Category: Cover Stories

Annual comedy festival brings together 31 local comedians for six days of laughs

Since it began in 2010, two constants have endured at the annual Hampton Beach Comedy Festival. Every night, two comedians contributed to the festivities: Jimmy Dunn, who created the six-night laugh fest as an excuse to have his friends come, hang out, eat barbecue and tell jokes; and ace booker Dave Rattigan.

This year, however, Dunn won’t be at the festival, because of a dream gig he did Aug. 1. Along with Jimmy Cash he co-headlined Casino Ballroom, a hometown venue where he’d once stood outside as a teenager, too young to get in, listening to legends like Richard Pryor and imagining a career of his own in comedy. So while its founder basks in the afterglow, the festival will carry on. Rattigan, for his part, anticipates a great time, with a few new faces appearing and a solid return lineup. His certainty is rooted as much in the mojo of the event as it is in the talent appearing at McGuirk’s Ocean View.

“Yes, there are great comedians and it’s a great lineup, but also just the vibe of the place is unlike any show I’ve been on,” he said recently. “There’s a really good connection between the audience and the comedians, and all of the comedians who come up want to come next year, and the next year, and the next year.”

Rattigan is looking forward to audiences seeing Tyler Hittner, a mobility-challenged comic who uses a walker.

“He’s incredibly likable, and really funny,” he said. “He uses his disadvantage to his advantage by making it funny, by including everybody in the joke. He laughs at the challenge, and we laugh with him.”

Kristy Kielbasinski, who was a late addition to last year’s festival, will host on Aug. 17. “She had these high heels,” Rattigan recalled. “It’s an outdoor event and she had to get up the steps at night. I kept thinking, I hope she doesn’t get one of those heels caught in the grooves between the planks on the stage. She didn’t, and had a great set.”

First-timer Jim Ruberti is another comic to be excited about. “He hosts a lot for me down the Cape,” Rattigan said, something he’ll do on Aug. 14. “We’re trying to put really good hosts on … they won’t be Jimmy, but they’ll be good. Jim Ruberti’s a really funny guy and a great host.”

Hampton Beach Comedy Festival
When: Tuesday, Aug. 12, through Sunday, Aug. 17, 8 p.m.
Where: McGuirk’s Ocean View Hotel, 95 Ocean Blvd., Hampton
Tickets: $23.18 per show at Eventbrite.com

Tuesday, Aug. 12
Jeff Koen hosts
Paul Gilligan, Will Noonan, Karen Morgan, Dave Rattigan, Ken Rogerson
Wednesday, Aug. 13
Brian Glowacki hosts
Carolyn Plummer, Nick ‘’Fitzy’’ Stevens, Dave Rattigan, Steve Scarfo, Jim Colliton
Thursday, Aug. 14
Jim Ruberti hosts
Kelly MacFarland, Mike Donovan, Paul D’Angelo, Paul Nardizzi, Dave Rattigan
Friday, Aug. 15
Steve Bjork hosts
Nick Gordon, Courtney Cronin, Mitch Stinson, Dave Rattigan, PJ Thibodeau
Saturday, Aug. 16
Jody Sloane hosts
Tony V, Dan Miller, Dave Rattigan, Tyler Hittner, Ryan Gartley
Sunday, Aug 17
Kristy Kielbasinski hosts
Dave Rattigan, Andrew Della Volpe, Ryan Ellington, Jason Merrill, Frank Santorelli of The Sopranos

Festival performers

Can’t catch them at the Festival? Many of these performers also have shows scheduled locally in the coming months.

• Steve Bjork (Friday, Aug. 15) is one of Boston’s best observational humorists and a big fan of his home base. He is known for his clean and funny style.

• Jim Colliton (Wednesday, Aug. 13) Married and raising three kids in the Boston suburbs, Jim keeps his comedy focused on dad life. Along with fellow comic Karen Morgan, he performs the theater show Lawn & Order. His DryBar Comedy special is “Please, Take the Lunch!”

• Paul D’Angelo (Thursday, Aug. 14) An ex-assistant district attorney and criminal-defense trial lawyer, D’Angelo is a fixture in A-list comedy clubs with nearly four decades of standup under his belt.

• Andrew Della Volpe (Sunday, Aug. 17) has appeared at Boston’s Comedy Attic as well as Manchester’s Shaskeen Pub and the Rex Theatre. From 2021 to 2023 he co-hosted a podcast, The Soft Boys, with HBCF favorite Will Noonan. Catch him Saturday, Aug. 9, at the Brook Showroom in Seabrook.

• Mike Donovan (Thursday, Aug. 14) is a mainstay in the Boston comedy world who’s also written several books, including one on U.S. history. “He’s not a normal guy, his head is not a casual head,” Steven Wright once said of Donovan. “He’s got like 18 Harvards up there.”

• Ryan Ellington (Sunday, Aug. 17) The new kid at last year’s festival, Ellington has a white mother and a Black dad, and he’s pale with curly red hair. He wins crowds with lines like, “I don’t look biracial, I look like I have a very complicated order at Starbucks.”

• Ryan Gartley (Saturday, Aug. 16) Gartley’s comedic style is characterized by quick, critical observations and dry, family-friendly humor. He’s appeared from Las Vegas to New York to Bangor, Maine.

• Paul Gilligan (Tuesday, Aug. 12) , aperennial Boston headliner, likes to riff on family life and his pale Irish heritage. “On summer vacations,” goes one joke, “I hide under the deck in a ski mask with 68 sunblock, wrapped in a towel.”

• Brian Glowacki (Wednesday, Aug. 13) has a secret weapon: a face that telegraphs mischief. When he pauses with a sly smirk during a joke setup, it’s like watching a Mento dropped into a bottle of Coke; audience laughter builds, then explodes.

• Nick Gordon (Friday, Aug. 15) has performed at Nick’s Comedy Stop in Boston, as well as the Vermont, the Bricks and Bridges and the Portland, Maine, comedy festivals. He’s a founding member and frequent performer at the Great Falls Comedy Club in Lewiston, Maine.

• Tyler Hittner (Saturday, Aug. 16) Suffering from viral meningitis and relying on a walker has never stopped the Rhode Island-based comic from lighting up stages. His charisma, charm and likability allow him to connect with all types of audiences.

• Kristy Kielbasinski (Sunday, Aug. 17)“Worcester’s Funniest Mom” draws from her life as a stay-at-home parent — she even wrote a children’s book. Her humor, she said a few years back, “is based on an exaggerated version of a desperate housewife who’s sick of her kids, sick of her husband, and it’s a little dark and twisted.”

• Jeff Koen (Tuesday, Aug. 12) regularly supports Juston McKinney at his shows, and performs throughout New England. Koen’s self-deprecating humor lands well with audiences. He had the role of Uncle Rick in the 2011 cult film Heavy Times.

• ​Kelly MacFarland (Thursday, Aug. 14) She’s opened for Kathleen Madigan on several occasions and launched the all-female Mother of a Comedy Show with Kerri Louise and Christine Hurley.

• Jason Merrill (Sunday, Aug. 17), a native of Lawrence, Mass., became a comedian at age 41. Getting on the bill at a few of Dave Rattigan’s Scamps shows accelerated his rise, and now he’s a regional favorite, with an act described as “one part Saturday-morning cartoon character and one part pro-wrestler.”

• Dan Miller (Saturday, Aug. 16) Boston native Miller was “born a comedian but made it official in 1992.” He’s shared stages with local and national headliners like Lenny Clarke, Dane Cook and Dave Attell.

• Karen Morgan (Tuesday, Aug. 12) is a former trial attorney who got her start as a finalist on Nickelodeon’s Search for the Funniest Mom in America. She has two Dry Bar Comedy specials and frequently can be heard on SiriusXM Radio.

• Graig Murphy (Friday, Aug. 15) began in comedy using his impressions of sports and television personalities but has now grown into a national headliner with a quick-witted act of everyday humor.

• Paul Nardizzi (Thursday, Aug. 14) A winner of the Boston Comedy Festival, Nardizzi has appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Comedy Central, NESN and on Fox Sports’ Best Damn Sports Show Period. He offers observational humor about his family life, sports and more.

• Will Noonan (Tuesday, Aug. 12) Noonan, whose Live In Boston YouTube special dropped in 2024, made an impression on festival organizer Dunn at his initial HBCF appearance, and now he’s a regular. “The first time Will came up, he was wearing a suit,” Dunn recalled. “I was like, ‘Oh, I like this kid’s style already.’”

• Carolyn Plummer (Wednesday, Aug. 13) appeared at Denis Leary’s annual Comics Come Home benefit in 2022. A New Hampshire native — she grew up in Wolfeboro, a minister’s daughter — Plummer got into comedy after responding to an ad.

• Dave Rattigan (all nights) “He looks like a cross between a semi-hip banker and your mild-mannered father-in-law,” blogger Ralph Fatello once said.

• Ken Rogerson (Tuesday, Aug. 12) is a veteran of Rescue Me as well as When Standup Stood Out, a great documentary about Boston’s comedy heyday in the early ’80s. He’s a favorite of Dunn’s, who said, “I legitimately find him one of the funniest people on the planet…”

• Jim Ruberti (Thursday, Aug. 14) has appeared with headliners such as Lenny Clarke, Steve Sweeney, Paul Nardizzi, Mike McDonald, Dave Rattigan and Steve Bjork.

• Frank Santorelli (Sunday, Aug. 17) Best-known for playing the recurring role of “Georgie the Bartender” in The Sopranos and acting in numerous movies, including No Reservations, Meet the Parents and Crooked Lines.

• Steve Scarfo (Wednesday, Aug. 13) came up in the Boston club scene and once took part in a funny mashup of Survivor and Last Comic Standing that still gets YouTube hits. He started doing standup almost 30 years ago and was noticed by The Boston Globe on his first performance.

• Jody Sloane (Saturday, Aug. 16) is a regular at Headliners throughout New England, Gotham Comedy Club in New York City, Nick’s Comedy Stop, plus roadhouses, Elks Clubs and dives from Portland to New York.

• Nick “Fitzy” Stevens (Wednesday, Aug. 13) Well-known for his drive-time show on WEEI Sports Radio in Boston, Stevens’ passion for his teams, comedy and seeking the approval of strangers led him to create an alter ego named, Fitzy, a satire of and love letter to the foul-mouthed fans he attended Boston sports with growing up.

• Mitch Stinson (Friday, Aug. 15) Ex-Navy jet pilot with more than 200 carrier landings during his career, he’s now a comedian. He appears at venues all over New England.

• P.J. Thibodeau (Friday, Aug. 15) Rhode Island-based comedian known for quick wit, blue-collar charm and sharp observational humor.

•Tony V. (Saturday, Aug. 16) A national headliner who’s appeared on late night television and shared the stage with everyone from Steven Wright to Adam Sandler, he’s a Boston comedy legend, and also Jimmy Dunn’s best friend. Catch him Saturday, Aug. 9, at the Brook Showroom in Seabrook.

Season of laughs

Where to find inland comedy

Thursday, Aug. 7
R-Rated Hypnotist Frank Santos Jr. LaBelle Derry, labellewinery.com

Friday, Aug. 8
Jerry Seinfeld at BankNH Pavilion in Gilford, banknhpavilion.com)
Brad Williams (2 shows) at Capitol Center in Concord, ccanh.com

Saturday, Aug. 9
Steve Sweeney & Friends at Beans & Greens in Gilford beansandgreensfarm.com

Saturday, Aug. 16
Vic DiBitetto at Nashua Center for the Arts in Nashua, nashuacenterforthearts.com

Friday, Aug. 22
Tom Cotter at Chunky’s in Manchester, chunkys.com
Jody Sloane, Rob Steen & Greg Boggis at Peterborough Community Theatre, headlinersnh.com

Saturday, Aug. 23
Ken Rogerson & Friends at Averill House in Brookline, averillhousevineyard.com
Jody Sloane at Headliners in Manchester, headlinersnh.com

Saturday, Sept. 6
Steve Hofstetter at Rex Theatre in Manchester, palacetheatre.org

Saturday, Sept. 13
Matt Berry at Chunky’s in Manchester, chunkys.com
Bob Marley (2 shows) at Flying Monkey in Plymouth, flyingmonkeynh.com
Tim McKeever at Headliners in Manchester, headlinersnh.com
Queen City Improv at Rex Theatre in Manchester, palacetheatre.org

Wednesday, Sept. 17
Jody Sloane, Pat Napoli, Rob Steen at Stark Brewing (500 Commercial St., Manchester, headlinersnh.com)

Friday, Sept. 19
Nurse Blake at Capitol Center in Concord, ccanh.com
Piff the Magic Dragon at Nashua Center for the Arts, nashuacenterforthearts.com

Saturday, Sept. 20
Lenny Clarke & Tim McKeever at Chunky’s in Manchester, chunkys.com
Mark Scalia at Headliners in Manchester, headlinersnh.com

Friday, Sept. 26
Matt Friend at Capitol Center in Concord, ccanh.com
Peter Lui & Rob Steen at Liquid Therapy in Nashua, headlinersnh.com

Saturday, Sept. 27
Stand Up Dads – Mike Koutrobis & Steve Bjork at Averill House in Brookline, averillhousevineyard.com
Kevin James (2 shows) at Capitol Center in Concord, ccanh.com
Funny Women of a Certain Age w/ Carole Montgomery, Leighann Lord and Julia Scotti at Flying Monkey in Plymouth, flyingmonkeynh.com
James Dorsey at Headliners in Manchester, headlinersnh.com
Kerri Louise, Christine Hurley, Kathe Ferris at Rex Theatre in Manchester, palacetheatre.org
Mark Riley at Chunky’s in Manchester, chunkys.com

Saturday, Oct. 4
Jimmy Cash at Flying Monkey in Plymouth, flyingmonkeynh.com
Mark Riccadonna at Chunky’s in Manchester, chunkys.com

Saturday, Oct. 11
Steve Bjork at Headliners in Manchester, headlinersnh.com
Jody Sloane at Chunky’s in Manchester, chunkys.com

Friday, Oct. 17
John Cleese of Monty Python at Capitol Center in Concord, ccanh.com

Saturday, Oct. 18
Frank Santorelli at Headliners in Manchester, headlinersnh.com
Juston McKinney (2 shows) at Palace Theatre in Manchester, palacetheatre.org
Mark Scalia at Chunky’s in Manchester, chunkys.com
Christopher Titus at Tupelo Music Hall in Derry, tupelohall.com

Friday, Oct. 24
Tim McKeever & Pat Napoli at Liquid Therapy in Nashua, headlinersnh.com

Saturday, Oct. 25
Brian Beaudion at Chunky’s in Manchester, chunkys.com
Joey Carroll at Headliners in Manchester, headlinersnh.com
Emily Ruskowski & guest comedians at Averill House in Brookline, averillhousevineyard.com

Thursday, Oct. 30
Craig Ferguson at Nashua Center for the Arts, nashuacenterforthearts.com

Friday, Oct. 31
Tim Hayes/Teddy Smith at the Rex in Manchester, palacetheatre.org

Saturday, Nov. 1
Steve Bjork at Chunky’s in Manchester, chunkys.com

Saturday, Nov. 8
Bob Marley at Capitol Center in Concord, ccanh.com
Will Noonan at Chunky’s in Manchester, chunkys.com

Saturday, Nov. 15
Frank Santorelli at Chunky’s in Manchester, chunkys.com

Friday, Nov. 21
Matt Berry & Shawn Ruiz at Liquid Therapy in Nashua, headlinersnh.com

Saturday, Nov. 22
Joe Carroll at Chunky’s in Manchester, chunkys.com

Saturday, Nov. 29
Juston McKinney at Flying Monkey in Plymouth, flyingmonkeynh.com)
Carolyn Plummer at Chunky’s in Manchester, chunkys.com

Saturday, Dec. 6
Jim Gaffigan at SNHU Arena in Manchester, snhuarena.com

Find community and a multi- genre playlist at line dancing
— beginners, sneakers and pop music fans welcome

Decades after “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” and “Achy Breaky Heart” helped propel it into a national craze, line dancing is experiencing a renaissance, particularly in New England. From the Seacoast to the Lakes Region, in nightclubs, town halls and senior centers, across the spectrum of ages, the blend of choreography, fitness and just plain fun is back — but with a fresh soundtrack.

Go out to The Goat in Manchester, Bernie’s Beach Bar in Hampton or the Big House in Laconia, to name a fraction of venues offering weekly nights of line dancing, and it’s likely the crowded floors will be moving in time to Pitbull, Dasha or Eminem along with Keith Urban and Blake Shelton.

To put a finer point on it: This isn’t a country revival. It’s not even a rebranding, but an old thing repurposed for an entire genre of music that heretofore did not know it existed. It’s fueled in no small part by a generation with a preference for comfortable shoes over cowboy boots.

Cathy Garland teaches all over New England. She was around for the line dancing’s first wave, watched it ebb and relished its return, She has a theory about its current resurgence.

“I’m gonna honestly say that social media probably plays the biggest role,” she said. “I know there are the classic line dance instructors who have been hardcore for 50-60 years. The last thing they want to see is a young person doing a line dance on TikTok and maybe adding their own flair or changing the choreography a little bit. But for me that can only help.”

The new blood keeps Garland agile when she hosts a dance.

“On any given night, I might think I’m gonna play ABCD, and then I look at the crowd and I’m like, ‘nope, we’re switching it up,’” she said. “I love the fact that I can take a large group of people and have them move together as one, and make it fun and entertaining.”

There are a lot of great things about line dancing. For starters, it’s a way to be active for all ages. Gail Eaton teaches at senior centers in Nashua, Pelham and Hudson to students age 50 and up. “Most of them are in their 60s, 70s, and I have several in their 80s,” she said. “I have one that’s turning 90 this year.”

Jennifer Hanson is the owner of Dance The Line and teaches several classes on the Seacoast.

“One of my oldest students is turning 90 this year,” Hanson said, “I always ask her what’s her key, and she says, ‘Don’t stop moving.’ She’s like, ‘If I stop, you know what’s going to happen? I don’t want to talk about it.’”

It’s also a great tool for easing everyday struggles. Kathleen Crocker first tried line dancing to momentarily forget about her job as a high school principal, in 2012. Crocker now runs 603 Line Dance with Kim Murray Carpentino. The organization holds events at Bonfire and The Goat in Manchester, Tuscan Village in Salem, Lakeport Opera House in Laconia, and a few Seacoast spots.

“I needed an outlet where I could forget about my day, and line dancing did that for me, because you can’t do it and think about your troubles — you have to think about what you’re doing,” she said. “Everybody gets drawn to it for different reasons. Some are lonely and need something different, some are feeling sick or sad … some come as a couple. People have met and gotten married because they found each other on the dance floor.”

The absolute best thing about line dancing, however, is that it’s very easy to learn and welcomes newcomers. If you can’t figure out the steps to one song, wait for another. Gail Eaton, who runs On The Dance Floor, has a YouTube video for what she calls Absolute Beginners that covers the basics.

“They need to know a grapevine, something called a rocking chair, a jazz box, a Charleston kick,” she said. “I teach in sections of eight. So we have a 32-count dance. It’s broken down into four sections of eight counts. If you know how to walk, you know how to count to eight.”

Equally important is what not to know. Ginger Kozlowski started line dancing in 1995 and began teaching five years later. She now holds classes in Bedford, at the Old Town Hall. She almost didn’t attend that first dance, worried that it was some ‘yee-haw’ affair, but got hooked when “I’m Too Sexy” was the first song played. She doesn’t want others to make that mistake.

“What drives me nuts about line dancing is that people have this hokey stereotype about it,” she said, “Some people wear boots and cowboy hats, including me at times. But most just wear sneakers, jeans, T-shirts [and] we dance to all kinds of music, including country, pop, rock, Irish, waltzes, you name it. There’s a wide range of skill levels, from simple walking and stomping patterns to complicated routines that take a lot of practice.”

A great website to look at the many line dances created over the years is copperknob.co.uk. It offers detailed steps from easy to hard and includes profiles of choreographers — some of whom are contributors to this story. If you want to see how complex The Sphinx dance is, for example, this is the place.

Right now the Seacoast is a jumping spot for line dancing enthusiasts. Michelle Jackson-White runs three different gatherings every week, all summer long. On Mondays at Bernie’s Beach Bar in Hampton Beach she leads Country Nights, and on Thursdays she’s at the more family-friendly Seashell Stage. Tuesdays, the action happens across the border at Surfside on Salisbury Beach.

Each dance is different. Monday’s crowd is varied and often includes people who need help with dancing. That’s something readily provided at pretty much every line dance. At a given moment, she’ll call the curious to the center of the room to demonstrate an easy set of moves.

This is not for the seasoned steppers, she explained. “Dancer-dancers can do them with their eyes closed, but this is for somebody brand new that doesn’t dance. So several times throughout the night I’ll say, OK, after this, a micro-lesson. People are hanging around, it’s a good party vibe, that’s the thing.”

The Tuesday event in Salisbury is also taught by 603 Line Dance’s Kathleen Crocker and “is more like a social night,” Jackson-White observed, with lots of open dancing and couples pairing off along with line dancing. “There’s so many people. Then Thursday is, for me personally, more business and professional.”

Music, as the Bernie’s night’s title suggests, includes more than a little country, but every instructor says that being flexible with the playlist is crucial given the diversity of the ever-growing audience. Crocker, for her part, believes this is much easier than most people might think.

“We can put dances to multiple different songs, depending upon the beat and how the dance works,” she said. “Initially, every dance is choreographed with a particular song in mind, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done to a different song, depending upon the steps and the beat of the music. There are dances that can go to a hundred different songs out there.”

Anyway, if tossing the ten-gallon hat and the pure country tune for Eminem or Nickelback inspires a ballcap wearing twentysomething to become a new convert, it’s worth it. Everyone’s welcome, all genres are played, and anything can happen at these happy get-togethers.

All that’s asked is for folks to jump in line and smile.

“The dance floor is your happy place,” Jennifer Hanson insists. “It’s a community. We call it our dance family because we’re together more than we see our own family sometimes, as much as you like to dance. It’s the happy place where you get to meet other people and exercise and forget about everything else that’s going on in the world. You can just focus on the music, and the dance, and it’s … just a happy place.”

Where to line dance

If you’re looking for a line dance, first check out the calendar hosted by Ginger Kozlowski at bit.ly/4jwZncR, which is growing daily. Here are several recurring events and few one-offs, including dates, times, cost and level of difficulty. Most if not all welcome absolute beginners.

Old Town Hall, 10 Meetinghouse Road, Bedford
Host: Ginger Kozlowski
Price: $7-$10
Level: All
When: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday (begins September), 7 p.m.

Broadway North Dance Studio, 217 DW Highway, Belmont, 524-6225
Host: Sue
Price: $90 per person for 10
Level: Beginner
When: Mondays 6:45-8:15 p.m.

Bow Community Building, 3 Bow Center Road, Bow
Host: Michele Vecchione
Price: $61 for 8 classes for residents, $65 non-Bow residents
Level: Absolute Beginner, Beginner, Improver
When: Mondays Beginner & Wednesday Improver

Brookline Event Center, 32 Proctor Hill Road, Brookline (673-4474)
Host: Bernie Barrette
Price: $5 Beginner, $6 Beyond
Level: Beginner, Improver
When: Mondays 6-8:30 p.m.

Line Dance Classes, 8 Raymond Road, Deerfield (463-8811, ext. 305)
Host: Joe Manzi
Price: $4
Level: All
When: Wednesdays 6 p.m.

Upper Village Hall, 52 East Derry Road, Derry (396-0753)
Host: Linda Alfonsi & Mark Sandland
Price: $10 per person
Level: All
When: Thursdays 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Dover Elks, 282 Durham Road, Dover (782-4949)
Host: Gail Eaton
Price: $15, no outside drinks, bar will be open
Level: Partner Dance Event
When: Aug. 1, Sept. 19, Oct. 17, Nov. 21 and Dec. 19, 7-10:30 p.m.

Dover Elks, 282 Durham Road, Dover (502-5917)
Host: Dance The Line
Price: $10, cash only
Level: All
When: Mondays, 6-7:30 p.m. Beginner & 7:30-9 p.m. Intermediate

Epping American Legion, 232 Route 125, Epping (782-4949)
Host: Gail Eaton
Price: $10 for the night
Level: Beginner, Improver & Intermediate
When: Wednesdays, 6-7 p.m. Beginner, 7-9 p.m. Improver/Intermediate

Francestown Town Hall, 2 New Boston Road, Francestown (562-8910)
Host: Dorene Adams
Price: $5
Level: Absolute Beginner, Beginner
When: Tuesdays 7 p.m.

Bernie’s Beach Bar, 73 Ocean Blvd., Hampton (nashvillelinedance.com)
Host: Nashville Line Dance
Price: Free
Level: All
When: Mondays 7-11 p.m.

Seashell Stage, 180 Ocean Blvd., Hampton (nashvillelinedance.com)
Host: Nashville Line Dance
Price: Free
Level: All
When: Thursdays 6-7 p.m.

Where: Loyal Order of Moose Lodge, 15 School St., Hillsborough (562-8910)
Host: Dorene Adams
Price: $5
Level: Absolute Beginner, Ultra Beginner, Beginner
When: Mondays 7 p.m.

Where: Hudson Senior Center, 19 Kimball Hall Road, Hudson (782-4949)
Host: Gail Eaton
Price: $5 members, $7 non-members
Level: Beginner, Intermediate
When: Thursdays, 9-10 a.m. Beginner, 10-11:30 a.m. Intermediate

Where: Saddle Up Saloon, 92 Route 125, Kingston (347-1313)
Host: Linda Alfonsi
Price: $15 per person
Level: Absolute Beginner, Ultra Beginner, Beginner, Improver
When: Tuesday 7-9 p.m.

Where: Lakeport Opera House, 781 Union Ave., Laconia (603linedance.com)
Host: 603 Line Dance
Price: $15 at the door or Venmo
Level: All
When: Sunday, Aug, 24, 7-10:30 p.m.

Where: The Big House, 322 Lakeside Ave., Laconia (granitestatestomp.com)
Host: Granite State Stomp
Price: Free
Level: All levels
When: Fridays, Aug. 1 & 15, 6-9 p.m., lessons at 7 p.m.

Where: Bonfire, 958 Elm St., Manchester (603linedance.com)
Host: 603 Line Dance
Price: Free
Level: 5 p.m. Advanced, 6 p.m. Beginner
When: Sundays 6 p.m.

Where: The Goat, 50 Old Granite St., Manchester (603linedance.com)
Host: 603 Line Dance
Price: Free
Level: All
When: Mondays & Wednesdays 7 p.m.

Where: Nashua Senior Center, 70 Temple St., Nashua (603-782-4949)
Host: Gail Eaton
Price: $5 members, $7 non-members
Level: Beginner
When: Tuesdays, 10-11 a.m. Beginners, 10-11:30 a.m. Intermediate

Where: Old Homestead Farm, 7159 Greenville Road, New Ipswich (603linedance.com)
Host: 603 Line Dance
Price: $15 at the door or Venmo
Level: All
When: Saturdays, Aug. 16, 7 p.m.

Where: Fox Run Dance Hall, 50 Fox Run Road, Newington (dancetheline.net)
Host: Dance The Line
Price: $10, cash only
Level: Beginner, Intermediate
When: Wednesdays, 6-7:30 p.m. Beginners, 7:30-9 p.m. Intermediates

Where: Rockingham Ballroom, 22 Ash Swamp Road, Newmarket (603linedance.com)
Host: 603 Line Dance
Price: $15 at the door or Venmo
Level: All
When: Friday, Aug. 8

Where: The Gathering Place, 1471 First NH Turnpike, Northwood (dancetheline.net)
Host: Dance The Line
Price: $10, cash only
Level: Beginner
When: Tuesdays 6-7:30 p.m.

Where: Hobbs Community Center, 8 Nashua Road, Pelham (603-782-4949)
Host: Gail Eaton
Price: $5
Level: Beginner
When: Mondays 1 p.m.

Where: George Maloof, 101 Fairgrounds Road, Plymouth (603-536-1179)
Host: George Maloof
Price: $5
Level: Beginner/Intermediate
When: 2nd & 4th Sundays only, 4-6:30 p.m.

Where: Eastside Tavern, 43 Highland St., Rochester (dancetheline.net)
Host: Dance The Line
Price: Free
Level: open dancing & requests
When: Thursdays 7-8 p.m. (co-host Michelle Jackson-White)

Where: Tuscan Village Outdoor, Stage 9 Via Toscana, Salem (603linedance.com)
Host: 603 Line Dance
Price: Free
Level: All
When: Thursdays 6-8p

Where: Dellicolli Dance Studio, 875 Lafayette Road, Seabrook (603-782-4949)
Host: Gail Eaton
Price: $10 beginner, $15 for both
Level: Beginner, Improver & Intermediate
When: Mondays 6-7 p.m. Beginner, 7-8:30 p.m. Improver/Intermediate

Where: Bow Lake Community Center (The Grange), 569 Province Road, Strafford (dancetheline.net)
Host: Dance The Line
Price: $10, cash only
Level: Beginner
When: Tuesdays 10-11:30 a.m.

Where: Pembroke City Limits, 134 Main St., Suncook (603linedance.com)
Host: 603 Line Dance
Price: Free
Level: All
When: Saturday, Aug. 2, 6 p.m.

Where: Smitty’s Theatre & Game Lab, 630 W. Main St., Tilton (603linedance.com)
Host: 603 Line Dance
Price: Free
Level: All
When: Tuesdays

Where: Bent-Burke Post 10 American Legion, 24 Maple St., Wilton (562-8910)
Host: Dorene Adams
Price: $5
Level: Beginner, Improver
When: Thursdays 7 p.m.

Where: Windham Senior Center, 2 N. Lowell Road, Windham (782-4949)
Host: Gail Eaton
Price: $5 pay as you go
Level: Beginner (6-7p), Improver & Intermediate (7p)
When: Thursdays 9:45-10:45 a.m.

Ginger Kozlowski on What’s Awesome About Line Dancing
It is for ANYONE! All ages, all body types. You will feel better physically and emotionally. You can meet new people and make friends. You will have FUN! Best of all, there’s nothing better for keeping your mind and body healthy.
If you dance with me, I try hard to make it all about the fun!

Here’s the most popular line dance on the World Line Dance Newsletter (worldlinedancenewsletter.com) right now:

No Remorse: youtu.be/8dB2kV2Req0

This is a very hard dance: The Sphinx: tinyurl.com/34hvurf6

… and a very easy dance: Dancin’ In the Country: tinyurl.com/mpk8cmj9

Here’s me having just taught a dance to a bunch of people at an event in Sturbridge, Mass. [look for “Ginger Love Me to Heaven” on YouTube.]

Getting fancy and keeping it simple with summer’s favorite dish

Former governor Chris Sununu was a bit of a hot dog purist.

“He always ordered the same thing,” Gretchen Peters remembered, “a plain hot dog with yellow mustard.”

Peters owns and operates Puppy Love Hot Dogs on Main Street in Concord, across the street from the Statehouse. She has spent much of her life serving hot dogs to customers from her cart.

“This is a second-generation family-owned and -operated business,” she said. “We’re in our 47th season. My parents started the business in 1978, right here in this little alleyway on Main Street in Concord.”

Hot dog season

In the winter Peters sells hot dogs out of a storefront, but during warm weather her cart is located just off the sidewalk and all her customers are on foot.

“[A hot dog is] the cheapest fastest lunch on Main Street,” she said, “so I have lots of regulars, who have their regular orders. I know their orders probably better than I know their names.” She describes her style of hot dogs as “a New England classic.”

According to Peters, hot dogs are part of our culture. “We’re really … seasonal people,” she said. “Like, we wait for strawberry season, blueberry season, corn on the cob, lobster rolls. This is hot dog season. I think I’m lucky that my customers do come and support me throughout the year. So in the wintertime I do probably sell more chili dogs because it is comfort food. When one of my customers had a hard day or whatever, they’ll come in and they’ll say, ‘I need some hot dog therapy.’ It just makes you feel better, because it’s something that you grew up [with]; you kind of crave whatever you grow up with. There are different dogs — like if people ask for Red Snappers, they’re from Maine, or a Coney Island dog, or a Chicago dog — it just depends on where you grow up.”

According to Peters, hot dogs are part of our culture. “We’re really … seasonal people,” she said. “Like, we wait for strawberry season, blueberry season, corn on the cob, lobster rolls. This is hot dog season. I think I’m lucky that my customers do come and support me throughout the year. So in the wintertime I do probably sell more chili dogs because it is comfort food. When one of my customers had a hard day or whatever, they’ll come in and they’ll say, ‘I need some hot dog therapy.’ It just makes you feel better, because it’s something that you grew up [with]; you kind of crave whatever you grow up with. There are different dogs — like if people ask for Red Snappers, they’re from Maine, or a Coney Island dog, or a Chicago dog — it just depends on where you grow up.”

Candia Road Brewing Co.
There are currently seven hot dogs on the menu: a traditional hot dog, a Seattle dog, a New York-style dog, an Omaha dog, and three varieties of Vietnamese-style bánh mì dogs. The hot dogs are made with all-beef franks, and traditional New England split-top buns are grilled.
Where: 840 Candia Road, Manchester
More: 935-8123, candiaroadbrewingco.com

A proper dog

According to James Malik, the taste and texture of a hot dog sets it apart from most other sausages. Malik is a career butcher, working at Wicked Good Butchah in Bedford. He said a smooth texture is a hallmark of a hot dog and is difficult to achieve without specialized equipment.

“To make sausages,” Malik said, “you need something called a bowl chopper, to give you a proper hot dog texture. You’re looking for a very smooth texture. When you cut open a hot dog, there won’t be little chunks inside. The meat has been chopped down until it’s completely smooth, to an almost paté-like texture. A bowl chopper is a machine with a rotating bowl that minces meat much finer than a typical meat grinder. It’s also where the spices and flavors are added.” This increases a hot dog’s consistency, he explained; there will not be any pops of flavor.

“It’s kind of how it’s always been done,” Malik continued. “You also need to ask yourself what kind of casing [skin] you want to use, or if you’re going to smoke it. There’s a couple of different directions you could go.”

Puppy Love Hot Dogs
Steamed beef/pork hot dogs on traditional New England split-top buns.
Where: 50 N. Main St., Concord, across the street from the Statehouse
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
More: puppylovehotdogs.com

A dog for all tastes

The staff at Candia Road Brewing Co. in Manchester likes how many directions it’s possible to take a hot dog in.

“We crank out really good hot dogs here,” said Candia Road co-owner Graham Rissel. “We have some standards on our menu that aren’t standard for a lot of other places. Like we have a Banh Mi dog, we have an Omaha dog, which is like pastrami, Swiss, Thousand Island and some black pepper. It’s really good. We do a really good job.”

The secret to a really good hot dog, Rissel said, is grilling it on a flat-top, rather than boiling or steaming it.

“We grill the bun and we grill the dog,” he said. This gives both a buttery sear, he explained. The brewery uses traditional New England split-top buns, which lie flat on their sides on the grill. Most of Candia Road’s hot dogs are made with all-beef franks, he said, though vegan dogs can be substituted in many of their iterations.

While there are usually three different types of hot dogs on the menu at Candia Road, Rissel said, once a year the brewery goes a little hot dog crazy.

“Every year we have what we call Weenie Weekend where we release our — we call it a wiener lager, but it’s a Vienna lager style beer — and then we put on like a lot of hot dogs. We usually have over 20 hot dogs on the menu, all different styles that are really crazy and funky, and then we have a big day where we just have only hot dogs. We sell them here and it’s good.”

Coming up with creative hot dogs for Wienie Weekend involves the entire Candia Road staff, Rissel said.

“We were just joking about that, actually,” he said. “So Mike, our head brewer, his wife was texting him with some crazy ideas that she was coming up with. But really it’s just kind of like a collaborative thing. We had a chimichurri dog on that menu last year. [Chimichurri is a South American sauce made from freshly ground herbs.]

“And then we had a queso dog,” Rissel continued, “with sausage, like chorizo. We make legit queso [cheese] sauce. Usually it’s just kind of like we spitball, to come up with ideas. We have a nori dog, which has seaweed and a Japanese-style dog. But if we like something else, we try to figure out how to put it onto a dog. We did a fried rice dog last year. We thought, ‘Everyone likes fried rice. Let’s put fried rice on a hot dog, you know?’ It worked out pretty good.”

This year’s Wienie Weekend menu is still up in the air, Rissel said.

“There’s been some discussion,” he said. “There were some dog ideas that aren’t going to make the final cut and I won’t be going on record just how bad some of these ideas were. No, there’s some good ideas they got. Because what I say might not make the final cut, and then I’ll be the guy who had the bad opinion,” Rissel said.

Hare of the Dawg
Currently has eight hot dogs on the menu. All are made with gas-grilled all-beef franks, served on grilled split-top brioche buns. Customer suggestions are taken seriously.
Where: 3 E. Broadway, Derry
More: 552-3883, hareofthedawgnh.com

Classic dogs

At Hare of the Dawg in Derry, the approach to hot dogs is more conventional, said owner Kevin Decker, but taken just as seriously, though the restaurant isn’t actually named after them.

“The name of the business is kind of a dog theme,” he said. “It’s not a hot dog theme per se, but we’re just very dog-friendly. A lot of things on our menu have dog names. Hot dogs became kind of a specialty as more and more customers asked for them. We ended up creating a great menu with a lot of different hot dogs. Some of them are named after dogs I’ve had and dogs other people have brought in, but we make everything from scratch, including a true Chicago dog, which a lot of people don’t do in the area.”

Decker said that while it’s easy to find hot dogs at many area restaurants it can be challenging to find really good ones.

“We felt there was a need,” he said. “We went to a lot of places that had hot dogs on their menu. Eventually we found a really, really good beef dog that we liked after trying a lot of different ones and just designed different names and different style dogs. So it’s been popular, and we’ve expanded that menu based on the customers’ requests. I think it’s one of those things, where once you get people that learn to expect a good dog then they’ve got suggestions where to go from there.”

According to Decker, hot dogs have a no-nonsense authenticity that suits his customers.

“We are a downtown, blue-collar bar,” he said. “It’s a working man’s bar. We’re not fancy, but everything we make is made in-house. Obviously we don’t make the hot dog itself, but we prepare it.”

Hare of the Dawg also uses an all-beef hot dog and cooks it on a gas grill.

“We grill it on an actual grill,” Decker said. “And we use a top-split, grilled brioche roll; that really is kind of a game-changer for the dog. It’s a richer flavor. It’s just nice, you know.”

“One of the specials this weekend will be a bacon-wrapped, deep-fried hot dog with cheese melted on the top and onions on it, on a brioche roll. Right now it’s raw onions, but I think caramelized onions would go along with the bacon.”

Wicked Good Butchah
Where: 209 Route 101, Bedford
More: wickedgoodbutchah.com

Dogs for a cause

Hot dogs play a big role in Robert Bergin’s life. He is one of the organizers of NH Hot Dogz for ALZ, a fundraising event for the Alzheimer’s Association. Once per year — usually in June, which is Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month — Bergin and his team sell hot dogs. According to act.alz.org, to date, the hot dog event has raised almost $100,000.

“We started in 2016,” Bergin remembered, “and we started with the silly idea that we would sell hot dogs. And we sold about 300 the first year. And then the team grew, and we started expanding the ideas of awareness, and we have progressed to the point where we have eight exhibitors, and the hot dog event became the memory that created the environment that generated 1,200 people showing up on the same day. We have a drive-thru, which helps us not be as crowded at our main tent. We can seat about 120 people at a time.”

“When we open on what is the last Thursday of every June we’re ready for 120 guests immediately, and we have probably 300 hot dogs made when we open at 11 [a.m.],” he said. “There are companies that come by and buy 50 bags. A bag for us is $5 and you get two hot dogs in the bag and an additional bag of chips. We sold 2,700 hot dogs this year.”

For Bergin, hot dogs are a solid way to raise money, but they are also a simple, pure concept that guests with memory issues can wrap their heads around.

“The simplicity of our event is what I try to drive home to people,” he said. “The whole event could be the menu. The menu is the memory. The memory is what is going for someone who has Alzheimer’s. So if you take the memory of a hot dog and you keep it simple, like we do, you help build a new memory.”

NH Hot Dogz for ALZ
Fundraising event
Where: Merrimack
When: every year at the end of June

Annika’s Hot Dogs
Serves boiled and steamed kosher all-beef franks, as well as vegan hot dogs.
Where: at Annika’s father’s barber shop, Hair Biz Salon, 4 N. Main St., Concord

The vegan dog

Hot dog enthusiasts in Concord have two choices of hot dog stands on Main Street. Three blocks or so south of Puppy Love Hot Dogs, Annika Holden runs Annika’s Hot Dogs with her father, David.

“I’ve been here for about five years,” Annika said. “I sell hot dogs, vegan dogs, sausages, smoky maple sausages, mac and cheese on top of a hot dog, and pulled pork on top of a hot dog.”

David said Annika’s vegan hot dogs set her stand apart.

“I think that she’s the only person that we know of in Concord that sells a vegan dog,” he said. “There’s a vegan population here, and they do not want a hot dog; they want a vegan dog. So when we cook the vegan dogs, Annika cooks them separate from the hot dogs, because that’s also something the customers insist on. We get a lot of out-of-towners who like vegan dogs. Then, there are some people who don’t realize she sells vegan dogs.”

Aside from her plant-based hot dogs, Annika sells all-beef kosher hot dogs — which were very popular with Gov. Sununu, who, unsurprisingly, always ordered a plain dog with yellow mustard.

David Cortes is a full-time hot dog man. His food truck, Mr. Hot Dog, can be found near the Nashua Airport parking lot. He is fiercely loyal to his favorite brand of hot dog. “It’s an all-beef hot dog,” he said, “Kirkland’s brand. I’ve tried others like Hebrew Nationals, Nathan’s, Ballparks, and nothing holds up like a Kirkland hot dog. It’s the best hot dog you can eat.”

During the summer Cortes steams his hot dogs, but during cold weather he often grills them on a flat-top griddle. “At that point,” he said, “it’s up to the customer if they want them grilled; 80 percent like them grilled.”

Cortes offers mostly traditional toppings for his hot dogs, with one exception.

“My condiments are sauerkraut, onion, chopped onions, sweet relish, mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup, and hot sauce,” he said. He was surprised, though, at how many customers asked him for mayonnaise. “It’s mostly people from South America,” he said. “I think it originated from Brazil, but Colombians, people from Peru, and even Mexico love loading up their hot dogs with it.”

Another condiment Cortes never expected to offer is celery salt.

“That was something I had to learn,” he said. “Born and raised in New York City, I’d never seen celery salt on a cart. I’d never even tried it, you know, to this day. But the first day that I was in business, a customer asked, ‘You have celery salt?’ And I looked at him like he was nuts, but a week later I had celery salt on the cart, because you know I have to try to have everything that the customers want.”

Unlike many other hot dog businesses, Cortes only offers spicy brown mustard.

“It’s not a yellow,” he said. “It’s not a Dijon. It’s just a regular deli mustard. My customers love it. Very few ask for a yellow mustard.”

Cortes likes to build a hot dog from the condiments up.

“I put sauerkraut, onions and relish at the bottom,” he said. “It’s just a neater hot dog. Once I have those dressings there, I put the hot dog over it and then I dress it up with either ketchup, mustard, or both, mayonnaise, whatever the customer wants. That way the condiments don’t go all over the place when you try biting into it. They just stay put.”

Mr. Hot Dog
All-beef hot dogs are steamed. Regular-size dogs are served on a standard New England-style split-top bun. Jumbo dogs are served on a 7-inch side-split bun.
Where: Charron Ave., Nashua, near the Nashua Airport parking lot
Hours: Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
More: 333-7323

11 spots where you can enjoy nature and more

By Chelsea Spear

listings@hippopress.com

In Hippo’s Best of 2025 readers’ poll, we asked readers to vote for their favorite city parks. With the temperature rising and the days still long, you might be looking for someplace to soak in the sun’s rays or beat the heat. Here are the top 11 winners in that category.

Livingston Park

156 Hooksett Road in Manchester, 624-6444

Amenities: The park, which is about 131 acres, features Dorrs Pond Trail (a trail, a little less than a mile, that loops around the pond); Livingston Pool; an accessible playground; athletic fields; picnic areas; a kayak and canoe launch; a running track; ice skating in winter (weather permitting), restrooms and Brigit’s Garden (a public garden; see brigitsfoundation.org), according to the city’s parks and recreation website.

According to an email from Manchester’s Recreation and Enterprise Manager Brendan Lynch, the green space stands out because “it offers something for everyone. Whether you’re looking to cool off in the pool, enjoy a peaceful walk around the pond, or bring the kids to a vibrant and inclusive playground, the park blends natural beauty with well-maintained amenities.”

The newly finished running track is home to Central High School Track and Field, and the baseball fields are home to Manchester-North Hooksett Little League and Central High School’s JV baseball team. Livingston Pool is currently open for the summer; see manchesternh.gov/Departments/Parks-and-Recreation/Parks-Trails-and-Facilities/Aquatic-Facilities/Livingston-Pool for the lap swim and public swim hours.

Rollins Park

116 Broadway St. in Concord, 225-8690

Amenities: The park features baseball and softball fields, a basketball court, ice skating in winter, a picnic shelter, a playground, a pool, portable toilets, tennis courts and walking fields, according to concordnh.gov. Rollins Park “was a gift of the late governor Frank West Rollins, in memory of a distinguished townsman and senator, the Honorable Edward. H. Rollins,” according to an email from Concord Parks and Recreation Director David Gill.

The park “is the local park for residents of the south end of Concord where everyone knows each other … Just a great neighborhood park,” Gill wrote.

Rollins Pool is open daily from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. as well as 6 to 7:30 p.m. on weekdays and will be home to the citywide swim team the first week of August, according to posts on the parks and recreation department’s Facebook page.

Rollins Park is also home to the monthly Arts in the Park events held by the Concord Arts Market. The events feature more than 65 arts vendors as well as food vendors, live music and more and will run Saturdays Aug. 9, Sept. 13 and Oct. 11, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to concordartsmarket.org.

Rollins will also host the annual National Night Out on Tuesday, Aug. 5, from 5 to 8 p.m. The event, meant to “promote cooperation between the police and the community,” will feature food, prizes, K-9 demonstrations, a zoo exhibit, a rock climbing wall, touch a truck and more, according to the summer and fall activities brochure, which you can find at concordnh.gov/1984/Parks-Recreation.

White Park

1 White St. in Concord, 225-8690, concordnh.gov

Amenities: Soccer and baseball fields, a basketball court, ice skating and sledding in winter, a playground, roller hockey rink, portable toilets, a splash pad and walking trails, according to the city’s website.

White Park played an important role in Concord history. It was given to the city in 1884 by Armenia White in 1884, in memory of her husband Nathaniel, a founder of The American Express Co., and was designed by renowned architect Charles Elliott, according to an email from Gill.

“[White Park has] something for everyone – places to relax and enjoy nature as the park has large pond and over half of the park is trees and open areas,” Gill wrote.

The splash pad, installed in 2023, is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and weekends 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to the parks department’s website.

The park’s Monkey Around Playground was slated to hold its sendoff celebration on July 15 ahead of demolition and construction of a “Monkey Around Playground 2.0,” which is billed as inclusive and featuring interactive elements, according to FriendsofWhitePark.org. See concordnh.gov/1472/White-Park-Playgroundconcordnh.gov/1472/White-Park-Playground for an explanation of the plans.

This summer, catch free concerts in the park at the Lodge Patio on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Concerts will run weekly through Aug. 24 and then finish up on Sept. 14 and Sept. 21. Next up is Steve Blunt on July 20.

In the winter, the park hosts the Black Ice Pond Hockey Tournament (see blackicepondhockey.com) and ice skating, with skate rentals available at Merrimack Lodge.

Greeley Park

100 Concord St. in Nashua, 589-3370, nashuanh.gov/facilities/facility/details/greeley-park-29

Amenities: The park features baseball and softball fields, a spot to play horseshoes, lighted picnic areas, a playground, restrooms, sledding in winter, tennis courts, trails and a wading pool, according to its website.

The 125-acre Greeley Park has been at the heart of Nashua since 1896.

“The land was deeded to the city of Nashua by Joseph Thornton Greeley, the grandson of the original Joseph Greeley,” according to an email from Parks Director Lauren Byers. “In 1908, John E. Cotton donated $5,000, an amount that was matched by city funds, to change the Greeley Farm into a public park. The money was used to create a stone and cement rest house, a fountain, a shallow pond, a gravel walk and flower beds.”

Today Greeley Park is a hub of activity, with events scheduled for all ages throughout the year. The Greeley Park Art Show, now in its 72nd year, takes place in August (this year Saturday, Aug. 16, and Sunday, Aug. 17, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.), according to nashuaarts.org/greeleyparkartshow.

Many of the city’s SummerFun events take place in Greeley, including the annual Fairytale Festival, which will be held on Saturday, July 19, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nashua Community Music School holds a “Musical Playgroup” most Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. and the YMCA holds a “Yoga in the Park” on Mondays at 6 p.m. Most Tuesdays through Aug. 26 catch free concerts at the Bandshell, with shows starting at 7 p.m. Next up is Tru Diamond (a Neil Diamond tribute band) on Tuesday, July 22, according to nashuanh.gov/546/SummerFun. Nashua’s National Night Out on Tuesday, Aug. 5, will also be held at Greeley Park, the website said. Greeley events continue into the fall (Halloween Boo Bash is slated for Saturday, Oct. 18, from 3 to 7 p.m.) and winter (Santa in the Park is slated for Saturday, Dec. 6, from noon to 2 p.m.), according to nashuanh.gov/529/Special-Events.

Stark Park

550 River Road in Manchester, starkpark.com

Amenities: Stark Park is “built on land once part of the Stark family farm and the final resting place of John Stark, his wife, and several of their children — one can still visit the headstones today,” according to manchesternh.gov. The park features walking walking paths, a large statue of Revolutionary War hero Gen. John Stark and the Hecker-Hastings Bandstand, the website said.

Stark, of “live free or die” fame (it was written in a toast for the Battle of Bennington), died in 1822, according to the Friends of Stark Park website, starkpark.com. His grandchildren deeded a portion of his farm to the city of Manchester so New Hampshire residents could pay tribute to the fallen major general, the website said.

The western lower half of the 30-acre park consists of the Walk in the Woods trail, ideal for walking, cross-country skiing/snowshoeing and mountain bike riding, according to the city’s website.

“The walking paths, gardens, and tall trees make it a peaceful place to stroll and reflect,” according to the city’s parks director Brendan Lynch in an email. See the Friends’ website for a map of the trails.

An outdoor nature children’s playspace “Molly Stark’s Wildwoods,” named for Gen. Stark’s wife, is located along the trail and features sculptures from Tom LeComte of Laurel Hill Studio, according to the city’s website.

In the summer, check out the Summer Concert Series, mostly on Sundays at 2 p.m., running through Sept. 14 in Stark Park. Next up is a rare Saturday evening show, Mr. Aaron’s Kids Concert on Saturday, July 19, at 5:30 p.m. On Sunday, July 20, Another Tequila Sunrise (an Eagles tribute band) performs from 2 to 4 p.m. See starkpark.com/summer-concert-series for the full lineup.

Twin Bridge Park

485 DW Highway in Merrimack, 882-1046, merrimacknh.gov/parks-and-recreation/pages/twin-bridge-park

Amenities: Picnic tables, walking paths, Kids Kove Playground and baseball fields, according to the city’s website.

Since the Colonial era, there have been two bridges that locals use to cross Baboosic Brook. In 1927 a committee of Merrimack residents deeded 27 acres to the town to create Twin Bridge Park, according to the city’s website. They retained the massive stones used for the original bridge abutments and built a park around it, the website said. The Merrimack Youth Association, the city’s sports programs, has its headquarters at Twin Bridge Park; see merrimackyouthassociation.com.

“On a daily basis [the park] is humming with activity between the playground, the baseball field and the walking trails,” said Merrimack Parks Director Matthew Casparius in an email, “so it has a good all-around appeal for all ages.”

Mine Falls Park

Whipple Street in Nashua, 589-3400, ext. 5005, nashuanh.gov/facilities/facility/details/Mine-Falls-Park-14

Amenities: The park features athletic fields, trails including biking and walking trails, boating, fishing and in the winter cross-country skiing, according to the city’s website.

“Mine Falls makes you forget you are in the second biggest city in the state,” according to an email from Nashua Parks Director Lauren Byers. This 325-acre park includes forest, wetlands and open fields and is bordered on the north by the Nashua River and at the south by the Mill Pond canal system, according to the city’s website. These natural barriers keep the park quiet and give it an idyllic feel, as once explained by a tour guide.

Mine Falls is not only “one of the most instantly recognizable and vital parts of Nashua,” as Byers described it, but it’s also one of the newest parks to make Hippo’s list. The city of Nashua purchased the land in 1969, and the park was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, according to the city’s website. “In 1992, the park trails were designed as part of the New Hampshire Heritage Trail, a trail network that extends 130 miles from Massachusetts to Canada,” the website said.

Hippo readers also picked Mine Falls Park as a favorite in the Best Bike Trail category. Find a map of the park’s trails on the city’s website. The Mine Falls Committee also hosts Trail Days to help maintain the space, the website said. Upcoming dates are Saturdays, Aug. 16, Sept. 27 and Oct. 25, with the group meeting at the Lincoln Park entrance at 9 a.m., the website said.

Derryfield Park

Bridge Street in Manchester, manchesternh.gov/Departments/Parks-and-Recreation/Parks-Trails-and-Facilities/Parks/Derryfield-Park

Amenities: The park features a playground, sports fields, tennis courts and walking trails. A map on the city’s website shows a 1-mile, a 2.1-mile and a 5K course at the park.

Derryfield Park has played a vital role in the Hillsborough County community since the 1700s, when the park grounds were likely used as a pasture for livestock, according to the city’s website. After Derry and Londonderry were settled in the early 1800s, the city of Manchester claimed the 76 acres and developed it, the website said. The park is “one of the more popular parks in Manchester today,” the website said.

One of the most significant sites in the park is the Weston Tower Observatory, which was built in honor of New Hampshire governor James A. Weston, the website said. While Weston Tower is usually locked, the Halloween event “The Witch of Weston Tower” run by the nearby McIntyre Ski Area in recent years has allowed visitors to climb the stairs to check out the views.

Wagner Park aka “Pretty Park”

242 Myrtle St. in Manchester, 624-6444, manchesternh.gov/Departments/Parks-and-Recreation/Parks-Trails-and-Facilities/Parks/Wagner-Park

Amenities: The park features benches, a gazebo and a Greek-style temple, the website said.

In an email, Manchester Parks Director Brendan Lynch described the park as “a hidden treasure in the North End — a small, well-loved neighborhood park that’s perfect for casual family outings.”

Known by many in Manchester as “Pretty Park,” Wagner was created by Manchester native Ottilie Wagner Hosser, who willed the land she lived on to the city, requesting them to build a park of “Peace and Love” because the city already had enough parks that commemorated wars and military leaders, according to the city’s website. The park was modeled after one of her favorite parks in Paris and has become a favorite location for graduation and wedding pictures, the website said.

Prescott Park

105 Marcy St., Portsmouth, 610-7208; portsmouthnh.gov/prescottpark

Amenities: Prescott features gardens (as well as free garden tours Fridays at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. through Aug. 22), Four Tree Island (a picnic area with grills and restrooms; spots can be reserved for larger parties), the “Whale” sculpture and an outdoor stage for Prescott Park Arts Festival programming.

A 10-acre park on the banks of the Piscquata River, Prescott Park is a hub of activity in the Portsmouth community.

“It’s the perfect spot to take a stroll, eat lunch or catch a show,” said Todd Henley, the Parks Director for the City of Portsmouth, in an email. The Prescott Park Arts Festival offers a summer-long lineup of music, movies and theater, including the season-long production of Freaky Friday; see prescottpark.org for a schedule of events.

City horticulture interns answer questions and offer gardening tips during the Friday tours of the Park’s formal gardens, according to the city’s website. The park overlooks the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, the nation’s oldest continuously operating U.S. navy yard, the website said.

Benson Park

19 Kimball Hill Road, Hudson, 886-6018, friendsofbensonpark.org

Amenities: The park features 4 miles of hiking trails, fishing ponds, gardens, picnic areas, wildlife viewing blinds, the Hudson Firefighters Memorial, the 9/11 Memorial, bathrooms, a dog park and a playground, according to hudsonnh.gov/bensonpark.

Benson Park commemorates a different kind of history than many of the parks on this list. From 1926 to 1987 the land was home to Benson’s Wild Animal Farm, a zoo and amusement park that was attended by families throughout New England, according to the Friends of Benson Park website. Twenty years after the zoo closed, the town of Hudson reopened it as a town park, and some of the zoo’s attractions — like the Old Woman’s Shoe and the elephant barn — have been repaired by the Friends of Benson Park, the website said.

Find maps of Benson’s trails, which range in length from .1 mile to 2.5 miles, on the city’s website.

Through Aug. 29 Benson Park holds a “hide-and-seek adventure” featuring Barney the Gnome, who will be in a new spot each week Saturday through Friday, according to the Friends of Benson Park Facebook page. The Friends will also hold a Family Fun Day on Saturday, Sept. 20, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., a post said.

Squeezing the most out of this sunny treat

Lemonade is one of a few iconic summer foods that connect us and help us find common ground.

In addition, lemonade has life lessons to teach us:

Lesson #1 – Beauty isn’t even skin-deep

Phil Mastroianni is something of a Lemon Philosopher. His company, Fabrizia Spirits, in Salem, has been producing high-end limoncello for almost 20 years, and he is somewhat enthusiastic on the subject of lemons. According to Mastroianni, when it comes to lemons, what you see is not always what you get.

“The fascinatingly frustrating truth of the matter,” Mastroianni said, “is, no matter how beautiful a lemon looks, you cannot tell how good the essential oils will be inside the rind. The ugliest lemon, with marks and blemishes and scars, can sometimes have as much beautiful lemon oil as a perfectly shaped bright yellow lemon.”

In fact, he said, there are vast differences between different varieties of lemon. In Italy, where his company gets its lemons from, “there’s a different variety of lemon about every 50 miles you drive. There are real peculiar varieties that are popular in Sicily and other parts of Italy. If you happen to live in that town or region, well, why would you buy the other lemons that are 50 miles further away?” In the U.S., by contrast, “you essentially can buy two varieties of lemons, the Eureka lemon and the Lisbon lemon, … Both of those lemons, while they do have good juice, and they’re bright yellow, they do just have a different flavor of what we call in the limoncello industry olio essenziale, which means essential oils in English.”

To make the best lemonade, Mastroianni said, and to get the most lemony flavor, you need to consider the structure of a lemon itself.

“On the inside, you have your flesh of the lemon,” he said, which is where the juice comes from. “Then, working outward, you have the pith of the lemon [the bitter, white part under the skin], which does range. I don’t know why some have more than others. And then you have the outer peel, which is where the essential oils are stored.” The oils, he said, are where most of the lemon flavor comes from. “You’ll get as much flavor by zesting or dicing up finely the lemon zest than if you just were to juice it and get the juice in there.”

Mastroianni suggested that to pick the best lemons for lemonade, shoppers should look at the size of the different lemons.

“If you want lemon that’s less tart,” he said, “the larger the lemon, the less tart the juice is going to be, because there’s just more water watering down the tartness inside that lemon.” He also suggested giving lemons the fruit equivalent of a massage. “This is general knowledge, but if you roll the lemon on your counter, what I’ve seen in practice is a good amount of juice will go to the middle. It sort of loosens up the juice. When you cut the lemon and you put it in your juicer, you’re going to get a lot more juice to come out a little bit easier.”

Lesson #2 – You get out of lemonade what you put into it

Catherine Urbaniak makes her living selling lemonade. She and her husband, Greg, own The Stand “Shaken not Stirred” at the Merrimack Premium Outlets, a full-time stand that only sells lemonade.

“Only lemonade,” she said, “any variation that we can of lemonade. We stick to real fruit, no syrup.”

Urbaniak’s advice for making great lemonade is to use great ingredients.

“I recommend that you don’t skimp on the type of product that you’re using,” she said. “Some people, you know, they don’t want to add all the sugar or they try to modify it in that way. But if you’re trying to make a really good old-fashioned original New England-type lemonade, you have to use all the real ingredients.” Many recipes for lemonade call for using simple syrup as a sweetener, because it mixes easily with the water and lemon juice, but Urbaniak said she thinks that’s a mistake.

“We use sugar,” she said. “If we have our way, it’s extra fine, but it’s actual sugar.”

Choosing the right lemons for lemonade comes with experience, Urbaniak said.

“You can pretty much touch a lemon and know that it’s going to be a good lemon or really tough lemon. For the most part with a touch you can tell a thin-skinned lemon versus a thicker-skinned lemon. And you want a nice good juicy lemon. It’s not going to last long on your counter, but the thinner the skin, the more the juice. It’s not so much the bigger the lemon, because sometimes the bigger the lemon the thicker the skin. If I put down three or four lemons, different variations, and someone picked them all up, they’d be like, ‘That’s the one.’ You just know it when you touch it. But again, you have to touch a ton of lemons to finally be able to see that.” As with dating, she said, you have to squeeze a lot of lemons before you know the right one.

Lesson #3 – Don’t worry

As of September 2021, it has been legal for children under the age of 14 to sell lemonade without a license. House Bill 183, titled “Exempting persons under the age of 14, who are selling soft drinks on family owned or leased property, from city, town, or village district licensing requirements,” was signed by Gov. John Sununu on July 30 of that year.

So your kids can rest easy.

Lesson #4 – A solid foundation is adaptable

According to Megan Barry, of Waterworks Cafe in Manchester, one of the great things about lemonade is how well it lends itself to additional flavors.

“We use fresh squeezed lemon and lime juice,” she said, “with all of our fun flavors, including passionfruit and mango, which are new. If we have an excess of, say, produce or something like that, we’re always trying to make new simple syrups so we can make refreshers and add some sparkling soda to make it, like, a little bubbly. We’re able to be creative with it over here.”

Barry said that lemonade works well with other summertime flavors.

“Watermelon is a big one,” she said, “especially during the summertime. The watermelon has been so fresh. We made our watermelon simple syrup, added fresh squeezed lime juice, as well as our lemonade mix, and then hit it with a little bit of that club soda. It was a big hit among customers as well as employees. We couldn’t stop drinking it. It was so good. The thing is, we can’t buy watermelon syrup. That’s something you have to make.”

“The staff’s favorite is the raspberry,” Barry said. “Mango has been a huge hit. And actually, another one of our most popular is actually made with our lavender syrup. It’s delicious. With lemonade, it’s out of this world.”

Watermelon Simple Syrup, watermelon.org
6 cups seedless watermelon puree (see below)
1½ cups sugar

Choose a ripe, medium-sized watermelon. Look for one with a pronounced pale spot — this shows where the melon rested on the ground when it was growing in the field. If possible, find one with stripes that are two fingers wide.
Cut the melon in half with a large, serrated knife. Scoop out the flesh with an ice cream scoop, and transfer it to your blender. Puree the melon until it is completely liquified. Pour it through a fine mesh strainer.
In a medium saucepan, combine six cups of the juice with the sugar. Cook over low heat, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Reduce the heat, and simmer until the juice is reduced by half — about an hour and a half. Remove from heat, and let it cool completely before using. It will thicken more as it cools.

Lesson #5 – Sometimes we must muddle through

Kelly Klocek is the co-owner of Squeeze the Day NH, a lemonade and limeade food truck based in Londonderry. She agrees that lemonade is a fantastic canvas for flavors but has a different outlook on squeezing lemons.

“We started off hand-muddling,” Klocek said. [Muddling is a bartending technique where aromatic ingredients are crushed in the bottom of a cup with a stout stick.] “We don’t squeeze the lemon juice out. We actually slice the lemon and we slice it right into the cup. We’ve had bigger events now [where] we can’t keep up with the hand-muddling, so we made a muddler ourselves and it kind of smashes the lemon in the cup. So it keeps all the lemon zest and everything, all the oils from the lemon, everything about the lemon in that cup. It gives it a stronger lemon flavor, and I think that’s what everyone really likes. And then we just add the sugar to it, ice and water and that’s it. We shake it up and we serve it out the window.”

Klocek said this classic mixture pairs well with many other flavors.

“The other thing you can do with our lemonade is that we have 17 flavor options and you can mix and match any of those flavors in your lemonade,” she said. “We’ve had every combination. We started off only with four flavors and customers suggested other flavors to us and that’s how we added to our menu. One of our top sellers right now, which I didn’t think would be possible, would be lavender. Lavender lemonade. It’s crazy. That and our prickly pear.”

According to Klocek, one of the keys to a great lemonade that gets overlooked is the ice. To properly chill lemonade, she said, smaller pieces of ice work better than big cubes.

“We use a, it’s like not a full cube, but it’s not crushed either,” she said. ”We like it broken up. We are eventually going to be looking into using nugget ice cubes because we’ve definitely noticed that the smaller ice cubes are just much better with the drink.”

Klocek admitted there is one drawback to muddling lemons for lemonade: the seeds.

“We’ve noticed that some of our competitors like to promote the use of boba straws, the really wide ones. We tried that once and we didn’t like it, because we kept sucking up the seeds. We’ve gone with a classic, smaller straw and we haven’t seen much of a problem with that. It helps with kids as well because they hate getting the seeds.”

Lavender Simple Syrup
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 cup (8 ounces) water
2½ Tablespoons (3 g) dried lavender
1 Tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice

Combine the sugar, water and lavender in a saucepan, and cook over medium-low heat. Bring to a low boil, and cook for another 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in the lemon juice.
Let the lavender steep for 20 minutes or so, then strain with a fine-mesh strainer. Gently press on the flower buds to squeeze extra flavor out.

Lesson #6 – Build a better lemonade and the world will beat a path to your door

Erin Doonan is the owner of Pours and Petals Mobile Bar and Catering in Concord, a boutique catering company known for its lemonade.

“I absolutely love lemonade,” she said. “That is really what inspired me to start my business in the first place. I think lemonade really makes people happy. It’s like the one drink that we have found that just satisfies everyone’s sweet tooth. Everyone likes lemonade. You rarely find people that don’t. It also brings a feeling of nostalgia and happiness back to people. I also think it’s really hard to find places that have really good lemonade around here. That’s really what we’re trying to bring to people. You don’t have to go to a fair to get a good lemonade; we’re going to bring that lemonade to you.”

Doonan’s lemonade starts from a standard recipe with simple, but high-quality ingredients.

“Our base lemonade is homemade,” she said, “and we make it with pure lemon juice and cane sugar and water. It’s as simple as that. People ask if we have a secret ingredient. We don’t. We just have our special ratio that we use, so we make that and then we add a bunch of different all-natural flavors that we have. We have a mix of muddled fruits like strawberry-basil and raspberry-lime and then we also have organic simple syrups that we use to flavor the lemonades.”

Lesson #7 – Follow your dreams

Meg Wright’s lemonade recipe came to her in a dream.

Wright is the owner of Two Moons Coffee & Curiosities in Manchester’s Millyard. One of her biggest sellers this summer is a Chappell Roan-themed lemonade called Pink Pony Club, made with watermelon juice, fresh mint and sparkly luster dust.

“Over the past couple of days,” Wright said, “we’ve gone through seven gallons of it.”

“It’s a stack drink,” Wright said. “We use nugget ice, which helps layer the colors. Because the lemonade is a little more dense, and the watermelon juice is a little more watery, the layer of ice just balances it out. I dreamed about it; that’s kind of how I come up with ideas — I dream of things.”

The secret to a Pink Pony, Wright said, is fresh watermelon juice.

“I love watermelon,” she said, “but I don’t like the gross syrupy watermelon because it’s not real. It’s very disingenuous. So I just was like how do I do this? So I came out at home with my Vitamix, trying it out and it worked out great.”

Wright filters her watermelon juice twice.

“The first time you filter it, you just get a pile of pink glop,” she said. “And then we strain it again through a coffee sieve and it gives you just the juice. It gives you just the good flavors and nothing else.”

Lemonade
from Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book (McGraw Hill Book Co., 1950)

“As American as circus day — saves lemons, gives flavor.”

Combine in saucepan – 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, rind of two lemons, cut into pieces. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Boil about 7 minutes. Cool.
Add – 1 cup lemon juice (5 to 6 lemons), 4 cups ice water.
Pour over ice in pitcher or tall glasses. Amount: 6 to 8 servings.

Where to pick your own strawberries, blueberries, cherries and more throughout the growing season

This is an outstanding strawberry season. This spring’s heavier than usual rainfall has been great for the berries. Recent hot, sunny weather has ripened berries to a sweeter than usual, larger than usual, more abundant than usual degree. All indications point to this being true for blueberries, raspberries and blackberries as well. If you are the sort of cook who likes to can or freeze berries, this is your year to pick exactly what you want, and as much of it as you like. Alternatively, if you’ve always dreamed of taking your family berry-picking in large sun hats, this is also your year.

There are several good reasons to pick your own fruit and vegetables, but two stand out:

Variety Most of the varieties of produce in supermarkets are chosen for how well they travel and how long they will stay fresh. Flavor is much less important; after all, they won’t be able to sell bruised or overripe fruit. Local pick-your-own (PYO) farms don’t have to worry about shipping their crops across the country, so they can grow varieties that are especially delicious or delicate.

Freshness By picking your own fruit, you can have little doubt about how fresh it is.

Looking to pick your own strawberries (now) and apples (later)? These farms were Hippo readers top recommendations according to votes in this year’s Best Of survey.

Sunnycrest Farm

59 High Range Road, Londonderry, 432-9652, sunnycrestfarmnh.com

Currently, strawberries and cherries are every day from 7a.m. to 1 p.m. There are also strawberries and cherries in the farm market. Ice cream is available daily, from noon to 9 p.m. Farm market hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. The market has fresh baked goods and local veggies, milk and honey, jams and syrup, and lots of New Hampshire-made products and locally crafted items. Call the hotline 603-432-9652 for any updated information. To speak to someone call the office number, 603-432-7753.

Daniel Hicks IV is a fourth-generation farmer and the owner of Sunnycrest Farm in Londonderry. He said that barring unforeseen circumstances there will be PYO fruit available from now through the fall.

“Farming is a guessing game at best,” he said, “but strawberries are coming in now. Usually for the first week of July we have our blueberries and cherries. And then probably around the middle of July we will have our summer raspberries. Then in August we have our peaches, plums and apricots.”

Apples can start in late August, with pumpkins in September, according to the website.

Hicks said that although it might be a surprise to some of his customers, stone fruits grow well in New Hampshire.

“We’ve always grown stone fruit here,” he said. “My farm has been around since 1943, and I think we’ve grown peaches since the 1980s. It’s on and off because the stone fruit is such a sensitive crop — all it takes is one cold night in May to wipe out a whole crop. We’ve been lucky this year, though. We only had one frosty night we had to handle. We have a beautiful crop and the weather stayed warm when we wanted it to.”

Hicks personally looks forward to cherry season.

“I am the biggest cherry fan,” he said. “I adore cherries. Over the last seven years I’ve planted a bunch of newer varieties of cherries. I would say 80 percent sweet, 20 percent sour is what I have. And yeah, that’s my favorite on a personal level.”

Mack’s Apples

230 Mammoth Road, Londonderry, 432-3456, macksapples.com

Open Tuesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Strawberries and raspberries are available for picking now. Peaches and sunflowers will be available in August. Apples, pears, and pumpkins will be available from late August through Nov. 1. Mack’s sells ice cream topped with the farm’s own strawberries. Call the Mack’s hotline anytime for the latest picking conditions and to find out what varieties are ready, or follow Mack’s on Facebook and Instagram.

Christine Dresser is the PYO manager at Mack’s Apples. She’s excited about the farm’s new crop of raspberries.

“We’re doing strawberries right now,” she said. “And when strawberries are finished, we’ll be picking raspberries this year. That’s new for us. It’s our very first year for raspberries. We have some earlier peaches this year, too. Usually we start picking the peaches sometime in the middle of August but hopefully if all goes well we’ll be picking a new variety that will come out [at] the end of July. So we’ll be picking those and then we’ll go to the variety that we have been picking in the past. We’ve always had six varieties of peaches, but now we have a bunch of new trees coming in, so there’ll be more. This one variety is a little bit earlier than our other varieties, so hopefully we’ll be able to go soon after raspberries into the early peaches, and then into the peaches that we had right along. And then, while we’re finishing up peaches, we start with some of the summer apples, the earlier apples.”

While many customers remember to dress for warm conditions, Dresser said chilly weather often takes them by surprise.

“It’s usually windy at an orchard,” she said. “If it’s windy at your house, it will be windier here, because orchards tend to be on the tops of hills. I’m not sure why.”

Brookdale Fruit Farm

41 Broad St. in Hollis, 465-2240, brookdalefruitfarm.com

Cherries are currently available to be picked.Through the rest of the growing season blueberries, raspberries, black raspberries, blackberries, apples, pumpkins and late raspberries will be available. Visit brookdalefruitfarm.com/pickyourown or call the Brookdale Farm Hotline at 465-2240 for daily picking conditions. A farm stand is open daily, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Zoey Stapp is a manager at Brookdale Fruit Farm. Her staff is preparing for a busy summer.

“It depends on the season, obviously,” she said, “and the weather and sports schedules and stuff, but on a good day we’ll have a couple hundred cars a day, at least, if not more. There will probably be at least 600 cars a day for apples. We’re quite a popular pick-your-own destination.”

Stapp confirmed that this is an unusually good year for strawberries.

“The strawberries are excellent,” she said. “They have great size on them, and really nice flavor. We’re just hoping we get some sun to kind of help ripen the berries.”

Stapp said one of the best times for PYO is in the middle of the week.

“Tuesday and Wednesday tend to be the quietest days,” she said. “So if you’re looking for a quiet excursion with easy-to-pick fruit, usually the fruit has had a chance to ripen from the weekend by Tuesday. Wednesday’s usually peak picking, I feel like you haven’t quite gotten the weekend crowds yet. But that being said, we have plenty of room. So even if it is a busy weekend day, the parking lot may look busy, but once you get out there you feel like you’re out by yourself. There’s not too many crowds, which is excellent. And there’s plenty of space for everyone to spread out and enjoy themselves.”

Lull Farm

93 Spaulding St., Milford, 465-7079, livefreeandfarm.com

See Lull Farm’s social media for updates.

Carter Hill Orchard

73 Carter Hill Road, Concord, 225-2625, carterhillapples.com

Blueberries will be available for PYO after July 4. Peaches will be available in August, and apples throughout the fall. Call for daily picking conditions.

Todd Larocque from Carter Hill Orchard and his staff are gearing up for blueberry picking, which, for Carter Hill, begins this weekend.

“We start [our season] with blueberries after the Fourth of July,” he said, “and then peaches in August and apples in the fall. The blueberries are looking really good. They’ve got some nice size to them, as well as the peaches and apples right now. It’s been a really wet spring.”

McQuesten Farm

330 Charles Bancroft Hwy., Litchfield, 424-9268, find them on Facebook

Strawberries are in season now. Later in the season, tomatoes, peppers, beets, carrots, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, green beans, yellow beans, shell beans, romano flat beans, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, spinach, radishes and winter squash will be available. Call for daily conditions.

Like many PYO farms, McQuesten Farm has started its season with strawberries, said managing partner Christie McQuesten.

“Then in the summertime, we will open our fields and it’s never the same time every year because the growing season is always different. But we open our fields and people can pick their own just about everything we grow. They can pick tomatoes, peppers, sweet, bell, hot, doesn’t matter, beets, carrots, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, pickling cuke, green beans, yellow beans, shell beans, romano flat beans, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, spinach, radishes, winter squash, and then in the fall we have hay rides to the pumpkin field and they can pick their own pumpkins. We have all kinds of pumpkins too.”

Unlike most area PYO farms, other than strawberries, which are in season now, McQuesten Farm will not open for customers to pick fruit and vegetables until later in the summer, when most of its plants will be ready for picking at the same time.

“When our field’s open — usually it’s about the third week in August, but … the weather will determine that — it will be open for just about everything that you’re allowed to pick, with very few exceptions,” McQuesten said,

McQuesten said one of the most popular aspects of the farm with PYO customers is the farm animals.

“So we have animals that people can feed,” she said. “You cannot go inside with them, but we sell ice cream cones filled with grain that people can feed. We have lots of goats. We have a horse; they cannot feed him but they can see him. We have a Scottish Highland cow. We have guinea hens, we have ducks, we have geese, we have turkeys, and we have rabbits. The only farm animals we don’t have that a farm would typically have is a donkey and a pig, well, because they’re very loud.”

Apple Hill Farm

580 Mountain Road, Concord, 224-8862, applehillfarmnh.com

Strawberries are currently available for PYO at 89 Hoit Road, Monday through Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to noon. Check back later in the season for blueberries, raspberries, black currants and apples.

Diane Souther of Apple Hill Farm said this year’s blueberries look amazing.

“They’re looking phenomenal this year,” she said. “It’s unbelievable how big they are for this time of year. I’ve been hearing that that’s a good year for the berries, especially the blueberries.” Also looking good are the grapes. “We have seedless table grapes,” she added. “They’ll start in the middle of August at some point. And then apples start early September.”

“There was some worry with all the rain, that the pollinators, you know, might not get the job done,” Souther said. “But it’s funny — I was mowing grass last night and I left one whole section that had white pollen on it and it was just loaded with bees. I mean even though it’s wet they have to eat too, so as soon as they come out, they come out.”

Souther said freshness is the main appeal for PYO customers.

“I think they’re looking for freshness,” she said. “They’re looking for an experience, some of them, and some just value the fresh berries because they’re much better than store-bought ones. There’s not going to be any middleman. They pick it now and they eat it tonight.”

J&F Farms

108 Chester Road, Derry, 437-0535, jandffarmsnh.com

In addition to PYO, there is a farm store that sells local products as well as produce from the farm. There is also a petting farm.

Melissa Dolloff from J&F Farms said J&F’s PYO business is split between two crops: “We’re hoping to have pick-your-own strawberries in the next week or so, but we’re just waiting for some sunshine so we can get them to ripen a little bit more. And then in the fall we will have pick-your-own pumpkins. And that’s pretty much it.”

But in the meantime, there are animals.

“We have a petting farm that’s open every day, seven days a week with our farm stand,” Dolloff said. “We have sheep, goats, cows, we have a donkey, a pig and it’s open every day that the farm stand is open. So seven days a week.” She said that the animals are super-popular with kids, especially the farm’s horse or goats.

“It kind of depends on the kids,” she said. “Some kids also really like the cows, too. But … we have a horse that’s very friendly; she’s always sticking her head out for attention, so she kind of captures everybody’s attention too. They all have their own little personalities.”

Berry Good Farm

234 Parker Road, Goffstown, 497-1327, berrygoodfarmnh.com

Open Wednesday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Berry Good Farm specializes in one thing: blueberries.

“We are strictly right now a You-Pick blueberry farm,” said farm owner Jeff Daniels. “[The farm] is about 6 acres. We have about 4,500 bushes. So it’s pretty busy over here. Generally we are open from about Fourth of July until the second week of August.”

He said this year’s heavy rain has been great for the berries.

“It closed down our ability to get out in the field, but the berry crops look fantastic. We have four different varieties here — Blue Ray, Blue Crop, Northland and Patriot — and they all look like they’re coming through terrific. They’re all basically good to eat, right off the bush, ready to go. The Northlands are more of a baking berry and the other three varieties are kind of the larger crop, big, larger berries.”

“This is one of the few businesses that I’ve been in where generally everyone that comes here is just in a fantastic mood. Not a lot of people are out here grumpy when they’re picking blueberries. It’s just a beautiful way to spend the day.”

Applecrest Farm

133 Exeter Road, Hampton Falls, 926-3721, applecrest.com

Strawberries are currently available for PYO. Later in the season blueberries, peaches, raspberries, flowers, herbs, apples and pumpkins will be available. Call the farm’s PYO hotline at 926-3721 for daily picking conditions, or visit applecrest.com/pick-your-own.php.

Todd Wagner from Applecrest Farm is also excited about this year’s blueberry season, which he hopes will last longer than usual.

“Blueberries are the next fruit crop that we offer pick-your-own on,” he said, “and those begin typically in the first week of July and can run right into like the first or second week of September, sometimes. The next crop that we would have for pick-your-own would be peaches and those typically start up in … basically the first week of August, and those run right into mid-September. Our raspberries would be the next thing, which typically start in the first or second week of August and carry right through until the first frost in October.”

In addition to PYO, the farm keeps busy throughout the summer with different activities.

“If you just go to our website, we have our festival schedule,” Wagner said. “We just had a two-day strawberry festival, with live music and tractor rides and yard games and sampling. And obviously pick-your-own, our barnyard, all of that kind of stuff. We do that for strawberries, for blueberries, for peaches, and then obviously all fall for apples. So there’s something pretty much every weekend, but a couple of times a month anyway through the summer and then every single Saturday and Sunday through the fall.”

Devriendt Farm

178 S. Mast St., Goffstown, 497-2793, devriendtfarm.com

Strawberries are available now for PYO daily, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m at the farm’s location at 47 Story Road, Goffstown. Pumpkins will be available for PYO in the fall. Call 497-2793 for daily picking conditions.

According to Lori Beauchemin from Devriendt Farm, this year’s strawberries are exceptional. “They are really beautiful,” she said. “We’re picking now. We started a couple of weeks ago, and we just haven’t stopped. We’ve been very busy up at pick-your-own and we’re selling out here at the stand every day. So it’s been a really good season for strawberries.”

Butternut Farm

195 Meaderboro Road, Farmington, 335-4705, butternutfarm.net

Strawberries are available to pick right now, followed by raspberries, cherries, blueberries, peaches, apples and pumpkins.24-hour PYO hotline at 335-4705.

For Peggy Dana, from Butternut Farm, the best piece of advice she has for PYO enthusiasts is to call the farm before visiting.

“It’s highly, highly recommended,” she said, “especially during strawberry season, because depending upon the weather — like yesterday was a really, really nice day — we could easily get picked out by noon, in which case the beds would be closed for the rest of the afternoon. You don’t want to drive here and be disappointed. So we strongly recommend calling our hotline ahead of time, even the night before. It gets updated throughout the day.”

“We have two peacocks and we have three goats,” Dana said. “No petting, but the goats are amusing in and of themselves. We also make our own hard cider here. We always have five varieties on tap and apple cider doughnuts. We have sweet cider in the fall when we have apples in season.”

Gould Hill Farm

656 Gould Hill Road, Contoocook, 746-3811, gouldhillfarm.com

According to Gould Hill Farm’s webpage, its PYO season for blueberries starts in mid-July. The farm grows more than 15 varieties of yellow- and white-fleshed peaches, including Saturn (flat or doughnut) peaches, which will be available from early August through early September. Other stone fruits, including nectarines, plums, cherries and apricots, will be available in late July, August and early September. Pears will be available throughout August. Apple season will start around Labor Day. All produce will be available for purchase at the farm’s store.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
Recipe from Apple Hill Farm

Slice and hull 1 quart of fresh strawberries (approx. 3 cups)
Cut into slices 1 cup of fresh rhubarb
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 to 2 teaspoons cinnamon
butter (3/4-1 stick) softened

Preheat oven to 350°F. Slice up the strawberries and rhubarb and place in 9×9” casserole dish (or 9-inch deep dish pie plate). Sprinkle granulated sugar over top and lightly stir in. Mix flour, dark brown sugar, cinnamon and butter together and spread over the mixture. Bake uncovered at 350°F for approx. 45 mins to 1 hour or till bubbly. Serve warm topped with vanilla ice cream.
(Or you could do with 3 1/2 cups blueberries for a blueberry crisp but add 1/2 cup of flour
stirred in on top with the 2/3 cup granulated sugar before placing the crisp topping on.)
Even better warmed up the second day.