• The Black Ice Pond Hockey Championship is slated for Friday, Feb. 7, through Sunday, Feb. 9, at White Park in Concord. According to the website, 95 teams participate in the event, which also features games, a rock wall, bonfires, live entertainment, food trucks, ice and snow sculptures and more. The event also includes the Shinny Classic for youth hockey teams, the website said. See blackicepondhockey.com and check the event’s social media pages for weather-related updates.
Family music
• The Nashua Chamber Orchestra will hold a Family Concert on Saturday, Feb. 8, at 1 p.m. at the Nashua Public Library (2 Court St. in Nashua; nashualibrary.org). The orchestra will play “Concerto for Two Violins” by Vivaldi; selections from Carmen; “The Waltzing Cat”; “Trumpeter’s Lullaby” and Leopold Mozart’s “Toy Symphony.”The event is free and open to the public. See nco-music.org for more on the orchestra.
At the museums
• SEE Science Center (200 Bedford St. in Manchester; see-sciencecenter.org) will hold a Community Discovery Night on Friday, Feb. 7, from 5 to 8 p.m. The event, whose theme will be “Celebrating Black Influence in Science,” will feature food, music and science activities, according to the website, where you can register for this free event so the Center can plan the food.
• The Last Ice, a short documentary by New Hampshire science teacher Greg Stott and Vermont filmmaker Nick Natale, will screen Friday, Feb. 7, at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord (starhop.com) as part of this month’s Super Stellar Friday programming, which begins at 6:30 p.m. Stott, the 2023 NH Charitable Foundation recipient of the Christa McAuliffe Sabbatical award, used his sabbatical to make a film about the last ice age and its effect on the Connecticut River Valley, according to the website. Admission costs $13 for adults, $12 for 62+ and ages 13 through college, and $10 for ages 3 to 12.
• The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (6 Washington St. in Dover; childrens-museum.org) will hold a Valentine’s Day Dance Party with musical guest Mr. Aaron on Sunday, Feb. 9, from 1 to 3 p.m. Tickets cost $18 per person. The dance party will run from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. The afternoon will also feature Valentine’s crafts as well as play at the museum. Go online for tickets.
Also at the Children’s Museum, save the date for Lindsay and Her Puppet Pals on Saturday, Feb. 15, at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The museum will also celebrate the opening of two new exhibits: Little Farmers and the Play Loft. Saturday playtimes are 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. Admission costs $14.50 for everyone over 12 months old and $12.50 for 65+.
On screen
• O’neil Cinemas Brickyard Square 12 (24 Calef Highway in Epping; oneilcinemas.com) will hold a sensory-friendly screening of Dog Man (PG, 2025) on Saturday, Feb. 8, at 10 a.m. The house lights will be higher and the volume a little lower, according to the website.
• The “Family Movie Night” movie at the Flying Monkey (39 S. Main St. in Plymouth; flyingmonkeynh.com) on Wednesday, Feb. 12, at 6 p.m. is 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. Doors open at 5 p.m. and tickets cost $3 for everyone 3 and older, according to the website, which said the family movie nights also feature a special kid-friendly menu (yes, there are chicken tenders).
Indoor ice
• Everett Arena in Concord (15 Loudon Road) has public ice skating Sundays from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and Monday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., $6 admission (free for age 3 and younger), $6 skate rentals and $5 helmet rentals. See concordnh.gov for details and info on other activities at the arena.
• For public skating at the JFK Memorial Coliseum (303 Beech St. in Manchester), see the calendar at manchesternh.gov. This weekend, public skate is Sunday, Feb. 9, from 2 to 4 p.m. Skate rentals cost $5.
There is something you need to understand about chocolate-covered strawberries.
They are ephemeral. They need to be eaten immediately.
They are also very romantic, so it’s tempting to hold on to them, and savor the gesture, but Paige Quish says don’t do it. Quish is the manager of Van Otis Chocolates in Manchester, and she knows and understands chocolate-covered strawberries on a bone-deep, almost spiritual level.
Van Otis goes through a lot of strawberries around Valentine’s Day. “Hundreds of pounds of strawberries,” Quish said. “Hundreds. Of. Pounds. Every pound is about nine to 12 berries, so I mean we’re talking a lot of strawberries.”
She said the clock starts ticking as soon as a berry is coated with chocolate.
“Freshness is definitely really important,” she said. “Chocolate-covered strawberries are best enjoyed within 24 hours. Some people don’t know that, but chocolate is dry, believe it or not — there’s no water involved with it — and then once it touches any kind of strawberry or fruit that has a watery base with a lot of moisture to it, the shelf life immediately starts to expire on it.” That’s why a two-day-old chocolate strawberry in your refrigerator might start looking sad and tired, she said. The fruit dries quickly in contact with the chocolate, and shrinks, so its chocolate coat doesn’t fit it anymore and it looks dejected.
There are many chocolate-giving holidays throughout the year, Quish said, but Valentine’s Day is one of the biggest.
“We do a lot of molding for our Christmas season and Easter,” she said, “you know, the bunnies and all that. But dipped fruit specifically? I’d say that strawberries are definitely the top seller for Valentine’s.”
A large portion of everything Van Otis makes is covered with chocolate.
Hand-painted Lovestruck Van Oreos at Van Otis. Photo by John Fladd.
“We cover almost everything in chocolate,” Quish said. “Anything that you see that has the chocolate coating on it goes through our enrobing system. All of our creams, our jellies — anything that you see like that — our liquor cordials, those are all fully enrobed. Orange peels and dipped cherries, just about everything.” All the chocolate enrobing is done on-site, she said. “A lot of people refer to it like the I Love Lucy episode, when they’re putting stuff on [the conveyer belt], but it’s basically a chocolate waterfall. There’s one part of the machine that coats the bottom of everything, and then there’s the top part that gets fully drenched and enrobed, and then it goes through the drying tunnel.”
One trend that began several years ago and is still gaining momentum, Quish said, is covering something salty with chocolate, for a salty/sweet contrast.
Chocolate-covered pretzels and potato chips have become increasingly popular.
“We try to think outside the box of things that would be delicious in chocolate,” she said. Chocolate-covered bacon has become a go-to gift for men. “Super Bowl, Father’s Day — those things are usually really popular for the chocolate-covered bacon.”
A good rule of thumb, she said, is that if something is delicious on its own, it will probably be even better coated in chocolate. “We have our Oreos. We take those and we’ll enrobe them, and animal crackers are something new that we started last year. We have gummy worms and gummy bears [that we cover with chocolate].”
Surprisingly, Quish said, chewy gummy candies actually hold onto a chocolate coating pretty well. It seems as if it would crumble and fall off while it’s being eaten, but she said that’s not the case.
“As soon as that chocolate dries and sets, it’s on there,” she said. “It’s fully coated. And it’s so good! We have people who say they’ve tried chocolate-covered gummy bears elsewhere and they’re obsessed with ours. They always say that it doesn’t compare. We have a really skilled production team so they definitely have their magic that they apply to all the goodies. Swedish Fish is another one of them.”
Jeffrey Bart’s family has owned and run the Granite State Candy Shoppes, which has shops in Concord and Manchester, for almost 100 years. He said the most popular candy his stores sell is also one of the simplest.
“Our most popular item that we make and sell are dark chocolate nonpareils,” he said. “Some people might call them snow caps; it’s a small round of chocolate with white nonpareil seeds on them.” But after that, he said, customers will go for anything coated in chocolate.
“Peanut butter cups,” Bart said. “We make a lot of peanut butter cups. And our third is our butter crunch — a toffee dipped in chocolate and then sprinkled with roasted chopped nuts, almonds. They are very, very popular. We make those constantly, all the time.”
He said that his staff too, struggles to keep up with the demand for chocolate-covered strawberries at this time of the year.
“People still come to us and they want to buy a traditional heart-shaped box with assorted chocolates, but we advise ordering strawberries in advance if at all possible. We make them available on the 13th and the 14th, only. We [make] a huge variety of different berries. We make straight-dipped [berries] in dark, milk, and white chocolate. And then we have a huge array of what we call “Fancy Dipped Berries”; they’re dipped in chocolate, and then we’ll roll them in decoratifs, and then we’ll hand decorate them with chocolate drizzle and do another large assortment of other types of fancy decorations for the berries, too.”
Bart, too, advises customers not to wait too long to consume the berries.
“It’s best if you can consume them within 24 hours,” he said. “If you’re going to keep them for a little bit, we recommend refrigerating them, but when you want to enjoy them we recommend taking them out and letting them sit on the counter or sit out for a short period of time — 20 minutes, a half an hour, maybe an hour — so they warm up a little bit, and they’ll taste better that way.”
Another classic and popular item at Granite State Candy are chocolate-covered cherries.
“We use cordial cherries,” Bart said. “It’s a whole cherry with a liquid center. We have those available in milk and dark chocolate.” But some of the treats are less traditional. “We sell a lot of chocolate-dipped Twinkies,” he said. “That’s a fun, crazy little item that we do that is very popular. We’ve been doing it for a number of years now, so that’s a great item. We also coat orange peel, ginger — candied ginger — in chocolate, and that’s very popular. And another unique … item is something called the Jordan Cracker. It’s an oblong-shaped baked, sugarless cracker that we coat in chocolate and people love them.”
Jim Pasquill is the store manager for Sweetz & More in the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester. He says there is a strong, consistent demand for any type of gummy candy covered in chocolate.
“Anything like Haribo gummy bears, even something like Juju cinnamon bears, we have those covered in chocolate,” he said. “The chocolate-covered cinnamon bears don’t always sell as well. I think it might be because the mixture of chocolate and cinnamon isn’t a favorite mix. However, we pretty much have the same brands on our theater box wall. It’s called Money Bears. It’s the same thing. It’s just packaged differently and it’s cheaper. And that also tends to be as hot as the chocolate-covered gummy bears on our pouch wall. It’s the same thing. Customers keep on coming in here asking us if we have them. Unfortunately, we don’t because they sell too fast.”
Pasquill said it is hard to keep this type of candy in stock.
“We try to get at least get 16 to 24 pouches in at a time,” he said, “because that can usually only last us a couple days — maybe a week. It’s a steady pace on the milk chocolate covered gummy bears but we do try and make sure we have a large quantity on our shelves.” He said he tries to keep just enough in stock, so that there is a constant turnover and the candy stays fresh.
Pasquill himself doesn’t necessarily go for outrageous combinations of chocolate and candies. “Me, I’m like a traditional guy,” he said. “I like nuts — cashews, almonds, peanuts — something with a solid crunch. I’m not really for the crazy Swedish fish, the gummy bears, but I can see why it sells. Now, I won’t necessarily say that they are healthy, but we do have chocolate-covered raisins, and we do have chocolate-covered cranberries. That can be somewhat healthy because we do have dark chocolate, and I know dark chocolate is more healthy than milk.”
Chocolate-covered Doritos at The Chocolate Moose. Photo by John Fladd.
In Salem, a lot of The Chocolate Moose’s customers would agree with Pasquill’s preference for chocolate-covered nuts. According to owner Nancy Cornell, “what we have to make every day is the turtles.” She pointed to a long display case filled with different varieties of turtles, in all sizes, and with all different types of nuts. “This whole line all the way down is all turtles. We have mini turtles, in milk and dark chocolate, pecans and cashews, and then the larger ones, the same thing, and then there’s almonds, macadamia, and then there are Oreo turtles. The Oreo turtles have no nuts in them.”
Chocolate-covered candy apples are another big seller for Cornell.
“Today,” she said, “we’ve been selling apples. It’s mid-morning and we’ve only got one left. But at Christmas we usually start at 2:30 in the morning making the candy apples. Even now, my husband is up at 3 o’clock at night and he does apples galore. Another thing that’s popular is our peanut butter cups. People come from Boston and so on to come up and get our peanut butter cups.”
Cornell said fruit works really well dipped in chocolate. “This” she said, pointing, “is candied orange peel, and I have grapefruit peels too, but we’re sold out of them right now. To get that bitter taste away, you have to boil them three or four times, then dry them out for days, with sugar. And then we dip them. Same with the ginger. Ginger is hot, so when you put it in chocolate it doesn’t quite have that hotness to it. Orange peels, we mostly cover in dark [chocolate]; that seems to be what most people want. And we have dried apricots, too.”
She said that an old-fashioned favorite has been coming back into fashion recently. “Marzipan went through a period of time where people didn’t want it,” Cornell said, “and I would have it, and then I’d have to throw it away. But now it’s back again. People go in cycles, and they actually ask for it now.”
Some things never go out of style, though. “Oreos dipped in chocolate and graham crackers dipped are big,” she said. “They’ve been that way for years.I don’t think that’s ever going to change.”
DIY a chocolate coating
Buying chocolate-covered delicious things is an excellent way to express your affection, but there is always the homemade approach. Coating snacks in chocolate yourself (a) might impress the type of person that is impressed by this sort of thing, and (b) allows for a level of customization.
Making a chocolate-covered snack isn’t complicated — at least in theory. You only need two ingredients: a snack and some chocolate. It’s the details that can get a little finicky, such as what type of chocolate you use.
Richard Tango-Lowy is a master chocolatier and the owner of Dancing Lion Chocolate in Manchester. He said it’s not enough that a chocolate is delicious; if you’re going to coat something with it, you need to read the label.
“There are a lot of chocolates,” he said, “especially chocolate chips, that have ingredients that don’t lend themselves to [coating things]. You’re looking for three ingredients: cocoa solids, cocoa butter and sugar. Plus milk powder if it’s a milk chocolate.”
He said to stay away from anything labeled as “chocolate-style baking chips.”
Laura Wither, the chocolate maker for Loon Chocolate in Manchester, agrees. “There are additives in many [chocolates] that might or might not help you coat things — palm oil, and coconut oil, and things like that,” she said. She pointed out that Loon Chocolate doesn’t use them.
She also pointed out that it helps to be thoughtful about what kind of snack you’re covering with chocolate.
“I would say that you want to look for complementary flavors,” she said. “For example, we have a chocolate that leans towards the fruity side and I love it with pineapple. Contrasting can also be good. A lot of it is just taste testing, which is the fun part of the job here.”
If you want to coat a piece of fruit with chocolate, she said, it has to be patted as dry as possible.
“Chocolate and water are generally not good friends,” she said. “There are some exceptions but for the most part if we were covering fruit it would be dried fruit. I know people do chocolate-dipped strawberries, but generally when you do that, a lot of times, you’re using a coating chocolate.”
One fiddly part of melting chocolate at home is something called tempering. This is a process to make a chocolate shiny and give it a good snap when you break it or bite into it. It doesn’t change the flavor of a chocolate; it is a way of aligning the crystal structure of a batch of chocolate to bring out its best characteristics. On baking competition shows, judges will call out a contestant about how well or poorly tempered their chocolate is.
The accepted procedure that many home confectioners use to temper their chocolate involves manipulating its temperature:
Step 1 – Heat the chocolate in a double boiler, or in your microwave a few seconds at a time, until it reaches a temperature of 115°F.
Step 2 – Remove it from heat, and stir it until the temperature drops to 81°F. Most home chocolate-temperers will hurry the process by stirring unmelted chocolate into it. (I’ve used frozen chocolate to do this and have been reasonably pleased with the results.)
Step 3 – Raise the temperature of the chocolate again, to 92°F.
Step 4 – Start dipping.
If you think this seems like a difficult way to spend a morning, Richard Tango-Lowy agrees with you.
“You’re not going to do it at home unless you know what you’re doing,” he said. “Tempering is just one of those things that’s inherently complicated. You’ll never learn how to temper by watching videos. Most of them are just dead wrong.” To learn to temper chocolate at a professional level, he said, takes years of practice, and specialized techniques. Fortunately, there is a work-around, he said.
“If you don’t know how to temper, use chocolate that you like, one that is already tempered. Melt it extremely gently in the microwave — just mostly melt it, you’ll end up with a reasonably passable temper to put on your strawberries and things.” He advised melting the chocolate, a little at a time, until only a third or so of the chocolate remains solid, then to stir it until the chunks melt away.
Flamin’ Hot (Chocolate) Cheetos. Photo by John Fladd.
Once you have your chocolate melted, and delicious snack food standing by, it’s time to start covering things with chocolate. You can use chopsticks, tweezers or a fork to dip your snack and roll it around to cover it, or use a spoon to gently blanket it with melted chocolate. Coat the snacks, and put them on a piece of parchment paper or a silicone mat to cool and harden. In the photo below, I have coated Flamin’ Hot Cheetos with a 53 percent dark chocolate. I learned the hard way that they are delicious coated in white chocolate but can’t be swished around in it. The white chocolate will turn pink and look like peppermint, which it emphatically is not. I had the best luck laying each Cheeto on the surface of the melted white chocolate, then spooning it over the Cheeto. — John Fladdk trails.
Things to cover with chocolate
Easily made and stored for a week or so: Pretzels — especially peanut butter-filled ones Crystalized ginger Dried blueberries, spooned into clusters Candied orange slices Banana chips Any nuts — perhaps something unusual, like pistachios or shelled sunflower seeds Other candies like licorice bites or gummies Corn chips Spicy snacks — Flamin’ Hot Cheetos work very well Cookies — especially store-bought crunchy ones like Oreos or Vienna fingers Animal crackers Marzipan Espresso beans, especially dusted with lemon or lime zest
Easily made but must be eaten immediately: Strawberries Mango cubes Fresh mint leaves Avocado slices Jalapeno slices Cream cheese and lemon zest, or goat cheese
Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) will host Jennifer Finney Boylan, bestselling author of She’s Not There and co-author of Mad Honey with Jodi Picoult, as she presents her new book, Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us, tonight at 7 p.m. at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord. A signing line follows their discussion. Tickets cost $39 plus fees and include a pre-signed copy of Cleavage.
Thursday, Feb. 6
The Huntington at Nashua (55 Kent Lane, Nashua, 598-1440, silverstoneliving.org/the-huntington) will host a lecture by New Hampshire Humanities called “Benedict Arnold, Patriot (and Traitor)” this afternoon at 1:30 p.m. Historian George Morrison will take participants on a journey through New England, Canada and New York tracing the complex story of this infamous American.
Thursday, Feb. 6
There will be a Musical Bingo Fundraiser this evening at 6 p.m. to raise money for Karasu Tengu Academy’s (1 Chestnut St., Nashua, 689-4966, ktacademymma.com) Youth MMA team. It will take place at O’Brien’s Sports Bar (118 Main St., Nashua). Do you think you have superior music knowledge? Come down for some fun music bingo. Hosted by DJ Bern Hurley, $10 per card or three for $20. This is a family-friendly event.
Thursday, Feb. 6
There will be an Open Mic event at the Ted Herbert Music School (880 Page St., Manchester, 669-7469, tedherbert.com) tonight from 7 to 8 p.m. This event is open to all and no previous sign-ups are needed. Perform a solo act, recite a poem, meet and network with other musicians at this family-friendly event. A full backline of drums, piano and amplifier, guitar amplifier, bass amplifier and vocal microphone with PA system will be provided.
Saturday, Feb. 8
The SNHU Arena (555 Elm St., Manchester, 644-5000, snhuarena.com) will play host to intense mixed martial arts action with Combat Zone 87 tonight beginning at 6 p.m. Tickets start at $38 through ticketmaster.com.
Saturday, Feb. 8
There will be a New Hampshire Historical Society (30 Park St., Concord, 228-6688, nhhistory.org) lecture on “Murder, Mayhem, and the Criminal World in New Hampshire” today beginning at 2 p.m. Historian Milli Knudsen will take participants on a true-crime journey through history. Signed copies of her book will be available at the event. Attendance is free for Society members, $10 for nonmembers.
Sunday, Feb. 9
Every Sunday through April 13, the Barley House Restaurant and Tavern (132 N. Main St., Concord, 228-6363, thebarleyhouse.com) will host a weekly cribbage tournament, with registration at 11:30 p.m. and the first match beginning at 12:30 p.m. All skill levels are welcome.
Save the Date! Friday, Feb. 14
The Gods of Comedy will be performed by the Community Players of Concord (435 Josiah Bartlett Road, Concord, 224-4905, communityplayersofconcord.org) at Concord City Auditorium (2 Prince St., Concord, 228-2793, theaudi.org) from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 14. The capricious gods of comedy from ancient Greece follow a college professor through time to the States and become embroiled in a crazy on-campus “Classics Weekend” with mistaken identities, a lost manuscript and too much partying all around. Tickets cost $20, $18 for ages 17 and under or 65+. See communityplayersofconcord.org.
As reported in a Feb. 2 online article by WMUR, the Merrimack County Department of Corrections has relaunched its Hero Pup program. “Selected inmates will work with the nonprofit,” the article read, “to train and care for puppies that will become support dogs for veterans and first responders.” The program began six years ago but was paused due to the pandemic. The first group of this round of inmates began working with the puppies earlier this week, the story said.
QOL score: +1
Comment: Commenting on the inmate training program, the Hero Pups website (heropups.com) reads, “This will help the pups on their path to service work, but it will also help the inmate participants learn new skills to give them more tools for success.”
A historic church passes into history
On Jan. 26, Manchester Ink Link reported that one of the city’s churches will shutter its doors after 140 years. The Gethsemane Evangelical Lutheran Church has voted to close in May. The article quoted a statement by Gethsemane’s Church Council: “[The Church] has existed at its location on Sagamore Street in Manchester since the 1880s, when a group of Swedish immigrant workers from the Amoskeag Mills constructed its church on land donated by the Amoskeag Company. Services were held in Swedish until the early 1950s ….”
QOL score: -1
Comments: According to the Ink Link article the church is for sale and listed at $1.2 million.
Doom spending
A recent survey by BTCpostage (btcpostage.com) had good news and bad news about spending money in times of increased stress in New Hampshire. On the one hand, New Hampshire ranks 31st in the nation in stress-spending. On the other hand, 80 percent of New Hampshire respondents reported “doom spending.” As reported by BTCpostage, “48 percent say politics drive them to doom spend (2nd highest in the U.S.), 26 percent say climate change drives them to doom spend (7th highest in the U.S.), and 37 percent say the fear of not being able to retire drives them to doom spend (9th highest in the U.S.)”
QOL score: -1
Comment: The report indicates that nationwide the largest increases in spending are in the areas of food, entertainment and clothing. Visit btcpostage.com/blog/doom-spenders.
UNH helps NASA stare really hard into deep space
New Hampshire Public Radio reported on Feb. 3 that an instrument developed at the University of New Hampshire has been installed in a spacecraft that is getting ready to launch. The device, called IMAP-Lo, will be part of a mission to study the space between solar systems. The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, or IMAP, mission is scheduled to launch later this year. “[UNH’s instrument] was built to collect and analyze invisible particles — neutral atoms — that make up the interstellar medium,” NHPR reported
QOL score: +1
Comment: “Measuring galactic material will help scientists understand more about the age of the universe and the evolution of the galaxy,” NHPR wrote. “It could also help reveal where, exactly, we are in the universe.”
QOL score last week: 54
Net change: 0
QOL this week: 54
What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire?
John Skevington was named the new CEO of Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, which as of Feb. 1 is a part of HCA Healthcare, according to an HCA release. Skevington most recently served as interim CEO of Portsmouth Regional Hospital and was previously CEO at Parkland Medical Center, both HCA Healthcare facilities, the release said. Previous CEO Alex Walker will be the executive director of the new nonprofit Catholic Health Care Foundation of Greater Manchester, according to a Jan. 29 story from the Union Leader.
Oscar 2026
The New Hampshire Film Festival, slated for Oct. 16 through Oct. 19 in Portsmouth, will serve as an Academy Award qualifying festival for films in the three short film categories, according to a festival press release. The festival is now taking submissions for the 2025 festival including those Oscar hopefuls in the live action shorts, animated shorts and documentary shots categories, the release said. See nhfilmfestival.coml.
Re-entry program
The New Hampshire departments of Corrections and Health and Human Services have launched two new programs aimed at helping adults and youth prepare for discharge from correctional facilities, according to a DHHS press release. The programs — the Community Re-Entry program and the Youth Re-Entry Program — were both launched on Jan. 1 and seek to help participants “be successful in their return to community settings and reduce recidivism related to unmet health care needs,” the release said. The adult program will “provide eligible adult individuals with severe and persistent mental illness and substance use disorders a targeted set of health care and peer services 45 days prior to release,” the release said. The youth program “provides a tailored service package to Medicaid-eligible youth up to age 21 and former foster youth up to age 26,” the release said.
Break out the flannel
Nashua will host its first ever GenXpo on Sunday, March 2, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Nashua Center for the Arts, according to a press release from the mayor’s office. This free event is geared at “Gen Xers, Baby Boomers and better” and will include “a variety of entertainment and leisure companies, businesses and service providers of all kinds, who have offerings targeted towards the needs and interests of those age 50 and better. Financial planners, travel agencies, local activities, home improvement, adult learning, health care and fitness, insurance, senior life and housing, etc.,” the release said. Vendors and sports can sign up until Feb. 14 by emailing [email protected].
The Center for the Arts will hold its monthly First Friday Gallery Stroll on Friday, Feb. 7, from 5 to 7 p.m, showcasing artwork at five locations in New London. See cfanh.org.
Ice has been declared “in” and the 46th annual Great Meredith Rotary Fishing Derby is on for Saturday, Feb. 8, and Sunday, Feb. 9, on the lake near Hesky Park in Meredith, with a $15,000 prize for the winning fish. There will be a kids’ activity tent with contests, snacks and a free ice fishing clinic. Go to icefishingnh.com for tickets, derby rules and registration.
N.H. Poetry Out Loud competition announced the schedule for its upcoming semi-finals: Tuesday, Feb. 11, at 6 p.m. at New England College in Henniker; Thursday, Feb. 13, at 6 p.m. at Plymouth State University, and Tuesday, Feb. 18, at 6 p.m. at the Rochester Opera House. Now in its 20th year, the competition features high school-age students reciting poems, according to a press release. See nharts.dncr.nh.gov/programs/poetry-out-loud.
The NH Audubon’s 38th Annual Backyard Winter Bird Survey is Saturday, Feb. 8, and Sunday, Feb. 9. Go to nhaudubon.org to learn how to help produce a snapshot of the state of birds in New Hampshire by birdwatching from your backyard. For more on the event, see the story on page 11 in the Jan. 30 issue of the paper; find the digital issue at hippopress.com.
The 2025 Special Olympics Penguin Plunge will be held Sunday, Feb. 9, at Hampton Beach. After a costume parade at 11:30 a.m., plungers will begin their run into (and then quickly out of) the Atlantic at noon, followed by a towel, a change into dry clothes and a lunch. For information on supporting the plunge or plunging yourself, see fundraising.sonh.org. A High School Plunge is held Saturday, Feb. 8, and the next big cold-water fund-raising event is the Winni Dip in Laconia on March 8.
On the cover 10 It’s cold, sure, but you can still hit the trail. Zachary Lewis talks to experts about hiking in winter, the gear you may need and the birds you could spot along the way. Photo above by Matt Larson.
Also on the cover Tacos, coffee, ice cream, doughnuts — vote for the best of all the best stuff in our Best of 2025 Hippo readers’ poll. Vote now at hippopress.com.
And check out this week’s food section, which is full of tasty stuff. John Fladd finds out about Sunstone Brewery Co. and its Viking vibes, Soel Sistas’ customers paying it forward and how to make a tres leches cake from the owner of Bittersweet Bake Shoppe. It all starts on page 20.
Colby-Sawyer showcases Italian program By Michael Witthaus [email protected] Every year for more than two decades, students from Colby-Sawyer College in ...
Baker and owner of Bittersweet Bake Shoppe (272 Derry Road, Litchfield, 978-649-2253, bittersweetbakeshoppe.com) Elisbet Dupont is a graphic designer from ...
