall, Hooksett Village Fire Department, American Legion, NH State Grange, The Robie Store, and the Hooksett Village Water Precinct. Visit lightupthevillage.wordpress.com.

• The second annual Breakfast with Santa will take place at the Bedford Event Center (379 S. River Road, Bedford) Sunday, Dec. 8, from 9 to 11 a.m. featuring a breakfast buffet, coloring and craft activities, a Mail Your Letter to Santa station, photos with Santa, story time with Santa, and more. According to their website, parents can relax and enjoy cocktails during the event for an additional fee. Children 12 months and younger can be seated on a parent’s lap at no charge. Also, if participants require a baby carrier or stroller at the table, a $49 ticket must be purchased and stroller storage space will be available, according to the website. Call 997-7741 or visit bedfordeventcenter.com.

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