Category: Cover Stories

A community of crafters

In praise of making stuff and meeting people

By Zachary Lewis
listings@hippopress.com

“Craft,” the word itself, encompasses a wide variety of hands-on activities that you, a loved one, a friend, or even a frenemy can partake in together or separately. In fact, a real craft community has woven together.

Following along with the almighty easel to Bob Ross re-runs on YouTube all by me onesies is a swell way to spend a Sunday morning but one can not live solely by crafting alone.

Where should the curious crafters go? Studio 550 is a swell choice. Located on Elm Street in downtown Manchester, Studio 550 was founded by and is run by Monica Leap, who provides a space for crafters to congregate.

“I can’t say everybody likes being around other people, but I think people enjoy doing things together,” Leap said. “And when you are making something with your hands, it occupies a different kind of brain space and it puts you in a different kind of presence…whether you’re painting, working with clay, stained glass, drawing or whatever, it requires your presence. So when you’re doing them together in a group, you’re all in it together.”

Crafting takes you out of your head and into the present moment and allows for space to strike up a conversation. Studio 550 offers a wide range of art classes and workshops on drawing, pottery, watercolor painting, acrylic painting, introductory drawing, stained glass, clay hand-sculpting and more.

“In November,” Leap said, “we have a visiting artist coming named Lisa Orr. She’s an artist from Massachusetts who’s been working in clay for over 40 years. She makes some really funky, ornate stuff that is actually really functional and just sucks you in when you’re looking at it in person.”

Studio 550 also has its Hands-On Holiday Market in December, a market that is only possible through the contribution of many.

“It happens the week before Christmas and it’s just members and people that create their work here selling their work for a week-long market. We just take over our 2D painting studio and turn it into a browsing space, so you don’t have to socialize. You don’t have to talk with the vendor. It gives our students a low-stakes way to start selling their work and to start presenting their work to the public. It’s usually very impressive what they can come up with,” Leap said.

Cheering you on

Another righteous way to craft down with family and friends is at the Bedford Canvas Roadshow. I asked the owner, Casey Wilson, why she thought people liked to get together to craft.

“Well, I think one thing, especially for businesses and people that aren’t crafters, is it’s something that gets them out of that comfort zone,” Wilson said. “I think a lot of people are like, I’m not an artist, I can’t do it, there’s no way it’s going to look just as good as the example, but when they come out and we show them, kind of get them out of their comfort zone of what they think they can do and really show them that they can do it, it’s kind of a really wow factor to see that explored.”

That winning feeling makes one social too.

“People can talk, mingle, kind of see what other people are doing, and hopefully make a friend,” Wilson said.

Bedford Canvas Roadshow will be well into its holiday as you read these words.

“We’ve already switched on to our winter Christmas kind of vibe. So it’s going to be all winter and Christmas projects but they’re always changing. Our seagrass trees were really popular last year, so that always catches a lot of people’s interest during that holiday season,” she said.

Wilson spoke on the positivity in the studio: “When you’re at the studio, not only do you have the instructor there to help you, root you on, but you also could have the whole class giving you suggestions and helping you. Saying, how that looks great or that kind of thing. We’re almost like our own cheerleaders in a sense.”

Crafters can learn how to create crushed glass snow globes, tumble sea glass holiday trees, knit snowmen, and do other crafts in November. Some more opportunities to make friends as well as crafts could take place at a knit blanket workshop, wood workshops, resin workshops and much more.

Getting together

Other venues exist where the art itself is a pleasant visitor alongside the crafter. Another pleasant visitor is the wine. Wine on Main in Concord hosts a plethora, and I mean a plethora, of fun arts and crafts events.

“We definitely do wine events like wine classes and like food and wine pairing events, but we do like a large amount of crafting activities as well,” Emma Stetson, the owner of Wine on Main, said. “Specifically, we work with a friend of mine. Her name is Stephanie, but she goes by the moniker The Funky Squid. She and her family also own Averill House Vineyards in Brookline, New Hampshire. She is also a professional crafter. So she comes here at least once a month to do some kind of fun craft. We pair it with a wine tasting, usually including four wines from around the world, and light snacks,” Stetson said.

Some of the offerings include the wine bag tote workshop coming up on Thursday, Nov. 12, from 6 to 8 p.m. as well as a glass sweater ornament creation extravaganza on Dec. 2 with plenty more.

“We’ve had a lot of new people move to Concord who have come here and said, ‘I’ve recently come to Concord and I’m looking to meet people.’ So I’ll say, come to one of our crafting nights because there are lots of people who come by themselves and people who come to make friends, and they do. It’s become a great place to meet people and especially for new people coming to Concord to make friends and become part of the community,” Stetson said.

Sure, it’s perfectly acceptable to stay at home and stare at the yarn crumpled in your bedroom corner, but it’s also a swell idea to interact with the living and crochet the world’s largest scarf.

Enjoying the journey

The process should be enjoyable, and completion is not necessarily the main goal nor is producing what you originally set out to create. Crafting is a journey. Meg Locker, the founder of New Hampshire Craft Club, is a fan of the crafting journey.

“I like imperfect crafting,” Locker said. “Stuff like scrapbooking, where there’s no specific desired outcome. It just kind of becomes whatever it becomes over the course of the event. So scrapbooking and mosaics and anything that’s like hands-on and doesn’t need to be perfect.”

Locker started the Craft Club in May 2025, “which feels like it was so long ago,” she said. “Our business model at the time was everything we do is completely mobile.” Catering to the majority of the state, she is now happy to report she’ll be opening a new studio in Concord (check their websites for the most up-to-date information).

New Hampshire Craft Club will be exploring the many threads of fiber arts in November.

“So things like knitting, crocheting. It’s very much a ‘come as you are’ sort of thing. You don’t need to have a defined skill. You don’t need to be what I call a capital-A artist, overly knowledgeable and skillful in fine arts. It’s meant to be, first and foremost, an opportunity to get out of the house and do something with people in your community. Secondary to that, we want everyone to leave every event with something fun that they can say, ‘Hey, I made this with my own hands.’ If you’re ever curious, feel free to stop by. I’m very responsive online, so send me an email, message me on Instagram. We just want to build this community.”

Continuing on this same spool of thought, the craft community, like any other, is built one thread at a time, although it is a lot more fun to say it in a crafting context.

Touch moss

Dash of Creativity is another excellent crafting endeavour where Granite Staters can sew together. Founded by Dasha Randlett, Dash of Creativity has spiced up breweries, libraries and other venues all across New England. Her selections can be found through Eventbrite or her Facebook page.

“I really started out with crochet and macrame,” Randlett said. “That’s really where my foundation is, but since then I’ve been doing a lot of different things.”

“Macrame is, I guess I’d call it the art of knot tying. You have strings that are set up in a configuration and then you just make specific kinds of knots and patterns. Then by doing that repetitively, you’ll end up with an image or a design,” Randlett said.

“I think it’s nice to actually go out in the real world and actually do something with your hands and feel accomplished,” Randlett said. “For instance, with bows, embroidery, and crochet, a lot of people have never done it. Once they actually have done it, it’s like, oh, that was actually really fun. And it was actually a really enjoyable experience.” These good vibes are a major component in the naturally occurring friendship fabrication that goes on during Dasha’s crafting workshops.

Penumbra in Concord also contains a wonderful curation of crafting events. Alison Murphy and Alyssa McClary are the married team behind the crafty plant store where one could meet a friend making a terrarium or even a kokedama.

“It’s a Japanese word and it’s like a moss and soil ball,” McClary said. “You pick out a plant and then we show you how to make the moss ball. Then you wind it up in a bunch of twine or fishing line, and you can hang it and it’s super cool.” This workshop will be held on Thursday, Nov. 12.

Another project is succulent centerpieces for Thanksgiving, which will take place on the week of Thanksgiving. A personal favorite of McClary’s have been needle felting projects that they have hosted in the past.

“Needle felting is, you get raw wool [fleece] and take these, they have these special different kinds of needles and you just stab it repeatedly until it’s become this solid mass and yeah, I find it incredibly therapeutic.” The relaxation produced allows crafters to be open to meeting others while they create cuddly little supernatural critters.

“We have had an artist at the store,” McClary said, “who makes needle-felted characters. She made a bunch of ghosts for Halloween. She’ll make little gnome guys at Christmas, whatever strikes her. … You turn this raw, stringy felt into this compact mass of whatever you want to make. It’s pretty cool.”

Buy crafts

Holiday season is craft fair season

Compiled by Amy Diaz
adiaz@hippopress.com

Here are some of the crafts fairs, arts markets, open studios and other arts and artisan and crafter promoting events in the holiday season. Have an event not mentioned here? Let us know at adiaz@hippopress.com.

• Manchester Craft Market at the Mall of NH, 1500 S. Willow St. in Manchester, features the works of several area makers, artists and craftspeople, according to manchestercraftmarket.com, where you can find a list of the makers. The shop is open Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., the website said.

• The Craftworkers’ Guild in Bedford has two shopping opportunities at its location in Oliver Kendall House, behind the Bedford Public Library on Meetinghouse Road in Bedford, according to its website, thecraftworkersguild.org. The November Hearth & Home Shop will run Thursday, Oct. 29, through Sunday, Nov. 22, open Thursdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the website said. The Holiday Shop is open Friday, Nov. 27, through Sunday, Dec. 20, open Wednesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the website said. “Handcrafts in our shop include fashion accessories, fabric & fiber arts, jewelry, home decor, art glass, pottery & ceramic arts, painting & photography, gourmet & goodie treats, children’s goods, cards & papercraft, soaps, lotions and candles, woodenware, metalwork, knitwear and blankets,” and more, the website said.

• The Concord Arts Market (concordartsmarket.org) and others will participate in the Concord Art Walk, the final First Friday event of the season in downtown Concord, on Friday, Nov. 6, from 4 to 8 p.m., according to firstfridayconcord.com. Concord Arts Market will set up with 20+ vendors on Capitol Street, the website said. Arts Alley, Kimball Jenkins and other Concord locations will also be participating, the website said.

• The First Church of Nashua, 1 Concord St. in Nashua, will hold its Holiday Fair & Silent Auction on Friday, Nov. 6, from 4 to 7 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 7, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., featuring a Santa visit from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday; a Friday night dinner from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. and a Saturday lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; a thrift shop from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday; homemade goodies, gift baskets, craft items and more, according to a church flyer.

• Merrimack Knights of Columbus Fall Craft Fair will be held at Mastricola Upper Elementary School, 26 Baboosic Lake Road in Merrimack, on Friday, Nov. 6, from 5 to 8 p.m., and Saturday, Nov. 7, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., featuring more than 40 crafters, a bake table, a chance auction, a food counter and more, according to an email from event organizers.

• Grace Episocopal Church, 30 Eastman St. in Concord, will hold its annual St. Nicholas Fair on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., featuring “fresh-baked Christmas goodies, crafts, jewelry, children’s fun,” a cookie walk and more, according to an email from the church. See graceeastconcord.org.

• The Nashua YMCA of the YMCA of Greater Nashua, 24 Stadium Drive in Nashua, will hold its Fall Craft Fair on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will feature concessions, kids’ activities, local vendors and more, according to nmymca.org/fall-craft-fair.

• Scout Troop 101 Craft Fair will take place Saturday, Nov. 7, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Raymond High School, 45 Harriman Hill Road in Raymond, featuring more than 75 local crafters and artisans plus hot foods and baked goods, according to a Facebook page for the event.

• The Hampstead Mother’s Club 40th Annual Craft Fair will take place on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Hampstead Middle School, 28 School St. in Hampstead, featuring more than 80 local artisans, according to hampsteadmothersclub.org.

• The Granite State Choral Society will hold a Craft Fair on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the James W. Foley Memorial Community Center, 150 Wakefield St. in Rochester, according to gschoralsociety.org.

• The Route 3 Art Trail will run Saturday, Nov. 7, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. featuring a self-guided tour of locations in Concord, Franklin, Boscawen and Penacook, according to a press release. Find a map and schedule at route3arttrail.com. See the story on page 14.

• The Third Annual Holiday Craft & Artisan Show will take place at the Capital City Sports Complex, 10 Garvins Falls Road in Concord, on Saturday, Nov. 7, and Sunday, Nov. 8, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. featuring 125 exhibitors of “jewelry … seasonal décor, gourmet treats, art, clothing, woodwork, home goods, and more,” according to an event email. Admission costs $7 (which covers both days) and is free for kids 14 and under and for everyone after 3 p.m. on Sunday, the email said. The event will also feature craft brews and cocktails, live music, lunch and more, the release said. See gnecraftartisanshows.com.

• The Assumption Greek Orthodox Church Ladies Philoptochos Society will hold its annual Fall Bazaar on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 8, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the church hall at 111 Island Pond Road in Manchester, featuring Greek food and pastry as well as raffles and vendors. Visit assumptionnh.org.

• Paper Jam, a zine and print fest, will take place at The Millspace, 55 Main St. in Newmarket, millspace.org, on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., “bringing together artists, writers, printmakers, and indie publishers from across the Seacoast and greater New England,” according to the website.

• The Bedford Handmade Fair will take place Sunday, Nov. 8, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Bedford High School, 47 Nashua Road in Bedford, featuring local artists, crafters and artisans, according to a press release. See sites.google.com/bedfordnhk12.net/bedfordhandmade/home.

• Lil’ Iguana’s Children’s Safety Foundation will hold its annual Craft Fair & Raffle on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Nashua High School North, 8 Titan Way in Nashua, according to liliguanausa.org/craft-fair. The event will feature more than “150 crafters, vendors and area businesses” as well as a raffle room, the website said.

• St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 335 Smyth Road in Manchester, will hold its Craft Fair on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. featuring crafts and homemade goods, a cookie walk and bake sale, a silent auction and more, according to a flyer on the church’s Facebook page. See stpaulsumcnh.org.

• Bow Mills United Methodist Church, 505 South St. in Bow, will hold its annual Snowman Fair on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The day will feature crafts to make for kids, holiday crafts for sale, baked goods and a silent auction and more, according to bowmillsumc.org.

• United Church of Penacook, at Community Drive and Canal Street in Penacook, will hold its annual Christmas Fair on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. featuring a bake sale, holiday decorations, home decor and pottery, knitted items, jams and jellies, jewelry and handbags, quilts and fabric crafts and toys and pet gifts, according to a flyer on the church’s Facebook page.

• Pembroke Academy, 209 Academy Road in Pembroke, will host the Pembroke Academy DECA business and marketing club’s Holiday Craft Fair on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., according to a flyer on the Facebook page for the Spartan Market, which provides the school’s branded gear and will be open at the fair, the post said.

• The Christmas Craft Fair at St. Elizabeth Seton, 190 Meetinghouse Road in Bedford, will take place on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. featuring 50 vendors, raffle baskets and more, according to stelizabethsetonchurch.org.

• The 36th Annual Memorial High School Booster Club Craft Fair will take place Saturday, Nov. 14, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Memorial High School, 1 Crusader Way in Manchester, in the gym, mini gym, cafeteria and hallway, according to a Facebook post about the event at facebook.com/events/1774901677192151. The fair will feature 215+ booths, a raffle table, 50/50 drawing, The Whoopie Pie Wagon from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Burstin’ Kernel and Tom’s Travelin’ Coffee Truck, and more, according to the post.

• Main Street United Methodist Church, 154 Main St. in Nashua, will hold its Fall Fair on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. featuring craft items, baked goods, a cookie walk, Grandma’s Attic, food and more, according to a post on the church’s Facebook page.

• Londonderry United Methodist Church, 258 Mammoth Road in Londonderry, will hold its ’Tis the Season Craft Fair on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to the church newsletter at londonderryumc.org. The event will feature more than 40 artisan and food vendors as well as Hangryz Food Truck and Roy’s Empanadas, a silent auction and more, the flyer said.

• St. Charles Borromeo, 300 N. Route 25 in Meredith, will hold its Craft Fair on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to stcharlesnh.org.

• Concord Hospital will hold its 40th Annual Holiday Craft Fair on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the hospital, 250 Pleasant St. in Concord, according a hospital flyer. The event will feature “100+ tables of handmade creations,” raffles and more, the flyer said.

• Seacoast Artisans present the 27th annual Holiday Fine Arts & Crafts Show on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Great Bay Community College, 320 Corporate Drive at Pease Trade Port in Portsmouth, according to seacoastartisansshows.com. Admission costs $8 and kids ages 14 and under get in free, the website said.

• The League of NH Craftsmen will present Handmade in the Harbor, described as a “38 talented League craftsmen for an intimate, curated showcase of exceptional handmade work,” at Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club, 135 Congress St. in Portsmouth, on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 15, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to a press release. See nhcrafts.org to purchase tickets.

• The YMCA Allard Center of Goffstown, 116 Goffstown Back Road, will hold a Holiday Arts Market Monday, Nov. 23, through Thursday, Dec. 24, with a baked goods auction Nov. 16 through Nov. 23, according to an email from the Goffstown YMCA. See graniteymca.org.

• The Southern NH Chamber of Commerce will host a Small Biz Marketplace Expo at the Plaistow Community YMCA, 175 Plaistow Road in Plaistow, on Wednesday, Nov. 18, from 3 to 7 p.m., featuring unique products, one-of-a-kind gifts, and special finds from local small businesses, according to a post on the Southern NH Chamber of Commerce’s Facebook page.

• Concord Handmade — A Holiday Popup Shop, which will feature “artwork and handmade goods from more than 40 artists and makers throughout New England,” will open for the season on Friday, Nov. 20, at 10 N. State St. in Concord, according to an organizer email. Find Concord Handmade on Facebook for updates.

• The Bedford Women’s Club will hold its Festival of Trees and Holiday Market on Friday, Nov. 20, from 4 to 6 p.m., and Saturday, Nov. 21, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Presbyterian Church, 4 Chad Road in Bedford, according to a club flyer. See bedfordwomensclub.org.

• St. Patrick Church, 34 Amherst St. in Milford, will hold its Church Fair on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to an email. The fair will feature homemade baked goods, handmade quilts, Christmas trees, holiday decor, food concessions and more, the email said.

• The United Methodist Women of Hampton United Methodist Church, 525 Lafayette Road in Hampton, will hold their annual Christmas Fair on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to a press release. The event will include food for dine-in and takeout, a bake and treat shop, a silent auction, craft corner, Woodland Pines wreaths and baskets and more, the release said.

• The 44th Annual Holiday Craft Fair at Thorntons Ferry School. 134 Camp Sargent Road in Merrimack, will take place on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and feature more than 70 vendors, a silent auction, baked goods, Mr. and Mrs. Claus and more, according to facebook.com/TFSPTTF.

• Saint Catherine of Siena School, 206 North St. in Manchester, will hold its Holiday Fair on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, Nov. 22, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., in the school gym, according to saintcatherineparishnh.com.

• Holiday Fair from the Women’s Association at Congregational Church of Amherst, 11 Church St. in Amherst, will run Saturday, Nov. 21, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. featuring crafts, wreaths and ornaments, raffle baskets, holiday arrangements, baked goods, food, jewelry, collectibles and more, according to ccamherst.org.

• The Church of St. Patrick, 34 Amherst St. in Milford, will hold a Church Fair on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to spccnh.org/events.

• The PTO at New Searles Elementary School, 39 Shady Lane in Nashua, will hold a Holiday Craft Fair on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. featuring games, crafts, raffles and more, according to the PTO’s Facebook.

• The 15th Annual Community Holiday Craft Fair at Meredith Community Center, 1 Circle Drive in Meredith, will be held on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will feature more than 45 local crafters, a bake sale, lunch and raffles, according to an email from Meredith Parks and Recreation Department.

• The Pelham High School Craft Fair, 87 Marsh Road in Pelham, will be Saturday, Nov. 21, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and will feature more than 45 vendors, according to the event’s Facebook page.

• St. Anne Parish, 26 Emerson Ave. in Hampstead, will hold its Christmas Fair on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 22, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., according to the church’s Facebook page. The fair will feature a raffle, silent auction, crafters, baked goods, themed gift baskets and more, the flyer on the post said.

• The Picker Artists, 3 Pine St. in Nashua, will hold their Holiday Open Studios on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to the Picker Artists Facebook page. “Explore our studios, meet our artists, and get a behind-the-scenes look at their creativity,” the post said.

• Holiday Fine Craft & Artisan Show on the Seacoast takes place Saturday, Nov. 21, and Sunday, Nov. 22, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days, at Rim Sports Complex, 311 Winnacunnet Road in Hampton, according to GNECraftArtisanShows.com. The event will feature 135 exhibitors, food trucks, live music, Santa and more, the website said. Admission costs $5, valid both days; ages 14 and under get in free, the website said.

• The Portsmouth Holiday Arts Tour featuring seven home studios in Portsmouth with 14 local artists will be held Saturday, Nov. 21, and Sunday, Nov. 22, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to a press release. See the map and more information at portsmouthartstour.com.

• The Derry Third Annual Holiday Sip and Shop at Fody’s Tavern, 187½ Rockingham Road in Derry, will take place Sunday, Nov. 22, from noon to 5 p.m. and feature crafters and vendors, according to the Facebook page for New England Vendor Events.

• The Great New England Holiday Craft Market will take place Friday, Nov. 27, and Saturday, Nov. 28, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the LaBelle Winery, 14 Route 111 in Derry, according to labellewinery.com, where you can RSVP.

• Exeter Holiday Parade Craft Fair will take place on Saturday, Nov. 28, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Historic Exeter Town Hall, 10 Front St. in Exeter, according to a press release. The fair will feature two floors of “craft items from local crafters and artisans,” the release said.

• Deck the Shelves Bookish Holiday Market held by Bookish Bliss Books will take place Saturday, Nov. 28, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at DoubleTree Expo Center, 700 Elm St. in Manchester, according to a post on Bookish Bliss Books’ Instagram. The event will feature 100+ makers and crafters, 40+ local authors, door prizes, raffles and more, the post said.

• Winter Members Show & Sale 2026 at Two Villages Art Society, 846 Main St. in Contoocook, twovillagesart.org, will be on display Saturday, Nov. 28, through Saturday, Dec. 26, according to the website. The show features works from more than 50 artist members, the website said. The gallery is open Thursdays through Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. with an opening reception held Saturday, Dec. 5, from noon to 2 p.m., the website said.

• The Nashua 12th Annual Holiday Craft Fair will take place at Broad Street Elementary School, 390 Broad St. in Nashua, on Sunday, Nov. 29, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to the Facebook page for New England Vendor Events. The event will feature more than 50 crafters and vendors plus photo opportunities with Santa, the post said.

• NH Alt Market will take place Sunday, Nov. 29, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Millspace, 55 Main St. in Newmarket, according to millspace.org.

• A Holiday Market at To Share Brewing, 720 Union St. in Manchester, will take place on Sunday, Nov. 29, from 1 to 6 p.m. and feature artists, artisans, makers and more, according to the brewery.

• The Artisan Nook at Kimball Jenkins, 266 N. Main St. in Concord, will run Thursday, Dec. 3, through Sunday, Dec. 20, with shopping hours Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 8 p.m. (through 10 p.m. on Dec. 4) and Sundays from noon to 6 p.m., according to kimballjenkins.com. “Visit our pop-up holiday showcase of locally made fine art and craft items featuring local artisans,” the website said.

• The Contoocook Artisans Holiday Craft Fair “featuring 30+ local artisans” will take place Friday, Dec. 4, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 5, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, Dec. 6, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the American Legion Post 81, E.R. Montgomery Event Center, 169 Bound Tree Road in Contoocook, according to an organizer email. Email ContoocookArtisansNH@Gmail.com with questions.

• Manchester Makers Market Co. will present the 2026 Manchester Christmas Food, Crafts & Holiday Market on Friday, Dec. 4, through Sunday, Dec. 6, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Center of NH Expo, 650 Elm St. in Manchester, according to the eventbrite.com page for the event.

• The Atkinson Garden Club will hold its Greens and Gifts Sale on Friday, Dec. 4, and Saturday, Dec. 5, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Atkinson Community Center, 4 Main St. in Atkinson, featuring fresh greens in holiday decorations as well as other items, according to atkinsongardenclub.com, where you can pre-order wreaths, kissing balls and more.

• The UNH Makers Expo, featuring items made by UNH students, staff and faculty, will take place Friday, Dec. 4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Granite State Room at the New Hampshire Memorial Union on the campus in Durham, according to students.unh.edu. “Engineers who knit! IT folks doing scratch prints! Jewelry from biologists! It’s a great way to support local artisans and get some holiday shopping done,” the website said.

• Concord Arts Market will present Giftopolis at Midnight Merriment on Friday, Dec. 4, from 5 to 11 p.m. at the Eagle Square Atrium in downtown Concord, according an email from an organizer. Concord Arts Market is also creating a Give A Little Art Holiday Gift Guide, which will be at concordartsmarket.org/give-a-little-art, the email said.

• The 49th Annual Pine Hill Holiday Fair will take place at High Mowing School, Pine Hill Campus, 77 Pine HIll Drive in Wilton, on Friday, Dec. 4, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. (adults only) and on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to an email from organizers. Saturday will feature children’s activities, a puppet show, a circus performance, music, treats and more, the email said. See highmowing.org/holidayfair.

• The Longmeadow Church Ladies Circle will hold its 48th Annual Snowflake Fair on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the church, 4 Wilson’s Crossing in Auburn, according to the fair’s eventbrite.com page.

• The First Baptist Church, 121 Manchester St. in Nashua, will hold its Christmas Fair and Food Extravaganza on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., with an all-day buffet, a Christmas gift shop, a Santa visit from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., kids’ activities, home-baked pies and more, according to fbcnashua.org.

• The Holiday Craft Fair at Brookline Event Center, 32 Proctor Hill Road in Brookline, will take place Saturday, Dec. 5, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with free admission, according to brooklineeventcenter.com/our-events.

• The PTO at Beaver Meadow School, 40 Sewalls Falls Road in Concord, will hold its annual Holiday Craft Fair on Saturday, Dec. 5, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to the PTO’s Facebook page. The event will also feature baked goods and raffles, the post said.

• The Amherst Lions Club will hold its 46th Annual Craft Fair & Silent Auction on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Amherst Middle School, 16 Cross Road in Amherst, according to the Amherst Lions Club Facebook page.

• St. Patrick Parish, 12 Main St. in Pelham, will hold its Christmas Craft Fair on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., featuring local crafters, homemade baked goods, raffles and more, according to an email.

• The Somersworth Festival Association will host its Holiday Craft Fair on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Somersworth High School, 11 Memorial Drive in Somersworth, according to nhfestivals.org

• The 37th annual Christmas in Strafford, featuring more than 50 artists and craftspeople across about 30 locations (stores, studios and other locations), is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 5, and Sunday, Dec. 6, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on both days.

• The 5th Annual Grinnell Elementary Craft Fair, held by the Grinnell School PTA, will take place at 6 Grinnell Road in Derry, on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. featuring “unique handmade items, gifts, crafts and products from talented local vendors and makers,” according to a post on the PTA’s Facebook page.

• The Animal Rescue League of NH, 545 Route 101, Bedford, will hold a Holiday Fair Saturday, Dec. 5, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. featuring pet photos with Santa or the Grinch (by appointment), craft vendors, tree sales, a bake sale and more, according to rescueleague.org.

• The Unitarian Universalist Church of Manchester, 669 Union St. in Manchester, will hold its Holiday Faire on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. according to uumanchester.org.

• Searles Castle at Windham, 23 Searles Road, will hold a Searles Castle Christmas Market on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., featuring “local vendors, unique gifts, festive treats, holiday cheer” and more, according to a post on the Searles Castle at NHC Events Facebook page.

• Local vendors are part of Merrymaking on West Merrimack, an event featuring food, music, family fun and vendors in Manchester on Sunday, Dec. 6, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to merrymakingmht.com.

• The Holiday Sip and Shop at the Bedford Event Center, 379 S. River Road in Bedford, will take place Thursday, Dec. 10, from 6 to 9 p.m., according to the center’s Facebook page.

• Warner Historical Society will hold its annual Holiday Artisans event and Barn Sale at the Upton Chandler Museum House in Warner on Friday, Dec. 11, from 5 to 7 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 12, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to an organizer email.

• The Milford 4th Annual Holiday Craft Fair will take place at VFW Post 4368, 1 VFW Way in Milford, on Saturday, Dec. 12, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to the Facebook page for New England Vendor Events. The event will feature more than 50 crafters and vendors plus photo opportunities with Santa, the post said.

• The PTO at Main Dunstable Elementary School, 20 Whitford Road in Nashua, will hold its second annual Holiday Fair on Saturday, Dec. 12, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. featuring local artisans and crafters, raffles and silent auctions, baked goods, kids’ activities and a Santa meet-and-greet photo opportunity, according to an email.

• The NH Audubon’s McLane Center, 84 Silk Farm Road in Concord, will hold its Holiday Craft Fair on Saturday, Dec. 12, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to nhaudubon.org.

• The Concord Arts Market will hold a Merry Little Market at the Carriage House of Kimball Jenkins, 266 N. Main St. in Concord, on Saturday, Dec. 12, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to kimballjenkins.com.

• The 15th Annual Wrong Brain Holidaze Bizaare will take place Saturday, Dec. 12, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Community Campus Gymnasium, 100 Campus Drive in Portsmouth, according to a post on the Wrong Brain Facebook page. The post describes the event as a “multimedia arts open market and creative celebration.” See wrongbrain.net.

• Bishop Brady High School 25 Columbus Ave. in Concord will hold a Craft Fair on Saturday, Dec. 12, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to bishopbrady.edu.

• The New Hampshire World Christmas Market will take place Saturday, Dec. 12, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, Dec. 13, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Owl’s Nest Resort in Thornton, according to nhworldchristmasmarket.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Studio 550, 550 Elm St. in Manchester, 550arts.com, will hold its Handmade Holiday Market of pottery, stained glass, paintings, ornaments, cards and stickers Monday, Dec. 14, through Saturday, Dec. 19, from noon to 8 p.m. each day, according to a post on the studio’s Facebook page. The studio will sell 50+ Cups for a Cause, mugs and cups to raise funds for the International Institute of New England, the post said.

• Sip, Shop, Celebrate will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 15, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Kimball Jenkins in Concord and feature the sale of items from local artisans, according to an event description from a participant. See kimballjenkins.com for updates.

• The Holly Jolly Craft Fair, held by Joyce’s Craft Shows, will take place Saturday, Dec. 19, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at DoubleTree by Hilton, 2 Somerset Parkway in Nashua, according to joycescraftshows.com.

• The Holly Jolly Hooksett Festival & Vendor Fair held by Spirit and Soul Events LLC will take place Saturday, Dec. 19, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Hooksett Town Hall, 35 Main St. in Hooksett, according to the Spirit and Soul Events Facebook page. The event will feature food, games, prizes, a DJ, a children’s dance party, vendors and more, the post said.

• NH Alt Market will take place Sunday, Dec. 20, noon to 4 p.m. at the Millspace, 55 Main St. in Newmarket, according to millspace.org. “Shop unique gifts from local artists, makers, and creatives featuring handmade art, jewelry, oddities, witchy wares, holiday décor, and one-of-a-kind treasures you won’t find in big-box stores,” the website said.

A sample of upcoming events
Check with each business or organization for event specifics and for many more events.

Studio 550
550 Elm St., Manchester, 232-5597, 550arts.com
– Date Night in the Pottery Studio: Fridays and Saturday nights at 6 p.m., runs 1 hour 15 minutes, $35
– One-Day Workshop: Loose Watercolor Painting November: Mmm Pastries! with East Corner Studio, Saturday, Nov. 7, noon, two hours at $55, 15+

Canvas Road Show
25 S. River Road, Bedford, 913-9217, thecanvasroadshow.com
– Crushed Glass Snow Globes: Friday, Nov. 6, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., $56 per 11” globe. 12+
– Light-Up Tumbled Sea Glass Holiday Tree: Friday, Nov. 13, noon to 2 p.m., $58 -$78 depending on size of tree, 12+

Wine on Main
9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com
– Wine Bottle Tote Workshop & Wine Tasting with bagmaker George S. Wallace: Thursday, Nov. 12, 6 to 8 p.m., $75 per person, 21+ and limited to 18 people.
– Holiday Sweater Fused Glass Art Workshop & Wine Tasting with Nancy from True Colors Glassworks: Wednesday, Dec. 2, at 6 p.m., $50 per person, 21+ and limited to 20 people.

New Hampshire Craft Club
Studio at 117 Manchester St., Unit 5B, nhcraftclub.com
– Knitting & Crochet Club: in the studio, free on Thursday, Nov 5, and Thursday, Dec. 3, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
– Gingerbread Doormats: at The Gathering Grounds, 104 Route 13, Brookline, $30 on Friday Nov. 20, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Dash of Creativity
Check their Facebook and Eventbrite pages
– Mystery Books & Brews: Crochet Bookmark Night: at Tideline Public House in Durham, Thursday, Nov. 5, from 6 to 8 p.m.; register at eventbrite.com.
– Beginner Finger Crochet at Stark Brewery: Create a Cozy Chunky Blanket: Monday, Nov. 9, at 6 p.m. at Stark Brewing Co., Manchester; register at eventbrite.com.
– Stitch & Stories: Beginner Embroidery at Reedmor Books & Brews in Portsmouth on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 6 to 8 p.m.; register at eventbrite.com.

Penumbra
10 N. State St., Concord, 731-9469, penumbra.shop/events
– Make Your Own Kokedama: Thursday, Nov. 12, ​$45 per person; all classes begin at 6:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted.
– Succulent Centerpiece Making: Sunday, Nov. 22, at 4:30 p.m. or Tuesday, Nov. 24, at 6:30 p.m., $45.

A lively defense of this singular seasonal treat

Candy corn is still with us.

For 350 days a year, candy corn plays no role in our lives. And then, for a week or so surrounding Halloween, candy corn is everywhere — the candy itself, of course, but also candy corn-colored sweaters, and candy corn decorations, candy corn candles, and candy corn iconography.

Krista Fisher, the bar manager for Local Street Eats in Nashua, finds herself defending candy corn surprisingly often.

“I love candy corn and I get shamed for it pretty often,” she said. “As soon as I hear ‘candy corn,’ I’m all in. It’s like a sugary little treat. I don’t know why people would hate it so much. I love it. When I brought [a bag of candy corn into the bar], my other bartender was like, ‘Is that for you or for some kind of experiment?’ I said both. She was shocked and I was shocked. But I am definitely on the pro side; I’m a fan. I’m a big nostalgia girly anyway, so it definitely reminds me of childhood candy. But I like any sweet treat. I do not discriminate against candy. I like it all.”

’tis the season

According to Chris Guerrette, owner of Lickee’s & Chewy’s Candies & Creamery in Dover, candy corn definitely has a season.

“Candy corn is happening right now,” he said. He agreed that it can be a divisive food, with some people loving it, some who don’t, and a smaller subsection of customers who like it but ironically.

“But most people just like it,” he said, “but only during this time of the year. It used to be a product that we would carry year-round and we would get folks asking for it in May and December. Now there’s of course the silly versions of it. There’s Christmas candy corn and reindeer candy corn and five different flavors of fall candy corn like a s’mores flavor and things like that. During this time of year we bring in a few different versions of [candy corn] just to make our fall offerings broad and interesting.”

According to Jaime Metzger, the manager of Granite State Candy Shoppe in Manchester, candy corn suits this time of year.

“It is the perfect time of year,” she said.

Metzger said that at first glance it might seem candy corn sells better with older customers — it would make sense, since it has been around a long time and would be familiar to them.

“But kids get it, too,” she said. “It’s a mixture of ages. If a kid is whining, that’s what a grandparent will give them a lot of the time. It’s also more reasonably priced than, say maybe chocolate, and that’s a selling point, too. We’ll carry it through to the end of the year; then afterward it will likely go to the outlet store.”

“There are changes happening in the world of candy corn,” Guerrette said. “I’m not sure if you know the history, but the very first company that made candy corn was the Goelitz Corporation way back in I don’t know how long ago [1898, as it turns out]…. They were the first ones to ever make it, and that company … was eventually bought by Jelly Belly, which is a big jelly bean company. That’s big time. They owned it, and their candy corn was better. It had just a touch better recipe to it than most highly commercialized brands like Zachary and whatnot that you might find at Walmart. And it was really good. But, unfortunately, this year they announced they’re not going to make it anymore. Jelly [Belly] itself, as a corporation, was sold to an even larger candy corporation … and that corporation’s making changes. So something that is decades and centuries old is not going to be made by that company anymore.”

Guerrette said his plan is to sell traditional candy corn through the rest of this season, then see how its availability stands after things shake out. In the meantime, he said, “we actually have something interesting: We have a candy corn fudge that we make now. So it’s three layers that look like candy corn, and it’s a fudge, and it has a touch of a candy corn flavor to it.”

Candy corn flavor

And what is the flavor you taste in candy corn?

“Well, I actually think it’s just a little bit of vanilla,” Guerrette said.

“In our shop we have three different flavors; we have a selection,” Metzger said. “At our store in Concord they sell it in bulk, because they have more room up there. Here we just do it in [individual] bags, but we have a couple of different flavors. We have your standard candy corn — which in my opinion is sort of like a butterscotch flavor. We have s’mores corn, which obviously is a marshmallow-y flavor. We have Harvest Corn, which is kind of like a caramel-y flavor. And then we’ve got Caramel Apple, which tastes like caramel and apples! And people really buy it — the standard type goes quickly. But people love different flavors. I mean, who doesn’t love s’mores? My gosh. People get excited for that one.”

According to the website CandyNation.com, varieties of candy corn available in the world include gummy candy corn (presumably with a chewier texture); green, white and red Christmas candy corn; Valentine candy corn in shades of pink; Easter candy corn in pastel colors; blackberry cobbler; raspberry lemonade; caramel apple; s’mores; caramel; candy corn-flavored salt water taffy, and licorice-like candy corn sticks. Visit candynation.com/candy-types/candy-corn.

Making an ‘ear’ of candy corn

“By the way,” Guerrette said, “have you ever thought about why it’s called ‘candy corn’ in the first place? Because it looks like little kernels of corn, right? But did you know … that you can take pieces of candy corn and arrange them in a circle with the tips all pointing to the middle? It looks like a cross-section of an ear of corn!”

Once you’ve heard of the possibility of making a cross-section of an ear of corn, the idea becomes a surprisingly persistent one.

You will need:

• Two bags of classic candy corn — not a harvest mix with pumpkins in it or anything. No neon colors. Just standard old-fashioned candy corn.

• A microwave oven

• Popsicle sticks to stir hot sugar syrup with

• A microwave-safe cup that you have no particular emotional attachment to, because when you get done, it will have sugar bonded to the inside, harder than construction adhesive.

Spill a handful of candy corn out onto your kitchen counter. Arrange a dozen or so pieces in a circle, with all the tips pointed inward to make a circle. Unless you have very pointy candy corn pieces — each an acute triangle — the circle will be a bit larger than you had anticipated, with a larger hole in the middle.

Now put a small handful of candy corn in your melting-cup and heat it in your microwave oven until it has almost completely melted — 25 seconds, maybe. Quickly take it out of the microwave, give it a brisk stir with a popsicle stick, and dribble a little sugar-glue on the tips of the candy corn in the circle. The sugar will seize up pretty quickly, so you’ll probably have to heat it back up after three applications, for another 15 seconds. Keep doing this until you have glued all the tips together and you have what might pass for a cross-section of corn after a long evening of candy corn cocktails.

It is at this point that you realize that this process will probably go more smoothly if you add each additional candy corn individually. You can scoop a small amount of melted sugar onto the tip of a piece of candy, then quickly press it into place, and repeat that process once or twice more before the sugar sets up too much to continue without reheating.

The bad news: This project will take a very long time and will require at least a bag and a half of candy corn. You will also burn yourself.

The good news: It really does look good. “Rustic” is a plus in a project like this, so even if you were to give up on it halfway through, looking crooked and unfinished, it would be just about right for the seasonal aesthetic. You also don’t have to do everything in one session. You can glue two or three rows, then go for a run or binge a vampire show for a while, then come back and tackle more of it, until you’re satisfied.

Candy corn on the rocks

If you’ve ever eaten so much candy corn that your blood sugar has spiked and you’ve felt goofy and intoxicated, you might have asked yourself the question, why aren’t there any candy corn cocktails?

The bartenders at CodeX speakeasy in Nasha are a step ahead of you. The staff at CodeX use aliases in case of a 1920s-style raid. Bartender Rusty said the staff has been thinking deeply about The Candy Corn Problem, as they call it, for several weeks.

“Whatever we end up doing with a final recipe,” he said, “will usually be vodka-based, because it’s pretty neutral, and you don’t want to mess with moonshine; it’s got a higher proof that you don’t want to add any shots to. It just gets to be a little too much. When we’re working with candy, I like to use Starbursts. They’re really easy to work with. The sweetness is already there. The flavor is already kind of neat. So, seasonally, usually I’ll make a pink one — like a strawberry flavored one for Valentine’s Day. We call them Love Shots. With Halloween coming up, I have a sour apple watermelon pineapple Starburst [vodka]. I know it’s kind of wild, but it works. It turned out a nice green color that I used with some candied pineapple vodka that I was already working with. It was fun”

Mary Beth Carcellino, the owner of CodeX, said her other bartender, Stretch, has really embraced candy corn this year. “He wanted to be able to separate his candy corn infusions by color,” she said, “so we spent a couple of hours here the other night carefully cutting each piece of candy corn into pieces and separating them by color. He infused each into vodka, and now he’s got orange, yellow, and white candy corn vodka — THAT ALL TASTE EXACTLY THE SAME!” she shouted toward the kitchen before being reminded that this was Stretch’s night off.

Rusty’s piece of advice for infusing candy corn into alcohol is to find a way to contrast the candy’s overwhelming sweetness.

“You might want to add a little bit of citric acid, malic acid, depending on what kind of infusions you’re making, to kind of balance out the flavor so it’s not super harsh or super sweet,” Rusty said, “especially if you’re working with like a lot of fruity and citrus kinds of flavors.”

Krista Fisher is the bar manager at Local Street Eats in Nashua. She took on the challenge of developing a pair of candy corn-themed cocktails for the Hippo. She said she took her cues from the candy’s color and its mild (honey) flavor.

“I kind of ran with a little bit of both,” she said. “I think when I told anyone … they thought I was going to make something layered, to look like that, but I thought that was a little too — pun intended — corny. I didn’t think the route to go was the actual look of it. Plus, there was just a lot of oranginess,”

“So I went more for flavor and vibes,” Fisher continued. “I still leaned toward a fall theme, a fall feeling. The one that was most obvious to me was the old-fashioned, for sure, because nothing says fall like bourbon. So you get that sweetness from the candy corn still that kind of is in place. And then orange bitters will still just bring it all out. That was a no-brainer for me, honestly.” She made the candy corn into a syrup. “There is a sort of processed taste that is part of the attraction,” she said. “There was almost like a waxiness that was part of the charm.” Fisher recommended using a cup of candy corn to a cup and a half of water to make this sort of syrup. “That gives it a little viscosity to it,” she said.

Her second candy corn cocktail required a little more thought, Fisher said.

“I saw that there were a couple of things — I kept thinking about how to get a creaminess aspect without adding actual cream, so I went the route of treating this drink like a sour. I added an egg white in with some gin, that candy corn syrup, and then I had some toasted almond bitters also, which is kind of like, not a flavor you see all the time, but it’s a little more mellowed out than angostura. That was really good. It added another layer that seemed like fall and I think just complemented that sugariness that comes with the candy corn. And then I just muddled in a bunch of fresh orange so that there was a bit of freshness added to all the sugar aspect.”

“And that one was just phenomenal!” Fisher said. “The egg white gives everything this silky texture and this froth on top. That one was a killer. I was a really big fan of that drink actually. Every ingredient had a reason to be there.”

Boozy candy corn recipes

Candy Corn Vodka

1 cup (most of a large package) of traditional candy corn — not Harvest Mix, or something with pumpkins, or imaginatively colored candy. You want plain, traditional, yellow-orange-white candies, which will give you a lovely final color. If there are green pumpkins or xenomorphs or anything in the mixture, the final color will be brown. And let’s face it, color is about 90 percent of what candy corn has going for it in the first place.

1 750 ml bottle of plain vodka — again, the candy corn has a subtle flavor to it that we don’t want covered up by acai berries or whatever else they’re putting in vodka this week.

In a large, lidded jar — take the lid off before you add anything to the jar — combine the candy and the whole bottle of vodka. Stir the mixture well, then put the lid back on the jar and store it someplace cool and out of direct sunlight. It might take up to 24 hours for the candy to completely dissolve into the vodka, at which point it is ready to drink. There is no aging process for this particular infusion. Strain any tiny bits of sugar or wax or who-knows-what out of the mixture and use a funnel to fill a slightly larger-than-750 ml bottle. This almost certainly doesn’t need to be refrigerated, but the idea of putting it in the freezer to do ice shots with is intriguing.

Candy Corn Old-Fashioned

This is one of two candy corn-inspired drinks developed for the Hippo by Krista Fisher, bar manager for Local Street Eats in Nashua.

• 2 ounces bourbon
• 2 dashes of angostura & orange bitters
• 3/4 ounce candy corn syrup

Stir until well-chilled and strain into a rocks glass with a large ice cube.

Garnish with a few candy corn resting on top of the cube.

Candy corn syrup is a 2:1 syrup easily made in a pot on the stove, stirring constantly until all candy is dissolved.

I’m calling this Candy Corn Sour ‘Mischief Managed’

This is the other candy corn-inspired drink developed for the Hippo by Krista Fisher, bar manager for Local Street Eats in Nashua.

• 2 ounces London Dry Gin
• 1 muddled slice of orange
• 2 dashed toasted almond bitters
• 1 ounce candy corn syrup
• 1 egg white

Dry shake all ingredients to incorporate the egg white.

Add ice to your shaker and vigorously shake again.

Strain into a coupe or Nick & Nora glass.

The egg white will create a thick layer of foam on the top and a wonderfully silky mouth feel.

A look at NH’s paranormal investigators

Up a slope called Mystery Hill, amidst stone tunnels and megaliths with eerie names like Oracle Chamber, Tomb of Lost Souls, and a flat rock that most call The Sacrificial Table, on a site carbon-dated to 4,000 years old, a group of dedicated spirit hunters are on a quest to speak with the dead.

America’s Stonehenge in Salem has a history of visitors from beyond.

“There are too many strange occurrences to ignore,” Ron Kolek of the New England Ghost Project wrote in 2005. That’s why Paranormal Investigators of New England, PI-NE for short, booked a private twilight tour on a recent Saturday. They came to explore, bringing tools of the trade for detecting electromagnetic field disturbances and translating ghostly messages. Some had plans to stargaze in search of UFOs.

The sun had barely set when PI-NE appeared to make initial contact with the spirit world.

First, however, they checked the dirt floor for spiders. The Tomb of Lost Souls is a narrow curving tunnel with a dirt floor, and while PI-NE New Hampshire Assistant Director Deb Dutcher ain’t afraid of no ghosts, creepy crawlers in dark caves are another thing entirely.

As an investigator laid out an array of devices, including something called a REMPOD that lights up when it detects activity, a few other team members launched an app on their cell phones called Necrometer.

“What would you like us to know?” Melissa Roberge of the New Hampshire PI-NE chapter queried into the darkness.

Her phone lit up. “Her name is Michelle,” she reported to the group. “She said, ‘You shouldn’t be here.’”

At the next stop, everyone in the group introduced themselves to any and all spirits. Roberge said she was excited to visit America’s Stonehenge at night, having spent many days there during her New Hampshire childhood. All were deferential, though some told their invisible hosts, “It’s OK to touch me, but please don’t follow me home.”

Another New Hampshire investigator, Samantha Bravoco, said, “I’m hoping that you’re comfortable with us, and whoever’s here wants to communicate a little bit.” Bravoco studied psychology at Salem State University, choosing the school, her bio on the pi-ne.org website explained, “strictly because of witches, ghosts and goblins.”

What followed was a conversation carried out with EMF bells and glowing lights from a REMPOD operated by PI-NE team members. They said the spirit belonged to a young man who was around when Mystery Hill was a stop on the Underground Railroad, helping enslaved people to freedom.

The content of the exchange proceeded with fits and stops, but engaging with a spirit isn’t ever easy or predictable, investigators say. Ultimately, at least a small belief that there’s something out there and it wants to talk is what brought the group together and keeps them questing.

A reassuring voice

Deb Dutcher’s path into the spirit world was guided by someone she knew and loved.

After her mother died unexpectedly, Dutcher left Vermont and moved to Colebrook, her childhood home in New Hampshire. That’s when her mom became a presence.

“I started seeing things, hearing things,” she said in a phone interview. “She visited me. I heard her voice.”

Ghost Hunters was on TV at the time, and Dutcher found herself quickly hooked.

“It just really piqued my interest,” she said, adding that she’d always wanted to belong to a team of investigators. About three years ago, she saw an ad seeking investigators for PI-NE’s New Hampshire division. She applied and passed interviews, along with a background check. A year later, Dutcher was running the chapter.

PI-NE was founded in 2004 and is based in Essex Junction, Vermont. It’s Vermont’s member of the TAPS Family, the network of teams affiliated with The Atlantic Paranormal Society, the group behind the same Ghost Hunters series that hooked Dutcher. Its brief covers hauntings, UFO sightings and even cryptozoology.

The service is free, and most clients are homeowners, with some businesses in the mix. The work commences with a background check on whoever is asking for help.

“We don’t want to send investigators into a bad situation,” Dutcher said. “There have been a couple times we’ve actually said no.”

The most common query is a simple one. “I just received a request that I need to call later on this afternoon, and it says right in it, ‘I just need to know I’m not crazy,’” she said. “We hear that a lot.”

Often, Dutcher believes, once the answer is found, it isn’t frightening at all. Children especially are scared by what they don’t understand. “It is so nice to be able to … make the connection that, hey, this is Grandpa or Grandma, just looking out for you,” she said. “It makes them feel so much better.”

Learning the poltergeist is mice under the floorboards can be just as comforting, even if it introduces a new problem.

“If you can easily debunk something, that takes away the fear as well,” Dutcher said, pointing to orbs as an example. “Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the time, it’s bugs or dust.”

TV investigators Dustin Pari and Brian Cano helped fuel her skepticism. She’s learned to avoid devices with built-in word banks, saying, “I want whatever’s coming through to be legitimate.”

The team often travels beyond New England. At the Hinsdale House in New York a few weeks ago she tested whether spirit-box listeners are just fitting random radio fragments to the questions. Two listeners wore separate headphones while questions were asked from another room, and the answers didn’t match the questions.

“However,” she said, “they both wrote down the same exact words.”

Closer to home, some of her most memorable experiences happened in public libraries. She saw things “frequently” in the basement of the New Hampshire State Library during seven years working there.

In the basement of the Woodsville Free Library, a teammate who is a medium described a World War I soldier and a talking teddy bear began responding on camera. Upstairs was a display honoring a young local man who served in that war. “When Kathy went over to look at the display, she goes, ‘That’s him,’” Dutcher said.

The work has changed her, too. “Sometimes I’m facing something that I’m kind of daunted by, and I’m like, ‘hey, look, I can walk in all by myself in a dark asylum,’” she said. “I can do this.”

A veteran ghost hunter

With more than 25 years of chasing ghosts, Ron Kolek has learned to not sell certainty. The founder of New England Ghost Project in Dracut, Mass., lets the work speak for itself.

“We never tell people whether their house is haunted or not,” he said in a recent Zoom interview. “We just give them whatever we find.”

Kolek, who has a degree in environmental science, came to the subject grounded in science. In 2000, however, an accident cost him several fingers. A pulmonary embolism that followed put him in intensive care — and gave him a vision. “While I was there, I was somewhere else,” he said. “It was a place that was very, very white.”

There were figures, and what he describes as angelic music. “I always refer to the Madonna song ‘Like a Prayer,’” he said. “There’s a line in it that says, ‘It feels like home.’ That’s what it felt like.” Then it all fell together, “like the closing of an iris,” leaving only the hospital room and his heartbeat on the monitor.

Recovering, he took a TV production course through Media One that required a final project. Inspired by his near-death experience — “I don’t know if it was the drugs they gave me or not,” he said — and a manufacturing company he owned that employees, including his son, swore was haunted, he made a decision.

“I said, ‘You know what, I’ll do it on ghosts.’”

Rounding up a couple of collaborators, he quickly got to work, investigating his own “walk to the light” experience with all the objectivity he could muster. Before he knew it, Kolek was in deep. “I couldn’t explain some of the stuff that I experienced there,” he said. “That’s how I got hooked.”

He set up New England Ghost Project to prove or disprove the paranormal, but soon decided he couldn’t.

“Some people, every light that flickers is a ghost,” he said, while with others, “If a spirit slapped them across the face, they’d rationalize the whole thing away.” So he documents and lets people decide. Beyond that, he’s talked about the paranormal on the radio for 23 years, including a podcast with British parapsychologist Steve Parsons.

Like many investigators, Kolek does most of his work in private homes, where he says he’s encountered more than a few affirmations that the spirit world is real. At one Lakes Region house, a former speakeasy, a camera on a stairway landing somehow ended up at the bottom of the stairs; the footage showed nothing.

At another home about to be foreclosed on, medium Maureen Wood sensed a little boy. As midnight neared, Kolek followed his EMF meter out of the house and into the woods, to a small cemetery with two tiny graves. The names on them matched the ones Wood had picked up.

Kolek has had further encounters of his own in Portsmouth, at the now-shuttered Molly Malone’s Irish Steakhouse, and Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse, where Kolek sits on the board. During a fundraising ghost tour in the adjoining fort, he watched a woman pass from window to window toward the door. No one came in.

“I saw whatever I saw as clear as day,” he recalled, noting the Coast Guard, whose base the lighthouse sits on, has long reported a woman on the wall. Historian Jeremy D’Entremont later learned that a woman died in an explosion at the fort; all that was ever found was a scrap of her dress.

Kolek’s skepticism persists. He’s not easily fooled by fantastic stories, like a Pembroke homeowner who once told him a medium had sent “400 Revolutionary soldiers” into the light.

“The idea that … you can go in there, wave your magic wand and you send them on to the happy hunting ground is a big misconception,” he said. This logic applies to the practice of burning sage to ward off bad energy. “I’ve gone on exorcisms with the Catholic Church, and trust me, it ain’t so easy.”

His advice for the curious is simple. “Don’t do anything that you’re not comfortable with,” he said, while adding with a laugh that visiting the house in Pembroke did yield his favorite-ever recording, an EVP he heard during setup: “It’s the Ghostbusters.”

Young guns

Alan Guin used to be the guy rolling his eyes when someone raised the subject of paranormal activity.

“I used to think it was all fake. I never once believed in it,” Guin said in a recent phone interview. He spent 10 years as an Air Force combat medic. “I thought everything had an explanation.”

Then one night he tagged along with a former partner to a Christian-themed park in Connecticut with a dark past.

Sitting in a cave with only a flashlight, he saw what he calls a giant black smog cloud. “It just kind of showed up in front of me, kind of hung out for a second, went over to my partner at the time, and then just dissipated into the wall as clear as day,” he said. He recalled thinking, “Science cannot explain what I just saw.”

In 2021, Guin formed SoulSeekers Paranormal NE with Austin Harley and Corey Marshall, friends he met exploring abandoned buildings. Harley and Marshall had both dabbled in the paranormal recreationally, while Guin added scientific method to the mix, along with “the nerdiness of all my tools and editing skills.”

The group started with five members, and came back from a pandemic-induced break as a rebranded trio.

“We were more intention-driven,” Guin said of their return, noting that five early episodes from their YouTube channel “will never see the light of day again.”

Harley now lives in Rhode Island and Marshall in Tennessee. How do they get together? “Cars and planes, man.”

The self-taught Guin shoots and edits everything, but the finished work doesn’t look it, rivaling Ghost Hunters for production values. But he draws a line between paranormal research and entertainment, eschewing reality fare for in-depth investigation work. “We’re not over-the-top screaming and provoking, none of that cringy TV garbage.”

The team carries more than $10,000 in gear, including repurposed tools like an electricians’ EMF meter and a SLS camera that he says reveals ghostly apparitions as stick figures, a device normally used for Xbox gaming.

Like most groups, SoulSeekers usually answers calls from people unnerved in their own homes, and works for free.

“One of the most rewarding things is bringing validation to people who … get looked at kind of with a stink eye that they’re crazy,” he said.

Sometimes the validation is that nothing is there. At a location in Massachusetts, reports of wailing and loud bangs in the basement turned out to be wind-driven garage doors. “The owner was very relieved to know that it wasn’t somebody in the basement.”

One of the group’s most striking cases was at a restaurant in Milford. Their autumn 2025 investigation centered on a basement well and an odd little closet. On two visits, the team got the name Elizabeth and a plea: “I can’t find my baby.”

They were stumped until they learned an important detail tied to a centuries-old tragedy.

The restaurant had bought furniture from Country Tavern before it was torn down in late 2021. That Nashua pub was said to be haunted by Elizabeth Ford, who in 1797 was locked in a closet by her sailor husband after he’d learned she had an out of wedlock child while he was at sea. He killed her baby, then murdered her and threw her body down a well.

“The same name, the same fate, the same story came with the furniture,” Guin said, adding that the well and closet at the Milford restaurant were eerily similar enough to confuse the spirits into hitching a ride to a new home. A two-part episode about the investigation is called Whispers from the Well.

The team recently completed an investigation on a site in Epsom, now a private home that Guin called “incredibly active.” They also explored a location in Temple, where equipment was knocked off shelves. He has a theory about why.

“These energies, whatever they are, exist in a matter that our brains don’t have the software to process correctly.”

A theory loses steam

Everyone involved in paranormal investigations is mindful of false positives; skepticism is in their blood. That’s despite an obsession with finding things a lot of people view the same way Guin did before his first visitation. A good case in point can be found at Endicott Furniture in Concord.

For years, a mischievous spirit was said to throw pillows around the showroom at night in this business that’s been around since 1925, but lately not so much. Owner Eric Reingold, also a member of JamAntics, a band that played many Halloween Howls back in the day (and will reunite Nov. 6 at BNH Stage), says the reason’s kind of prosaic.

“Back when steam heat was the way downtown heated their businesses, there was much more paranormal activity,” he said recently. “Banging and clanging, weird hisses … we can’t fall back on that any longer so there’s not much more to report.”

What’s in the bag: The ghost hunter’s toolkit

Alan Guin of SoulSeekers Paranormal NE says his team brings “well over $10,000” worth of equipment to a site. Deb Dutcher of Paranormal Investigators of New England (PI-NE) owns “four cases plus.” Much of it was built for electricians, contractors or gamers, not ghost hunters.

Here’s what investigators carry and how they say they use it.

Electromagnetic Frequency (EMF) detector. Measures fluctuations in electromagnetic fields. “It wasn’t made for ghost hunting,” Guin said. “It was made for electricians.” Investigators look closer at sudden spikes with no wiring nearby.

EMF bell. An EMF detector built into a bell. It rings only when the reading hits red, the top of its scale. Teams set a code, such as one ring for yes and two for no, and then ask questions. Guin’s team uses one called the Dead-Bell. “If you figure out how to use it, show us,” he tells whatever might be listening.

REMPOD. Puts out its own small magnetic field and sounds an alarm when anything disturbs it. A similar but not identical piece of equipment called the Omnipod v2 works the same way, while also logging touch, temperature, vibration, barometric pressure and magnetic changes, and sends them to a phone app.

Thermal camera. Shows a room by temperature alone, from cold in blue to hot in red. People show up orange-red. Guin says spirits can register blue-green.

SLS camera. A structured-light sensor first built for Xbox gaming. It reads depth and draws any human shape as a stick figure on screen, even when the room looks empty. Dutcher uses a phone-app version when she travels.

Infrared cameras and audio recorders. These do most of the work. Dutcher says PI-NE has switched from wired cameras tethered to a monitor at “home base” to wireless infrared units on battery packs that can go almost anywhere. Ron Kolek of the New England Ghost Project picks gear to fit the complaint: footsteps on the stairs call for a recorder, not just a camera. Recorders listen for EVPs (electronic voice phenomena), voices nobody heard in the room that turn up on playback.

Spirit box. A radio that sweeps AM and FM stations in rapid bursts while investigators listen for words that seem to answer questions. In the Estes method, one investigator wears a blindfold and headphones and calls out whatever they hear. The rest of the team asks questions the listener can’t hear. “It gives the spirit a method to talk to you if they want to,” Dutcher said.

Envoy. Dutcher’s go-to talking device answers yes or no or spells out words. She avoids gadgets that pull from a built-in word bank. “It just seems like they’re always saying, oh, the devil or death.”

Local haunts?

Here’s a list of some area spots that have a reputation for strange occurrences.

• Concord Public Library (45 Green St., Concord) According to an Around Concord story from Sept. 17, 2019, Concord Public Library director Todd Fabian told a tour group: “Personally, I don’t like to be in this building alone late at night after we close.” “I feel like at 7 a.m., if I’m alone, the ghosts are sleeping in. In the evening … well, I’ve heard all kinds of strange sounds that I cannot explain,” he said in the article.

• Gilson Road Cemetery (Gilson Road & Tanglewood Drive, Nashua) According to a The Cabinet Press story from Oct. 24, 2013, the cemetery “has a considerable reputation in paranormal investigation circles.”

• Island Path Road (Off Route 1A, Hampton Beach) Eunice “Goody” Cole was twice accused of witchcraft — in 1656 and 1671, according to hamptonhistoricalsociety.org. “On March 8, 1938 at the 300th Town Meeting the citizens passed a resolution restoring Eunice ‘Goody’ Cole to her rightful place as a citizen of Hampton,” the website said. According to HauntedPlaces.org: “… reports say Goody Cole’s ghost haunts the residents of Island Path Road. Folks see apparitions, flickering lights, objects that move around, and mysterious vanishing of neighborhood cats.”

• Lorden Plaza (586 Nashua St., Milford) At this modern shopping plaza, witnesses have described an apparition of a man wearing blue jeans, a plaid flannel shirt, and a tape measure on his belt walking along the property and disappearing into a plywood wall, according to hauntedplaces.org/milford-nh.

• Margaritas Mexican Restaurant (1 Bicentennial Sq., Concord) According to Atlas Obscura (atlasobscura.com), from 1890 to 1975, the spot was the home of the Concord Police Department, hence the jail cells that are still part of the dining area. “… [L]ocal legend holds that the restaurant is haunted by a spirit named George, and ghost hunters, including the Paranormal Research Society, have visited…,” the website said.

• The Music Hall (28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth) One of the state’s oldest theaters and a stop on more than a few ghost tours. According to an NHPR story in 2018, cold spots, twinkling lights, music coming from an empty stage, footsteps on an empty staircase and audience members wearing clothing from other eras are among the eerie sightings there.

• Tilton Inn (255 Main St., Tilton) Built in 1875, the building has burned down three times, according to the Inn’s website at thetiltoninn.com. “One of these … fires is said to have claimed the life of a 12-year-old girl, named Laura, who is suspected to have never left…. There have been many encounters with her both upstairs in the rooms, and downstairs in the pub and restaurant,” the website said. The Inn was featured on television’s Ghost Hunters.
• Vale End Cemetery (772 Isaac Frye Hwy., Wilton) The story goes that the ghost of Mary Ritter Spaulding, who died in 1808, appears as a blue light over her headstone, according to a 2017 story in The Cabinet Press.

• Windham Restaurant (59 Range Road, Windham) The restaurant embraces its spectral history, with events like an afternoon with medium Patricia Griffin and a recent seance. According to its website, windhamrestaurant.com, “Long before it became a restaurant, this property was part of a working farm in 1729. The Colonial-style house that stands today was built in 1812, carrying over two centuries of history within its walls.” A New England Ghost Project, neghostproject.com, post about the location talks about two visits the group made to the site and the odd occurrences people reported.

Your guide to scary movie screenings, local festivals, downtown trick-or-treats, haunted houses and more spooky season fun for all ages

Treats for everyone!

This year’s Halloween season has scary movies, spooky theater, haunted attractions, music and parties, downtown festivities and so much more. Whether you’re looking for not-so-spooky fun for the littlest kids or full fright activities, there is Halloween excitement for all tastes. Let us know at adiaz@hippopress.com if we missed your favorite haunted happening. Check with the websites and socials (where most of the information here comes from) before heading out for tickets and admission details and the latest information on events. (Outdoor events can be weather-dependent.)

Haunted attractions

• Spookville: Ev11ution 1 Cheshire St. in Nashua is put together by S.C.A.R.E. NH, a nonprofit organization providing Halloween costumes to kids in need, according to scarenh.org. You can find upcoming costume distribution locations via their Facebook page. This year’s Spookville will run Friday, Oct. 16; Saturday, Oct. 17; Sunday, Oct. 18; Friday, Oct. 23; Saturday, Oct. 24; Sunday, Oct. 25; Friday, Oct. 30, and Saturday, Oct. 31, the website said.

• The 11th Annual SCARY Haunted House Fundraiser Tour will take place Saturday, Oct. 24, from 6 to 9 p.m., at Stevens Memorial Hall, 1 Chester St. in Chester, according to a press release. The event costs $10 per adult, $5 per child, cash only at the door (“Parental discretion is strongly advised for anyone under 17”), the press release said. “This attraction is geared towards adults and contains scenes of intense horror, startling effects and mature themes,” the release said. “Join us if you dare for a spine-chilling journey into a new realm of horror,” the release said. See the Chester NH Public Library Facebook page for details.

• Beans & Screams Fear Farm at Beans & Greens Farm, 245 Intervale Road, Gilford, 293-2853, beansandgreensfarm.com, runs Fridays and Saturdays in October, from 7 to 10 p.m. (last entry at 9:30 p.m.), according to the website, where you can purchase tickets. People under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. The attraction is billed as having “haunted rooms,” “twisted trails” and “creepy characters.”

• The Dark Woods: The Haunting of Trombly Gardens, 150 N. River Road in Milford, thedarkwoodsnh.com, is open for general admission evenings Fridays through Sundays through Nov. 1 (closed Oct. 31), according to the website, where you can purchase tickets for specific admission times. A The Darker Woods experience with nearly no light and characters that may touch or be near you will run on Thursdays, Oct. 22 and Oct. 29, the website said. A “Trauma Free Tour — No Scare Walk Through Tour” will take place at 5 p.m. on Saturdays, Oct. 17 and Oct. 24, the website said. “The Dark Woods is an ‘all original’ event. This means all our characters, costumes, designs, and interactions are original and have been ‘brained’ by actors themselves and the event creators,” according to the website, where you can find a FAQ about the attraction.

• Fright Kingdom 12 Simon St. in Nashua, frightkingdom.com, features “frightening attractions” — Apocalypse Z, The Abandoned, Bloodmare Manor, Psycho Circus and Grim — as well as a Monster Midway (with costumed characters, photo opportunities, concessions and merch sales), which operate Friday through Sunday evenings through Oct. 31, according to the website, where you can pick an entry time and purchase tickets. “In the Dark” sessions take place Friday, Nov. 6, and Saturday, Nov. 7, the website said. (There is also a Fright Before Xmas that runs Dec. 4-5 and Dec. 11-12, the website said.)

• Haunted Overload at DeMeritt Hill Farm, 20 Orchard Way in Lee, hauntedoverload.com, is open for its main attraction — described as a “spooky trail through the woods” — Fridays through Sundays in the evenings through Oct. 31, according to the website, where you can purchase tickets. A Fright Nite Light, which is described as “no scares,” takes place Thursdays through Oct. 29, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., the website said. Devils’s Night, the final night of the season on Sunday, Nov. 1, features dim lighting, roaming actors and more, the website said. Day Walks, which take place between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., run Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Nov. 1, according to the website, where you can find more details about the “3 levels of fear.”

• The Salisbury Woods Haunted Barn and Trail 19 Franklin Road in Salisbury, salisburywoods.com, is open evenings on Fridays and Saturdays, Oct. 16-17 and Oct. 23-24 and Oct. 30-31 as well as from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturdays, Oct. 24 and Oct. 30, according to the website, where you can purchase tickets. There will be a “Lite Fright Night” with no actors on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 7 to 9 p.m., the website said. “As you venture through our haunted trails, you’ll encounter spine-chilling scenes and terrifying creatures that will make your blood run cold,” the website said about its main attraction.

• Screeemfest at Canobie Lake Park in Salem, canobie.com, is open Fridays through Sundays until Oct. 31, opening at 5 p.m. on Fridays, 3 p.m. on Saturdays and 1 p.m. on Sundays, according to the website, where you can purchase tickets. “Canobie Lake Park SCREEEMFEST delivers family fun by day and a healthy dose of fear by night. You get TONS of rides, haunted houses, kid-friendly fun, live shows, roaming monsters and much, much more,” the website said. Sundays are described as “family fun days,” when the haunted houses open at 5 p.m. but the attractions are actor-free until 6 p.m., the website said. The six haunted attractions include Slaughter Camp (new for 2026, a 1980s horror-movie style summer camp), Terrorform (a Mars colony), Carnivus 2 (a scary trip to the movies, with clowns), Cargo (spooky cargo freighter), Pinecrest Sanitarium and Haven (“Raiders have seized control of a once-quiet town”), according to the website, where you can find the opening hours for the attractions and a schedule for other events such as Critters Live and walk-through Lights On hours at the Pinecrest Sanitarium.

• Spooky World Presents Nightmare New England 454 Charles Bancroft Hwy. in Litchfield, nightmarenewengland.com, has five haunts: Petrified (new for 2026); Nightmare in 3D; Haunted Hayride; The Colony and Asylum 47, according to the website, where you can purchase tickets. The attraction also features a pre-scare party, a Monster Midway, fire pits, zombie paintball, axe-throwing, food and drink concessions, mini golf, go karts and more, the website said. Spooky World is open in the evenings Thursdays through Sundays, through Nov. 1, according to the website, where you can pick an entry time. Sunday, Nov. 1, is a “Lights Out” attraction, the website said.

For the kids

• Griffin Free Public Library, 22 Hooksett Road in Auburn, griffinfree.org, will host its second annual Not So Spooky Story Walk with the book Ellie the Skelly The Magical Wish on Friday, Oct. 16, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. for toddlers and children, according to the website.

• Seacoast Science Center in Odiorne Point State Park in Rye will hold its Nature@Nite program on Friday, Oct. 16, at 5 p.m. on Spooktacular Sea Science, according to seacoastsciencecenter.org, where you can register to attend. “Dive into the eerie world of the deep sea with our guided Squid Dissection program,” the website said (costumes welcome).

• Ghosts on the Banke, the Strawbery Banke Museum’s annual Halloween event, will run Fridays and Saturdays, Oct. 16-17 and Oct. 23-24, according to strawberybanke.org, where you can purchase tickets. “Trick-or-treat with spirits from America’s founding as the historic Puddle Dock neighborhood comes alive after dark. Meet wayward pirates, visit a mysterious fortune-teller, hear ghostly tales, make giant spider webs, dance to haunting music, and play games for prizes. Designed especially for children ages 4-8…. Costumes are encouraged and guests of every age are welcome,” the website said.

• Charmingfare Farm in Candia will hold its annual Children’s Trick or Treat Saturdays and Sundays, Oct. 17-18, Oct. 24-25 and Oct. 31, according to visitthefarm.com. The event will feature horse-drawn wagon or tractor train rides along a Halloween-themed trail, candy gathering locations, visits with farm animals, a juggling show and more, according to the website, where you can purchase tickets. On Oct. 23 & 24 and Oct. 31, Charmingfare will also operate Harvest of Haunts, an after-dark event aimed at ages 3 to 10 that starts at 6 p.m., with a glowing woodland trail and a Halloween nigh rid but no jump scares or scare actors, the website said.

• High Mowing School, Pine Hill Campus, 77 Pine Hill Drive in Wilton, will hold a Storybook Walk to “Celebrate Halloween in Good Cheer” on Saturday, Oct. 17, from 10 a.m. to noon, according to a press release. “Created for children ages 8 and younger by High Mowing School’s own early childhood teachers, this annual event features imaginative surprises along a forested path. These carefully crafted vignettes are home to fairies, gnomes, animals, animals, and jugglers, with sweet and imaginative storybook characters. Families taking the walk will hear stories, spot a fairy house or two, participate in small activities, and receive treasures along the way. Children are welcome to wear their own costumes,” the release said. The walk is free with food and activities available for purchase, the release said. See highmowing.org/storybook.

• Bookery, 844 Elm St. in Manchester, has some Halloween-themed story times on its schedule, according to bookerymht.com. On Saturday, Oct. 17, at 11:30 a.m., catch a storytime and craft for A Witch Lives Here. On Saturday, Oct. 31, at 11:30 a.m., the storytime and craft are for the book Creepy Sheepy, according to the website, where you can find details and RSVP.

• Nashua Recreation will hold its Halloween Boo Bash on Saturday, Oct. 17, from 3 to 6 p.m. in Greeley Park featuring a trunk-or-treat, pumpkin decorating, a haunted house, hayrides and more, according to nashuanh.gov/546/SummerFun.

• The Joppa Hill Educational Farm , 174 Joppa Hill Road in Bedford, will hold its Halloween On the Farm event on Tuesday, Oct. 20, from 4 to 6 p.m. featuring trick-or-treating, Halloween-themed crafts, a story time, snacks and more, according to a post on the Farm’s Facebook page, where you can find a link to purchase tickets.

• The Derry Public Library, 64 E. Broadway in Derry, will present One Spooky Night — Return of the Haunted Library on Thursday, Oct. 22, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., according to derrypl.org, where you can register to take a tour of the haunted library trail (costumes welcome).

• Manchester City Library, 405 Pine St. in Manchester, manchester.lib.nh.us, will host a Halloween Party for kids ages 1 to 5 on Friday, Oct. 23, from 10 to 11 a.m. featuring stories, games and a scavenger hunt, according to manchesterlibrary.org, where you can register.

• The Halloween Express from Conway Scenic Railroad will run Saturday, Oct. 24, and Sunday, Oct. 25, and is a “one-hour, fun, kid-friendly, not-too-spooky Halloween party on the rails” boarding in North Conway, according to conwayscenic.com, where you can find departure times and purchase tickets. Costumes are welcome and kids “will receive a treat bag to fill along the way,” according to the website.

• Children’s performer Laurie Berkner’s Halloween Party Concert will take place Saturday, Oct. 24, at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. at the Capitol Center for the Arts’ Swope Theater, 44 S. Main St. in Concord, according to ccanh.com, where you can purchase tickets. Find her music at youtube.com/user/TheLaurieBerknerBand.

• The Squam Lakes Natural Science Center, 23 Science Center Road in Holderness, will hold its Howl-O-Ween on Saturday, Oct. 24, during regular hours of 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to a press release. “Families are invited to celebrate Halloween with a wild twist through a day of wildlife, hands-on activities, and seasonal fun. Guests can meet fascinating nocturnal animals during live presentations and participate in hands-on Halloween crafts and activities throughout the day. Along the Live Animal Exhibit Trail, visitors can see the Science Center’s resident animals enjoying pumpkin-themed enrichment, offering a fun opportunity to see how wildlife responds to new and seasonal experiences. Children are encouraged to wear their favorite Halloween costumes and will receive a bag of Halloween treats to take home after their visit,” the release said. See nhnature.org to buy tickets.

• The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire, 27 Navigator Road in Londonderry, aviationmuseumofnh.org, will be giving Broomstick Pilots Licenses to kids ages 12 and under — along with free admission to the museum — on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The day will also feature “the ghosts of past aviation pioneers, who will describe their achievements and explain basic principles of flight,” and Halloween treats for licensees, according to a press release.

• Hudson’s Best Trunk or Treat at the Hudson Mall, 77 Derry Road in Hudson, will take place Saturday, Oct. 24 from 10 a.m. to noon, according to an email from organizers. The event will take place “next to Autozone and will have the entire mall giving out treats, games and a haunted dojo,” the email said. See thehudsonmall.com.

• Rochester Main Street will hold the Downtown Rochester Trick-or-Treat on Saturday, Oct. 24, from noon to 3 p.m., according to rochestermainstreet.org.

• The Town of Merrimack’s Halloween Spooktacular will be Saturday, Oct. 24, from 4 to 8 p.m. in Abbie Griffin Park, with a trunk or treat (start times by age) from 4 to 6 p.m. and a movie in the park (Minions & Monsters) starting at 6 p.m., according to merrimackparksandrec.org. Food will be for sale and food donations will be accepted by Laura’s World Fund to support Pay It Forward and the Merrimack Drive Through Food Pantry, the website said.

• The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord will present the Family Fright Fest celebration on Sunday, Oct. 25, from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to starhop.com, where you can purchase admission. The day will feature “Hands-On Spooky Activities for the whole family including … pumpkin painting, comMOONity art, a scavenger hunt, face painting, and more,” the website said. Activities are included with general admission, the release said.

• Geneva-Ween Trick or Treating will take place Sunday, Oct. 25, from 3 to 7 p.m. at 108 Geneva Point Road in Moultonborough, for cabin-to-cabin trick-or-treating, Halloween cookie decorating, Wicked Witches of Lakes Region parade and more, according to genevapoint.org.

•The churches of Hooksett will host a Free Community Trunk or Treat on Sunday, Oct. 25, from 4 to 6 p.m., at Apple Cinemas Hooksett, according to a sign on the movie theater’s door, featuring local vendors and more.

• Nashua kids (and their parents) are invited to trick-or-treat at City Hall in Nashua on Monday, Oct. 26, from 3:30 to 5 p.m., according to a press release. The event, described as non-scary and family-friendly, will feature treats handed out at different city departments; wear costumes and bring a treat bag, the press release said.

• The Not-So-Spooky Spectacular will run Tuesday, Oct. 27, through Saturday, Oct. 31, at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire, 6 Washington St. in Dover, according to childrens-museum.org. The event will feature candy-free fun during normal play sessions (events are included with museum admission) and include science experiments, take-home crafts, a pumpkin scavenger hunt and more, according to the website (costumes encouraged).

• The Chester Public Library, 3 Chester St., will hold a Halloween Costume Party for ages 6 to 12 on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 4 p.m., according to the library’s Facebook page, where you can register to attend. The event will feature a costume parade, music and crafts, the post said.

• The Manchester Police Athletic League will hold a Trunk or Treat on Thursday, Oct. 29, from 5 to 6 p.m. at the MPAL parking lot, 409 Beech St. in Manchester, according to manchesterpoliceathleticleague.org/event-page/trunk-or-treat.

• Trick or Treat in downtown Manchester (Elm Street as well as Stanton Plaza) will take place Friday, Oct. 30, from 3 to 6 p.m., according to an email from the city’s Economic Development Office.

• The Weare Public Library, 10 Paige Memorial Lane in Weare, wearepubliclibrary.com, will hold a Kids Halloween Party on Friday, Oct. 30, 4:30 to 6 p.m. for kids of all ages, according to the website. “A spooktacular party with oodles of fun activities including a story walk, outdoor games, and dancing to creepy music. Wear your costume and be part of our showcase! Stay for the grand finale: Dr. Joshua’s Magic Show!” the website said.

• Cowabunga’s Indoor Playground 725 Huse Road in Manchester, cowabungas.com, has a Halloween Party slated for Friday, Oct. 30, from 5 to 8 p.m., with costumes encouraged and plans including a bubble costume parade, Halloween games, decorating cookies and more, according to the website, where you can purchase tickets. Cowabunga’s will also have Halloween crafts and games throughout the day on Saturday, Oct. 31, the website said.

• Mr. Aaron’s Halloween Bash will take place Saturday, Oct. 31, at 11 a.m. at the BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St. in Concord, according to ccanh.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• The BWINH Collective will hold its 4th Annual Trunk or Treat on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 1 to 3 p.m., according to bwinhsc.com, where you can check back for an update on the location. This free family-friendly event is open to all, and kids are encouraged to come in costume for trunk-or-treating and other kid-friendly activities and music, according to the website.

• Goffstown Main Street will also host Trick or Treat Downtown on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 6 to 8 p.m., according to goffstownmainstreet.org.

Festivals & downtown & Town celebrations

• America’s Stonehenge, 105 Haverhill Road in Salem, will hold a Haunted History Guided Tour on Fridays, Oct. 16, through Oct. 30, at 7 p.m., according to stonehengeusa.com, where you can purchase tickets. “Explore ancient ruins, haunted historic sites, and ritual spaces by lantern-light on this after-dark tour of America’s Stonehenge!” the website said.

• Blessed Sacrament Parish, 14 Elm St. in Manchester, will hold a Fall Festival and Penny Sale on Saturday, Oct. 17, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. featuring a snack and lunch bar, a bake sale, games and activities, raffles and prizes. See blessedsacramentnh.org.

• Mactoberfest will take place Saturday, Oct. 17, from noon to 8:30 p.m. at McIntyre Ski Area, 50 Chalet Way, Manchester, 622-6159, according to mcintyreskiarea.com. “Mactoberfest is more than just a celebration of great beer, food, music, and fall fun — it’s a FREE event that gives back to the community,” the website said. The day will feature food trucks, a scarecrow competition, touch a truck, a cornhole event, live music and more, the website said. “Hosted in partnership with the Manchester Fire Department, Mactoberfest is a fundraising event benefiting the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA),” the website said.

• Windham will hold its annual Harvest Fest on Saturday, Oct. 17, from 1 to 4 p.m. in Griffin Park featuring a “Horribles parade,” trick-or-treating and more, according to windham.recdesk.com.

• Goffstown’s annual Giant Pumpkin Weigh Off and Regatta will be held Saturday, Oct. 17, and Sunday, Oct. 18, featuring vendors and events in downtown Goffstown leading up to a regatta of pumpkin watercraft. See goffstownmainstreet.org/pumpkin-regatta.

• The Witch of Weston Tower returns to McIntyre Ski Area, 50 Chalet Way, Manchester, 622-6159, on Saturday, Oct. 17, and Sunday, Oct. 18, from noon to 6 p.m. on both days; Friday, Oct. 23, from 4 to 8 p.m., and Saturday, Oct. 24, and Sunday, Oct. 25, noon to 6 p.m., according to mcintyreskiarea.com, where you can purchase tickets. Take a chairlift to the summit, a tractor ride along a spooky trail and visit the Witch of Weston Tower — where visitors can climb the tower stairs, the website said. There will be food trucks and activities at the base of the mountain on some days, the website said.

• The Trick or Trash Community Cleanup, organized by SEE Science Center, Manchester Connects and the City of Manchester, will take place Monday, Oct. 19, from 3 to 5 p.m. to help clean up streets before Halloween, according to see-sciencecenter.org, where you can sign up as a group or individual for this 18+ event.

• Concord’s Halloween Howl will take place Friday, Oct. 23, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., featuring Main Street trick-or-treating, a trunk-or-treat, costume contests, games and more, according to intownconcord.org.

• Downtown Rochester will host a Zombie Walk on Friday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m. starting at Citizens Bank on North Main Street and ending at Central Street, according to rochestermainstreet.org/events/zombie-walk.

• The Laconia Pumpkin Festival is slated for Friday, Oct. 23, and Saturday, Oct. 24, featuring local vendors, a pumpkin tower, food and drink, a costume parade, a 10K and 5K walk and run, a duck derby and more, according to laconiapumpkinfestival.com, where you can find a schedule.

• Nashua’s Main Street Monster Mash will take place Saturday, Oct. 24, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and feature Main Street trick-or-treating, live entertainment, the Howl-O-Ween parade, presented by the Humane Society for Greater Nashua, and more, according to downtownnashua.org/main-street-monster-mash.

• The Haunting of Wilton will take place Saturday, Oct. 24, with a parade down Main Street at 1 p.m. (leaving from the police station), trick-or-treat with downtown merchants following the parade, a performance by A Company of Witches in the Main Street Park at 2:30 p.m. and pumpkin carving/painting and display in the park at 4 p.m., according to an email from Wilton Main Street Association.

• Dover will hold its 20th Annual Zombie Walk on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 3 p.m., meeting at the Dover Chamber of Commerce and heading down to Henry Law Park, according to dovermainstreet.org. A truck-or-treat held by the Woodman’s Museum in the Orchard Street parking lot will take place that evening, according to woodmanmuseum.org. A Pumpkin Stroll will take place starting at 5 p.m. in Joe B. Parks Public Gardens, the Main Street website said.

• The final Final Friday in downtown Manchester of the 2026 season will take place Friday, Oct. 30, from 4 to 8 p.m. on Hanover Street off Elm Street, according to the event’s Instagram page.

• The final Concord Farmers Market of the 2026 season will take place Saturday, Oct. 31, from 8:30 a.m. to noon on Capitol Street in downtown Concord and feature trick-or-treating at the market for kids, according to an email from market organizers.

• Halloween Night Food Trucks on Chester Street will take place Saturday, Oct. 31, from 4 to 8 p.m. at Busche Academy, 40 Chester St. in Chester, according to a post on the Chester Public Library’s Facebook page. Multiple trucks are slated to attend, the post said.

• The Portsmouth Halloween Parade takes place Saturday, Oct. 31, at 7 p.m. starting at Peirce Island by Prescott Park, according to portsmouthhalloweenparade.org, where you can find a parade map and more parade information, including details on fundraising events and other happenings leading up to the parade such as Scary-oke at Daniel Tavern in Portsmouth on Friday, Oct. 16, at 9 p.m.; the Pumpkin Smash on Oct. 17 at the Farmers Market, and more, the website said.

Frightful 5Ks

• Howl-O-Ween 5K to benefit the Animal Rescue League of New Hampshire in Bedford will take place on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 10 a.m. at the Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester and is a dog-friendly 5K run/walk (you can purchase a dog bib for a participating dog), according to rescueleague.org/events. The event will include vendors, prizes and post-race refreshments, the website said. Register before Sept. 10 to receive an event T-shirt, the website said.

• The Runaway Pumpkin 10K & 5K Run/Walk presented by WOW Trail will take place on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 9 a.m. and begin and end at Smith Track at Opechee Park in Laconia, according to wowtrail.org/runawaypumpkin, which said a kids’ fun run will take place at 10 a.m. on the track. Register by Oct. 10 to receive an event shirt, the website said.

• The Salem Animal Rescue League’s Howl’ween 5K will take place Saturday, Oct. 31, at 9 a.m. in Salem. “Whether you’re a seasoned runner, casual walker, or want to bring your four-legged best friend along for the fun, this family-friendly event is the perfect way to celebrate Halloween while supporting homeless animals. Enjoy a 5K course, costume fun, vendors, music, and more,” according to sarlnh.org/events.

• The All Star Smiles Orthodontics Trick or Trot 3K will take place Saturday, Oct. 31, at 11 a.m. at Backyard Brewery and Kitchen in Manchester with an out-and-back route on South Mammoth and Lucas Roads, the website said. The event starts at 9:30 a.m. with a Kids Halloween Festival and magic show (at 10 a.m.), followed by Lil’ Pumpkin Fun Runs starting at 10:30 a.m. in age-based groups, according to millenniumrunning.com, which encourages wearing costumes for the race. The first 1,000 registered runners can receive running gloves. The event’s official charity is Girls on the Run New Hampshire, the website said

Halloweeny happenings

• Mount Washington Cruises offers a 90-minute Haunted Winnipesaukee tour Thursdays through Saturdays, Oct. 15-17 and Oct. 22-24, according to cruisenh.com, where you can purchase tickets. “[S]ample desserts while hearing haunting tales of cursed lands, mysterious fires, haunted hotels, and unsolved disappearances,” according to the website, which said the meeting spot is Weirs Beach.

• Chunky’s Cinema Pub, 707 Huse Road in Manchester, will have a Hocus Pocus Themed Trivia Night on Thursday, Oct. 15, at 7:30 p.m., according to chunkys.com, where you can purchase seats for the event.

• The final Golden Hour Foliage Cruise for the season on Mount Washington Cruises will take place Friday, Oct. 16, at 3 p.m., according to cruisenh.com, where you can purchase tickets for the two-hour cruise.

• The Castle in the Clouds, 455 Old Mountain Road in Moultonborough, will hold its family-friendly Pumpkin Walk on Friday, Oct. 16, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., according to castleintheclouds.org. “The trails surrounding Shannon Pond will become Jack o’ Lantern Lane, lined with glowing pumpkins. Costumes are encouraged,” the website said. “After your walk, warm up by a fire pit and enjoy goodies compliments of Castle in the Clouds, the Moultonborough Recreation Department, and the Lakes Region Conservation Trust,” according to the website, where you can register.

• America’s Stonehenge, 105 Haverhill Road in Salem, stonehengeusa.com, will hold a Haunted History Guided Tour on Fridays, Oct. 16 through Oct. 30, at 7 p.m., according to the website, where you can purchase tickets. “Explore ancient ruins, haunted historic sites, and ritual spaces by lantern-light on this after-dark tour of America’s Stonehenge,” the website said.

• Tricks and Treats, a night of improv comedy presented by Stranger Than Fiction, will take place Saturday, Oct. 17, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Kimball Jenkins, 266 N. Main St. in Concord, according to kimballjenkins.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Woodman Museum, 182 Central Ave. in Dover, will hold a “Heirloom Hallowe’en Exhibit Lecture with Curator Kaitlyn Lennox” on Thursday, Oct. 22, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., according to woodmanmuseum.org. “Featuring stories behind the objects themselves, Heirloom Hallowe’en offers a closer look at the folklore, social customs, and changing ways Americans have celebrated Halloween over the years. The presentation will conclude with a question-and-answer session, followed by an opportunity to explore the exhibit after hours…,” the website said.

• Flag Hill Distillery & Winery, 297 N. River Road in Lee, will hold a Harry Potter-themed trivia night on Thursday, Oct. 22, from 6 to 9 p.m., according to flaghill.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Averill House Vineyard, 21 Averill Road in Brookline, will offer its Halloween Wine Cave Igloo Experience Thursday, Oct. 22, through Sunday, Nov. 1, according to averillhousevineyard.com, where you can reserve an igloo. “Designed for wine lovers, families, and groups of friends, this immersive event combines the magic of blacklight décor, handcrafted New England wines, and cozy private igloos for an evening that feels both spooky and enchanting,” the website said.

• Spines and Spice Fall Festivalhosted by Bookish Bliss Mobile Bookstore will take place on Saturday, Oct. 24, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at Sandlot Event Center, Sandown. Find Bookish Bliss on social media for details and reminders.

• Bookery, 844 Elm St. in Manchester, will have a Spooky Trivia Night hosted by The PalomaFiles on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 6:30 p.m., according to bookerymht.com.

• Chester Public Library, 3 Chester St. in Chester, will present the program “What If Ghosts are Real?” on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 6 p.m. with author, medium and paranormal investigator Valerie Lofaso, according to a post on the Chester NH Public Library Facebook page, where you can find the link to register to attend.

• Chunky’s Cinema Pub, 707 Huse Road in Manchester, will have a Horror Movies Themed Trivia Night on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 7:30 p.m., according to chunkys.com, where you can purchase seats for the event.

• Feud Gone Wild: Halloween Edition, an adult adaption of the TV game show, will take place at the Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St. in Manchester, on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 7:30 p.m., according to the palacetheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• The New Hampshire Historical Society, 30 Park St. in Concord, will present “All Manner of Evil: An Introduction to the Real H.H. Holmes with local author Averee Kelly Clark,” on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 2 p.m., according to a press release. Admission costs $10. See nhhistory.org.

Spooky Parties

• Danse Macabre: A Goth Night will take place Saturday, Oct. 17, from 8 to 11 p.m., at the Rockingham Ballroom, 22 Ash Swamp Road in Newmarket, featuring DJ Vers Queen, in a fundraiser for the Portsmouth Halloween Parade, according to rockinballroom.club, where you can purchase tickets.

• Golf at night at Swing, Sip and Savor: Evening Glow Golf at LaBelle Winery, 14 Route 111 in Derry, on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 6 p.m., according to labellewinery.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Manchester True Collaborative will hold a Halloween Bash on Friday, Oct. 23, from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Manchester True Collaborative Center, 72 Concord St. in Manchester, according to manchestertrue.org, where you can find a link to tickets. The party is 18+ and alcohol-free and will feature a DJ and dancing, food, a costume contest, games, a selfie station, a quiet space and more, the website said.

• Involved To Impact and Liquid Therapy, 14B Court St. in Nashua, will host a Halloween Party at Liquid Therapy on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 6 to 10 p.m., according to a post on Liquid Therapy’s Facebook page, where you can find a link to purchase tickets. The evening will feature live music by Connor Coburn, a costume contest, raffles and more, the post said.

• The Mount Washington Cruise will hold a 21+ Halloween Masquerade Ball on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 6 to 9 p.m. in the final cruise of the season, according to cruisenh.com, where you can purchase tickets. The meeting point is at Weirs Beach, the website said.

• The Buzz Brews & Boos Halloween party, a 21+ event, will take place at The Hill Bar & Grille at McIntyre Ski Area, 50 Chalet Way, Manchester, 622-6159, mcintyreskiarea.com, on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 7 to 10 p.m. featuring Greg and The Morning Buzz, an appetizer buffet, a DJ, a Halloween costume contest and more, according to the McIntyre website, where you can purchase tickets for $50 per person.

• Femme Fatale: Auspicious Burlesque with Rosie Havo Production, a “classic burlesque and drag variety show,” will take place at Auspicious Brew, 2 Washington St. in Dover, on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 8 p.m., according to auspiciousbrew.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Scare & Skate: An All-Ages Halloween Event will take place Thursday, Oct. 29, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Remix Skate & Event Center, 725 Huse Road in Manchester, according to skateremix.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Diz’s, 860 Elm St. in Manchester, will hold a Halloween Party on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 4 to 9 p.m. featuring a prize wheel, costume contests at 6 and 8 p.m. and, at 9 p.m., a meet-up at City Hall Plaza for a Rhythm & Roots Monster Mash Flash Mob, according to an email. See dizscafe.com/dizs-downtown-mht-impact-events-calendar.

• The Arts Alley Halloween Party will take place Saturday, Oct. 31, from 7 to 10:30 p.m. in Arts Alley, 20 S. Main St. in Concord, and feature a costume contest with prizes, giveaways, candy and Halloween treats, a DJ and dancing and more, according to artsalleyconcordnh.com, where you can purchase tickets. Food and drink will also be available for purchase at the party, the website said.

• The Derryfield Restaurant, 625 Mammoth Road in Manchester, will hold its Halloween Party on Saturday, Oct. 31, starting at 7 p.m. featuring a DJ on the deck and the band Radio Daze in the lounge, as well as a costume contest, according to thederryfield.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Night Out with the Free Range Revue: Black Zodiac,“an alt cabaret tribute to the cult horror film Thirteen Ghosts,” will take place at BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St. in Concord, on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 7:30 p.m, according to ccanh.com. The event is 18+; “Dress up, take part in our costume contest, check out our exquisitely curated vendors, dance with us during intermission…,” the website said.

• Bad Brgr, 1015 Elm St. in Manchester, will hold a Halloween Party on Friday, Oct. 30, hosted by DJ Blacklabel, according to badbrgr.com. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., music starts at 8 p.m., the website said.

• Stark Brewing Co., 500 N. Commercial St. in Manchester, will hold the Halloween Spooktacular at Stark, featuring a night of Latin Dance (including salsa, bachata, cha-cha and hustle) with DJ Lucia on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 8 p.m. to midnight, according to starkbrewingcompany.com.

• Auspicious Brew, 2 Washington St. in Dover, will hold a Halloween House Party on Saturday, Oct. 31, starting at 8 p.m. featuring Not Yer Mama’s Drag Co. (from 8 to 9 p.m.) and DJ sets with DJ MAM and DJ Skooch (from 9 p.m. to midnight), a costume contest and more, according to auspiciousbrew.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Shaskeen Pub, 909 Elm St. in Manchester, will hold its Halloween Bash on Saturday, Oct. 31, starting at 9 p.m., according to shaskeenirishpub.com.

Seasonal art

• A Fall & Halloween Doormat Painting Workshop will take place Thursday, Oct. 15, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Arts Alley, 20 S. Main St. in Concord, according to artsalleyconcordnh.com, where you can purchase a ticket.

• “Musings, Memory and Magic” featuring the works of Wen Redmond will run at Kimball Jenkins, 266 N. Main St. in Concord, kimballjenkins.com, through Saturday, Oct. 17, according to the website.

• “Harvest Hues” will run Friday, Oct. 16, through Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Kimball Jenkins Mansion, 266 N. Main St. in Concord, kimballjenkins.com, with a reception on Oct. 18 from 1 to 3 p.m., the website said.

• Chunky’s, 707 Huse Road in Manchester, has Halloween-themed art events on its schedule. On Friday, Oct. 16, it’s “Paint Party: Boo-tiful Blooms” at 7:15 p.m., and on Friday, Oct. 30, it’s “Paint Party: Witch Please!” at 7:15 p.m., according to chunkys.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Great New England Fall Craft and Artisan Show will take place at the Hampshire Dome, 34 Emerson Road in Milford on Saturday, Oct. 17, and Sunday, Oct. 18, featuring 160 New England exhibitors, live music, food trucks, a cafe and more, according to gnecraftartisanshows.com, where you can find information about tickets.

• Wine on Main, 9 N. Main St. in Concord, has several art and craft classes, which also offer wine tastings, with a fall or Halloween theme on the schedule, according to wineonmainnh.com. Upcoming events include Fall Paint & Sip on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 5 p.m.; Witches Seaglass Trees on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 6 p.m., and Spooky Terrarium Workshop on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 6:30 p.m., according to the website, where you can purchase tickets.

• “Into the Woods” featuring art that depicts “celebration of autumn, the landscape, people, activities, holidays, and emotion,” will be on display through Sunday, Nov. 1, at Mosaic Art Collective, 410 Chestnut St. in Manchester, according to mosaicartcollective.com. An “Into the Woods Masquerade Ball” will be held Saturday, Oct. 17, from 5 to 8 p.m., according to the website where you can RSVP.

• The Dover Witches Market runs Sunday, Oct. 18, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to The Groovy Witch’s Facebook page. “The magick will spread throughout downtown Dover, with the market centered around Central Avenue, the Belknap Street parking lot, Dover City Hall Auditorium, and St. Thomas Street,” the post said. The event will feature “60 vendors, mystical treasures, handmade creations, local artists, spiritual practitioners, readers, crafters, and so much more,” as well as live entertainment, the post said. See groovywitch.com.

• Stark Brewing Co., 500 N. Commercial St. in Manchester, will host a Boos and Brews with Dash of Creativity on Tuesday, Oct. 20, from 6 to 8 p.m., featuring Mini Halloween Houses. See the Dash of Creativity Facebook page to find a link to purchase tickets.

• Hollis Artspace, 30 Ash St. in Hollis, has several fall and Halloween-themed classes on its schedule, according to hollisartspace.com. There will be a felting workshop to make an owl pin and a workshop to make a pumpkin cat, both on Tuesday, Oct. 20, for ages 12 to 18+, and on Wednesday, Oct. 21, a moonlit cat watercolor workshop and a fall landscape watercolor workshop, both for adults, according to the website, where you can sign up for the classes.

• The Meredith Fine Craft Gallery, 279 DW Highway in Meredith, will hold a Felted Pumpkins making class on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 2 to 4 p.m., with juried artist Hannah Gage, according to a press release. Register by Wednesday, Oct. 21, by calling 270-7920 or going to meredith.nhcrafts.org/classes, the release said. Tuition costs $40 per students, plus a $25 materials fee paid to the instructor at the class, the release said.

• Celebrate Samhain will take place Sunday, Oct. 25, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hilton Nashua, 2 Somerset Parkway in Nashua, according to facebook.com/NHSamhain. The event will feature vendors, psychics, music, workshops and more, the post said. See celebratesamhain.com for more.

• Masquerade Night at the Museum at the Currier Museum of Art, 150 Ash St. in Manchester, currier.org, will take place on Friday, Oct. 30, from 6 to 9 p.m., according to the website, where you can purchase tickets for events.

• “Wild & Wicked” will be on display at See Saw Art, 408 Chestnut St. in Manchester, through Sunday, Nov. 1, according to seesaw.art. The show will feature the works of Adrianne Bodogh, Fascia, and Micha Bardelcik, the website said.

Spooky & fantastical performances

• Tales of Terror, “a special night of spooky stories to celebrate the Halloween season,” presented by The Barnstormers theater company, will be on stage at The Corner House in Sandwich on Thursday, Oct. 15, at 6 p.m. and at Barnstormers Theatre in Tamworth on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 5 p.m., according to barnstormerstheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets. “Short stories from some of the best, including Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and many more! Featuring Jordan Ahnquist, Kate Middleton, Jean Mar Brown, Marion Posner, George Cleveland, and other Barnstormer favs!” the website said.

• Night Watch will be presented by Garrison Players Arts Center, 449 Roberts Road in Rollinsford, garrisonplayers.org, through Saturday, Oct. 17, with shows Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 4 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., according to the website, where you can purchase tickets. “This ingeniously devised thriller builds steadily in menace and suspense until its breath-stopping twist ending,” the website said.

• Occupation: Murder!, an interactive murder mystery, will be presented by Lend Me a Theater (lendmeatheater.org) Oct. 17-18 at the YWCA in Manchester, according to the website.

• Evil Dead The Musicalwill run at The Seacoast Repertory Theatre (125 Bow St. in Portsmouth, seacoastrep.org) through Sunday, Nov. 8, according to the website, where you can purchase tickets.

• Langdon House Parlor Entertainments: A Victorian Frightful New Hampshire Theatre Project, 959 Islington St., No. 3, in Portsmouth, nhtheatreproject.org, goes to Langdon House in Portsmouth on Thursday, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 17, at 4 p.m., for “an evening of eerie songs and stories inspired by Edgar Allan Poe and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, performed in costume…,” according to the website, where you can purchase tickets.

• Looking Glass Land will be presented by the Community Players of Concord (communityplayersofconcord.org) Children’s Theatre Project on Friday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 17, at 2 p.m. at Concord City Auditorium, 2 Prince St., Concord, according to the website, where tickets will be available for purchase. “Looking Glass Land is a stage adaptation by renowned playwright James DeVita that takes Lewis Carroll’s original Through the Looking Glass and literally runs with it. This wild adaptation highlights and improvises on the pure, unadulterated fun of the story. The play still retains some of Carroll’s deeper meanings, but what it possesses most of all is a huge helping of unabashed silliness!” according to the website.

• Queens, a play by the Pinkerton Players about King Henry VIII in purgatory, will be presented at Stockbridge Theatre, 5 Pinkerton St., Derry, pinkertonacademy.org/stockbridge-theatre, Friday, Oct. 16, through Sunday, Oct. 18 (7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. on Sunday), according to the website, where you can purchase tickets.

• Carrie The Musical will be presented by Jonesing for Theater, jonesingfortheater.wixsite.com, at Millspace, 55 Main St. in Newmarket, millspace.org, Friday, Oct. 16, through Sunday, Nov. 1, according to the venue’s website, where you can purchase tickets. Described as “a chilling, blood-red theatrical experience based on Stephen King’s legendary horror story,” the show runs at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, the website said.

• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a “Halloween Old Time Radio production,” will be presented by Epping Community Theater, 38 Ladds Lane, Epping, eppingtheater.org, on Friday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 18, at 2 p.m., according to the website, where you can purchase tickets.

• Seussical, a musical featuring Dr. Seuss’ characters, will be presented by Rochester Opera House, 31 Wakefield St. in Rochester, rochesteroperahouse.org, Friday, Oct. 16, through Sunday, Nov. 8, according to the website, where you can see the line-up of days and times and purchase tickets.

• Hook’s Tale will be presented by Powerhouse Theatre Collaborative, powerhousenh.org, Saturday, Oct. 17, at 1 p.m. at Laconia Public Library and Sunday, Oct. 18, at 3 p.m. at Taylor Community Woodside Building, according to the website, where you can purchase tickets. “Captain James Hook, badly maligned by a certain play and despised by generations of Peter Pan fans, finally gets to clear his name. The good Captain, with the aid of his friend Smee, tells his life story in this family-friendly play, recounting his friendship with and ultimate betrayal by Peter Pan, his romance with Tiger Lily, his familial relationship with the Darling family, and his adoption of a lovable crocodile named Daisy,” the website said.

• Monster Mash Murder Mystery Dinner Party will take place at LaBelle Winery in Amherst (345 Route 101) on Sunday, Oct. 18, at 6:30 p.m., according to labellewinery.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Walker Lecture Series will present Irish Voices with Stephen Collins and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven with Jeffrey Zygmont on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m. at the Concord City Auditorium, 2 Prince St. in Concord, according to walkerlecture.org.

• Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will be presented by Windham Actors Guild(windhamactorsguild.com) at Windham High School on Friday, Oct. 23, and Saturday, Oct. 24, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 25, at 2 p.m., according to the website, where you will be able to purchase tickets.

• Carrie The Musicalwill be presented byManchester Community Theatre Players at MCTP Theatre at North End Montessori School, 698 Beech St., Manchester, manchestercommuniththeatre.com, Friday, Oct. 23, through Sunday, Nov. 1, with shows at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays, the website said.

• Sam Shovel, Private Eye, featuring grades 11 through adult, will be presented by Friends of the Amato at Amato Center, 56 Mont Vernon St., Milford, amatocenter.org, on Friday, Oct. 23, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 24, at 1 and 4 p.m., the website said. The show is described on the website as “A Radio Theater production recorded with a live studio audience.” “It’s a hot and sultry day in the gritty city, and Sam Shovel has a dead man sprawled in her office, stabbed in the back with a yardstick. Ends up this is just the first of a string of murders happening in the fashion industry.”

• Much Ado About Murder, a murder mystery, will be presented by the Majestic Theatre, 880 Page St. in Manchester, majestictheatre.net, Oct. 23-25, according to a theater email.

• And Then There Were None, the Agatha Christie story of “Murder. Suspense. 1930s,” will be presented byThe Players’ Ring, 105 Marcy St. in Portsmouth, playersring.org, Friday, Oct. 23, through Sunday, Nov. 15, with shows at 7 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and at 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays (2 p.m. only on Oct. 31 and 2 and 7 p.m. on Nov. 1), according to the website, where you can purchase tickets.

• Dracula will be presented by Break a Leg Legally and the Ball Players at Centennial Hall, 105 Post Road in Hampton, Friday, Oct. 23, through Sunday, Nov. 1, with shows at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and and 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, according to breakaleglegally.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Cirque Us: Stories will be presented at Stockbridge Theatre, 5 Pinkerton St., Derry, pinkertonacademy.org/stockbridge-theatre, on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 2 p.m., according to the website, where you can purchase tickets.

• All-Hallows-Eve: An Evening of Storytelling with Jake Lewis and Aly Foy will take place at The Word Barn, 66 Newfields Road in Exeter, on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 7 p.m., according to thewordbarn.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• “Cursed II: Haunted Objects and Storytelling!” will take place at The Eleventh Letter The Writing Gallery, 146 N. Main St. in Concord, theeleventhletter.com, in collaboration with N.A.V. Arts on Oct. 29 from 6 to 8 p.m., a “free, fun, spooky spoken word night where seasoned storytellers spin a yarn based on various ‘cursed’ objects created by local artists,” the website said.

• The Great and Powerful Stories from the Community — Stories of Fear will be on stage at the Flying Monkey, 39 Main St. in Plymouth, on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 6:30 p.m., according to flyingmonkeynh.com. The event is “an evening of true stories told live on stage by members of our community, inspired by a shared theme. Every storyteller shares a personal experience in their own voice…. The event is open to all ages, hosting both prose and poetry entries of not more than 5 minutes. Come prepared to speak and drop your name in the wizard’s hat. Fifteen names will be chosen at random to share a story,” the website said.

• All Hallows’ Eve: Spooky Tunes, Songs and Tales from Scotland featuring Louise Bichan and Friends will take place at The Word Barn, 66 Newfields Road in Exeter, on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m., according to thewordbarn.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Witch Perfect, described as an “all live-singing comedy parody” of Hocus Pocus, will be presented at the Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester,on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m., according to palacetheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Vampire Circus will be presented at the Capitol Center for the Arts’ Swope Theater, 44 S. Main St., Concord, on Friday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m., according to ccanh.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Edgar Allan Poe Afterlife Radio Showpresented by the Winni Players Community Theatre at the Winnipesaukee Playhouse, 33 Footlight Circle, Meredith, on Thursday, Oct. 29, and Friday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 31, at 2 p.m., according to winnipesaukeeplayhouse.org, where you can purchase tickets.

Music of the Night

• Dr. Gasp and the Eeks will play the 24th annual Halloween special, with the Undead Outlaws, at the Stone Church, 5 Granite St. in Newmarket, on Friday, Oct. 16, at 8 p.m., according to stonechurchrocks.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• A Tempting Murder(“A unique evening of music blending the song catalogues of Sheryl Crow, The Black Crowes, Counting Crows, and more, this tempting murder of crows is sure to leave you with an appetite for more,” the website said) will be presented by the Rep Underground at the The Seacoast Repertory Theatre (125 Bow St. in Portsmouth, seacoastrep.org) on Wednesday, Oct. 21, and Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 7:30 p.m.,

• Rocktober Halloween will feature multiple bands on two stages at Jewel Music Venue, 61 Canal St. in Manchester, on Thursday, Oct. 22, starting at 6 p.m., according to Jewel’s Facebook page, where you can find a link to purchase tickets. Bands slated to play include He Is Legend, In Angels, Excide, Parts Per Million, Dead Fiction, Socially Problematic Children and Reapercussion, the post said.

• Ghost Stories: an Understudy Records hip-hop showcase will take place Friday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m. at Terminus Underground, 134 Haines St. in Nashua, according to newhampshireunderground.org, where you can purchase tickets. “Come sit around the campfire … and listen to the ghost stories of Minds of One Collective Genius: Michael Murphy III, B. Snair, and Vincent Tesoro. YHL Young Hustle League: Mr. Goodbarz, Beneficial Bang, and Trip Da Menace. Spamily Records: Zac Pacillo and Slaughtamaine. Understudy Records: Krispy, 6 Minds Combined, and Shinnozuke,” the website said.

• Hachi Halloween 3,featuring electronic dance music with Kumarion, Venture 5 (in an East Coast debut), Mr. Eyeslee, Sokomodo and J-rawk, will be at Jewel Music Venue, 61 Canal St. in Manchester, on Friday, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m. for a night that includes a Halloween costume contest, according to a post on the Jewel Facebook page, where you can find a link to purchase tickets.

• Here Come The Mummys, “an eight-piece funk-rock band of 5,000-year-old Egyptian Mummies with a one-track mind,” will play the Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St. in Nashua, on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 7:30 p.m., according to nashuacenterforthearts.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Monster Mash with Emily’s Garage Band, which features “a full horn section and a dance-ready mix of nostalgia pop, funk, R&B,” will take place Saturday, Oct. 24, at 8 p.m. at the Rockingham Ballroom, 22 Ash Swamp Road in Newmarket, according to rockinballroom.club. The evening will feature a costume contest, a performance by Fox Run Dance Company and a live tarot card reader, according to the website, where you can purchase tickets.

• Booty Vortex Band will play the Halloween Disco Party on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m. (doors open at 7:15 p.m.) at LaBelle Winery, 345 Route 101 in Amherst, according to labellewinery.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• 603 Line Dancing Halloween Party with Freddy & The Freeloaders will take place Friday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m. at the Rockingham Ballroom, 22 Ash Swamp Road in Newmarket, according to rockinballroom.club, where you can purchase tickets. Costumes are encouraged — “Best Dolly-inspired costume wins $100 cash,” the website said.

• Brass Against — Halloween Tour will come to the BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St. in Concord, on Friday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m., according to ccanh.com, where you can purchase tickets. For a look at their music, which includes covers of songs from bands like Rage Against the Machine and Black Sabbath featuring brass instruments along with traditional rock band instruments, see brassagainst.com.

• Stone Dead, channeling “ the music of the Grateful Dead,” will play two nights at the Stone Church, 5 Granite St. in Newmarket, on Friday, Oct. 30, and Saturday, Oct. 31, at 9 a.m., according to stonechurchrocks.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Recycled Percussion Halloween Weekend shows will take place at The Cake Theatre, 12 Veterans Square in Laconia, on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 2 and 7 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 1, at 4 p.m., according to thecaketheatre.com.

• Fall Gala will take place at Avaloch Farm Music Institute, 16 Hardy Lane, Boscawen, avalochfarmmusic.org, on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 4 p.m. featuring live performances, according to the website, where you can purchase tickets.

• Henniker Brewing Co., 129 Centervale Road in Henniker, hennikerbrewing.com, will host The Haunting of Henniker on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 5 p.m. featuring costume contests and music from Lungbuster, Hobo Wizard, When the Deadbolt Breaks, Long Pig and Phantasm, the website said.

• Halloween at The Bungalow, 333 Valley St. in Manchester, will feature a costume contest plus music from Tallah, Fight From Within, Late 9, Fathom Farewell and Ratblood, Proxies, according to a post on the venue’s Facebook page, which features a link to purchase tickets. Doors open at 5 p.m., music begins at 6 p.m., the post said.

• Stark Brewing Co., 500 N. Commercial St. in Manchester, will hold its Halloween Bash featuring a costume contest and live music from Nefarious Motives on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 7 to 10 p.m., according to starkbrewingcompany.com.

• “From Beethoven to the Beyond” will open the season for the New Hampshire Philharmonic Orchestra on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 1, at 2 p.m., according to nhphil.org, where you can purchase tickets. Phil concerts take place at the Seifert Performing Arts Center at Salem High School, 44 Geremonty Drive in Salem, the website said.

• East Coast Alice, an Alice Cooper tribute band, will perform with The Lords of Salem, a White Zombie and Rob Zombie tribute band, on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 7:30 p.m. at Park Theatre, 19 Main St. in Jaffrey, according to theparktheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• Resurrection: Angels vs. Demons, a goth industrial night at Jewel Music Venue, 61 Canal St. in Manchester, featuring “DJs Pet and Sawtooth and special guest djared of Elysium Boston,” will take place Saturday, Oct. 31, at 8 p.m., according to Jewel’s Facebook page.

• Doctor Gasp and the Eeks will perform at the Press Room, 77 Daniel St. in Portsmouth, on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 9 p.m., according to pressroomnh.com, where you can purchase tickets.

Spooky corn maze
Find a listing of area corn mazes, including those with night hours, in the Oct. 1 issue of the Hippo, available in our digital library at hippopress.com.

Scary Movies

• The Shining (R, 1980) will screen at Chunky’s in Manchester on Tuesday, Oct. 13, and Thursday, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m., according to chunkys.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Hocus Pocus 2 (PG, 2022) will screen in Derryfield Park in Manchester on Friday, Oct. 16, at 8:15 p.m., according to a post on the Manchester Parks & Recreation Facebook page. BYO chairs, blankets and snacks, the post said.

• The Studio Ghibli Fest continues via Fathom Entertainment, fathomentertainment.com, with Spirited Away Oct. 17-21, according to the website, where you can find screening theaters and times.

• The MET Live in HD: Macbeth will be presented at the BNH Stage (16 S. Main St. in Concord) on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 1 p.m., according to ccanh.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Evil Dead II (R, 1987) will screen on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at Red River Theatres, 11 S. Main St. in Concord, according to redrivertheatres.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Exorcist (R, 1973) will screen at Chunky’s in Manchester on Tuesday, Oct. 20, and Thursday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m., according to chunkys.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Halloween 2007 (R, 2007), the Rob Zombie-directed Halloween, will screen at the Flying Monkey, 39 Main St. in Plymouth, on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 6:30 p.m., according to flyingmonkeynh.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Nosferatu(1922), a silent film directed by F.W. Murnau and featuring live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, will screen on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. at The Flying Monkey in Plymouth, according to silentfilmlivemusic.blogspot.com.

• Rocky Horror Picture Show(R, 1975) presented by Dive In Productions will screen on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. at Auspicious Brew, 2 Washington St. in Dover, according to Dive In Production’s Facebook page, where you can check back for details, and auspiciousbrew.com.

• The Shining (1980) will screen on Friday, Oct. 23, at 6:30 p.m. at the Park Theatre, 19 Main St. in Jaffrey, according to theparktheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• Rocky Horror Picture Show(R, 1975) will return to Red River Theatres, 11 S. Main St. in Concord Friday, Oct. 23; Saturday, Oct. 24, and Friday, Oct. 30, at 10 p.m. See redrivertheatres.org for tickets and rules.

• Psychowill screen at The Village Players51 Glendon St. in Wolfeboro, village-players.com, on Saturday, Oct. 24.

• The Rocky Horror Picture Show (R, 1975) will screen at Chunky’s in Manchester on Saturday, Oct. 24, and Friday, Oct. 30, at 9 p.m. Screenings are +18. Doors open at 8 p.m. and props and costumes are allowed, according to chunkys.com.

• The Bat(1926), a silent film featuring live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, will screen on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre, according to silentfilmlivemusic.blogspot.com.

• The Shining (R, 1980) will screen at Red River Theatres, 11 S. Main St. in Concord on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 7 p.m., according to redrivertheatres.org, where you can purahcase tickets.

• Halloween (R, 1978) will screen at Chunky’s in Manchester on Tuesday, Oct. 27, and Thursday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m., according to chunkys.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), a silent film starring Lon Chaney, will screen with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 1:30 p.m. at Park Theatre, 19 Main St. in Jaffrey, according to theparktheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Bat Whispers (1930), about a “daring jewel thief,” will screen on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 1:45 p.m. at Park Theatre, 19 Main St. in Jaffrey, according to theparktheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (G, 1971) will screen at the Flying Monkey, 39 Main St. in Plymouth, on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 6:30 p.m., according to flyingmonkeynh.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Nosferatu, the 1922 film, will be screened with a live, original score performed by area musicians at the Press Room, 77 Daniel St. in Portsmouth, on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m., according to pressroomnh.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Silent Night, Bloody Night (R, 1972) will screen on Friday, Oct. 30, at 6:30 p.m. at Park Theatre, 19 Main St. in Jaffrey, according to theparktheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Rocky Horror Picture Show (R, 1975) will screen at Rochester Opera House, 31 Wakefield St. in Rochester, on Thursday, Oct. 29, and Friday, Oct. 30, at 9:30 p.m., according to rochesteroperahouse.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Cat and the Canary (1927), a silent film featuring live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, will screen on Friday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m., at the Derry Opera House sponsored by the Derry Public Library, according to silentfilmlivemusic.blogspot.com.

• Harry Houdini Double Feature with Terror Island (1920) and Haldane of the Secret Service (1923), silent films featuring live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, will screen on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 2 p.m., at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre, according to silentfilmlivemusic.blogspot.com.

• Hocus Pocus Taste-Along will screen at The Music Hall (Historic Theater at 28 Chestnut St. in Portsmouth; Lounge at 131 Congress St. in Portsmouth; themusichall.org) Saturday, Oct. 31, at 4 p.m., the website said.

• The Vampire Bat (1933) whose cast includes Fay Wray, will screen on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 6:15 p.m. at Park Theatre, 19 Main St. in Jaffrey, according to theparktheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• Hocus Pocus Taste-Along Experience will take place at BNH Stage (16 S. Main St. in Concord) on Sunday, Nov. 1, at 7 p.m. Described as “Perfect for families, friend groups and Halloween fanatics of all ages,” the evening will feature a taste-along candy box for each ticket-holder featuring treats that correspond to moments in the film, according to ccanh.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• V for Vendetta20th anniversary will screen via Fathom Entertainment, fathomentertainment.com, Nov. 1 and Nov. 5, according to the website, where you can find screening theaters and times.

Sweets & treats

• LaBelle Winery will offer a Halloween Candy & Wine Pairing Class at both of its locations, according to labellewinery.com, where you can register for the classes. Catch the class on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 6 p.m. at the location in Amherst (345 Route 101) and Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 6 p.m. in Derry (14 Route 111), the website said.

• Wine on Main, 9 N. Main St. in Concord, will host a Boo!-kie Cookie Decorating Class on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 6 p.m., according to wineonmainnh.com, where you can purchase tickets. The event will also feature a wine tasting.

• LaBelle Winery in Derry (14 Route 111) will offer a Halloween Cookie Decorating Class on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 10:30 a.m., according to labellewinery.com, where you can sign up.

• Flag Hill Distillery & Winery, 297 N. River Road in Lee, will host its annual Boo Brunch on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 11 a.m., according to flaghill.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Celebrate the change of seasons at the Oktoberfest + Ski & Snowboard Sale on Sunday, Nov. 1, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Pats Peak in Henniker, according to patspeak.com. The Oktoberfest will feature German food offerings available for purchase, a Sam Adams German beer garden, live music by the Bavarian Brothers Band, kids’ activities, axe throwing and more, the website said.

Cheesy dips and tasty accompaniments to make any snack session a party

In October, the MLB post-season, NBA pre-season and season start and WNBA playoffs share the airways with NFL and college football, professional and college soccer and the NHL. Game days are a great excuse for a game-day spread of eats — not quite a meal but still hearty and delicious.

CHEESY DIP

It’s hard to go wrong with cheese, and that theory extends to dips.

At Firefly Bistro in Manchester the most popular dish has long been an appetizer that works on the melty cheese and dippable item principle. And it proves that even a funkier cheese can make a crowd-pleasing dip.

“The dish is called Gogo Bread,” said David Becker, the chef and owner of Firefly Bistro. The appetizer is a Gorgonzola fondue served with warm garlic bread.

“It’s been on the menu since we opened, and it’s been consistently the best-selling menu item we’ve had in the 17 years we’ve been open,” he said.

“It’s a warm and comforting dish,” Becker said. “The bread itself is a rustic loaf bread. It’s studded with whole cloves of roasted garlic. We slice that thin and we grill it up and we serve that to be dipped into the Gorgonzola fondue. The Gorgonzola fondue itself is basically a bechamel sauce with a whole bunch of Gorgonzola folded into it. It’s not just a pile of melted Gorgonzola. We make it with milk and butter and flour and other ingredients. So it sort of mellows it out a little bit and makes it a little more user-friendly. And I think it would be kind of like a bit of a kick in the face if it were just a ramekin full of just straight melted Gorgonzola.”

Parmesan Basil Dip

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, cubed
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 8 ounces (225 g) shredded Parmesan or Romano cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper — regular fresh-ground black pepper will work just as well, but white pepper makes for a prettier color
• 2 teaspoons hot honey
• 1/2 cup (115 g) whole milk
• A large handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped

Melt the butter over medium heat in a saucepan. When it gets foamy, whisk in the garlic, then the cream cheese. Keep whisking until it has all melted together.

Whisk in the Parmesan or Romano cheese, salt and pepper, then whisk that until they have melted and/or incorporated, and drizzle in the milk and hot honey. Reduce the heat to low, and continue whisking until the mixture is creamy and not quite simmering. Remove from the heat, and stir in the basil.

Serve warm.

CHEESE & BEER

Davis Smith is a chef and bartender with Bert’s Beer & Wine in Manchester.

“This is the time of year when we [make] warm dips of various types,” he said, adding that beer and cheese have a natural affinity.

“Beer and cheese go together perfectly for a lot of reasons,” Smith said “Most folks think that the best pairing out there is wine and cheese. Fun fact — actually not. Beer pairs better because it has more of those savory fermented notes than wine typically does. Both [beer and cheese] go through the same process, fermentation, when you produce them. So they have a lot of the same complementary notes, but they also mirror each other in certain ways that they just pair perfectly.”

Beer is thus a good accompaniment to cheese, both as a beverage and as an ingredient.

“Whenever you’re looking at just the cheese on its own,” Smith said, “you usually want to try and have something that will balance it out. So one of the best things out there, if you are trying to make a very sharp cheddar cheese-based thing, is a hoppy beer like an IPA. The hops balance out that sharpness and the sharpness of the cheddar cuts through the funk of the hops. So that’s why I recommend always a good IPA with a cheeseburger. It cuts through the fattiness and it works well with the cheese that’s on it. If you’re looking for something a bit lighter, something like a more traditional, like light-bodied beer cheese or queso, something like a light lager might be a better fit because there’s less going on there. The cheese is more forward. The beer lets the cheese do the talking. So it really depends on what you’re going for.”

“So,” he said, “I think for a classic tavern beer cheese, you cannot go wrong with a good quality mild cheddar. You don’t want to go all the way to sharp. You want to have it still be a little bit rounded. And a good, slightly hoppy IPA. because you’re looking to have something that is warm and inviting and tasty without being in-your-face, taking over the meal. You want to look out for something like a single-hopped IPA. If you really want to push the envelope a little bit, you can go to something like a double IPA that will have a richer depth of flavor.”

The sharper the cheese, the more hops and bitterness it can work with, he said.

Cheese and Beer Dip

Cheese and Beer Dip is a pub classic. This dip goes well, drinking-wise, with beer, of course, and, dipping-wise, with soft pretzels.

• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 2 Tablespoons flour
• 3/4 cup (170 g) whole milk
• 2/3 cup (150 g) beer — what kind of beer depends on how sharp the cheese is. If you use a mild cheddar, use a slightly hoppy IPA (if the label just says “IPA” or “single IPA”, that’s what you’re looking for). The sharper the cheddar, the hoppier the beer can be. Some beers label themselves as “double” or even “triple-IPA.” If you’re just using regular Pilsner, go with a mild cheddar.
• 2½ cups (10-11 ounces, 310 g) shredded (by you) cheddar cheese
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire or steak sauce
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard — this is what is called an “emulsifier”; it helps oily/fatty ingredients mix together with water-based ones, like in a salad dressing.
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
• Pinch of salt

Shred your cheddar.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the flour and let it cook, stirring more or less constantly. You are making what is called a “roux..” This will thicken your dip. The darker you cook it, the less it will thicken the liquid, but the more flavor it will have. Let it darken at least a little. A good rule of thumb is that it should be the same shade you like your toast.

Whisk in the milk, and continue whisking until the mixture thickens and comes to a simmer (not quite boiling). Whisk in the beer and the seasonings (everything but the cheese).

Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the shredded cheese. Keep stirring until it has all melted and been incorporated into the sauce. Which is now a dip.

CHEESE, MEET SPINACH

While you can always serve a cheesy dip with vegetables for dipping purposes, there is also tastiness to be had from introducing veggies to the dip itself.

Jon Carnevale is proud of his espinaca. He is the owner of the Shorty’s Mexican Roadhouse restaurants in Nashua and Manchester, and he said the Tex-Mex spinach dip is one of the most popular items on their menu.

“We have a lot of stuff on the Shorty’s menu that kind of caters to that [warm, creamy texture]” Carnevale said. “No. 1, we’ve got our espinaca that’s been kind of world famous for 40+ years now. It’s been kind of a staple. It’s really our signature item here at Shorty’s. People have tried to recreate it, but never quite exactly the same. We’ve got the patent on that. Some of it has to do with the fact that it’s been around for so long and it’s familiar; a lot of people like that — it brings back a lot of good memories for a lot of people, and, you know, they tend to come back over and over again just to kind of have that happen. And then, you know, it’s just delicious. It’s warm. It’s got a little bit of heat to it. It’s got a lot of different factors in the flavors that are really, really desirable this time of year.”

The secret to a good spinach dip, Carnevale said, is to use the spinach itself as a supporting ingredient.

“There’s not too much spinach in [our espinaca], but there’s enough to feel good about yourself when you’re eating it,” he said. “I think it just adds a little bit of focus to the dip, so it’s not too overpoweringly fatty or cheesy. It really kind of brings [the dish] into focus.”

Carnevale said fall is a good time to introduce new, warm dips at his restaurants.

“We have a specials menu coming out that’s going to have kind of a variant on [our espinaca],” he said. “We [make] a street corn dip as well. Just like everything else at Shorty’s, we roast our own street corn in-house. We roast it off with some garlic, some cotija cheese and some mayo. We add a little bit of espinaca to it and a little bit of cream cheese, just to give it that roundness. We serve it with chips, and it’s great. It’s warm. It’s filling and comforting. You get a little crunch from the chips. It’s just a good, a great fall dish.”

Espinaca

This is not the recipe for Shorty’s espinaca, but a DIY homage to it.

• 16 ounces (450 g) white American cheese or Velveeta, chopped or cubed
• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese
• 1/2 cup (10 ounces, or 280 g) frozen, chopped spinach that has been thawed and squeezed dry
• 1 10-ounce can Rotel diced tomatoes with green chilies, drained
• 1/2 cup (115 g) whole or evaporated milk
• 1/2 medium white or yellow onion, finely chopped
• 2 cubes of chicken bouillon
• 1/4 cup (2 Tablespoons) minced jalapeño chilis
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• Cayenne pepper to taste

In a large saucepan, combine the cheese and milk over medium-low heat, and stir until it is completely melted, combined and smooth. Stir in the chopped onion, drained tomatoes, bullion cubes and minced chilies. Continue to stir, until the bullion cubes have dissolved completely.

Fold in the spinach, garlic powder and cayenne pepper, and bring to a serving temperature, not a boil. Serve immediately and hot, with tortilla chips.

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

This is possibly the queen of warm dips.

• 1 8-ounce package of cream cheese
• 1/4 cup (57 g) mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup (50 g) grated Italian cheese — Parmesan, Romano, or a mixture
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder — this will give you a second type of garlic flavor
• 1 teaspoon of dried, aromatic herbs — basil, thyme, sage, etc.
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 14-ounce can of artichoke hearts or bottoms, drained and chopped
• 1/2 cup (100 g) frozen, chopped spinach that you have thawed and squeezed the liquid out of
• 1/2 cup (55 g) shredded (by you) mozzarella cheese

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

Grease a small baking dish.

In a mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, mayonnaise, grated cheese and seasonings. An electric mixer or a wooden spoon will work for this.

Gently mix in the spinach and chopped artichokes. This should be done by hand. Spoon. Whatever. An electric mixer would pulverize them. Transfer the mixture to the baking dish, and sprinkle the shredded mozzarella cheese on top.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until the top is slightly browned.

THE DIPPABLES

Chips — corn and/or potato, depending on your preference and the flavors you’re working with — serve as a time-tested dip delivery method. Here are some more items that can stand up to a hearty dip.

Bagel Bites

Baking a really good homemade pretzel is a specialized skill. But a fried bagel piece is a solid alternative if you’re looking for something chewy to dip.

Savory bagels — This actually works with any variety of bagel, but since the goal here is to make something to dunk into cheese dip, you’re probably better off using onion or sesame bagels.

Some sort of spreadable fat — It could be margarine. If you’re feeling indulgent, butter is the classic choice. If you’re feeling adventurous, it could be mayonnaise. If you’re feeling indulgent and adventurous, bacon grease will be another revelation.

Cut each bagel into eight pieces. Cut it once horizontally across the middle, like a hamburger bun, and then vertically into quarters.

Spread the flat, cut surface of each piece with the fat of your choice (see above).

Heat a skillet to medium heat, then fry the bagel pieces, face-down, like you would a grilled-cheese sandwich. Do not crowd the pan, which will change its temperature unpredictably. Do not be impatient and use too high a heat; neither you nor your smoke detector want to deal with burned butter or, worse, bacon fat.

Use tongs to check each bagel piece. When it is golden-brown and super-tempting, set it aside and replace it with one of the others that you have waiting to fry.

Serve these warm from the pan.

Toasted Ravioli

This is fast and flavorful and will bring you a shocking amount of validation from your friends and unexpected guests.

• 1 package of frozen mini-ravioli — how big a package is a matter of personal judgment. These tend to get snapped up pretty quickly, so you might want to buy a larger package than you initially think prudent.
• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• Smoked salt, optional — This is one of those ingredients that you might not have on hand, but if you ever run across some you should definitely pick some up. Unlike many spices, it will never go bad, and it makes a tomato sandwich sing.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat, then add the vegetable oil and butter.

Add “some” ravioli to the heated pan. This will work well with thawed ravioli, but surprisingly, frozen ravioli will work almost as well. Don’t crowd the pan, so you can keep the heat consistent. After a few minutes — four, to pick a number out of the air — check the bottom of each raviolo, and flip it when it is golden brown. As with the bagel bites, replace each raviolo with a raw one from the bullpen.

Season these with smoked salt, if you have it, then serve them warm and toasty, with any dip.

Kimchi Pancakes

• Pancake batter made from your favorite mix
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup of your favorite kimchee, chopped. This will vary, depending on your favorite type, brand and intensity of kimchee.
• 1 large shallot, finely chopped
• Gochujang, a Korean hot condiment, to taste — optional
• Vegetable oil for frying

Make a batch of pancake batter the way you normally would.

Add the chopped shallot, kimchee and gochujang, then stir thoroughly to combine.

Oil the pan and make pancakes, exactly as you would on a Sunday morning, just without the expectation of adding butter and maple syrup. Fry them a little more than you might normally, so they are a little darker than usual and crispy around the edges.

Before serving, cut the pancakes into cracker-sized pieces.

BALANCE

Those grocery store veggie trays are made for moments like these, when you need something crisp and not fried to balance melty cheese and fried or toasted dippable items. Round out your offerings with something that brings a little hit of sourness to your party.

Pickled apple slices

• 1 cup (225 g) water
• 1 cup (225 g) cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
• 2 teaspoons pickling spice
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher or coarse sea salt
• 2 to 3 sweet, firm apples — I like Jazz or Fuji
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 stars of star anise

Combine the water, vinegar, sugar, pickling spice and salt in a saucepan, and bring it to a simmer. Stir it occasionally, to make certain that the sugar and salt have completely dissolved.

Meanwhile, peel and slice the apples the way you would for your kids’ lunch box or soccer game. Place the slices in a mixing bowl and set them aside.

At about this time, your pickling liquid should be ready. If it has come to a boil, set it aside to cook for a couple of minutes.

Pour the pickling liquid through a strainer onto the apples.

Stir the apple slices to make sure that they are all completely covered with very warm pickling liquid. Add the cinnamon sticks and star anise.

The apple slices will probably want to float. Weigh them down with something — perhaps a slightly smaller mixing bowl half-filled with water.

Let the apples soak for at least half an hour — ideally longer — then strain them and serve them with your other dippables.

Pick your own pumpkins and apples, find adventure in a corn maze and raise a glass to Oktoberfest

Bushel and a peck

Where to pick your own apples

“We raise over 100 varieties of apple this year,” said Tim Bassett of Gould Hill Farm in Contoocook, “though not all of them are for pick-your-own, of course. We started picking in late July for fruit for the store, and we’ll go right through the first or second week of November with fruit. … We open [to the public] the weekend before Labor Day with some earlier varieties like Colorado and Zestar.”

He said picking usually runs until around mid October. “[I]t also depends on if we get picked out or not, we can keep going later. So there’s been some years we’ve been allowing people to pick right up till Halloween time.”

Bassett said that this year there are 21 varities for picking. He said apple picking at his farm makes for a particularly good day out for a family. “It has to do with our location,” he said. “We’re [unusual] that we’re set up on a ridge, so we have an 80-mile view, right to the White Mountains. So on nice clear days you’re looking up toward Mt. Lafayette, over to Mt. Washington and Mt. Chocorua. It’s a really pretty spot that we have; we’re very lucky in that. We also — besides apple picking and cider doughnuts, and cider, and all our baked goods — we also have a hard cider tasting room and restaurant. We make all the hard ciders right here with our own apples. So people can go pick apples and eat their doughnuts and then head right down to our tasting room.”

“Our tasting room and restaurant are open year-round,” Bassett said, “but only on weekends. And we will close our farm at Christmas, and close the farm store, and we won’t open again until we get pick-your-own blueberries in July.”

PYO apples

Here are some farms offering pick your own apples, according to their websites and social media (many of which also idenitify the kinds of apples offered). Call ahead or go online before heading out to make sure that your favorite apple is being picked that day. Know of an orchard we left out? Let us know at adiaz@hippopress.com.

• Apple Hill Farm (580 Mountain Road, Concord, 224-8862, applehillfarmnh.com) Hours: Open seven days 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The picking season ends the day before Thanksgiving. “We have Pick-Your-Own apples! We are currently picking Macs, Cortland, Gala, Jonagold, Fuji and Snow Sweet apples, with many other varieties at the farmstand,” the website said.

• Appleview Orchard (1266 Upper City Road, Pittsfield, 435-3553, applevieworchard.com) Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; PYO apples last picking is 5 p.m. Apple varieties typically available in October include Brock, Cortland, Crimson Crisp, Crimson Topaz, Empire, Fuji, Ginger Gold, Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp, Macoun, McIntosh, Mollie’s Delicious, and Red Delicious.

• Brookdale Fruit Farm (41 Broad St., Hollis, 465-2240, brookdalefruitfarm.com) Hours: Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; last entrance to the orchard is 30 minutes before closing. The website claims “30+ apple varieties throughout the fall!”Apple varieties typically available in October include McIntosh, Cortland, Ruby Mac, Jonamac, Gala, Mutsu, Rising Sun Fuji, Amarillo Soul and many others. (See this farm’s listing in Corn Mazes and Pumpkin Picking.)

• Carter Hill Orchard (73 Carter Hill Road, Concord, 225-2625, carterhillapples.com) Hours: Open seven days, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The farmstand sells farm-raise fruit and vegetables, baked goods, and hot cider doughnuts. Apple varieties usually available in October include Braeburn, Crispin, Gibson Golden, Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Honeycrisp and Mutsu.

• Currier Orchards (9 Peaslee Road, Merrimack, 881-8864, currierorchards.com) Hours: Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. There is a farm stand with seasonal baked goods, cider doughnuts and other farm products. Apple varieties at Currier include McIntosh, Honeycrisp, Macoun, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Empire, Cortland, Gala, Jonastar, and Liberty.

• DeMeritt Hill Farm (20 Orchard Way, Lee, 868-2111, demeritthillfarm.com) Hours: Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. There is a farm bakery, a farm store, hay rides and recreational trails. Apple varieties grown at DeMerrit that are usually ready in October include Spencer, Jonathan, Honeycrisp, Red Cameo, Autumn Gala, Jonagold, Mutsu, Red Delicious, Shizuka, Ida Red and Pink Lady. (See this farm’s listing in Pumpkin Picking.)

• Gould Hill Farm (656 Gould Hill Road, Contoocook, 746-3811, gouldhillfarm.com) Hours: Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Gould Hill Farm grows more than 100 varieties of apples, though only a few are available to pick yourself. According to the Farm’s website, apples currently available to pick yourself are Cortland, Gala, Honeycrisp, Kearsarge and McIntosh.

• Hackleboro Orchard (61 Orchard Road, Canterbury, 783-4248) Hours: Open seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Find them on Facebook.

• Hazelton Orchards (280 Derry Road, Chester, 490-9921, hazeltonorchards.com) Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Bagged apples are available during the week at the farm store. From the Orchards’ website: “Our family has been growing apples here in Chester since 1898. Some of our trees are over a century old and still producing! We have twelve varieties of apples available in our U-pick orchard or at our farm stand.”

• Lull Farm (615 Route 13, Milford, 673-3119, livefreeandfarm.com) Hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Apple varieties include McIntosh, Cortland, Macoun, Spencer, Mutzu, Yellow Delicious, and Red Delicious. (See this farm’s listing in Pumpkin Picking.)

• Mack’s Apples (230 Mammoth Road, Londonderry, 434-7619, macksapples.com) Hours: Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Call the Apple Hotline for picking conditions and varieties at 432-3456. (See this farm’s listing in Corn Mazes and Pumpkin Picking.)

• Maple Gate Farm and Vineyard (183 Amherst Road, Merrimack, 759-9174, maplegatefarmandvineyard.com) Hours: Open Tuesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. According to the Farm’s website, you should expect “crisp apples [of] many varieties].”

• McLeod Orchards (735 N. River Road, Milford, mcleodorchards.com) Hours: Open weekdays, 1 to 5:30 p.m., weekends and holidays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Apple varieties usually available in October include Mutsu, Jonagold and Roxbury Russets. Check the Orchards’ Facebook page for updates throughout the season at facebook.com/McLeodOrchards.

• McQuesten Farm (330 Charles Bancroft Hwy, Litchfield, 424-9268, facebook.com/McQuesten.Farm) Hours: Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (See this farm’s listing in Pumpkin Picking.)

• Meadow Ledge Farm (612 Route 219, Loudon, 789-5860, meadowledgefarm.com) Hours: Open every day, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pick-Your-Own varieties of apples typically available in October include Jonathan, Ozark Gold, Empire, Fuji, Golden Delicious, Northern Spy, Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Hampshire, Ida Red, Jonagold, Mutsu, Smokehouse, Wolf River, and Baldwin. Other varieties are available bagged in the farm store.

• Stone Mountain Farm (522 Laconia Road, Belmont, 731-2493, stonemtnfarm.com) Hours: Open daily, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The farm stand sells apples, pumpkins, winter squash, gourds, corn stalks and maple syrup. The website says, “Our PYO orchard has more than 45 varieties of apples” and varieties that are typically ready at this time of year include Macoun, Empire, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Golden Russet and others.

• Sunnycrest Farm (59 High Range Road, Londonderry, 432-7753, sunnycrestfarmnh.com) Hours: Open seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Apple varieties include Cortland, MacIntosh, Honeycrisp and Mutsu. “Be sure to call the hotline to see what we are picking fresh today!,” the website says. That hotline is 432-9652. (See this farm’s listing in Corn Mazes and Pumpkin Picking.)

• Washburn’s Windy Hill Orchard (66 Mason Road, Greenville, 878-2101, washburnswindyhillorchard.com) Hours: Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Apple varieties include Cortland, Macoun, Red Delicious and others. (See this farm’s listing in Corn Mazes and Pumpkin Picking.)

Be kind to the apples
Some orchards have a no-pets policy, and some allow pets but only in certain areas or not in the orchard itself. “Please clean up after your dog” is a common sentiment. Check an orchard’s website or socials for their policies.
Pretty much all the orchards have a “Please do not climb the trees” policy and would appreciate it if visitors make sure not to litter. PYO visitors should only pick in designated areas, no matter how enticing the apples on the other side of the fence appear. Generally, children should be accompanied by adults, no one should throw fruit, and no drones are allowed.
As the Mack’s Apples website puts it, “Thank you for being respectful of our hard work!”

Puzzle in corn

Corn mazes offer added fun during a visit to the farm

According to Alicia Trombly, for most New England farms it’s not enough to just grow stuff. Look at almost any area farm during the fall, she said.

“We have a corn maze. We have a pick-your-own pumpkin patch. On the weekends in October we have hay rides and a cow train going — it’s barrels we turn into cows, and they’re pulled by a lawn mower. Some of the kids have to go on it; it’s wicked cute.”

Trombly and her family own Trombly Gardens in Milford, a small family farm that, like most family farms in the Northeast, wouldn’t be sustainable without bringing in visitors. Entertaining visitors is a way to make a go of it, she said. “It’s something that [my husband] Sean and I do together that we love. and we love the new ideas, and we love the feedback from our customers and the new people that find us and you know every kind of little new idea. We go to an agritainment convention every year, and we usually come back with some idea to add.”

One of the most popular of these new farm activities is the corn maze. Farmers will grow densely planted plots of feed corn, then mow paths and mazes through the giant corn plants. Visitors pay enthusiastically for the opportunity to compete against each other, finding their way through the mazes.

“We have one corn maze,” Trombly said, “which is open from when [the farm] opens in the morning until dusk. Starting at the end of September, every weekend, we have what’s called the Dark Woods, which is a haunted trail on the other side of the farm, and when that’s going we offer our corn maze to go through at night.” It is very popular with teenagers, Trombly said. “The cost is $9 a person, but we encourage people to bring one unexpired canned good, and we will take $1 off. At the end of October we donate all that to our local food bank.”

Where to corn maze

Here are some of the area corn mazes. Call before you go to make sure the maze is open that day as availability can change based on weather and other factors. Know of a maze not mentioned here? Let us know at adiaz@hippopress.com.

• Applecrest Farm Orchards (133 Exeter Road, Hampton Falls, 926-3721, applecrest.com) Hours: Daily, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Cost: $10 per person and free for ages 5 and under. This 8-acre corn field features a maze of twists and turns that typically remains open through Halloween or early November depending on weather conditions. Applecrest, which features pick your own apples, also hosts a fall festival every weekend through October with live music, tractor rides and food for sale, according to the website.

• Beans & Greens Farm (245 Intervale Road, Gilford, 293-2853, beansandgreensfarm.com) Hours: Daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The cost is $9. On its website, Beans & Greens announced that it has partnered this year with Mayhem Productions (facebook.com/mayhemNH) “for a haunting experience that will bring thrills and chills every Friday and Saturday night throughout October, plus a special night on Halloween.” Guests can still enjoy the corn maze during daylight hours.

• Beech Hill Farm & Ice Cream Barn (107 Beech Hill Road, Hopkinton, 223-0828, beechhillfarm.com) Hours: Daily, noon to half an hour before dusk. Cost: $7 per person and free for kids ages 3 and under. Beech Hill Farm and Ice Cream Barn has two 4-acre corn mazes, and $7 gives you access to both. This year’s themes are “Yellowstone – A National Park Scavenger Hunt” and “Where in the World? – a unique corn maze trivia challenge.” Maze-goers search for signs with clues in a scavenger hunt style. Complete the puzzles to navigate through. The mazes are open daily through Oct. 31. In addition to the ice cream and homemade waffle cones, Beech Hill offers pumpkins, mums and more in its Gardener’s Barn.

• Brookdale Fruit Farm (41 Broad St., Hollis, 465-2240, brookdalefruitfarm.com) Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cost: $5 per person, which includes a hayride. The corn maze is among several family-friendly activities that will be available at Brookdale Fruit Farm this fall, along with hayrides and apple picking. The farm also features an ice cream stand and a wide variety of local products in its farm stand, including the farm’s own honey, canned vegetables and jellies and more, according to the website.

• Brookford Farm (250 West Road, Canterbury, brookfordfarm.com, 742- 4084) Corn maze hours: Daily, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission costs $5 for everyone 3 and over through September, $8 beginning Oct. 3, according to the website. Tickets can be purchased at the gate or on the farm’s website. The weekend of Oct. 3 and Oct. 4, and Oct. 10 through Oct. 12, is Pumpkins and Piggies, where visitors are encouraged to pick pumpkins, meet piggies, and try Pumpkin Chuck-a-Chunk — feed the pigs while they help mow down the sunflower fields. Build your own scarecrow, watch the daily cow parade, and ride around the farm on a tractor shuttle.

• Charmingfare Farm (774 High St. in Candia, visitthefarm.com) has a children’s corn maze “[p]erfectly sized for little explorers,” according to the website. The farm will hold its annual Pumpkin Festival Saturday, Oct. 3, and Sunday, Oct. 4, and Saturday, Oct. 10, through Monday, Oct. 12, followed by Children’s Trick or Treat Saturdays and Sundays, Oct. 17-18 and Oct. 24-25 as well as Halloween, Oct. 31, according to the website where you can pick an entry time and purchase tickets.

• Coppal House Farm (118 N. River Road, Lee, 659-3572, nhcornmaze.com) Hours: Monday, Thursday and Friday, noon to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (last entrance is at 4:30 p.m.). Columbus Day hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cost: $10 for adults, $8 for kids ages 5 to 12 and for students, seniors and active military service members, and free for kids ages 4 and under. This year’s theme is chipmunks. The corn maze is open until 5 p.m. Wednesday through Monday, as well as two evenings, Oct. 10 and Oct. 24, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Visit nhcornmaze.com.

• J&F Farms (124 Chester Road, Derry, 437-0535, jandffarmsnh.com) The theme of the 4-acre corn maze in October will be Halloween. The cost is $10 per person. “Our corn maze is grown using field corn. Field corn is not edible to humans. However, it makes excellent cow feed. When the maze closes on Halloween, the entire cornstalk is harvested for feed!” the website said. Visit jandffarmsnh.com/corn-maze.

• Mack’s Apples (230 Mammoth Road, Londonderry, 432- 3456, macksapples.com) Corn maze is open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Saturdays and Sundays Mack’s also has weekend Bee Train rides from noon to 5 p.m. and hayrides around the orchard from 1 to 5 p.m.

• Moulton Farm (18 Quarry Road, Meredith, 279-3915, moultonfarm.com) According to the Farm’s website, “In addition to our 4-acre corn maze, enjoy our sunflower field, PYO pumpkin patch, and, on select weekends, free wagon rides and live music. Our maze opens at 8 a.m. The last admission is one hour before our farm closes. Admission costs are $12 per person, with a special rate of $6 for each child age 3 to 6. Children under 3 are free.”

• Riverview Farm (141 River Road, Plainfield, 298-8519, riverviewnh.com) Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. through 5:30 p.m.; closed Monday and Tuesday. Riverview Farm has a new maze designer this year, according to its website, “and he is hard at work getting new characters designed and painted as well as a new story all focused around cryptids of New England. The maze is $8/person, ages 4 and under are free. For a spooky experience, visit our maze the weekend of Halloween from 7 to 9 p.m., when it becomes haunted! The haunted maze is a fundraiser for the Lebanon High School and Middle School Nordic Ski Teams and all proceeds go to them. Come with a flashlight but please leave your costumes at home.” The Farm Store is open through October, offering doughnuts, cider, jams, honey and more; visitors can bring a packed lunch to eat at the picnic tables on the lawn.

• Sunfox Farm (Gully Hill Road, Concord, 244-9888, sunfoxfarm.org) Hours: Open Thursday through Sunday throughout October, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. General admission to the farm is free. Corn maze wristbands, pumpkins, food and drinks are purchased separately. There will be two fall festival weekends, featuring live local music, artisan vendors, food trucks, games, and even more seasonal fun: Columbus Day weekend, Oct. 10 and Oct. 11, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Spooky Season Weekend, Oct. 24 and Oct. 25, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. There will also be two special 21+ evening events: Cocktails and Cornstalks, Friday, Oct. 9, 6:30 to 9 p.m., and Boos and Brews, Saturday, Oct. 24, 6:30 to 9 p.m. Cocktails & Cornstalks and Boos & Brews are separately ticketed 21+ events.

• Sunnycrest Farm (59 High Range Road, Londonderry, 432-7753, sunnycrestfarmnh.com) Hours: The 5-acre corn maze is open through Oct. 31, Fridays and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sundays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A farm store is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, with fresh apples, peaches, nectarines and plums, as well as local produce, milk, honey, jams, syrup, pies and ice cream. Colbie’s Cones is open daily from noon to 8 p.m. selling homemade ice cream and soft serve.

• Trombly Gardens (150 N. River Road, Milford, 673-0647, tromblygardens.com) Hours: Daily, from 9 a.m. to dusk. Cost: $9 per person and free for kids ages 3 and under. Bringing in a canned good will result in $1 off entry (one can per person) and the item will be donated to a local food bank. Visitors can also “grab an ice cream and visit the animals while you are here,” according to a recent Facebook post from the Gardens. Starting in October on Friday and Saturday there will be a night maze whose times vary based on the schedule of The Dark Woods (thedarkwoodsnh.com), which is a haunted trail on the other side of the farm, through Halloween.

• Washburn’s Windy Hill (orchard 66 Mason Road, Greenville, 878-2101, washburnswindyhillorchard.com) Hours: Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Cost: $5 per person and free for kids ages 3 and under. The 5-acre corn maze at Washburn’s Windy Hill Orchard is open daily, rain or shine, through October. Visitors can visit farm animals and browse the gift shop; there are picnic tables and a play area for children. Much of the maze is accessible to wheelchairs and strollers.

A maze! A maze! A maze!
Corn mazes have rules. For instance, at Washburn’s Windy Hill Orchard, “Rule #1 is Have Fun!,” says the website, but also no running, no smoking or open flames, no breaking the cornstalks, and children age 12 and under must be attended by a guardian.
Check the rules at the corn maze you’re going to before you head out.
Corn mazes may be wheelchair-accessible or not, to varying degrees, depending on the landscape.

Oktoberfest!

Celebrating fall brews

Oktoberfest is a state of mind, says Anthony Caruso, general manager at Henniker Brewing Co.

“The idea of Oktoberfest is about getting together, having a bunch of fun, drinking some great beers and being with people and partying,” he said. He said Henniker Brewing’s Oktoberfest, Oct. 2 through Oct. 4, is about finding that state of mind. “We could get an oompah band and try to be German, but we’re not [German]. The music is heavily influenced by everyone getting together in a beer garden outside, listening to music. It just happens to be music from around here — our favorite local bands. It’s not like we’re pretending like we’re in Germany. It’s kind of like our New Hampshire version of Oktoberfest.”

That isn’t to say that there won’t be anything German at this Oktoberfest.

“We have different food trucks every day,” Caruso said. “So Friday’s Stacy’s Grill. Saturday’s Blue Nose Pitmasters, which is a barbecue truck, and then Teenie Wienies is here on Sunday. They usually do an Oktoberfest menu as well. And on top of that, on Saturday we typically do some stein-hoisting and we also have a traditional clothing contest because there are people who like to dress up.”

And of course there will be German-style beers, he said. “Obviously, we’re serving our Oktoberfest, which is a Marzen. And we have a couple other German beers too, like the Kolsch, that’s Northern German.”

There is another beer tradition from Munich’s Oktoberfest that Henniker Brewing has adopted, Caruso said. In some of the locations, “they drink out of a barrel of beer in a beer garden, which is pretty cool. When I went to Munich I did that at Hofbrauhaus. So our version of that is where we have a cask and we tap that as a kind of ceremonial tapping on Saturday. This is the third year we’ve held our Oktoberfest, and the first year, we had our owner Dave do it. Last year, our newest member did it. I think this year, the head brewer wants to do it. We open the tap, and everyone has cups, and they’re in a line. We never let [the beer] stop flowing, and everybody holds up their cups.”

“It’s like the sort of stuff that they do in Germany,” Caruso said, “but kind of our own version of it.”

Oktoberfests & fall brew fests

Here are some area brew and Oktoberfests. Did we miss your favorite marzen and festbier? Let us know at adiaz@hippopress.com.

• The Henniker Brewing Co. (129 Centervale Road, Henniker, 428-3579, hennikerbrewing.com) will celebrate Oktoberfest Friday, Oct. 2, through Sunday, Oct 4, with food from Stacy’s Grill, Bluenose Pitmasters, and Teenie Wienies, and live music from Rubik’s Muse, Hammy Sagar, Speedtrap, The Bullzeye Band, Northern Lites, and Beechwood. An online poster for the event implies that “Bier!” will have a strong presence. Visit hennikerbrewing.com/elementor-2375/taproom-events.

• Barley House Restaurant and Tavern (132 N. Main St., Concord, 228-6363, thebarleyhouse.com) will celebrate Oktoberfest Friday, Oct. 2, through Sunday, Oct. 11. From the Barley House website: “… enjoy the festive atmosphere of our indoor Barley Haus Biergarten, Bavarian beer, and a special menu of homemade German-inspired favorites, including Schnitzel, NH-made Bratwurst Sausage Farmer’s Plate, the Über Burger, and Kaiser Dog.” Visit thebarleyhouse.com/events/go-to-munich-without-the-flight.

• 603 Brewery and Beer Hall (42 Main St., Londonderry, 404-6123, 603brewery.com) will host Fall Fest 2026 Saturday, Oct. 3, from noon to 8 p.m. According to the 603 website, this is “Southern New Hampshire’s biggest Fall Fest.” There will be live music, DJs, food and vendors in attendance. Visit 603brewery.com/event-details/fall-fest-2026.

• The 14th annual Powder Keg Beer & Chili Festival arrives in downtown Exeter on Saturday, Oct. 3, from noon to 4 p.m. at Swasey Parkway. VIP admission is at noon; general admission starts at 1 p.m. All tickets include beer and chili samples and live entertainment. Visit powderkegbeerfest.com.

• Post & Beam Brewing (40 Grove St., Peterborough, 784-5361, postandbeambrewery.com) will hold an Oktoberfest celebration Saturday, Oct. 3, from noon to 9 p.m. From the Post & Beam website: “We’ll be pouring our festbier, Cardigan on one Lukr faucet, and a new release lager on the other. And just like last year, we’ll be pulling our other eight beers and giving those lines to lagers brewed across the state by some of our favorite breweries. When they kick, they kick, so come early! And of course, Blackfire will be making special Oktoberfest-themed food for the occasion.” Visit postandbeambrewery.com/events-1/2026/10/3/oktoberfest-2026.

• According to posts on social media, KC’s Rib Shack (837 Second St., Manchester, 627-7427, ribshack.net) will hold its annual Oktoberfest Sunday, Oct. 4, from noon to 6 p.m. Activities and raffles of gift baskets from local businesses will raise money for the Manchester Animal Shelter. There will be traditional beer-hoisting, a Bavarian-themed costume contest, festive german foods, brats, and cold beers on tap served on the patio

• Feathered Friend Brewing (231 S. Main St., Concord, 715-2347, featheredfriendbrewing.com) will put on its annual Rocktoberfest Saturday, Oct. 10, from noon to 10 p.m. According to Feathered Friend’s website, the festivities will include beer steins, stein-holding competition, hammerschlagen, sausage swinging games, awards for best dressed, food specials, and live rock music from four bands. Visit featheredfriendbrewing.com/monthly-events.

• Sunstone Brewing, 298 Rockingham Road in Londonderry, will hold its Oktoberfest Renaissance Faire Weekend Saturday, Oct. 10, and Sunday, Oct. 11, according to a post on its Facebook page. “Our Oktoberfest Renaissance Faire Weekend is bringing local artisans & vendors, full-armor medieval knight duels, Oktoberfest food specials, live music, ridiculously fun competitions, games, and plenty more shenanigans all weekend long to Londonderry,” according to the post, which also mentioned Oktoberfest and Pumpking of the North beer. See sunstonebrewing.com.

• Loon Mountain Resort (60 Loon Mountain Road, Lincoln, 745-8111, loonmtn.com) will play host to the White Mountain Oktoberfest Saturday, Oct. 10, through Monday, Oct. 12. Sponsored by Sam Adams Brewing, this three-day event will feature beer, beer workshops, axe-throwing, face painting, live music, live chainsaw wood carving, and animal exhibits. Visit loonmtn.com/events/oktoberfest.

• Mactoberfest will take place Saturday, Oct. 17, from noon to 8:30 p.m. at McIntyre Ski Area, 50 Chalet Way, Manchester, 622-6159, according to mcintyreskiarea.com. The event is hosted by Miller Lite and Sam Adams Oktoberfest, according to McIntyre’s Facebook page. “Hosted in partnership with the Manchester Fire Department, Mactoberfest is a fundraising event benefiting the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA),” the website said. The event includes food trucks, games, live music, keg toss and more, the Facebook page said.

• Mountain Base Brewery (553 Mast Road, No. 111, Goffstown, 935-7132, mountainbasebrewery.com) and The Worker Bee Fund (workerbeefund.org) will host the 5th Annual Mount Uncanoonuc Brewfest on Saturday, Oct. 17, from 1 to 5 p.m. in the Shaw’s Plaza at 533 Mast Road, Goffstown. All ticketed attendees receive a 5-ounce branded taster for unlimited tastings (designated drivers excluded), and there will be food vendors and live music as well as a stein-hoisting competition, cornhole and axe throwing. This event is 21+. Visit events.beerfests.com/e/mount-uncanoonuc-brewfest.

• The Oktoberfest + Ski & Snowboard Sale will take place Sunday, Nov. 1, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Pats Peak in Henniker, according to patspeak.com. The Oktoberfest will feature German food offerings available for purchase, a Sam Adams German beer garden, live music by the Bavarian Brothers Band, kids activities, axe throwing and more, the website said.

O’zapft is!
According to Wikipedia, the official start to Munich’s Oktoberfest happens when the Mayor of Munich taps the first wooden beer barrel at noon on the opening day. As soon the tap is pounded in with a wooden mallet, the mayor traditionally shouts, “O’zapft is!” [“It is tapped!”], then 12 gunshots are fired outside, and the crowd traditionally cries out, “Oans, zwoa, drei, g’suffa!” [“One, two, three, drink!”], at which point Oktoberfest officially starts.

Pick your own pumpkins

Where to find a patch

Visiting a farm, especially with young children, and searching through a field for just the right pumpkin is a way for families to feel connected with the land, with the soil, said Greg Pollock.

Pollock and his wife, Amber, own Sunfox Farm in Concord.

“We’ve gone to numerous pick-your-own pumpkin patches,” he said, “and what we’re trying to do is to keep a sense of adventure as part of it. We’ve gone to some [other farms] in the past where you show up and it’s just an open mowed field with a bunch of pumpkins spread out. You can tell they weren’t really grown right there. So we’re trying to keep that actual pick-your-own-right-out-of-the-pumpkin-patch aspect and adventure alive.”

The Pollocks like to offer visitors a choice of pumpkins. “[Visitors] can grab a wagon and head out into the pumpkin patch and choose the ones they like, and bring them back, and we’ll weigh them up for them. We have multiple varieties [of pumpkins], some small, some white, some medium-sized and large carving pumpkins as well. Some of them are even warty — unusual varieties that you can get really creative with.”

Pollock’s advice for picking the best pumpkins is to make use of the natural shape of a pumpkin. “What I always do,” he said, “is sort of have a design in mind and then I kind of find the pumpkin that will fit that design so that I can use the characteristics of the pumpkin for that design.” He said he’s seen people get really creative with non-standard pumpkins. “The warts on the warty varieties are good for that, too.”

Pollock said they’ll be open Thursday through Sunday for all of October. “And then we do have two bigger weekends on Columbus Day weekend and then the weekend before Halloween, where we have live music all day and vendors and food trucks and all that sort of thing. So that’ll be on those weekends. This is our first year doing [pumpkins and a corn maze]. We’re excited and hope for the best. We’re planning a number of interactive puzzles to go into the corn maze to point you in the right direction. We have kind of a scavenger hunt where you need to find all the hidden scarecrows that we’re going to have in there. If you do and take a selfie with those, you’ll be able to get entered into a drawing that we’ll be having every Monday.”

PYO pumpkins

Here are some area farms that let you pick your own pumpkin from the patch, according to their websites and social media. Did we miss your favorite? Let us know at adiaz

• Applecrest Farm Orchards (133 Exeter Road, Hampton Falls, 926-3721, applecrest.com) Hours: Open daily, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. According to the Farm’s website, you can expect “acres and acres of big orange fun. Minis (kids love ’em), Sugar Pumpkins (great for pies) and traditional old jack-o’-lanterns. Sold by-the-pound.” There are fruits and vegetables available in season, as well as cider, “made-from-scratch confectioneries (including our famous hot cider donuts) and an array of other locally produced farm goods.”

• Brookford Farm (250 West Road, Canterbury, 742-4084, brookfordfarm.com) Hours: daily, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Join a mailing list on the Farm’s website to be notified of what is in season. (See this farm’s listing in Corn Mazes.)

• Charmingfare Farm (774 High St. in Candia, visitthefarm.com) will hold its annual Pumpkin Festival Saturday, Oct. 3, and Sunday, Oct. 4, and Saturday, Oct. 10, through Monday, Oct. 12, where “[y]our kids will love searching for the perfect pumpkin in our expansive pumpkin patch,” according to the website where you can pick an entry time and purchase tickets.

• DeMeritt Hill Farm (20 Orchard Way, Lee, 868-2111, demeritthillfarm.com) Hours: Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The Farm’s website advises pumpkin pickers to expect “Orange, White, Big, Little and every size in between, we grow them here. Each fall, our 3 pumpkin patches start to overflow with a sea of orange. We offer pumpkins for PYO or they can be picked out at the farm store. Have you seen the ‘Pumpkin Alley’ within Haunted Overload yet? Each October, we host a pumpkin carving contest and the winners get to display their jack-o’-lanterns in ‘Pumpkin Alley’ during Haunted Overload. Dates will be posted for the carving contest when they become available.”

• Devriendt Farm Products (47 Story Road, Goffstown, 497-2793, devriendtfarm.com) Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends only. Tractor rides are available to the pumpkin field. Last entry is at 4:30 p.m. The last day for picking pumpkins will be Sunday, Oct. 25.

• Lavoies Farm (172 Nartoff Road, Hollis, 882-0072, lavoiesfarm.wordpress.com) Hours: Daily, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pumpkin varieties include sugar pumpkins, jack-o’-lantern pumpkins, white pumpkins, princess pumpkins and small decorative pumpkins.

• Lull Farm (615 Route 13, Milford, 673-3119, livefreeandfarm.com) Hours: Open daily 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Visit livefreeandfarm.com/pick-your-own.html for information about what is available to pick on a given day. Fresh-baked bread, pastries, farm-raised beef, pork and chicken are also available at the Farm’s seasonal farm store.

• Mack’s Apples (230 Mammoth Road, Londonderry, 434-7619, macksapples.com) Hours: Open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. According to the orchard’s website, “Mack’s Apples is the largest Pick-Your-Own destination in New Hampshire, with many different U-Pick stations. You’ll want to drive between each one and the main farm stand. Watch for the signs and maps at each one to know which are open for picking and how to get there.” PYO pumpkins will continue until November.

• McQuesten Farm (330 Charles Bancroft Highway, Litchfield, 424-9268, facebook.com/McQuesten.Farm) Hours: Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tractor rides are available to the pumpkin patch at this ninth-generation farm.

• Sunfox Farm (Gully Hill Road, Concord, 244-9888, sunfoxfarm.org) Hours: Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (See this farm’s listing in Corn Mazes.)

• Sunnycrest Farm (59 High Range Road, Londonderry, 432-7753, sunnycrestfarmnh.com) Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through October. (See this farm’s listing in Corn Mazes.)

• Trombly Gardens (150 N. River Road, Milford, 673-0647, tromblygardens.com) Hours: Open Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. (See this farm’s listing in Corn Mazes.)

• Washburn’s Windy Hill Orchard (66 Mason Road, Greenville, 878-2101, washburnswindyhillorchard.com) Hours: Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. From the Orchard’s website: “Thousands of pumpkins to choose over several acres in our mud-free hayfield! We provide wagons for transporting your perfect pumpkins. Carving pumpkins must be weighed in at our farm stand and are sold by weight. A large variety of carving pumpkins, sugar pumpkins, and ornamentals.” (See this farm’s listing in Corn Mazes.)

Pretty, pretty pumpkins
These pumpkin patches are on private property, not public parks. Picking pumpkins is one thing, but procuring pictures is another, and some proprietors explicitly prohibit portrait photography without permission and possibly payment. Mack’s Apples, on its Visitor Guidelines page, says, “Do not move crates, bins, pumpkins, equipment, and other farm stuff around to stage a photo.” Your chosen patch’s policies are probably posted online; call or check the website if you’re curious.