The Taste of Greece Festival at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Concord is back. After a three-year hiatus, you can get your fix of homemade Greek cooking on Saturday, Sept. 30, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“Entrance [to the festival] is free and everybody’s invited!” says the Rev. Constantine Newman.
Dishes on sale under the main tent include all the classics: moussaka, dolmades, spanakopita, lamb and chicken souvlaki, Greek meatballs, gyro and baklava. There will also be a number of more unique entrees and desserts available, as well as salads, water, and soft drinks. For savory offerings, try loukaniko — Greek sausage made fresh by a local butcher — or pastitsio, a lasagna-like dish of noodles and meat sauce topped with béchamel sauce.
Those with a sweet tooth need to try the loukoumades, or Greek fried doughnuts, and the galaktoboureko, a milk custard dish that is a favorite among festival attendees.
“It is delicious. It’s a lot of people’s favorite because it’s nice and creamy, very rich and very sweet,” Newman said. “The baklava tend to be relatively common, whereas the galaktoboureko is a lot harder to make well, and so when it’s really good it’s … a little out of the ordinary. But of course our baklava is excellent too.”
All the food comes from authentic Greek recipes, made by the church’s Ladies Organization and other parish volunteers. It takes several multi-day workshops to prepare the 150 to 200 servings of each dish that will be for sale at the festival. They stick with traditional recipes and are sure to keep things consistent over the years, said Newman, so if you’re a returning festival-goer, your favorites will taste just as good as you remember.
“We specifically named the festival the Taste of Greece Festival because we do want to feature the food above everything else,” Newman said. On the day of the event, 50 or more volunteers will be filling plates, running cash registers, grilling kabobs, and more. “Really it’s a whole parish event,” he said.
In addition to all the food, there will be jewelry and some religious items for sale, as well as someone selling honey made on their property in Greece. There will also be face painting for the kids, tours of the church, a cash raffle, raffle baskets, and a DJ playing Greek music during the event.
The last time the church was able to hold the festival was before Covid. Now, Newman says, people are eager to get back out to local Greek festivals.
“This year it seems all the Greek festivals in the area have been experiencing considerably more people than they were expecting to begin with. After really not having the festivals for a number of years, people are coming out wanting to enjoy the atmosphere, the Greek food, and the festival feel of the day,” he said.
The festival will take place in the church parking lot, rain or shine. Parking is available on the street or in the parking lots of Waypoint or the Democratic Headquarters. Credit cards and cash will be accepted for purchases, and entry is free.
“Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy a nice fun time, good food, and good company. Everyone can be Greek that day,” Newman said.
Taste of Greece Festival When: Saturday, Sept. 30, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Where: Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church (68 N. State St. in Concord) More info: holytrinitynh.org
Featured photo: Taste of Greece Festival at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church previous years. Courtesy photo.
Have a taste of what New Hampshire has to offer with vendors like Alan’s of Boscawen and Flannel Tavern at the 18th annual Taste of New Hampshire event benefiting the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central New Hampshire at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord on Tuesday, Oct. 3, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
“It started out as The Taste of Concord at the Capitol Center for the Arts and a few years later it got bigger and outgrew that space … and became the Taste and New Hampshire,” said Tanya Frost, Development Manager at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central New Hampshire.
Since then, the event has expanded to include 25 to 35 restaurants and vendors like Granite State Candy Shop, M.S. Walker, Constantly Pizza, 70 North Kitchen out of Laconia, New Hampshire Distributors offering beer samples, and a few wine vendors.
“The funds from the event benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central New Hampshire and the greater Concord area,” Frost said. “It can go toward programming, scholarships, whatever we can do to help keep our sites active and growing so we can keep a safe place for our members.”
According to their website, the nonprofit organization in New Hampshire started as a group exclusively for boys called the Addison Martin Boys Club in Concord, and the name later changed to the Concord Patrolman’s Association Boys Club. After catching on to the national Boys Club movement, it became the Concord Boys Club, which was one of the first groups in the nation to include girls in the program in 1983. The organization continued to grow and expand into surrounding towns, becoming the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Concord, which merged with the Lakes Region branch in 2015, officially becoming what is now The Boys & Girls Clubs of Central New Hampshire with more than 25 centers and 1,000 members.
“Our mission is to inspire and enable all young people, especially those who need us the most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring and responsible citizens,” Frost said.
Members of the Club will also be at the event selling baked goods. In addition to the food and drinks, there will be a raffle with prizes like golf passes, gift baskets, restaurant gift cards, brewery tours and art made by Club members.
“All of these restaurants that we have in our sponsors of the club as well, so it’s really great community engagement,” Frost said. “[We hope] to get as many people in and just enjoy a great night, mingle, have some great food … and just to have a really good time.”
Taste of New Hampshire When: Tuesday, Oct. 3, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Where: McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, 2 Institute Drive, Concord Cost: $40, 10 tickets for $350, visit tasteofnh.com
Manchester shop brings Grecian goods to the Granite State
During a summer vacation in Greece, an American adolescent meets a Greek teen, creating a bond that will last a lifetime. It sounds like a movie, but it is in fact the true origin story of Taste and Art of Greece, an online shop that brings products made by small-scale Greek artisans to the Granite State with a new brick and mortar location on Hanover Street in Manchester, which was slated to open Sept. 27.
“Growing up Greek, we often went [to Greece] as children and I made some wonderful connections over the years, one particular person, Strati Vougiouka, who lives in the village where my father was born,” said Elaine Setas, who owns the shop along with Vougiouka.
After losing touch, the two reconnected as adults when Setas started regularly visiting Lesbos again with her husband.
“Strati started talking about a dream and a vision to open a traditional Greek store,” she said. “We did research for about a year and half, two years and what we saw were a lot of Greek shops … but they weren’t talking about what products meant, who is making the product or the meanings and traditions,” Setas said “So I said, ‘I don’t want to make a store that’s just selling products — let’s make something that tells a story.’”
At the time, Setas was working as an office assistant and thought this would be a great hobby to take on. The pair opened their online store, Setas handling the marketing and attending local Greek festivals, and Vougiouka working behind the scenes in Greece, dealing with the artists and organizing shipments. After a while, the business proved to be so much more than a side hustle, so when Setas was laid off from her office job, she jumped fully in and never looked back.
“We hear a lot at these festivals and things that we go to that we definitely stand out,” she said. “We’re not your typical Greek shop.”
The duo’s initial plan was to sell more food than they currently do, but they had to be selective with what they brought in due to the complicated nature of importing food into the States. As a result, they expanded the art side of things with blankets, clothing, jewelry, handbags and ceramics while also carrying pantry items like spices, infused honey and olive oil as well as chocolate.
“One of the biggest items with a story that resonates with many people [are the ceramic] pomegranates,” Setas said. “Pomegranates mean luck and prosperity in the home and at midnight on New Year’s Eve in Greece they step over the threshold of their door and smash a real pomegranate and the amount of seeds that scatter means the abundance of luck you’ll have.”
In addition, the shop also sells ceramic boats that symbolize charting a new path and honor the fishermen of the Greek islands, as well as hand painted, traditional sheep bells that Setas says carry a sense of nostalgia for summers spent in Greece. Each item comes with a card that explains its meaning.
“We have something for every person, every culture, every nationality,” Setas said. “Greeks are known in the world for their hospitality and our art and our culture and … our whole mission [is] to share that with the world.”
Taste and Art of Greece Where: 32 Hanover St., Manchester When: Wednesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Additional special hours will be posted on their website and social media pages.) Visit: tasteandartofgreece.com
Now is prime time for apple picking, but sadly this year’s crop is not the best ever. Due to the drop in temperature in May, many orchards suffered damage to their crops, with some being wiped out entirely. Fortunately some farms were able to make it through.
“We were very lucky our whole pick-your-own was not affected,” said Tim Bassett of Gould Hill Farm in Contoocook. “We have a pretty decent crop … so it does look like hopefully we will continue as a normal fall depending on what … Mother Nature does next.”
While the pick-your-own supply may be OK, the heirloom supply in the retail store won’t be as plentiful as it usually is, as these trees are at a lower elevation and consequently exposed to colder conditions than the pick-your-own varieties.
Circumstances were similar at Kimball Fruit Farm in Hollis. “The apples that are there are looking pretty good, at least at our farm because we’re kind of on a hill,” said David Wadleigh, owner of the farm.
“The stuff that was a little more uphill wasn’t quite as affected as the stuff more downhill [because] the temperatures are usually a bit warmer at the top of the hill and cooler at the bottom.”
Photo courtesy of Gould Hill Farm.
At the time of the frost, Wadleigh said, apple trees on the farm were beginning to blossom, many having flowers and some already sprouting small cherry-sized apples. Some of these froze and rotted, while others were fortunate to skate by with only some russeting (rough brown spots on the outside). While there are measures to try to prevent such damage, they aren’t as feasible as for crops like berries and tomatoes, which can be covered with a protective barrier, according to Wadleigh.
“Strawberries are low on the ground, so we can just set up a couple of sprinklers in the field and it will cover the entire strawberry field … [and] we were putting a cover over [early tomatoes] to protect them,” he said. “I’m sure that would work for the apples too, but with the size of the trees it’s just not practical to do something like that.”
Fortunately for apples, they tend to be heartier than their berry counterparts, according to Wadleigh.
Aside from the frost, the weather since — including all the rain — has not been disadvantageous to the apples.
“[Rain] does help them grow a little larger in size on some varieties, so it hasn’t been detrimental,” Bassett said. “Our biggest problem so far has just been having customers come out because the weather hasn’t cooperated and given the nice-weather days that people enjoy being out there on the farm, so we’re hopeful that that will turn around and we’ll have some nice, sunny weather.”
Pick your own
Information comes from the orchards’ websites and social media. Most hours and events are weather permitting. Call in advance to make sure the orchard is open that day and to find out what varieties are currently available for pick-your-own.
Applecrest Farm Orchards (133 Exeter Road, Hampton Falls; applecrest.com) Daily, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. On weekends through the end of October look for harvest festivals, which run Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., weather permitting. There’s also a corn maze.
Appleview Orchard (1266 Upper City Road, Pittsfield; applevieworchard.com, 435-3553) PYO apples Saturday and Sunday, weather permitting. Hours at the country gift shop are Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Brookdale Fruit Farm (41 Broad St., Hollis; brookdalefruitfarm.com, 465-2240) PYO apples Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Farm stand is open daily 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The farm also features an ice cream stand and a corn maze.
Carter Hill Orchard (73 Carter Hill Road, Concord; carterhillapples.com, 225-2625) September hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The country store is open during these hours with cider, baked goods, pumpkins and more.
Currier Orchards (9 Peaslee Road, Merrimack; currierorchards.com, 881-8864) Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The farm stand sells baked goods, farm-made jelly and other items.
DeMeritt Hill Farm (20 Orchard Way, Lee; demeritthillfarm.com, 868-2111) The farm stand is open weekdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and weekends 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call to find out the pick-your-own status on any given day. The farm has weekend fests through the first weekend of October and then Haunted Overload and Enchanted Storybook Hayrides.
Gould Hill Farm (656 Gould Hill Road, Contoocook; gouldhillfarm.com) PYO apple hours are Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The farm store is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., featuring apples, ice cream and more. The Contoocook Cider Co., offering hard ciders, is open Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Hackleboro Orchards (61 Orchard Road, Canterbury; hackleboroorchard.com, 783-4248) Daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Look for hay rides, apple cider, apple cider doughnuts and more.
Hazelton Orchards (280 Derry Road, Chester; find them on Facebook, 235-3027) PYO is open, weather permitting, most Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, usually 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call or find them on Facebook to check the current status.
NH Kimball Fruit Farm (Route 122, on the Hollis and Pepperell, Mass., state line; kimball.farm, 978-433-9751) PYO is open Saturdays and Sundays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Check out the Tuesday children’s programs.
Lavoie’s Farm (172 Nartoff Road, Hollis; lavoiesfarm.com, 882-0072) Daily from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. The farm’s stand sells fruits, veggies, baked goods and apple cider and you can also pick your own pumpkins. A corn maze is open daily. On the weekends find hay rides and a corn boil from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Lull Farm (65 Broad St., Hollis; livefreeandfarm.com, 465-7079) 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends and 7 a.m. to 6 pm. Monday through Friday. The Daily Haul fish market is on site on Saturdays (pre-order at thedailyhaul.com) from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Mack’s Apples (230 Mammoth Road, Londonderry; macksapples.com,432-3456) PYO open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Station 3 on Pillsbury Road, next to the Londonderry United Methodist Church, according to the website. The corn maze is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Station 2 on Adams Road. Pears are also available for picking. The farm market is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
McLeod Bros. Orchards (735 N. River Road, Milford; mcleodorchards.com, 432-3456) PYO hours are Monday through Friday, 1 to 5:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The farm stand features apples, pumpkins, jams, jellies, maple syrup and more.
Smith Orchard (184 Leavitt Road, Belmont; smithorchard.com, 387-8052) Daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Stone Mountain Farm (522 Laconia Road, Belmont; stonemtnfarm.com) Daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunnycrest Farm (59 High Range Road, Londonderry; sunnycrestfarmnh.com, 432-7753) Daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The farm also offers pick-your-own raspberries and flowers and the farm stand offers produce, baked goods and more.
Washburn’s Windy Hill Orchard (66 Mason Road, Greenville; washburnswindyhillorchard.com, 878-2101) Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Photos courtesy of Fresh Chef Press.zxFor Clifford Passero, head chef and kitchen manager at Patty B’s, an Italian American restaurant in Dover (34 Dover Point Road), cooking food is like building a house. “I take the knowledge I have learned, I use the tools I have, I start at the foundations and put things together until I have a finished product,” he said. Growing up in Portsmouth, he was influenced in the art of cooking by his mother and grandmother. His time in the food industry started with serving ice cream and busing tables and for the past nine years he has been at Patty B’s, where he says he has learned a lot and continues to be inspired.
What is your must-have kitchen item? All my staff and a good sauce pot.
What would you have for your last meal? Homemade buttermilk biscuits and gravy with a poached egg (medium) and delicious home fries with ketchup.
What is your favorite local eatery? Sara Thai in Dover.
Name a celebrity you would like to see eating in your restaurant? Giada De Laurentiis. I love her.
What is your favorite thing on your menu? Eggplant Parm and Patty’s Bolognese.
What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now? Asian fusion. Hot pots and noodle bars.
What is your favorite thing to cook at home? It’s really tough to say what my favorite is, but I love grabbing stuff from my garden and getting creative.
Creamy Marsala with mushrooms From the kitchen of Clifford Passero.
7 cloves of chopped garlic 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon pepper 6 medium sliced shallots Cremini mushrooms 1 cup of Marsala wine 4 Tablespoons of butter 1 quart of light cream ½ quart of heavy cream mascarpone cheese 1 teaspoon of Essence seasoning ½ pound of cream cheese 1 Tablespoon of olive oil ¼ cup of locally foraged mushrooms Grated pecorino Romano Pasta (penne or cavatappi is recommended)
In a large sauce pot take 5 cloves of chopped garlic, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper, and 6 medium sliced shallots, cook until shallots get soft. Add in sliced Cremini mushrooms, cook until browned. Add 1 cup of Marsala wine, cook to reduce, remove from heat. In another pot, melt 4 tablespoons of butter and sweat 2 cloves of chopped garlic. Add 1 quart of light cream and half a quart of heavy cream. Whisk until cream rises.
Add half pound mascarpone cheese and 1 teaspoon of Essence to the cream mixture. Add half pound cream cheese to cream mixture, melt and stir until smooth (do not boil). Combine all into one large-size pot and reduce over medium-low heat for 30 to 45 minutes.
To serve: Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a sauté pan and add a quarter cup of locally foraged mushrooms. Cook until browned. Add cream mixture; cook until thickened. Mix in your favorite cooked pasta (penne or cavatappi is recommended). Finish with grated pecorino Romano.
Featured photo: Clifford Passero, head chef at Patty B’s. Courtesy photo.
On April 25, 2022, Abbey Morrison transitioned her meal prep business from Fresh Chef Meal Prep to Fresh Chef Press, a cafe on Canal Street in Manchester, with her friend and business partner Shauri Gilot-Oquendo. The cafe serves smoothies, salads, bowls, coffee, toast and sandwiches all made with local organic ingredients.
“We were doing [meal prep] … before we got presented with an opportunity to open a cafe on Canal Street,” Morrison said. “We didn’t really have this [plan] that we were going to open a location in this amount of years. It kind of just fell into our lap [from] hard work [and] after a while people see that you’re committed to the cause.”
Photos courtesy of Fresh Chef Press.
Morrison’s interest in food and nutrition can be traced back to when she was diagnosed with high cholesterol at age 7. She began seeing a nutritionist to change her diet and learned about what food can do for your body in the process, an avenue she continued down at Johnson & Wales University.
“I wanted to do the same thing for other people, so I went down the route of culinary nutrition and worked with different chefs around the world to see how they do it,” she said. “I got to experience everything and bring it back to my home city and help people here.”
After running Fresh Chef Meal Prep for 3 years, Morrison got presented with the opportunity to fill the space that formerly housed Green Bike Smoothie Bar. She decided to go in along with Gilot-Oquendo to open Fresh Chef Press with the aim to serve food that is both nutritious and delicious while also helping local businesses and the environment through the use of reusable and biodegradable materials.
“We try to locally source as much as possible to help our local farms and support small businesses,” Morrison said. Such businesses include McQuesten Farm and Charmingfare Farm, where they get their produce, Amherst Garden, where they get honey, and Hometown Coffee.
Their commitment to offering local and healthy food extends beyond the doors of their cafe with their POS fridge where customers can buy peanut butter, honey and oat power ball energy bites, a variety of hummuses, dressings and pesto, the same that are used in the cafe and all made in-house.
“It kind of plays off our meal prep,” Morrison said. “We try to make it as easy as possible for you to be healthy at home too.”
Photos courtesy of Fresh Chef Press.
In addition to providing nutritious food for people, they feed their furry friends with pup-sicles and excite bites.
“A lot of the same things that are really good for people, like blueberries, they have a lot of antioxidants and cancer-fighting stuff in them, are really good for dogs,” Gilot-Oquendo said. “All clean and organic stuff for our pups as well.”
“Since we’re in downtown Manchester, a lot of people are walking with their dog,” Morrison adds. “The fact that they can come down and grab something for them and their pup I think is what separates us.”
