Category: Cover Stories

APPLE PIE VS. PUMPKIN PIE!

TURKEY VS. NOT TURKEY!

IT’S A FACE-OFF OF THANKSGIVING FAVORITES!

What makes up the perfect Thanksgiving feast? Is it traditional roasted turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gelatinous canned cranberry sauce? But what if you don’t like turkey (or don’t eat meat altogether)? Pumpkin pie is delicious (agrees not everybody) but are there more crowd-pleasing options?

We asked local livestock farmers, butchers, restaurateurs, chefs and bakers to debate some of the key components of the standard Thanksgiving feast and provide tips and recipes into their idea of the best Thanksgiving dishes.

The main event

Turkey or non-turkey — what’s your pleasure?

By Matt Ingersoll

[email protected]

Turkey is the pièce de résistance of the Thanksgiving feast for many — after all, there are so many different ways to prepare the bird, from the traditional method of oven-roasting to simple grilling, spatchcocking, smoking and even deep-frying. The type of turkey you are using, whether it’s a broad-breasted bird or a heritage breed, also plays into how you prepare it.

Karina Allayne of Greetwist Acres in New Boston usually fills orders for both types of turkey. She said broad-breasted turkeys are more likely what you’ll find at the grocery store or major commercial outlet, and are bred to produce much larger breasts — thus, a bird with more meat.

“Broad-breasted [turkeys] are very popular because they clean up really nice … [and] the skin is all white and pretty-looking,” Allayne said. “So, a person might say, ‘You know what, I love broad-breasted because we get a lot of meat on it,’ and that’s what they’re into. … The heritage breeds, those are more closely related to the wild ancestors. There’s not as much meat, [but] a lot of people also feel that heritage … has more flavor, which I agree. Also, there may be an issue in terms of [people saying] ‘Do I want to eat a bird that was only being produced to get fat and die within a year or two’s time,’ because broad-breasted do not usually live past the age of 2.”

When it comes to cooking turkey, Allayne said she now prefers to throw hers on the grill for Thanksgiving after previously preparing it in her home kitchen oven.

“We popped it in the grill one year and it was the best-tasting turkey I’ve ever had, and so from that point on I always grill my turkey,” she said. “[We] cook it somewhere between 350 and 400 [degrees] and then basically it just becomes its own little oven outside.”

Shelley Morley of Mt. Dearborn Farm in Weare similarly likes to grill her turkey, noting that it saves precious oven space in her kitchen for any accompanying side dishes. Last Thanksgiving, she decided to try spatchcocking her turkey, which proved to be, as she said, a “game changer.”

“[Spatchcocking is] when you remove the spine and then flatten the bird, so it cooks more evenly,” she said. “I didn’t even know about spatchcocking until two or three years ago and, of course, with Thanksgiving you always want everything to be perfect. … So last year, there were only five of us, and so I said, ‘Why don’t I try something different,’ when the stakes weren’t as high. I’m going to do it again this year because it just came out so well.”

Non-turkey meat alternatives

What if you don’t like turkey, or you simply just don’t have the sizable crowd coming over this year to help you finish such a large bird? Both Allayne and Morley will often find themselves selling chickens to customers for Thanksgiving, and Allayne even also sells duck.

“It might just be two people that are getting together, and it’s really hard to find a turkey that is small enough for two people,” Allayne said, “so they’ll order maybe a large roasting chicken. … I do actually sell quite a bit of duck, too, because people want something small, but special.”

As duck meat tends to be fattier, Allayne said it ought to be cooked at a lower temperature for a longer period of time. Duck fat can also be rendered for use in cooking potatoes, she added.

Rob Darling of Concord Beef & Seafood, a premium butcher and fish market on South Main Street, said that while they do regularly sell farm-fresh turkeys around Thanksgiving, he does also end up selling a small amount of spiral-cut hams, as well as prime rib or tenderloin roasts.

“I mean, a roast is a 45-minute to an hour cook, so it’s a lot more manageable [than a turkey],” Darling said. “Beef also has a lot more flavor than turkey, in my opinion, whereas I feel like turkey is pretty much the tradition for Thanksgiving, which is why people have it.”

If you’re cooking a roast, Darling recommends using a meat thermometer to ensure it comes out perfect. For beef specifically, he likes to season with rosemary and garlic powder, in addition to some salt and pepper, to allow the flavor to come through in the meat.

“Beef is actually a lot easier to cook than, say, a pork roast, or even turkey, just because it’s not as lean,” he said. “If you’re cooking something so lean and you overcook it, it’s going to be dry.”

As the shop also does tailor most of its focus to appetizers, Darling said Thanksgiving is also one of the more popular holidays for items like shrimp cocktail, bacon-wrapped scallops and bacon-wrapped tenderloin bites, in addition to some cheeses and meats for platters.

“I think people are just looking for something they can put out and not have to think about. They know it’s going to be good and that people are going to like it,” he said.

Even fresh fish is a viable main course option for some. Elisha Ewing of Liberty Fish, a Peterborough-based business delivering fresh seafood to farm stands and farmers markets in parts of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, said Thanksgiving is a very busy time for her.

She said salmon in particular, as well as haddock, cod and halibut, is among the more popular alternatives to the main turkey dish. Her scallops also prove to be a highly requested appetizer.

“I do think that the majority of my customers probably have turkey as at least one of their main dishes, but I will get orders … from people who are looking for an alternative protein, and so they’ll reach out and order fish,” Ewing said. “I also have folks that will say, ‘Hey, I’ve got friends or family that are going to extend their visit, and I’m really just needing to stock up to do meal prep for the extended holiday weekend.’ … I think some people are basically just maxed out on turkey come Saturday, and they want something else.”

Working with an importer and exporter down in Boston, Ewing always obtains her fish fresh — never frozen. Locally, you can find Liberty Fish at Trombly Gardens in Milford, where Ewing makes weekly deliveries every Wednesday and where pickups are from 2 to 6 p.m. Visit libertyfish.net to join Ewing’s weekly email notification group and order your fresh catch.

A vegan Thanksgiving

Of course, if you simply just don’t eat meat, then you’re likely in store for a whole different kind of main course Thanksgiving option. But, as local vegan and plant-based chefs suggest, that doesn’t mean your holiday feast has to be any less delicious.

Madeline Rossi and Olivia Lenox of The Green Beautiful vegan cafe in Manchester recently hosted their second annual “gentle Thanksgiving” dinner, a plant-based feast and fundraiser for the New Hampshire Animal Rights League. The couple, who also run New Roots Meals — a plant-based meal prep company — has dabbled in all kinds of unique options over the last few years. Some can even work as “mock turkey” alternatives with similar palates to that of a bird.

“In terms of more of a mock turkey, we’ve done a thing in the past called celeriac. It’s basically just the root of a celery plant,” Rossi said. “They get big and round, and it’s very cool because I’ve done it where it’s sort of in a similar thing that you cook a turkey in, kind of like a stock, and I put it in the oven … and baste it every 30 minutes like you would with a turkey. … It comes out really well and slices really easily. The texture is pretty meaty, but also soft.”

She said the celery root is fairly easy to find — they can be found in most local grocery stores and specialty markets, as she noted that it’s in season during the cooler months.

“The thing is, if you don’t know what it is, you would just walk right past it in the grocery store,” she said. “It’s huge and gnarly and doesn’t look edible, but it very much is.”

Carrie Burt of Joyfull Eats, a plant-based meal company based at Deep Meadow Variety in Exeter, has made a lentil loaf, as well as a chickpea-based “chick-un” loaf that’s also meant to mimic the flavor profiles of a traditional Thanksgiving turkey. Both options, she said, are available to pre-order on her website (joyfulleatsnh.com) through Sunday, Nov. 20.

Other great options, Rossi said, include a white lasagna that’s made with tofu and vegan cheese.

“I feel like doing a white lasagna instead of [with] a red sauce kind of pairs even better with the flavors of Thanksgiving, like stuffing and gravy and green beans and all that stuff,” she said.

How to spatchcock a turkey
Instructions provided by Shelley Morley of Mt. Dearborn Farm in Weare

• Using kitchen shears, cut from the tailbone along both sides of the turkey’s spine to remove the backbone. (You can use the backbone to make gravy just as you would the neck and giblets.)
• Open up the turkey by pulling it apart where the backbone was removed.
• Turn the turkey over so that the breast is facing up and press down hard on the breast until you hear a crack or two and the turkey can lay flat.
• Place the turkey on a rack on top of a rimmed cooking sheet or broiler pan to catch the juices. You can place some chopped onions, carrots and celery into the pan to help keep the oven moist. They will also add some nice flavor to your gravy.
• Pat dry the skin to encourage extra crispiness. You can also rub the skin with a little olive oil and sprinkle it with sea salt, or season the turkey however you want.
• A 12- to -14-pound turkey roasted at 450 degrees cooks in about 90 minutes — or about seven minutes per pound.
• After the leg meat reaches a temperature of 165 degrees and the breast around 150 degrees, take the turkey out of the oven or off the grill, cover loosely with foil and let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes before carving. Letting the meat rest allows the juices to settle into the meat. This time can also be spent making your gravy and doing any other last-minute meal preparations.

Getting saucy

Jarred cranberry sauce goes toe to toe against homemade

By Katelyn Sahagian

[email protected]

From gelatinous cylinders that hold their shape after slicing to relishes filled with citrus and spices, cranberry sauce can come in a wide variety.

For Kristen Chinosi of The Culinary Playground in Derry, the only option is homemade cranberry sauce.

“I’m homemade all the way,” Chinosi said. “You’re limited with the canned stuff.”

Chinosi said she loves that there’s a personalization that happens with homemade cranberry sauce. She said that there’s a magic behind being able to add different spices and citrus flavors, to personalize the sauce. Even having control over something as simple as the texture of the sauce can make all the difference.

Chinosi did admit that there is a nostalgic factor associated with the easy, can-shaped cranberry sauce. But in the end, there’s no comparison between that and the homemade — and personally customized — version of the condiment.

“It’s fun to see [the berries] pop open. … They do these little explosions,” Chinosi said. “Just cook them down with sugar and orange juice, then slowly add some warm spices, like cinnamon, cloves, allspice and ginger. It’ll smell like fall.”

While Amy LaBelle, owner and winemaker of LaBelle Winery, said she loves a good homemade cranberry sauce, she hopes people will think of her jarred cranberry jam as a viable alternative to people who don’t want to worry about cooking the jellied condiment.

“It’s a lot easier,” LaBelle said. “Just put it in a bowl and let it set up. But it’s still delicious because we still write the recipe.”

The jam, which is a homemade recipe featuring some of LaBelle’s cranberry wine and fresh spices, has many different uses besides as a side dish on the table. LaBelle’s favorite ways to enjoy it are either in a cranberry old-fashioned, with orange bitters and high-quality bourbon, or as the spread for a Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich.

While LaBelle noted that her own sauce wouldn’t need any doctoring to get the spiced, sweet and savory flavor that tastes like fall, she also said that there are a number of good ways to spruce up any jarred or canned sauce.

“If you’re going to buy a can of whole cranberry sauce, you can absolutely take that and add to it some orange zest, orange juices and … definitely add just a tiny bit of clove, some nutmeg [and] cinnamon,” LaBelle said. “But that orange juice and orange zest are really going to be your best way to perk that up. Those, and my cranberry wine, of course.”

Cranberry Jam Bourbon Smash
Courtesy of LaBelle Winery in Amherst and Derry, labellewinery.com

3 ounces good quality bourbon
1½ ounces fresh orange juice
½ ounce cranberry juice
1 teaspoon maple syrup
1 Tablespoon The Winemaker’s Kitchen cranberry wine jam
Dash of blood orange bitters

Place all ingredients in a shaker over ice and shake for 30 seconds. Pour with ice into a highball glass rimmed with cinnamon sugar.

“Your” Cranberry Sauce
Courtesy of The Culinary Playground in Derry, culinary-playground.com (yields about two cups)

1 teaspoon orange zest
½ cup fresh squeezed orange juice (from 1 large orange)
12 ounces fresh or frozen cranberries, divided
½ cup water
¾ to 1 cup packed brown sugar

Optional add-ins:
Up to ½ teaspoon cinnamon and/or allspice
Up to ⅛ teaspoon ground ginger and/or cloves
Up to ½ cup toasted pecans and/or walnuts, chopped
Up to ½ cup dried apricots and/or dates, chopped
1 Granny Smith apple and/or D’Anjou pear, peeled, cored and chopped

Zest the orange to yield 1 teaspoon, then set aside. Cut the orange in half and juice it to yield ½ cup. Measure out ½ cup of cranberries and set aside. Add the remaining cranberries into a medium saucepan set over medium heat. Add the water, orange juice and brown sugar. Stir occasionally as the mixture comes to a simmer. Once simmering, reduce heat to medium-low. While stirring occasionally, continue to cook until the liquid has reduced and the cranberries have burst and thickened (about 10 more minutes). Decrease the heat to low and stir in ½ cup reserved cranberries and orange zest. Taste and add additional brown sugar if it’s too tart. Remove from the heat. If customizing your sauce, stir in those ingredients as well (except for any nuts). Transfer to a serving bowl and allow to cool and thicken. Once cooled, cover and refrigerate for at least a few hours, or up to a week. Bring to room temperature before serving. If using nuts, stir them in before serving.

Potato vs. potato

Traditional mashed takes on sweet potato

By Angie Sykeny

[email protected]

Mashed potatoes: the flavor conveyor

Everyone has their preferred Thanksgiving side dishes, but for Brandon Rainer, co-owner of The Potato Concept in Derry, there’s one dish that should make it onto every plate.

“Mashed potatoes. One hundred percent,” he said. “That’s the ultimate side dish. Thanksgiving just isn’t Thanksgiving without it.”

And the simpler they are, the better; Rainer’s high praise for mashed potatoes, he said, comes from the dish’s unique ability to act as a “vessel” for the medley of flavors on your plate.

“You can take your fork, take a little bit of turkey, take a little bit of cranberry sauce, and take it in with your mashed potatoes,” said The Potato Concept co-owner Lauren Lefebvre. “You’re able to play with different textures and flavors on your plate and make different combinations, which is fun.”

Mashed potatoes can also serve as a “holder” on your plate for whatever you want to combine with the potatoes — and for the foods that you want to keep contained from the rest.

“My kids like to make what they call a ‘gravy pond,’ where they make a little space in their potatoes to hold their gravy,” Lefebvre said.

Be sure to leave a bite or two of mashed potatoes for last to soak up all the remnants of Thanksgiving goodness.

“It’s the perfect way to clear your plate,” Rainer said.

Preparation tips

The first and most important step for making good mashed potatoes, Rainer said, is to use real potatoes, never boxed.

“That’s the biggest way where you can go wrong,” he said. “You have to have the real thing. Nothing else will substitute for it.”

If you’re boiling your potatoes, patience is key. Plan the rest of the meal so that you have a burner reserved for potatoes to give them the time that they need to cook thoroughly.

“A lot of times, people have a lot of different things they need to cook, and they get impatient and take the potatoes off as soon as they can slightly put a fork through them,” Lefebvre said, “but once they go to mash them, they find that the potatoes are still very much hard in the center.”

Mash as you might, there will still be chunky bits, so those few extra minutes on the stove are always worth it.

“They’re supposed to be creamy. Nobody likes to have to chew on their mashed potatoes,” Lefebvre said. “That can throw off the dish completely.”

Sweet potatoes: a dessert before dessert

Sweet potatoes are the better option if you’re looking to add a bit of variety to the traditional Thanksgiving lineup.

“Thanksgiving has a lot of savory items and a lot of salts, but there’s not a lot of sweet things you can add, aside from maybe cranberry sauce,” Lefebvre said, “but sweet potatoes bring that bit of sugar to diversify the flavor profiles on the table.”

You can bake sweet potatoes and serve them whole, bake them into sweet potato fries, or, for a custard-like treat, you can mash them.

“That by itself would be pretty indulgent,” Lefebvre said, “but, of course, you can always get fancier with it.”

Amp up the sweetness with toppings like brown sugar or marshmallows, or, if you want some additional flavor without the additional sugar, try spices, like cinnamon or nutmeg.

“It adds a bit more to the flavor profile of the sweet potato,” Lefebvre said.

Preparation tips

Sweet potatoes tend to be softer than the russet potatoes typically used for mashed potatoes, which means less prep time. The downside is their potential to get messy.

“If you’re baking them, and they start to pop and explode and leak everywhere, that [juice] will caramelize and burn quickly and create a mess in your oven and make for a kitchen nightmare,” Rainer said.

To prevent, or at least minimize, such a mess, simply poke some holes in the potatoes with a fork before putting them in the oven.

“Some people say you shouldn’t poke the potatoes, but after experimenting with many, many, many potatoes this year, we’ve found that, with sweet potatoes, the poking is necessary,” Rainer said.

Ginger sweet potato
Batch of five
Courtesy of The Potato Concept

5 sweet potatoes
½ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
15 gingersnap cookies
¼ cup maple syrup
2 cups mini marshmallows
1 teaspoon salt

Get good quality sweet potatoes — ones between 1/2 and 3/4 pound work best. Stay away from ones where the skins and the ends of the potato aren’t fully intact. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. While it’s coming to temp, poke each potato a few times with a fork. Put them directly on the oven’s wire rack. Make sure there’s a pan underneath to catch the drippings, which may start to leak out toward the end of the cooking process. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes. Take the potatoes out of the oven using tongs and let them rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Set your oven to broil.
While they’re cooling, cut 1/2 cup of butter into smaller pieces and put them in a mixing bowl. Add a cup of brown sugar and a pinch of salt. Once the sweet potatoes have cooled slightly, slice them lengthwise and carefully scoop out the insides while doing your best to keep the skin intact. Add it to the mixing bowl. It should still be hot enough to easily melt the butter. Use a fork to hand blend the ingredients. Scoop the mixture back into the sweet potato skin.
Place the mini marshmallows on top of the potato and put them back in the oven on a sheet pan on the top rack. Keep a close eye on them as you’re just looking to brown the marshmallows, and it shouldn’t take more than a minute or two. Once browned, remove from the oven.
Take 10 of your favorite variety of silver dollar sized gingersnap cookies and smash them into crumbs using a food processor or a hammer. Top the potatoes with the crumbs and save five cookies to put directly into the potato whole, as pictured. Then, take a teaspoon of maple syrup and drizzle on top.

Any way you slice it

Apple versus pumpkin — which pie takes the cake?

By Mya Blanchard

[email protected]

On the question of apple pie versus pumpkin pie, Christiana Lehman, owner of From Gracie’s Table in Brookline, is 100 percent Team Apple Pie.

“Pumpkin is gross,” Lehman said. “I make it because I know people eat it, but I do not even know what my own pumpkin pie tastes like because I do not like pumpkin pie.”

Local food blogger and chef instructor Liz Barbour, of The Creative Feast in Hollis, also picks apple.

“I personally like an apple pie better. … I like the texture of the apples, the different flavors of the apples and it’s a family favorite at our house,” she said.

On the other hand, Lisa Lucciano of The Cake Fairy in Hooksett doesn’t have such strong feelings.

“Personally I don’t [have a preference]” she said. “I like them both. … I probably would always choose pumpkin pie because it’s only made usually at Thanksgiving and Christmas … if I was only able to eat one I would eat pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.”

While pumpkin pie might not take the cake as the fan favorite, it’s generally easier to make than apple pie, as it requires fewer steps and less preparation.

“[Apple pie] does require more effort because you have to peel them, then you have to mix the stuff [in] the apples, then you put it in the crust and fix the crust and decorate the crust,” Lehman said. “But with pumpkin … you open a can, you mix in the spices … and you put it in the crust.”

Barbour simplifies the apple pie making process by skipping the step of peeling the apples.

“[With] a properly baked apple pie, the way you can tell if it’s baked enough … is when you look at your pie at the end of the baking, the filling should be bubbling up through the vent holes,” Barbour said, “and that way you know that the skins have broken down [and] the apples are softened.”

When choosing which apples to include in your pie, variety is the key.

“You’re going to be looking for apples … that are sweet, apples that are tart [and] apples that add texture,” Barbour said. “When you combine all of those, then you have a really nice flavor base as opposed to using just one type of apple.”

Apple pie also wins the category of versatility.

“I think you can be more creative with an apple pie. … The apple pie is absolutely more versatile,” Lucciano said.

No matter which pie you choose to serve at Thanksgiving, it’s important to make it with care.

“You have to make sure that it’s spiced just right, mixed just right and in proper ways too,” Lucciano said. “Baking is a science that people don’t realize. If there are directions on how to do things, follow them.”

“Oh my!” apple pie
From the kitchen of Christiana Lehman of From Gracie’s Table and Brookline’s Finest

2 pie crusts
8 apples
1 10-ounce container From Gracie’s Table “dry” apple pie mix (includes brown sugar, cane sugar, cornstarch, white flour, ground cinnamon, nutmeg and sea salt)
2 Tablespoons butter

Lay out the crust into the bottom of a pan. Peel and chop apples. Mix dry ingredients with apples and butter. Pour seasoned apples into the pie crust. Cover with the other pie crust and pinch the edges together. Make three small slits on the top to vent. Cook at 425 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.

Pumpkin apple custard pie
Courtesy of Diane Souther of Apple Hill Farm in Concord

8 medium-sized apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 ½ cups pumpkin puree
3 eggs, separated
½ cup white sugar
½ cup maple sugar (or light brown sugar)
½ cup maple syrup
3 Tablespoons flour
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
¼ teaspoon salt
2 ½ cups warm whole milk
2 9-inch unbaked pie crusts (can use graham cracker crusts)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Make your favorite pie crust and place in two pie plates, or use store-purchased crusts. Peel, slice and core the apples. Line the inside of the bottom of the 9-inch pie crusts. Separate the eggs, yolks and whites, and beat the whites until stiff, then set aside for later. Mix the yolks with the pumpkin puree, then add the white and maple sugars, the maple syrup, the flour, the salt and the spices and mix well. Add the warm whole milk (not hot) and mix well. Gently fold in the egg whites. Divide the mixture in half and gently pour between the two pie plates. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 15 minutes, then give them a spin and reduce the heat to 350 degrees for about 30 minutes longer, until the custard is set and no longer loose.

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

The drinks of the 1990s return — and get a reboot

The drinks of the ’90s served largely as fuel for dancing, and as conversation starters with the Hungarian hand models we were trying to dance with.

Like the clothes we wore, a lot of the music we listened to and (wow!) the way we wore our hair, for those who were young in the ’90s, the cocktails didn’t need to be great. When these cocktails were well-made, they could be excellent, but that was often beside the point.

Do any of us even really remember what a Woo-Woo tasted like? What would some of the drinks of the ’90s — suddenly The decade, nostalgia-wise — taste like today? Is there a way to improve them and make them more interesting? Do they even need that? Let’s see what we have to work with:

Mojito

The mojito might be the quintessential 1990s drink. Its combination of lime juice and mint could make you feel like you were sitting in a swanky club in Miami. Maybe you were sitting in a swanky club in Miami during the ’90s — I don’t know what you were doing 30 years ago or whether you were legal to drink. The taste of rum was usually an afterthought; the focus was on the greenery.

You looked sophisticated, drinking a mojito.

The original version uses surprisingly little mint.

’90s mojito

Ingredients

• 3 mint leaves
• ½ ounce simple syrup
• 2 ounces white rum — Because the rum is supposed to be a background flavor here, any mid-range, doesn’t-take-itself-too-seriously white or silver rum will work. Bacardi is a good choice.
• ¾ ounce fresh squeezed lime juice — from ordinary Persian limes, the kind you find at the grocery store, next to the lemons
• 3 to 4 ounces club soda

Muddle the mint leaves in the bottom of a Collins glass.

Add ice, and the rest of the ingredients, and stir to combine.

Garnish with a mint sprig, and possibly a lime wheel.

Sip, with your coolest, most inscrutable look on your face. If anyone asks how you are doing, tell them, “Livin’ la vida loca, my friend.”

Considering that this drink was considered one of the trendiest cocktails around at the time, it is surprisingly light and delicate. The mint and rum are very modest here. The main impressions you get as you drink it are of carbonation and lime juice. This is a drink for someone who wants to keep their wits about them.

But also, puzzlingly shy when it comes to the use of mint.

2022 me really doesn’t need to keep my wits about me. I know that I’m a lightweight at this point, at least so far as my cocktail consumption goes. The most exciting and dangerous thing I’m planning to do on a Friday night is emptying the dishwasher. If I’m going to drink a mojito, I’d like to forgo any subtlety and get slapped in the face with its mojito-ness. I am no longer bold, so I’d like my mojito to be bold for me.

Updated Mojito

Ingredients

• 5 grams of fresh mint — This doesn’t sound like much, but when I tried to weigh three mint leaves from the original recipe, they didn’t register on my scale, which means that I was using less than a tenth of a gram of them. Thus, this is at least 50 times mintier than the classic version. Think a small handful.
• 2 ounces white rum — I’m not really looking to make a boozier mojito, just a more flavorful one.
• ¾ ounce makrut lime juice — These little limes are surprisingly juicy. If you can’t find any, Key limes would work well, too.
• 1 ounce simple syrup — The smaller limes have a slightly bitter edge to them, which helps give them their sophisticated flavor, but a little extra sweetness helps balance it out.
• 3 to 4 ounces extra-bubbly club soda — I like Topo Chico Mineral Water.

As before, muddle the mint in the bottom of a Collins glass.

Add ice and the other ingredients, and stir gently.

Garnish with half a tiny lime. This might prompt somebody to ask, “What is that?” at which point you can just hand over your drink for them to take a sip, and watch as they are knocked backward by flavor and joy.

It’s surprising how much flavor the smaller limes pack. The extra mint is welcome, of course, but the flavor of the makrut is the star of the show. This version of the mojito is sweet, and acidic, and musky, and herbal, all at once.

I hate to make assumptions, but I suspect that once you have tried this, any time you see makrut limes at the supermarket, you’ll find yourself saying out loud, “Do you know what time it is? That’s right; it’s Mojito Time, Baby!” You might get some strange looks from your fellow shoppers, but that’s the price you pay for being authentically awesome.

Limes
These are makrut limes. I stumbled over them in the produce section at Whole Foods. They have another, more common name, one with unfortunate racial overtones. They are more commonly called — and my apologies to anyone from southern Africa — kaffir limes. I had heard of using the leaves in Thai cooking, but this was the first time I had seen the actual fruit. Each of the limes is about the size of a golf ball, and covered with a thick, leathery rind.
I asked the produce manager what they tasted like, and he pulled out a pocket knife and opened one for us to try. The flavor was very intense.
“Are you getting … leather?” I asked.
“A little bit, but mostly … um….”
“What?” I asked.
“Lemon Pledge?” he guessed.
“That’s it! But in a good way!”
He nodded and smiled.
And it does. In 1958, the chemical engineers at Johnson & Johnson developed a scent for their furniture polish that smelled so good, so wholesome, that homemakers would feel guilty not spraying in on their woodwork. Smelling it today can instantly transport you to your childhood and soothe you like a lullaby.
Makrut limes taste a lot like that.
Only, naturally.
One shelf over from the limes was a bin of yuzu. I had always heard of yuzu, and even seen small bottles of yuzu juice for sale at astronomical prices, but this was the first time I’d ever seen the fresh fruit. They are about the same size and shape as tangerines, but a deep green color that lightens to a buttery yellow as they ripen.
My new friend cut open a yuzu for us, and we were initially underwhelmed. The juice tasted generically citrusy but was not very intense. The seeds were surprisingly large, but otherwise we both shrugged and started talking about rhubarb.
I bought a couple of pounds of the yuzu anyway, and when I got home I decided to make them into a syrup, which turned out to be astoundingly, shockingly good — vibrant and acidic, and with a bitter finish. If you find any fresh yuzu, I would recommend making this, though decent lemons would work well, too.

Yuzu Syrup
Zest all the yuzus you have, and set the zest aside.
Squeeze the fruit through a fine-meshed strainer, into a small saucepan.
Add an equal amount, by weight, of white sugar to the juice.
Bring to a boil over medium heat, making sure that all the sugar has dissolved.
Remove the pan from the heat, then stir in the zest. Cover with a plate, and let it sit for half an hour.
Pour into a small jar or bottle, through a strainer and a funnel. Label and refrigerate.

Jasmine

The jasmine made its debut in Las Vegas in the late ’90s. It was a riff on a riff on a variation of an already existent cocktail, so it doesn’t feel very transgressive to modify it.

I like to think of a beautiful bartender named Jasmine, with dark hair in a pixie cut, shockingly blue eyes, and a truly surprising number of tattoos (which, in the ’90s, were a cutting-edge trend). I imagine an admirer bringing her a bouquet of jasmine flowers. In this scenario, the admirer is also a woman named Jasmine, so Inky Jasmine makes her a jasmine cocktail.

Original Jasmine

Ingredients

• 1½ ounces very cold gin — Keeping a bottle of gin in the freezer is not the worst idea in the world. (I already keep a bottle of vodka there, for making pie crust, but that’s another story.)
• ¼ ounce Campari
• ¼ ounce orange liqueur — I used triple sec.
• ¾ ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice

Combine all ingredients, with ice, in a cocktail shaker.

Shake until very cold. You’ll know you’re getting there when you hear the ice cubes start to break up. I’m not positive, but I think this is one reason bartenders shake drinks next to their ears.

Strain into a martini glass. Remember to hold it by the stem, so it stays as cold as possible.

This is a very nice cocktail. It isn’t too sweet — the only sweetness comes from the tiny amount of triple sec — and the equally tiny amount of Campari gives it a gentle pink color and a very small amount of bitterness in the background. Considering its origins, it is a very adult drink.

My only real complaint with it is that it doesn’t have anything to do with actual jasmine.

So, let’s see what we can do about that:

Today’s Jasmine

Ingredients

• 1½ ounces very cold gin — I’ve been using Wiggly Bridge. It’s a dry gin that doesn’t impose any floral flavors of its own and fight with the jasmine (see below).
• ¼ Campari — I still like the color and bitterness it brings to this drink.
• 1 ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
• ½ ounce jasmine syrup (see below)

Combine all the ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker, and shake until extremely cold.

Strain into a martini glass.

Holding the glass by the stem, do the pretentious, wine-snobby, sniffing-the-drink-to-bring-the-scent-to-your-palate thing. Something like 75 percent of everything you think you taste actually comes from the smell of whatever you’re eating or drinking. In this case, you’ll want to take in the floral notes from the jasmine syrup.

Again, this is a very nice, adult-ish cocktail. It still has the pretty color and bitterness, but it’s a bit sweeter, to help bring the smell of jasmine to you. You may not have ever experienced fresh jasmine blossoms, but they are staggeringly good smelling. The jasmine syrup brings just a whisper of that to a weary world.

Jasmine Syrup

Ingredients

• 1 cup water — approximately 200 grams
• 1 cup white sugar — also, approximately 200 grams
• ½ cup dried jasmine blossoms — approximately 10 grams
• The juice of ½ a lime — a regular, grocery-store Persian lime, not a fancy lime with delusions of grandeur.

Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Boil for 10 to 15 seconds to make sure that the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat.

Stir the dried jasmine blossoms into the hot sugar syrup, cover, and leave to steep for 30 minutes.

Squeeze the lime juice into the mixture, and stir to combine. Strain into a bottle, then wait for the Call to Greatness.

Appletini

There isn’t a lot to say about the appletini, sometimes known as a sour apple martini. It was popular in the ’90s and was, I think, a plot point in an episode of Law and Order. Within a few years it became fashionable to sneer at, which must mean that there was something to it.

OG Appletini

Ingredients

• 1¾ ounces vodka
• 1 ounce sour apple schnapps — I used a tiny sample-sized bottle of 99 Apples, not wanting to commit to an entire full-sized one.
• ¼ ounce Rose’s Lime Juice
• ¼ ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
• ¼ ounce fresh squeezed lime juice

Combine all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker, and shake until very cold.

Strain into a cocktail glass, and drink while wondering what ever happened to wearing overalls with one strap hanging loose.

There are any number of recipes for appletinis, in varying degrees of sweetness and potency. This is one of the more restrained versions. It is not overly sweet and it does retain a lot of the sourness that you might hope for, if not a great deal of actual apple flavor.

This is, frankly, a cocktail with a lot of potential for progress.

Modified, More Apple-y Version of an Appletini

Ingredients

• 2½ ounces apple brandy — I like Laird’s Applejack.
• 2 ounces apple cider — This will do most of the heavy lifting, apple-wise.
• ½ ounce yuzu syrup — see Citrus Sidebar

Combine all ingredients with ice and shake in a cocktail shaker until very cold.

Strain into a cocktail glass, and sip pensively, still thinking about the whole overalls thing and wondering if Dexy’s Midnight Runners and the Georgia Satellites were secretly the same group and if that’s why nobody has ever heard of any of them again.

This is a much better version of the appletini, partially due to the magical yuzu syrup and partially to the presence of actual apples. There is a citrusy sourness in the background, but a substantial apple flavor as well.

Espresso Martini

Of all these nostalgic ’90s cocktails, only one stands tall, self-confident, and without the need to be updated.

A lot of cocktails from this period are called “classics” in the sense that they have been around for quite a while and they have been popular for much of that time. An espresso martini is a true classic, in the same sense as a black tuxedo, or the tinkling of Audrey Hepburn’s laughter in Roman Holiday. It stands nearly perfect; it needs no tweaking.

The Espresso Martini

Ingredients

• 2 ounces coffee-infused vodka (see below)
• ½ ounce Kahlua
• ¼ ounce simple syrup
• 1 ounce cold brew concentrate — I like Trader Joe’s.

Gently pour all ingredients over ice in a mixing glass. Stir slowly, but thoroughly, until very cold.

Pour into a frosted martini glass.

Drink with your eyes closed, thinking of classy dames and piano jazz.

The great thing about a well-crafted espresso martini is that it combines the bracing aspects of a stiff drink, with the stare-you-in-the-eyes confidence of a really good cup of coffee. The caffeine is a plus, of course, but the real standout here is the richness of the coffee. It smiles at you and says, “You got this, Kid.”

Put another way: This is a very good cocktail. Keep in mind, though, that more than one of these babies might keep you up very late into the night watching old movies and possibly crying.

Coffee-Infused Vodka

Ingredients

• 10 grams French-roast coffee beans
• 6 ounces 80 proof vodka

Using a mortar and pestle, or the bottom of a heavy saucepan, gently crush the coffee beans. The idea here is to break them up into pieces, but not to grind them into powder.

Combine the coffee beans and vodka in a small, tightly sealed jar, and store in a cool, dark place for two days, shaking twice per day.

Strain through a fine-mesh strainer before using in a cocktail.

Lemon Drop

I’ve got a friend who is a highly ranked competitive slam poet.

She and I have argued for years about the relative merits of poetry. Clearly, she is all for it. I, on the other hand, have reservations.

“There’s just so much bad poetry out there,” I have pointed out.

“No,” she has argued. “There’s no such thing as bad poetry!”

At this point, I have stared at her in stony silence, until the inaccuracy of this statement has collapsed on the floor with the sound of breaking glass.

“Okay, FINE!” she has responded. “Yes. There is a lot of bad poetry out there, but that doesn’t have any bearing on how good the good stuff is.”

I would like to argue that contention, if only out of obstinacy, but the fact that I’ve subscribed to a poem-of-the-day service for the past year would highlight my hypocrisy.

In that same spirit, someone could legitimately argue that a proliferation of bad lemon drop cocktails does not negate the excellence of a well-made one.

A Lemon Drop

Ingredients

• 2 ounces very cold vodka — I’ve been enjoying Ukrainian Heritage lately.
• ½ ounce triple sec
• 1 ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
• 1 ounce simple syrup

Combine all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker, and shake until very, very cold.

Strain into a chilled martini glass. Drink while still extremely cold.

The lemon juice carries most of the weight in a good lemon drop. It provides flavor, but even more importantly it adds acidity, which keeps the sweetness from becoming cloying. If you drink this while it is still extremely cold, it will sting your mouth a little, which suits its lemony-ness.

This is a delicious drink; it really is. I just think it might be better if it tasted more strongly of lemons. Let’s address that:

A Lemonier Drop

Ingredients

• 2 ounces very cold vodka
• ½ ounce limoncello
• 1 ounce homemade yuzu or lemon syrup
• 1½ ounces fresh squeezed lemon juice

Again, shake everything over ice, until extremely cold.

Strain into a martini glass.

This lemon drop is about as sweet as the original version — half an ounce of a sweet liqueur, and an ounce of syrup — and has the same amount of lemon juice, so the sweet/sour proportions are pretty much the same. The main difference here is the increase in citrus flavor.

Could you bump the lemon flavor even more by using a lemon vodka?

I’m not sure that’s legal in this state.

OK, You Knew This Would Be Showing Up Sooner or Later

The Cosmopolitan

The Cosmopolitan actually got its start in the 1970s, but really came into its own in the ’90s striding across the landscape of American happy hours like a pink colossus. Yes, Sex in the City. Yes, South Park. Yes, it eventually became a bit of a cliché.

But what we tend to lose sight of is that, in spite of all that, a cosmo can be a very good cocktail:

Carrie’s (or is it Samantha’s?) Cosmo

Ingredients

• 1 ounce vodka
• 1 ounce triple sec
• 1½ ounces cranberry juice cocktail
• ½ ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
• 2 dashes orange bitters

Combine all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker, and shake until very cold.

Strain into a cocktail glass.

Drink while plotting world domination with a special friend.

Admittedly, a classic cosmo can be a bit on the sweet side — cranberry juice cocktail and a large slug of triple sec form a fairly sweet base — but lime juice and especially the bitters help balance things out. It has a tartness that makes your mouth water, which in turn gives it a very juicy mouth-feel. It tastes good, and drinking one can easily lead to drinking two, and the next thing you know, you are telling very personal secrets to your new friend, Julio, the Uber driver.

Can it be improved on? Maybe.

John’s Cosmo

Ingredients

• 2 ounces vodka — Let’s start by doubling the amount of vodka. The fruitiness of the final drink benefits from an authoritative booziness.
• 1 ounce yuzu syrup — It’s OK to keep things sweet; that’s part of a cosmo’s appeal. But triple sec tends to hide in the background; that’s what it’s good at. Let’s replace it with something that brings flavor to the party. If you haven’t been able to find any fresh yuzu, a fresh citrus syrup made from limes, lemons or even grapefruit will work well. The point here is that we want an assertive citrus flavor.
• 1½ ounces unsweetened pomegranate juice — Trust me on this. Your finished drink will still be pink. It will still be fruity — we just added yuzu, after all — but the pomegranate juice adds a bracing, no-nonsense spine to hang the other flavors from.
• ½ ounce makrut lime juice — We’ve just introduced three strong flavors. Our lime juice should be equally assertive. The leathery, acidic, slightly bitter, yes, Lemon Pledge-iness of the makrut juice is what you want here. If you haven’t been able to find any makruts, you might want to go with Key limes. The point is, send in a heavy hitter.

There is nothing complicated here — throw the Frenetic Four into a cocktail shaker full of ice, and let them fight it out. Shake until very cold. Because all the flavors are so powerful to start with, you might want to set the shaker aside for a few minutes, then reshake everything to dilute it slightly.

Strain into a cocktail glass.

You: “This is purple. You promised me it would be pink.”

Cosmopolitan: “Oh, I’m pink.”

You, taking a sip: “Wow! That’s, um, okay. But you’re still purple.”

Cosmo: “Really? Take another sip.”

You: “I repeat — Wow! Well, maybe pink-ISH purple.”

Cosmo: “Are you sure?”

You, taking another sip: “I think I’m starting to see Time.”

Cosmo: “And what color am I?”

You: “I’m going with pink.”

Cosmo: “And you’re talking to your cocktail.”

You: “You are a very good drink.”

Cosmo: “I do what I can.”

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Get to know this Community-friendly Comfort Dog, a very social emu, cuddle cows and other famous local animals

Many dogs, cats and other animals have roles that go beyond the traditional house pet. From friendly farm dwellers to shop cats to therapy or comfort dogs (and even a pony!), these beloved animals all have a unique story to tell.

Augustus & Moo

At Cats Kingdom, a cat-based pet store in Manchester, Augustus and Moo are the kings of the castle. Although they differ in personality and demeanor, the two have become best friends since sharing the throne. As a pet store dedicated solely to cats, Cats Kingdom has something that every feline will love, from food to furniture and toys.

Customers, and their cats, who come into the store will likely be welcomed by Augustus, who is “a great store greeter,” store owner Cathy Hilscher said.

Augustus is an 8-year-old long-haired, mixed-breed cat who was adopted six years ago from New Hampshire Kittens. Friendly, independent and outgoing, Augustus is a cat that customers gravitate toward.

Moo is a shyer, 5-year-old domestic shorthair who loves to see other cats come into the store. Originally from Florida, Moo had a rough start until he was adopted by Hilscher from Darbster Kitty, a nonprofit based in Manchester.

“He was returned a few times. I had been working with them years ago to help [with] adoptions and he had some health problems we’ll say. So finally three years ago I adopted him myself,” Hilscher said. “He was a work in progress. He has a lot of health issues, but I feel that he pretty much came to me for a reason.”

Cats Kingdom has earned a loyal customer base since its opening seven years ago. Hilscher was inspired to open the store when her late cat Pierre was diagnosed with kidney disease at the age of 18.

“I realized there wasn’t a lot out there for cats, [like] supportive measures, foods [and] holistic care. Just on a whim right down the street there was a ‘for sale’ sign, so I took out a … loan and I built it from the ground up,” Hilscher said.

The health problems that Pierre had are rather similar to one that Moo currently faces. With his kidney issues, an autoimmune disease, and a history of neglect, Hilscher considers Moo to be the underdog.

“He probably would not be alive now if I didn’t take him,” Hilscher said of Moo. “I think him happening to find a cat store that focuses on kidney support care and him being so young to have kidney problems [is] kind of … ironic, and I think he’s here for a reason.”

— Mya Blanchard

Augustus and Moo the cats
Where: Cats Kingdom, 679 Mast Road, Manchester
Hours: Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
More info: catskingdom.online, 935-8321

Charley Mopps Brewdog

Five-year-old Charley Mopps — or just Charley — is the official “brewdog” of Blasty Bough Brewing Co in Epsom. He was just a puppy when the brewery opened its doors on the grounds of McClary Hill Farm in early 2018, owner and head brewer Dave Stewart said.

“When we first picked him up, we were already in the process of building out [the brewery],” Stewart said. “There’s an old song, and it’s obviously fanciful, but it’s about Charley Mopps, who is the man who invented beer, and it rhymes with barley and hops. … So that’s where the name comes from. He’s really just Charley, but when he’s not being good, he’s Charley Mopps.”

Charley was adopted from 3 Dogs Rescue in Berwick, Maine. In the early days of the brewery — before, Stewart said, a food menu was introduced — patrons would often find Charley roaming the floors of the taproom. While he’s no longer allowed inside where food is served, Charley is still known to make regular appearances out on the outdoor porch seating area.

“At the end of the evening, the regulars that are there will ask for an appearance. Everybody will ask, ‘Where’s Charley?’ and so we all go outside and let Charley out,” Stewart said. “Charley also gets to eat whatever’s left in the hot dog steamer after the evening is over.”

Quickly becoming something of a local celebrity among the taproom’s regulars, Charley has his own “Charley Mopps seal of approval” T-shirts, and there’s even a brewed beer named after him. The Charley Mopps Brewdog stout is a smooth coffee-oatmeal stout that’s brewed with organic French roast coffee beans — it’s slated to make its return to the brewery’s lineup in time for the winter months, Stewart said.

More details on Charley’s adventures can be found at blastybough.com/charley-mopps-brewdog. He also has his own Instagram page @charleymoppsbrewdog, where photos of him and his “dog friends” at the brewery are shared.

“He’s got a cushion under my desk and he sleeps there while I’m doing office work, and then when I’m doing other stuff, he’s hanging around supervising,” Stewart said. “We call him the Wonder Dog, because he’s always wondering what’s going on.”

— Matt Ingersoll

Charley Mopps Brewdog
Where: Blasty Bough Brewing Co., 3 Griffin Road, Epsom
Hours: Friday, 4 to 9 p.m., Saturday, 1 to 9 p.m., and Sunday, 1 to 6 p.m. (be there around closing time for a chance to see Charley)
More info: blastybough.com, 724-3636

Clarissa, Ruby and Sadie

Sixteen horses live on the approximately 96-acre farm at UpReach, a therapeutic equestrian center in Goffstown. Among them are Clarissa, Ruby and Sadie.

Clarissa, a blonde Haflinger, is a fan favorite with an excellent work ethic. Now in her early 20s, she has been at the center since she was donated at the age of 7. Loving and outgoing, Clarissa is great with participants.

“She seeks people out,” said Allison McCully, the unmounted program director at UpReach.

Clarissa, also known as “The Driving Queen,” takes part in the hippotherapy and riding programs, and, as her nickname suggests, specializes in the therapeutic driving program in which she pulls carts.

Ruby is an expressive bay-colored Morgan who has been at UpReach for four years. She participates in the therapeutic riding program, giving walk, trot and canter lessons.

“Ruby knows she’s important and she likes being important. She wants to be good at everything,” McCully said.

Sadie, a 15-year old piebald Gypsy Vanner with a mellow, independent personality, was leased to UpReach in 2015. Her specialty is hippotherapy, but she is also involved in the therapeutic riding program. Her even-keeled demeanor makes her a perfectly hospitable horse.

“She takes care of people. She’s a caretaker,” McCully said.

UpReach serves about 160 participants with various challenges weekly. The participants can be anywhere from 3 years old to in their 80s.

“The challenges that people have vary. … It could be physical, could be emotional or … cognitive,” said Sara McCarthy, UpReach’s development director.

There are many ways to get involved and contribute to the cause and the horses at UpReach. One can volunteer, donate or even sponsor one of the horses.

“The sponsorship helps offset the cost of caring for a horse,” McCarthy said.

Sponsors get to have their picture taken with the horse they sponsor, receive a certificate, and get to go and spend time with the horse at the center.

“They’re doing all the hard work for us, so they deserve the best care that we can give them, and they get it here. … They’re very lucky horses,” McCarthy said.

— Mya Blanchard

Clarissa, Ruby and Sadie the therapy horses
Where: UpReach Therapeutic Equestrian Center, 153 Paige Hill Road, Goffstown
Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
More info: upreachtec.org, 497-5367

Cottonpuff the “unicorn”

When Deanna Levesque first encountered Cottonpuff at a rescue pen, she wasn’t sure the American miniature horse would have what it takes to be a “unicorn” for her entertainment service, NH Unicorns. Two weeks later she saw Cottonpuff again at a different rescue pen. She knew then that, unicorn or no unicorn, the horse was in need of a loving forever home.

“I couldn’t stand the thought of seeing this poor little thing being bounced from pen to pen until she was sick, hurt or worse,” Levesque said. “NH Unicorns had to save her. I didn’t care at that point if she would ever make it as a unicorn.”

As it turns out, Cottonpuff’s demeanor is a perfect fit for unicorn service. She’s sociable and huggable and loves nothing more than being the center of attention.

Well, that, and eating cupcakes.

“She loves vanilla cupcakes,” Levesque said. “That’s been her favorite part of going to kids’ parties.”

Standing at just under 36 inches tall, Cottonpuff is especially popular with the little ones. With her teddy bear-like features — big head, big eyes and big ears — rotund body and billowy white mane, Cottonpuff can be best described, Levesque said, as “the corgi of unicorns.”

“Her pretty white hair is so thick and fluffy, you can literally bury your hand in it,” she said.

Cottonpuff’s best unicorn quality is her ability to form a special connection with the children she meets.

“She’s been told by so many littles that she makes them feel safe, and that has been one of the highest compliments any of our animals has ever received,” Levesque said. “She has been the reason non-verbal children have spoken their first words. She has brought tears to the eyes of many parents as they witness the joy of their child’s unicorn encounter.”

Cottonpuff has become the most requested NH Unicorn, Levesque said, and though she officially entered retirement this past summer, she’ll take any opportunity she’s given to pop back into the spotlight and see her young fans.

“She always demands to be a part of things,” Levesque said. “We don’t take her out for long public events anymore … but she wants everyone to know she can still be seen at occasional visits to the farm.”

NH Unicorns is currently planning a rainbow birthday party at their farm in Barnstead to celebrate Cottonpuff’s 30th.

Cottonpuff the “unicorn”
NH Unicorns offers parties, special appearances and photo shoots at requested locations throughout New Hampshire and at its farm in Barnstead. To learn more about opportunities to meet Cottonpuff and the other NH Unicorns, visit nhunicorns.com or call 867-6228, and follow NH Unicorns on Facebook.

Dundee the emu

The Educational Farm at Joppa Hill in Bedford is home to many animals you’d expect to see at a New England farm — goats, cows, horses, sheep, chickens, alpacas — but there is one animal that may have you doing a double take.

Meet Dundee.

Dundee is an 8-year-old female emu, which is a large, flightless bird endemic to Australia.

“She’s a little unusual at our farm — a little different — but that’s part of what makes her so fun,” said Jessica Gilcreast, vice chair of the board for the farm. “She’s a species that’s not native to New England, and our visitors get to interact with her very closely, which they may not be able to do anywhere else.”

Dundee was hatched from an egg to a family in Maine. She was given to Live and Let Live Farm, an animal rescue and sanctuary in Chichester, in 2021, and adopted by The Educational Farm at Joppa Hill that same year.

Despite being the only emu at the farm, Dundee has had no trouble fitting in with the other animals. Standing over 5 feet tall and with a sprint speed of up to 30 mph, her closest companions are the horses.

“She lives with the horses in the horse pasture, and at night she’ll go into the trees to roost,” Gilcreast said. “During the winter, she lives in the barn … with a roommate, Trickster, a rooster. They keep each other company until the worst of winter is over.”

Dundee is very social, not only with her fellow animals but also with her human friends, especially if they come with a handful of her favorite snack, red grapes.

“She loves to interact with our visitors and volunteers and will often be at the fence to say hello,” Gilcreast said.

Though she’s lived at the farm for only a little over a year, Dundee has already secured her position as one of the farm’s most popular animals, her claim to fame being a penchant for wearing hats.

“She lets the volunteers put hats on her and take funny pictures. She never complains,” Gilcreast said.

You can see Dundee at the farm outside every day except during the winter, when you can see her as part of a guided barn tour. While you’re there, you can also purchase a cup of grain to feed Dundee and the other animals.

Emus can live to be up to 30 years old, Gilcreast said, “so we plan to have Dundee for a long time.”

— Angie Sykeny

Dundee the emu
Where: The Educational Farm at Joppa Hill, 174 Joppa Hill Road, Bedford
When: The farm is open daily from dawn to dusk
Cost: Admission to the farm is free. Purchase a cup of grain to feed Dundee and the other animals for $5.
More info: theeducationalfarm.org, 472-4724

Eddy the comfort pony

Eddy is a 23-year-old Shetland pony who is the newest member of the Manchester Police Department’s Mounted Patrol team. According to the Friends of the Manchester Mounted Patrol’s website, the horse and his riders — which include MPD officers Kelly McKenney and Brianna Miano, along with intern Hannah Beaudry — focus their patrols in the downtown area of Manchester and the city parks, with the goal to provide an approachable police presence. Patrolling on horseback also allows officers access to some places a police cruiser cannot go.

General Stark, a 17-year-old Clydesdale cross gelding; and Bruno, a 9-year-old Percheron cross gelding, round out the Mounted Patrol team.

“Although the full-size horses are an incredible asset, they are also intimidating for a lot of people, especially children,” Manchester Police spokeswoman Heather Hamel told the Hippo in an email. “A pony was a smaller, perfect addition to the team.”

According to Hamel, Eddy was a therapy pony prior to joining the department. He’s now a full-time comfort pony, visiting area schools, assisted living facilities, summer camps, community events and everywhere in between.

“He is a great way to engage with the public and is a great ice-breaker with children,” she said.

There are numerous requests for Eddy’s presence at public events, Hamel said, and they are even booking into 2023. The Mounted Patrol Unit is a nonprofit that’s funded through private donations. Visit mpdmountedpatrol.com or follow them on Facebook @friendsofthemanchestermountedpatrol to learn more.

— Matt Ingersoll

Eddy the comfort pony
Where: Manchester Police Department’s Mounted Patrol team, 405 Valley St., Manchester
More info: mpdmountedpatrol.com, 792-5432

Mischka the comfort dog

Mischka — pronounced “meesh-ka” — is a 3-year-old purebred English Labrador who joined the Bedford Police Department in early 2021 as its certified comfort dog. Bedford Police Officer Whitney Mansfield serves as Mischka’s handler.

“She was actually my personal dog … and I was already training her to be a service dog for myself,” Mansfield said. “I ended up bringing her to work after convincing my captain to see if she could just hang out with me at work, because I was just doing paperwork on light duty. … There had been talk here and there about [having] a comfort dog, and the department pretty much fell in love with her, and so I just started creating a program and taking on that role.”

Mischka, Mansfield said, is a certified therapy dog through the Alliance of Therapy Dogs, a nationally accredited therapy dog program. She also has a certificate of completion from a basic obedience training program at Hudson K-9 Training Center, based in Nashua.

Mischka was given her name while still a puppy at Bloomfield Labradors in Rindge.

“I did more research about it, and it actually means ‘bear’ in Russian, and she looked like a little bear cub when she was a baby, so that’s kind of where the name came from,” Mansfield said.

When Mischka isn’t responding to calls, she’ll accompany Mansfield on all kinds of community events — including, most recently, at a Trunk or Treat event put on by Bethany Covenant Church in Bedford. She also has her own Instagram page — follow her @mischka_the_bpd_comfortdog.

“Pretty much any event that the community has, we try to get out there … [and] introduce her to a variety of businesses, schools, stuff like that, just to create a positive relationship between the police and the community,” Mansfield said. “She can also be used on calls, so pretty much any call that can leave someone with traumatic stress, or we’ll go to calls where kids are involved. As long as a scene is safe and not still volatile, she can be used in pretty much any call, especially mental health-related calls.”

— Matt Ingersoll

Mischka the comfort dog
Where: Bedford Police Department, 55 Constitution Drive, Bedford
More info: Follow Mischka on Instagram @mischka_the_bpd_comfortdog to find out where she’ll be next

Mocha and the cuddle cows

While standard pets include dogs, hamsters, bunnies and cats, Brian Bradford chose a different type of animal.

“I’ve always wanted cows,” Bradford said. “I finally got the land and I had the space and the opportunity to do it, so I was like, ‘Alright, game on.’”

The three cows he first adopted — named Merl, Mocha and Moscato — were raised from bottle feeding to the full grown, nearly 2-year-old love bugs they are now. The herd, which includes a total of nine cows, all live on Bradford’s farm in Goffstown called Granite Oak Farm, and the three he first adopted are part of a program known as cow cuddling.

Bradford described the temperament of the massive animals as that of a big dog. True to that description, the cows were all extremely cuddly, giving licks with their rough, cat-like tongues, and rubbing their faces and horns against the metal fence.

Mocha, the most popular of the cow cuddlers due to her chocolate brown fur, is extremely affectionate, making sure that she gets as many scratches as possible from Bradford.

“I always loved going to the fairs and we spent a lot of time in the cow areas, and so you saw people want to constantly [be] with the cows, but a lot of them can’t spend much time with them,” Bradford said. “So I wanted to kind of bring that to everyone.”

While Bradford had intended to have Mocha and the two boys as his own pets at home, he saw how loving they were whenever he brought people around. He said that it sparked the idea to introduce the world to how affectionate and caring they are.

Even the baby cow, Caramel, who is kept separate from the herd until she becomes 3 months old, is incredibly affectionate, sucking on Bradford’s hand like a bottle and enjoying chin scratches from him. Bradford said he expects she’ll also be a cuddler once she’s old enough to join the herd.

Right now, cow cuddling isn’t available to the public at Granite Oak Farm. Due to some town ordinances, Bradford had to work on getting the farm set up with a better driveway and more accessibility for first responders.

He said that he expects the farm to open back up to the public sometime in December, after the town reviews everything. At that point, he hopes to have more than just the original three cuddlers available for people to choose from.

“They’re super-friendly,” Bradford said. “They are like a big dog. They will lick you and snuggle up against you and just love you. I think that’s probably what makes it such a huge bonding experience, because it’s such a large animal that you were just able to just be with.”

— Katelyn Sahagian

Mocha and the cuddle cows
Where: Granite Oak Farm, 233 Goffstown Back Road, Goffstown
When: Cow cuddling is not currently available to the public at the farm, but owner Brian Bradford expects it to reopen sometime in December.
More info: graniteoakfarm.com, 417-4637

Moo the python

Plaistow’s New England Reptile Distributors is more than just an exotic pet store. They offer a program to show off reptiles and other exotic animals — like Moo, the reticulated python — at parties and for educational events.

The store’s main level has a few live-in pets, including a chinchilla right by the front doors, as well as a petting zoo with chickens, goats and koi fish that visitors can feed. Inside, its walls are packed with aquariums of tropical fish, shoeboxes of tarantulas, and an assortment of snakes, from large ball pythons to small colubrids like rat snakes or hognoses. There’s even a venomous room filled with different species of vipers and cobras for people to meet.

Above the store is where the shop keeps reptiles that are used for educational events and for breeding programs. In one room, each case was filled with different pythons. Some cases held babies and their mothers, while others had individual snakes.

Tia McLaurin, a New England Reptile Distributors photographer and snake handler, opened the door to one of the bottom habitats in the python room. She and another handler pulled out the 90-pound snake with a couple of tugs.

“Once you get this big, you don’t really get scared of anything anymore,” McLaurin joked about Moo.

Moo, a 14-foot female reticulated python in the color calico cow, immediately started slithering around with her tongue darting in and out to get a better sense for what was going on around her.

“I’m with these guys all the time handling them,” McLaurin said, while Moo started slithering around and investigating everything from the snakes in the other enclosures to my camera bag. “It can be a bit nerve-wracking at times … but overall it’s a really rewarding job.”

McLaurin said that Moo is taken out to different events close to once a week during the busiest times of year. Because of this, she has a very docile and curious personality. McLaurin said that Moo has a lot of fun with kids and adults, with reactions ranging from excitement to mild nervousness at the size of the python.

McLaurin said that it’s important for people to realize that snakes, like Moo, are just regular animals and that they are probably much more afraid of us than we are of them.

“They’re curious, they’re smart [and] they’re beautiful animals,” she said. “They just need more respect than a dog or a cat.”

— Katelyn Sahagian

Moo the python
Where: New England Reptile Distributors, 149 Plaistow Road, Plaistow
Hours: Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
More info: newenglandreptilestore.com, 382-2772

Turbo and D’Ogee

While libraries are often a quiet haven for getting lost in a good book, sometimes children who are struggling readers need assistance. According to a Tufts University study, kids who read out loud to a dog are more likely to gain confidence and a love of reading.

Reading dogs are trained therapy dogs that come to local schools and libraries to help young kids gain confidence in reading out loud. For Pam McKinney, a dog trainer and manager at American K9 Country in Amherst, this is only one of the types of therapies they offer.

“Turbo knows to settle right down as soon as the child comes over with a book,” McKinney said about the 9-year-old Labrador mix. “He’ll get right into what I call his listening position, which is pretty much on his side with his head down. Sometimes the kids look a little disappointed when they finish their books. They say, ‘Oh no, he’s sleeping,’ and I say, ‘Oh, no, no, that’s his listening position.’”

Turbo was one of McKinney’s foster dogs at first, but she was looking to retire a previous therapy dog when he came into her life. She said that he had a very calm and fun attitude and was a very loyal dog, which made him great for training to be a therapy dog.

McKinney, who trains all her dogs, has two other therapy dogs — Caro, who is older, has since been retired, while D’Ogee is fairly new to being a therapy dog and now takes on most of the library visits. Both Turbo and D’Ogee also compete in agility and obedience competitions, and even attended a national agility competition in Florida later this year.

For dog therapy outside of libraries, Turbo would go to hospitals, chemo treatment facilities and nursing homes to provide a little bit of comfort there as well. While they haven’t been to hospitals since the beginning of the pandemic, McKinney said she hopes to return to some soon.

McKinney, who is a court-appointed special advocate for children and teens who have been abused, will often bring Turbo with her to meet with the kids. She said that Turbo will help the kids calm down and give her a chance to bond with them over something neutral, like a love for dogs.

“It’s really a good icebreaker and of course a lot of times the kids, especially teenagers, really don’t want another adult stranger in their life and don’t want to share anything,” McKinney said. “But if I bring my dog with me, then you know he’s something that they can focus on and it really helps them open up and be comfortable with me.” — Katelyn Sahagian

Turbo, D’Ogee and other reading dogs
Where: Dogs are trained at American K9 Country, 336 Route 101, Amherst
More info: americank9country.com

Yuka the Arctic fox

Yuka the Arctic fox is a 4-year-old New Hampshire state exhibit animal. Maria Laycox of Salisbury, Yuka’s licensed exhibitor, caregiver and partner, likes to call him a “fox ambassador” for all of the foxes of the Granite State — since becoming partners in 2018, Laycox and Yuka have given educational presentations at several area public schools and colleges as well as some other local venues, such as the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum in Warner.

When Yuka entered Laycox’s life, he was just five weeks old and still feeding on formula. Today, he mainly lives in a designated enclosure on her 116-acre property and enjoys a diet of chicken twice a day, as well as pellets that naturally include taurine, a chemical foxes need to survive.

Laycox and her husband and daughter are all certified handlers of Yuka. New Hampshire Fish & Game rules decree that Yuka cannot have contact with any of her pet dogs, or any family members that are not certified handlers.

During her presentations, Laycox will talk about Arctic fox species as a whole and answer questions from attendees, who are also welcome to take photos of Yuka in his cage.

“I have a minimum of five events that I do a year with him, but we get up close to 10-ish events a lot of times,” Laycox said. “We try to take him to places people enjoy seeing him. … He’s not a pet and was never brought here to be a pet. I always refer to him as my partner.”

According to Laycox, as an Arctic fox, Yuka is one of three species of fox — the other two being red and gray foxes — that come and go through the state of New Hampshire.

“He is part of what is called the true foxes. There are 37 [types of] foxes in the world, but there are only 12 true foxes,” she said. “You can tell that they are all of that variety, because they have that cute little short snout and those beautiful almond eyes and cute pointy little ears.”

The Arctic foxes, unlike the red and gray foxes, are nomadic, meaning they will follow a food source. If you’re lucky, Laycox said you’re most likely to see them during the wintertime.

“They can travel up to 2,800 miles a season, which is pretty phenomenal,” she said.

Another difference between Yuka and his red and gray fox cousins is that his fur coat will change color twice a year.

“He’s beautiful to watch change his colors,” Laycox said. “He goes from a gray-beige underside with a darker gray top [as] his summer coat, and then he’ll turn all white and it will actually come in to match the snow. It’s pretty amazing. … But it’s important to understand that all three of these foxes that we see here will have coat changes. They will molt twice a year, so if you see a fox in the spring and it looks pretty ratty, more than likely they are shedding.”

As Yuka’s exhibitor, it’s Laycox’s job to educate the public on resident foxes in the Granite State.

“People have to understand that these animals are here to help,” she said. “They are a forest cleanup crew … and are the No. 1 reason you’re not tripping over things out in the woods, because they eat everything.” — Matt Ingersoll

Yuka the Arctic Fox
Where: Maria Laycox of Salisbury, Yuka’s exhibitor and partner, will often make a few trips a year to local schools, colleges, nature centers, museums and other places. Frequented venues include the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum (18 Highlawn Road, Warner) and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Granite State College (25 Hall St., Concord).

Animals without names: raptors of New Hampshire Audubon

While the animals kept at New Hampshire’s Audubon centers don’t receive a proper name, that doesn’t make them any less special.

“The reason we don’t give them any names is because we try to keep them as wild as possible,” said Shelby Morelli, the Audubon’s head of educational programming. “When you name something it kind of turns into a pet, and these guys aren’t my pets.”

Every single raptor held at the Audubon has an issue with its wings. The bald eagle, who is more than 30 years old, had one of his wings amputated at the elbow. The red-tailed hawk, meanwhile, had surgery to fix a wing after it was hit by a car.

Because the animals were wild, Morelli said, it’s important to keep that separation with them. If they had normal lives, they wouldn’t need to be at the Audubon in the first place.

While all four birds of prey are on display, only the red-tailed hawk is glove-trained, meaning it listens to its handler and will do small tasks, Morelli said. These are among the enrichment programs that she conducts with the birds.

“The red tail’s enrichment is really the work that we do with him, so I’m getting him on the glove and kind of showing him around,” Morelli said, adding that one thing they’re working on is getting him more comfortable in his travel box. “He does like the box when we’re out because that’s kind of his safe place, but as soon as the door opens he wants to come out and see what’s going on.” — Katelyn Sahagian

Raptors of New Hampshire Audubon
Where: McLane Audubon Center, 84 Silk Farm Road, Concord
Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
More info: nhaudubon.org, 224-9909

Featured photo: Mischka the Bedford Police Department comfort dog. Courtesy photo.

NH coffee roasters discuss how they craft the perfect cup of joe

To understand and appreciate specialty coffee is to experience it. I didn’t know what a coffee cupping was prior to writing what you’re about to read, but when Kevin Clay of Mill City Roasting Co. invited me to partake in just that, I nonetheless felt compelled to accept his offer.

As I’d come to find out, a coffee cupping is kind of like a wine tasting — but for coffee beans. And as far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing better than that crisp smell of freshly ground coffee beans ready to be brewed in my morning’s cup of joe. I knew that I’d be in for a treat.

I arrived at Mill City’s Londonderry facility just in time to witness Clay pour three seemingly identical — but, in actuality, very different — freshly roasted coffees into a series of three small cups on a table. Two additional cups, one empty and one filled with water, accompanied them.

“They’re all going to smell and taste like coffee,” Clay told me, “but there’s definitely going to be subtle little differences in the taste and the flavor.” I must admit that this was where a trepidation on my part began to creep in — what if they all just smell and taste like the same cup of coffee and my senses overlook the intention of this exercise? I was pleasantly proven wrong.

Following Clay’s lead, I picked up a spoon and gently removed the residual film on the top of each cup, rinsing it in the cup of water in between. I then placed my nose right up against each coffee to test its aroma, starting with a Brazilian roast before following suit with a Colombian roast and an Ethiopian roast. After that, it was time to do some tasting.

“Basically, you want to aerate it as you bring it over your palate, [which] tastes things differently in different parts of your mouth,” Clay said. “You should get different characteristics.”

Tasting each of the three coffees one by one — slurping them from my spoon like a sommelier might slurp wine — I was surprised to find that, yes, I actually did pick up some variations, albeit very subtle. The Colombian coffee, for instance, tasted slightly sweeter and cleaner than the Brazilian coffee, while the Ethiopian coffee gave off a sensation that a dry wine might give your palate, a kind of full-bodied mouthfeel.

As Clay would tell me, this process of cupping is a popular industry technique among coffee roasters. It helps him and others make decisions about which coffees to purchase in larger quantities to prepare for roasting. It’s also an effective method for them to check on their own consistency by way of sample-sized roasts.

“Coffee, no different than wine, country to country and even within region to region of a given country, is going to have differences in the characteristics because of the micro-climates,” he said. “Everything that we do is focused on having the best cup of coffee that we can.”

Our coffee cupping exercise complete, I sat down with Clay to get his insight on the growing specialty coffee scene in New Hampshire. What follows are even more stories of how local coffee roasters and cafe and coffee bar owners have joined the specialty coffee movement, as well as where you can go to get that freshly roasted cup of joe.

A changing landscape

When Clay founded Mill City Roasting Co. in 1996, things were a bit different.

“The industry has really changed,” he said. “When we first started, our major competitors were New England Coffee out of Malden, Massachusetts, and then Green Mountain Coffee was the biggest one on the block. They’re still here and do a lot of business in our market, but mostly in convenience stores. … A lot of that specialty business is really gone.”

Starbucks, meanwhile, had yet to really make a stamp on the East Coast, only just opening its first store in Washington, D.C., a few years prior.

“Starbucks was primarily on the West Coast at the time, and they were really a phenomenon,” Clay said. “We used to travel out west to find out just what those guys were doing that was so different, because there really weren’t cafes here. There was a Gloria Jean’s around that used to sell bulk coffees and they had an espresso machine, but they really weren’t there to sell coffee drinks. They were selling sweet stuff.”

Clay estimates that you probably could have counted the number of coffee roasters in New Hampshire on one hand — such as around three, maybe four — back in the mid-’90s.

“When I first started in ’96, I thought to myself, Manchester is going to have espresso cafes on every corner in the next five years and we’re going to be right in the middle of it,” he said. “That didn’t happen.”

But what has happened — albeit, somewhat slowly and gradually — is a growing trend in specialty coffee roasters at home. Their stories for jumping into the coffee roasting world may vary, but they all had one thing in common: a desire to ditch the mass-produced stuff in favor of a really fresh, high-quality cup of coffee.

“When my husband and I ended up moving to New Hampshire, there just really weren’t coffee shops around, and if they were, it was Green Mountain Coffee or Dunkin’,” said Emeran Langmaid, founder of A&E Coffee & Tea, which operates a roastery in Nashua and a cafe in downtown Manchester. “Having that intentional coffee … was something that was very missing on the landscape. It was missing the point of development of the connection between the grower, the producer, and its quality. … And also, the sustainable elements of coffee and having a social impact, because coffee can do that.”

In Milford, Union Coffee Co. is another great example of how that connection can be made. Current Union owner and head roaster David Cianci had been working in the Peace Corps in Paraguay, eventually going from there to Colombia, where he was introduced to the work of coffee farmers.

“That’s where I got into coffee. … [I was] working on a coffee farm and understanding the coffee harvest, and just the processing and what it takes to get it from the plant to a product that’s ready for export,” Cianci said. “We were purchasing whole-bean coffee [at Union] … but then, you get to a point running a cafe when you’re just using so much whole-bean roasted coffee and you’re paying a lot for it, that it makes sense to start to finance your own roasting equipment. You do that and then it becomes a whole other revenue stream of selling your coffee.”

And on that note, Cianci said there are all different styles of available roasters.

“There are fluid bed roasters, which are pretty much like big warm pans that coffee sits in, and there are air roasters, where … you’re basically using hot air to roast the coffee,” he said. “The super-traditional one is what we have, which is a drum roaster. It’s either stainless steel or cast iron, and there are heating elements below it, and the drum spins around and the coffee cooks. After that, you reach a certain point where it will split open and you drop it out of the drum.”

A&E operates two Diedrich brand drum-style roasters, Langmaid said — the smaller of the two, a black roaster nicknamed “Black Betty,” is reserved for smaller and more complex coffee batches, while a much larger golden-colored roaster nicknamed “Big Honey” is used for larger batches. The differences, Langmaid said, have to do with each roaster’s air flow.

For some local roasters the coffee journey has been a little more unconventional. Mike Brown of Hometown Coffee Roasters in Manchester recalls first dabbling in coffee roasting with a popcorn popper he bought at a secondhand store.

“At the time, I was drinking Dunkin’ or just coffee you get at the grocery store, and I never thought it was all that great, so I just kind of started researching coffee in general and I came across an article on how you can roast coffee at home,” Brown said. “So I started roasting out of a little popcorn popper in my garage and then it turned out to be a great cup of coffee, even compared to the stuff you find on the shelf at a large grocery chain.”

Fast forward just a few short years and Brown now operates his own coffee bar on Old Granite Street in Manchester, also wholesaling to dozens of accounts including some local Hannaford Supermarkets. And in case you’re wondering, yes, he has graduated from the popcorn popper to a Diedrich brand roaster, capable of producing two dozen-pound batches at a time.

A deeper mission

Coffee is the seed of a fruit that, not unlike the apple, comes in all kinds of varieties.

“With apples, obviously sometimes they are green, sometimes red, sometimes they are sour, or some are better for baking. They have all of these different characteristics. Coffee is exactly the same way,” Langmaid said. “We’ve always had coffee come basically from all of the main growing regions around the world, so [that includes] Central and South America, Africa, and then the Asia-Pacific.”

According to Cianci, where coffee is grown, what altitude it’s grown at and what kind of harvest season a farmer has experienced are all important factors to consider when purchasing coffee.

“After coffee is picked, there are different ways to separate the coffee cherry from the bean that’s inside of it,” he said. “With natural processed coffee, it’s like a raisin, where it’s picked and put directly into a drying bed to dry in the sun. … That’s going to be where you get a lot of potential for those really funky interesting fruity flavors. Because the bean is in contact with the cherry, it has higher carbohydrates and sweetness content in general.”

Coffee roasters typically get their hands on the beans — known as green beans, not the vegetable but the industry term referring to unroasted beans — in one of two ways. Most producers, Langmaid said, are part of member-owned cooperatives and will sometimes sell their beans under their own name.

“The pros of doing that is if it’s a good quality, you can establish a name for yourself, and then you can negotiate higher prices with the buyer,” she said. “The drawback is if you don’t have those connections, or people just don’t pick your coffee, then it can just sit there. … The alternative is to sell coffee that’s just all blended together from all the producers, and that is sold on the co-op level so it’s sold by the co-op name.”

Langmaid said that A&E will purchase its beans both of these ways, via blends or what’s called single-origin, meaning there’s only one coffee from one place in your cup.

As for Union, Cianci said that about 70 percent of all their coffee is acquired through direct purchase agreements with farms in countries like Colombia and Guatemala.

“The fewer intermediaries there are, the more money is going to the farmer, the actual producer of the coffee,” he said. “That’s the bottom line.”

It’s understanding the importance of those relationships and maintaining a sense of transparency, Clay said, that makes purchasing single-origin green coffee beans so paramount.

“I’ve stood at a co-op … and I’ve watched a guy bring two or three bags of coffee beans on a donkey in Colombia. They take a sample of the bag and they put it out on the table and grade it, and he, that farmer, gets paid on the consistency and quality,” Clay said. “What I love about Colombia … is that the Colombian Coffee Federation is actually owned by the farmers. … So I look at that and I think, OK, they really have an opportunity to impact their lives and their income. People would not comprehend just how much work goes into it.”

From bean to cup
You’ve probably heard the terms “light roast,” “medium roast” and “dark roast” when it comes to coffee, but what do those mean when it comes to the drink’s production process? Emeran Langmaid of A&E Coffee & Tea said it all has to do with a roast’s time and temperature.
“A lighter coffee is just in the roaster for a shorter time period, and potentially at a little lower temperature,” she said. “Then, the longer you leave the coffee in the roaster, the higher the temperature you go. … Generally speaking, a lighter coffee is going to be a greater perceived acidity, so the more you develop that in terms of roasting, the more you diminish the acidity and develop sweetness as well. You’re caramelizing your sugars from fruity components into more lactic, chocolate or caramel components.”
David Cianci of Union Coffee Co. in Milford said there are two major events in a roast cycle: “first crack” and “second crack.”
“‘First crack’ is when the beans will reach a point where they’ll split open and a burst of water vapor comes out. You’ll hear them cracking, almost popping like popcorn,” he said. “After that, if you leave the coffee in long enough and you roast it dark enough, it will go through ‘second crack,’ where it will almost puff out a little more, even more like popcorn. … We actually use roasting software to track all the data from each roast, and when we hear the beans crack, we’ll mark that in the data.”

Get roasted

Just about everybody I spoke with for this story agreed that specialty coffee is on the rise in the Granite State, even just within the last few years. And that doesn’t only apply to the roasters themselves, either — it’s also on the consumer side.

“When I originally started roasting coffee about six years ago, I always wondered if specialty coffee was popular in New Hampshire … but I’ve come to find out that there’s a real desire for it and there’s a desire for consumers to want to learn about it,” Brown said. “I’m right there in the shop every day roasting coffee and I have at least two or three people a day coming over and asking me questions about it. And even to my surprise, a lot of people know a lot about it, but then there’s also a lot of people who just think of it as a cup of caffeine to wake them up in the morning. But then once you educate them on the journey that it takes from seed to cup, they are mesmerized by it.”

I was admittedly one of those people once upon a time. You can go into the coffee aisle of any major grocery store chain and see the roast date printed on any bag of whole bean or ground coffee. Sometimes that date is many weeks or even a month or more before the day you’re there.

“The stuff we do on our website is usually shipped the day it was roasted,” Clay said. “So, freshness in coffee is huge, and you’re just not going to get that at Dunkin’ or at Starbucks.”

Langmaid said that, while the espresso coffee shop culture remains most popular among younger generations, she believes the effects of the pandemic have altered that.

“Obviously a lot of people had to start drinking coffee at home and experiencing it in a different way,” she said. “There’s a trend, I think, across the board of being a home barista. And that isn’t necessarily getting an espresso machine, but maybe it’s just taking a few minutes to make your coffee at home, and investing in a good grinder. It’s kind of a swing in terms of how people are purchasing coffee and how they are experiencing it.”

New England Coffee Festival
A two-day event celebrating specialty coffee culture, the New England Coffee Festival debuted in downtown Laconia earlier this year. It’s presented by Wayfarer Coffee Roasters and packed with local speakers, workshops, vendors, samples and even a competitive “latte art throwdown.”
“Our goal … was to have a community event that brings coffee professionals and coffee consumers together, and really to build relationships and get people to try locally made products,” Wayfarer Coffee Roasters co-owner and festival organizer Karen Bassett told the Hippo in May. “We want to kind of give awareness to what specialty coffee is, and how there actually really is a lot of really good high-quality coffee right here in New England.”
According to Bassett, the inaugural event was a huge success, drawing around 5,000 attendees to the area and featuring more than 50 local vendors. Plans are already underway for the festival to return for a second year in 2023, to be held on Friday, May 19, and Saturday, May 20. That event will feature even more hands-on workshops and outdoor vendors, as well as a latte art throwdown in front of a grand audience on the Main Stage of Laconia’s Colonial Theatre.

Local specialty coffee roasters

Here’s a list of local cafes, coffee shops and small-batch roasters offering specialty house roasted coffees. Do you know of a coffee roaster based in the Manchester, Concord or Nashua area that’s not on this list? Let us know at [email protected].

A&E Coffee & Tea

1000 Elm St., Manchester; 95 Northeastern Blvd., Nashua, 578-3338; aeroastery.com

Established in 2001 by Emeran Langmaid, A&E was the first USDA-certified organic coffee roaster to come to New Hampshire. The company sources all types of single-origin coffees from around the world with an emphasis on sustainability. In addition to a cafe in downtown Manchester, A&E operates a roastery in Nashua where bagged beans and teas are sold.

Blue Harbor Coffee Co.

446 Lafayette Road, Hampton, 601-8802, blueharborcoffee.com

Coskun Yazgan’s family has been roasting their own coffee beans for more than three decades at Caffe Kilim in Portsmouth. Arriving in downtown Hampton in late 2019, Blue Harbor Coffee Co. became Yazgan’s own space to create his own unique coffee blends and baked goods. The small-batch roaster of artisan coffees sources its beans from all over the Coffee Belt, including Central America, Africa and even Papua New Guinea.

Bonhoeffer’s Cafe & Espresso

8 Franklin St., Nashua, 883-6879, bonhoefferscafe.com

Just steps away from Main Street in downtown Nashua, Bonhoeffer’s serves its own house-roasted direct trade coffee, plus a food menu of crepes, breakfast sandwiches and burritos, paninis, wraps and salads. Profits from the sale of Bonhoeffer’s roasted coffee go to the cafe’s sister nonprofit organization, Hope and Life for Kids.

Breaking New Grounds

50 Main St., Durham, 868-6869, bngcoffee.com

Founded in 1993 in Portsmouth, Breaking New Grounds has been a go-to spot in Durham for its in-house roasted coffees since 1997. Beans are often roasted three to four times a week and have origins in multiple major growing regions in Central and South America as well as Africa.

Caffe Kilim and Market

163 Islington St., Portsmouth, 436-7330, caffekilim.com

In addition to brewed coffees and a full espresso bar of drinks using its own roasted beans, Caffe Kilim is known for its Turkish market, featuring a variety of specialty and natural foods.

Cindia Jackson’s Fine Gourmet Coffee

650 Amherst St., Nashua, 345-5566, cindiajackson.com

With more than 2,000 coffee varieties, Cindia Jackson’s is known for featuring one of the largest coffee lines around. According to owner Jim Flowers, the business is named as a tribute to his mother, who became interested in coffee way back in 1949, at the age of 12 — working as a waitress with her mother, who was a cook, Jackson took it upon herself to add vanilla, maple syrup, honey and other sweet ingredients to brewed coffees. It’s with that creative spirit that Flowers and his wife have carried on her legacy. Coffees are roasted just a block up the road from the Cindia Jackson’s retail shop on Amherst Street in Nashua, with just about every flavor imaginable. There’s even a “Booze Brew” line of more than 30 alcohol-flavored coffees (which, of course, are non-alcoholic).

Clarena’s Coffee

Laconia, clarenascoffee.com

Based in New Hampshire Lakes Region, Clarena’s Coffee is known for sourcing its beans entirely from women-owned farms in Colombia and Brazil. Locally, you can find custom blends and roasts at Dancing Lion Chocolate (917 Elm St., Manchester).

Coffee Coffee

326 S. Broadway, Salem, 912-5381, coffeecoffeenh.com

Coffee Coffee owner Barry Goldman has been roasting coffee beans from all over the world since 1966. Located on South Broadway in Salem near the Methuen, Mass., state line, the shop has a special organic coffee roaster Goldman uses to roast thousands of beans from around the world every day. Coffee Coffee even makes its own coffee ice cubes, blended with several different types of roasted coffees.

The Coffee Factory

55 Crystal Ave., Derry, 432-6006, mycoffeefactory.net

Established by the Yorke family in 2008 in their hometown of Derry, The Coffee Factory roasts its own beans on site to produce a full line of hot and iced coffees and espresso drinks. The spot also offers breakfast and lunch sandwiches, and regularly maintains a schedule of open mic events.

Critical Mass Coffee

Manchester, criticalmasscoffee.com

Ryan Connor was a 22-year veteran of the engineering industry before he and his wife, Leah, got into coffee roasting, originally as a hobby. Founded in 2018, Critical Mass Coffee is an organic coffee roastery based in Manchester that sources its beans from all over the world’s major growing regions. In addition to operating an e-commerce website, Critical Mass Coffee sells to some area restaurants, cafes and independent retailers. They’re also a featured vendor at the Made in New England Expo, due to return to the DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown on Saturday, Dec. 3, and Sunday, Dec. 4.

Farmhouse Roasters

163 Main St., Salem, 458-7172, farmhouseroasters.com

Roasting its own beans from a variety of growing regions, Farmhouse Roasters always offers fair trade, organic and other certified coffee options. Its cafe features a full line of hot and iced drinks in addition to breakfast and lunch sandwiches, baked goods and more.

Flight Coffee Co.

209 Route 101, Bedford, 836-6228, flightcoffeeco.com

Claudia Barrett’s experience in specialty coffee stretches back more than 30 years. Flight Coffee Co. got its start more than a decade ago with one small commercial coffee roaster in the garage of Barrett’s Bedford home. Since then, her company has expanded — now offering everything from specialty coffees and espresso drinks to bagels and pastries — and has experienced recognition at the national level, winning multiple coffee competition awards and being featured in the coffee industry trade magazine Roast several times. In 2013 Barrett became the first Certified Q Grader in New Hampshire, a professional coffee cupper accredited by the Coffee Quality Institute. She would soon launch a coffee roastery on Harvey Road in Bedford, eventually turning an adjacent space into what she called a “satellite cafe.” Last year she moved all operations to a new flagship space across town, taking up a portion of the former Harvest Market store on the corner of Wallace Road and Route 101.

Granite Ledge Coffee

Canterbury, graniteledgecoffee.com

Christopher Evans got his start in the coffee world when his beans were roasted in iron skillets, brought to temperature in an electric oven. Over the last few decades, Granite Ledge Coffee has grown to now offer all kinds of specialty roasted coffees sourced from farmers across the world. Coffee by the pound is available for sale at the Concord Farmers Market, which wraps up its outdoor season on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 8:30 a.m. to noon on Capitol Street.

Hometown Coffee Roasters

80 Old Granite St., Manchester, 703-2321, hometownroasters.com

Mike Brown started Hometown Coffee Roasters as a hobby in the garage of his Bedford home, eventually expanding it into a commercial roastery. In October 2018 he moved the business into his current space in Manchester, where he also launched a coffee bar by the summer of 2020. Brown sources his coffee beans from all of the major growing regions, including Central and South America and Africa.

Horseshoe Cafe (Kozuma Coffee Co.)

171 Main St., Newmarket, 292-5280, find them on Facebook @horseshoecafenewmarket

Norihiro Kozuma, who’s originally from Japan, and his wife Sarah of the Kozuma Coffee Co. opened the Horseshoe Cafe back in 2017, after Norihiro became interested in home coffee roasting. The cafe features a variety of hand-selected artisan coffees roasted in house, along with a menu of small-batch baked goods and pastries, and sandwiches on scratch-made breads.

Java Joe’s

59 Route 27, Raymond, find them on Facebook @javajoesraymondnh

Paul Lynn of Raymond launched this drive-thru shop, which offers specialty coffees, teas and various breakfast items, in 2015. Lynn built the 300-square-foot drive-thru himself and roasts his own coffee beans in house, which include Colombian, Sumatran and several other varietals. Java Joe’s also features a full line of espresso drinks, including macchiatos and chai lattes, and egg and cheese sandwiches available on English muffins, bagels or croissants.

King David Coffee Roasters

48 Bridge St., Nashua, 577-8899, kingdavidcoffee.com

Using a traditional drum roaster, Sam Brest of King David Coffee Roasters can produce up to 30 pounds of roasted coffee at a time. Brest got his start in the coffee roasting industry back in the early 2000s, owning his own sandwich shop in Nashua for about 14 years before. His beans are only single-origin, coming all over the major growing regions of Central and South America, Africa and Indonesia. Brest also operates a commercial kitchen, producing and selling his own kettle corn.

La Mulita Coffee

15 Sagamore Road, Rye, 858-1019, lamulitacoffee.com

This Rye coffee bar and roastery is unique for highlighting multiple growing regions in Colombia — it’s the brainchild of Max Pruna, who himself was born and raised in the Colombian city of Medellín. Pruna’s coffee roasting journey began in his own home garage before he opened La Mulita in September 2019. In addition to serving specialty Colombian coffees and espresso drinks, La Mulita partners with several local businesses to offer food items like bagels, doughnuts and scones.

Lucas Roasting Co.

7 King St., Wolfeboro, 605-5484, lucasroasting.com

Offering both single-origin coffees and gourmet blends, Lucas Roasting Co. is a small-batch roastery in Wolfeboro that also features a small walk-in cafe space where you’ll find a hot and cold beverages as well as assorted food items.

Miles to Go Coffee Roasters

Chester, 887-4343, milestogocoffee.com

Ed Karjala of Chester turned his hobby of home coffee roasting into a business in late 2018. Miles to Go Coffee Roasters, run by Karjala with the help of his wife, Christi, will usually have six or seven different coffee products available — some are single-origin, while others are blends of two or more origins. Bags of Karjala’s coffees are available for sale at the Chester General Store (2 Haverhill Road) and via his website.

Mill City Roasting Co.

Londonderry, millcityroasting.com

Kevin Clay has decades of experience in the specialty coffee industry, having founded Mill City Roasting Co. in 1996. Sourcing its beans from several major growing regions across Central America, South America and Africa, Mill City Roasting Co. operates a production facility in Londonderry, roasting and selling its coffees under the brand names Cafe Du Jour and Java Tree Gourmet Coffees. Coffees are sold in several restaurants and stores across southern New Hampshire and, as of 2020, now available for sale direct-to-consumer through an e-commerce website.

Natalie’s Coffee

Derry, nataliescoffee.com

Based in Derry, the family-run Natalie’s Coffee has been roasting fresh gourmet coffee on demand since 2001, according to its website. You can also find their coffee used exclusively at Janie’s Uncommon Cafe (123 Nashua Road, Londonderry).

New Hampshire Coffee Roasting Co.

7 Sumner Drive, Dover, 740-4200, nhcoffee.com

This small-batch coffee roaster sources its beans from all of the major growing regions around the world. At the start of 2020, the Barretto family of Dover took over all of the company’s operations. You can find New Hampshire Coffee Roasting Co. in several area restaurants and specialty stores, as well as for sale online or at its Dover factory outlet.

Porcupine Coffee Roasting

Pembroke, porcupinecoffeeroasting.com

Amber White had been roasting her own coffee beans on and off for a few years as a hobby prior to transitioning into a commercial business. Porcupine Coffee Roasting, she said, started during the Covid lockdowns of 2020 — White is now mainly based online, although she is a featured vendor at a few local farmers markets in the summer, and you can also find her coffees at Sweet River Farm (175 North Road, Deerfield). Currently in her roastery, White has beans sourced from countries like Mexico, Colombia, Sumatra, Peru and Ethiopia.

Port City Coffee Roasters

801 Islington St., Portsmouth, 433-3011, portcitycoffee.com

Established in 1992, Port City Coffee Roasters sources its own beans from multiple growing regions around the world with an emphasis on sustainability. In addition to offering coffees at its own cafe, Port City Coffee Roasters partners with area restaurants and cafes that use its roasted beans.

Revelstoke Coffee

100 N. Main St., Concord, revelstokecoffee.com

Revelstoke Coffee came to downtown Concord in December 2018. Owners Alex Stoyle and Lyndsey Cole became inspired to open their own shop following an overnight stay the previous year in the Canadian community of Revelstoke, a small city roughly between Vancouver and Calgary. With a menu of freshly roasted coffees and teas, along with a rotating lineup of baked goods and breakfast sandwiches, Revelstoke Coffee is a shop built on the themes of travel and discovery.

Riverwalk Bakery & Cafe

35 Railroad Square, Nashua, 578-0200, riverwalknashua.com

Riverwalk Bakery & Cafe uses an old-school Turkish drum roaster to produce its small-batch roasted coffees. According to owner Rachel Manelas, a wide array of different beans are roasted, with origins from Colombia and Brazil to Ethiopia and Kenya. Roasted beans are available for pickup or can be shipped out through Riverwalk.

Stone Hammer Coffee Roaster

Concord, [email protected]

Chris Wible started experimenting with small batches of test roasts in the late spring of 2021, officially launching Stone Hammer by the end of that summer. An avid cyclist, Wible offers several single-origin coffees that are bike-themed in name, and he’ll make local deliveries via bicycle. Other spots where you can find Stone Hammer’s coffees include Georgia’s Northside (394 N. State St., Concord) and The Country Spirit (262 Maple St., Henniker) — both eateries also incorporate Wible’s coffees into their menu items.

Union Coffee Co.

42 South St., Milford, 277-3181, unioncoffee.co

A stone’s throw away from the Milford Oval, Union Coffee Co. came to town in 2014. Prior to joining the Union team in 2017, current owner David Cianci spent two years with the Peace Corps working with farmers in South America, where he developed an understanding of the coffee harvest and the processing of the beans. About 70 percent of Union’s coffee beans are acquired through direct purchase agreements with farms in countries like Colombia and Guatemala.

Wayfarer Coffee Roasters

626 Main St., Laconia, 527-8313, wayfarerroasters.com

A producer of small-batch house-roasted coffee blends with two cafe locations in Laconia, Wayfarer Coffee Roasters sources its beans from all over the world. In addition to their cafes, you can find Wayfarer’s coffees in more than 30 locations across central and northern New Hampshire, and they ship all across the country through their online store. Wayfarer co-owner Karen Bassett also organizes the New England Coffee Festival, which is due to return to down town Laconia for its second year next May.

White Heron Tea & Coffee

601 Islington St., Portsmouth, 294-0270, whiteherontea.com

Established in 2005, White Heron is known for roasting a wide variety of its own organic coffees, sourced from several different growing regions.

White Mountain Gourmet Coffee

Epsom, wmgconline.com

Formerly operating a cafe on Pleasant Street in downtown Concord, White Mountain Gourmet Coffee is now exclusively an e-commerce website and wholesale specialty coffee roaster. Its own roasted coffees are available in several restaurants, country stores, cafes and gift shops across the state.

William & Sons Coffee Co.

Loudon, wsonscoffee.com

William & Sons Coffee Co., which came to Loudon in 2021, originally began as a small boutique roaster in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. A variety of roasted coffees are available, sourced from regions in Colombia, Tanzania, Rwanda and other countries.

Witching Hour Provisions

905 Main St., Hopkinton, 505-8107, witchinghourprovisions.com

Witching Hour Coffee began as a small-batch roaster in the fall of 2020. By the following summer, the business became a regular vendor at local farmers markets before Witching Hour Provisions would open in Hopkinton that December. In addition to offering freshly roasted bags of its coffee, the shop sells a variety of home and personal care products.

Woodshed Roasting Co.

116 Hounsell Ave., Laconia, 737-2000, woodshedroast.com

Woodshed Roasting Co. started in 2010 with a small sample roaster and has since grown into a retail storefront that’s open five days a week. Its coffees are also available in several restaurants, stores and other businesses in the Granite State.

Featured photo: Photo courtesy of Critical Mass Coffee.

Halloween events for everyone from the littlest trick-or-treaters to the oldest Rocky Horror fans

A tale of two haunts

To scare or to be scared — that is the question

By Katelyn Sahagian
[email protected]

Earlier this year, I was invited to Spooky World presents Nightmare New England by the haunt’s owner, Michael Accomando, to get dressed up in costume and scare people. I decided to take him up on his offer. So, if anyone was at Spooky World on Monday, Oct. 10, and saw a clown with white hair roaming the midway, that was me.
There was something about getting into costume and scaring people that was extremely tempting. Accomando said that he himself doesn’t dress up that often — not unless his son wants to — but it doesn’t change the fact that he adores hearing the stories the actors tell about their recent “spook” victories.
“A look … is sometimes enough to freak people out,” Accomando said, adding that spooking people is therapeutic. “You take … all your aggression out on everyone else and they’re paying you to do that.”
Accomando said he knew he wanted to bring a haunted attraction to Mel’s Funway Park in Litchfield as soon as he purchased it in 2007. He wanted something seasonal to keep people coming back for more fun, as opposed to just hosting a summertime crowd.
He said that something about the land and layout of Mel’s was begging for some scary fun times. The woods and land stretch on far enough that Accomando thought it made sense to have some indoors and outside scares. In 2008, he saved a well-loved Massachusetts haunt that was closing for good and moved it across the border to New Hampshire, turning it into what is now Spooky World.
At first, Accomando said, he thought it would be easy to do a haunt. He thought it was just throwing up a few buildings, putting together a light show and hiring some actors. Now he knows better.
Accomando said that he and Chase DeNamur, Spooky World’s director of operations, will spend all year long coming up with new ideas, visiting haunted attractions across the country and going to national trade expos, like TransWorld’s Halloween & Attractions Show in St. Louis.
“The next [haunt] we go to will be the day after the show ends,” DeNamur said. “The planning never stops.”
While walking through haunts, Accomando said, the team will see what they might want to change or expand on.
Layering, or putting many elements in a scene, is something Accomando said he is always thinking about. Whether this means adding a new animatronic doing something an actor can’t — like bashing their head into a wall over and over again — or getting a new prop or adding a gross smell, Accomando said that new layers are implemented every year.
This year the hayride received a lot of attention, DeNamur said. He said that new lights and screens were added to parts of the haunt to further achieve a larger-than-life experience.
In addition to the layering and the props, there are professional makeup artists and costume designers making sure that everyone looks terrifying. The three artists dress people up for the hayride, getting about a dozen actors ready in an hour — they do everything from muscle structures to spider faces, creepy clowns and “cannibal” hunters.
After the attraction opened, it took no time at all for me to be taken over to the costume designers and put in a costume by one of the crew members. I was dressed up in a rainbow-striped onesie and matching ruff that I wore over my jeans and shirt.
Brittany Champagne, a longtime scarer at Spooky World, painted my face with a white base, red and orange diamonds over my eyes, a green nose and an eerie blue smile. The makeup went on cold and wet, but very quickly. When it dried it felt like regular face paint, slightly sticky and tight on my skin.
A white wig and small “blood”-covered horn completed my ensemble. While the wig itched and fell in my eyes and my fingers and toes burned due to the cold weather, the night was ripe for us to get scaring. Champagne told me performers end up walking so much that the night air soon no longer even feels cold to them anymore.
Champagne and Jillian Labonte, another long-time Spooky World scarer dressed as a bloodthirsty escaped prisoner, showed me around the midway, the area outside the haunts where experienced actors get to improvise and sneak up on customers when they think they are safe.
This whole feeling is a stark change from the Friday before, when I was a guest at Fright Kingdom in Nashua.
The anticipation walking up to Fright Kingdom was like nothing else. Whereas at Spooky World, it was still Mel’s Funway Park on the outside, Fright Kingdom was a short walk through an empty parking lot, where an 18-wheeler was parked at a loading dock. Once I rounded that corner, I saw a giant, shadowy clown towering over the rest of the guests.
Fright Kingdom owner and founder Tim Dunne greeted me outside by the loading truck bed, smiling widely as he watched people get scared by his creation.
“It’s about the art of horror, Halloween and all things creepy,” Dunne said. “It’s a celebration of all of that.”
Dunne, who grew up in Florida, was originally drawn to The Haunted Mansion ride at Disney World whenever he would take trips there. To this day, after making many different haunts, he said his favorite is still Bloodmare Manor, the Victorian haunted house that this year is filled with “cannibals” looking for their next meal.
While Dunne had high hopes that I would walk through the whole interior, the second he said he was going to leave me to do the amusement alone — immediately after an actor scared me, I might add — I lost my cool. I promised that I would come back next year with my sister (who loves scary things) and maybe a group of people to push me through.
Being scared isn’t my thing, but scaring others seems to be right up my alley.

Haunted houses, outdoor trails and more:
The Dark Woods at Trombly Gardens
150 N. River Road, Milford, 465-DARK (3275), thedarkwoodsnh.com
Hours: Friday, Oct. 21, Saturday, Oct. 22, Friday, Oct. 28, Saturday, Oct. 29, and Sunday, Oct. 30; the gate opens at 6:30 p.m. and the last ticket is sold at 10:30 p.m. A walkthrough without actors, called a “trauma-free experience,” is also available on Sunday, Oct. 23, with ticket times at 7 and 8 p.m.
Cost: $23 for the traditional scares, $13 for the trauma-free experience

Fright Kingdom
12 Simon St., Nashua, 809-1173, frightkingdom.com
Hours: Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays; 7 to 10 p.m. or 7 to 10:30 p.m., depending on the day of the week; see website for details. Haunts are available through Saturday, Nov. 5.
Cost: $29 for a traditional haumt and in-the-dark haunt, $10 for hardly haunted

Haunted Overload
DeMerritt Hill Farm, 20 Orchard Way, Lee, 868-2111, hauntedoverload.com
Hours: Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, now through Oct. 30, as well as on Monday, Oct. 31; most haunts start at 6:30 or 7 p.m. and last through 8 or 9 p.m., depending on the day of the week.
Cost: Main event tickets are $31, “Fright Night Lite” tickets are $17.50, Blackout Night tickets on Halloween are $20, and tickets for a day walk are $11

The Salisbury Woods
19 Franklin Road, Salisbury, 496-2334, app.hauntpay.com/events/salisbury-woods
Hours: Fridays and Saturdays throughout October; opens at 7 p.m.
Cost: $15

Screeemfest
85 N. Policy St., Salem, 893-3506, canobie.com/screeemfest
Hours: Fridays 9 to 11 p.m., Saturdays 3 to 11 p.m., and Sundays 1 to 9 p.m.
Cost: Date-specific tickets range from $32 to $59 for adults, and from $32 to $35 for visitors under 4 feet tall and for seniors ages 60 and over. There are also add-ons available to purchase, like a “screeem express haunt line cut pass” for $25 or a “Monster B’Gone” light-up necklace that tells actors to avoid the wearer.

Spooky World Presents Nightmare New England
454 Charles Bancroft Hwy., Litchfield, 424-7999, nightmarenewengland.com
Hours: Fridays and Saturdays, 7 to 11 p.m., and Sundays, 6:30 to 10 p.m.
Cost: $49.51 general admission and $74.53 VIP admission

Little spookies

Events for kids that are more treat than trick

Compiled by Angie Sykeny
[email protected]

• Kids age 12 and under are invited to the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road, Londonderry) on Saturday, Oct. 22, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., when they can meet the ghosts of aviation past, enjoy Halloween treats and receive their “Broomstick Pilot License.” The experience is free with admission to the museum; admission costs $10 for visitors age 13 and up. Visit aviationmuseumofnh.org or call 669-4820.
• Franklin’s Halloween Extravaganza is on Saturday, Oct. 22, starting with a party at Bessie Rowell Community Center (12 Rowell Drive) from 2 to 3 p.m., followed by a costume parade heading into downtown at 3 p.m. and a trunk-or-treat at Marceau Park on Central Street from 3:15 to 5 p.m. Visit franklinnh.org.
• The Educational Farm at Joppa Hill (174 Joppa Hill Road, Bedford) is having a family trick or treat on Saturday, Oct. 22, from noon to 4 p.m. Families are invited to wear their costumes and hunt for treats around the farm. The cost is $15 per family, and registration is required. Visit theeducationalfarm.org.
• Visit the Chester Public Library (3 Chester St.) on Saturday, Oct. 22, at 11 a.m. for a Halloween costume party with music, games and sugar cookie decorating. Visit chesterlibrary.com or call 887-3404.
• Island Pond Baptist Church (26 N. Salem Road, Hampstead) will host a Trunk or Treat event on Saturday, Oct. 22, from 1 to 3 p.m. in its parking lot, where there will be candy, games, costumes, animal balloons, a bouncy house slide and food trucks. Admission is free. Visit islandpondbc.com or call 329-5959.
• Sanbornton will have a Halloween costume party for kids in grades 4 and under on Saturday, Oct. 22, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the Sanbornton Central School gym (16 Hunkins Pond Road). There will be food, games, crafts and surprises. The town will also have a trunk or treat in the school’s parking lot on Sunday, Oct. 30, from 2 to 4 p.m. Park at the Sanbornton Public Library (27 Meeting House Hill Road) and enjoy a spooky story walk and decorated path that leads to the event. Visit sanborntonnh.org.
• Charmingfare Farm (774 High St., Candia) will offer its Children’s Trick-or-Treat experience on Saturdays, Oct. 22 and Oct. 29, and Sundays, Oct. 23 and Oct. 30, with start times available on the hour between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. (a 3 p.m. start time is also available on Saturday, Oct. 22 only). In addition to trick-or-treating, families can meet a friendly witch, see wildlife exhibits and barnyard animals, take a horse-drawn wagon ride, decorate pumpkins, ride a pony and watch a juggling show. Tickets cost $22 per person — admission is free for children under age 2 — and must be purchased online in advance. Visit visitthefarm.com.
• Children ages 3 through 6 are invited for some pumpkin fun in Merrimack, including a pumpkin science program on Monday, Oct. 24, at 10 a.m. and a pumpkin decorating and crafting program on Thursday, Oct. 27, at 4 p.m. Both events will take place at the Function Hall (116 Naticook Road) and each costs $15. Register online at merrimack.recdesk.com.
• The Brickyard Scare in Epping’s Brickyard Square takes place on Thursday, Oct. 27, from 4 to 7 p.m. There will be trick-or-treating and other Halloween activities for kids of all ages. Visit brickyardsquarenh.com.
• Salem’s annual town Halloween event and costume contest is on Friday, Oct. 28, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Ingram Senior Center parking lot (1 Sally Sweet’s Way). Resident families with children ages 12 and under are invited to enjoy a trunk-or-treat, a haunted forest, pizza, games, music and dance performances, in addition to the costume contest. RSVP to [email protected] by Monday, Oct. 24.
• Join the Nesmith Library (8 Fellows Road, Windham) for a Halloween party on Friday, Oct. 28, at 10:30 a.m. Kids of all ages and their caregivers are invited for a morning of stories, singing and dancing, a costume parade and trick-or-treating around the library. Admission is free, and there’s no registration required. Visit nesmithlibrary.org or call 432-7154.
• Milford’s Trick or Treat on the Oval returns to the Oval Gazebo area on Friday, Oct. 28, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Downtown businesses and nonprofits will hand out candy to trick-or-treaters as supplies last. Visit milfordrec.com.
• The Bookery (844 Elm St., Manchester) will host a kids’ Halloween party on Friday, Oct. 28, featuring a storytime and interactive sing-along with illustrator Julieann Hartley at 5:30 p.m., followed by a book signing, costume parade and prizes starting at 6:15 p.m. Visit bookerymht.com.
• The Spooktacular Downtown Manchester Fall Festival takes place on Friday, Oct. 28, from 3 to 6:30 p.m. Families can enjoy trick-or-treating at downtown businesses, a photo booth, games and activities, pumpkin carving, a coloring contest, a decoration station for a lighted display and more. Costumes are encouraged. Visit manchesternh.gov.
• Hudson’s Best Trunk or Treat will take place Saturday, Oct. 29, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Hudson Mall (77 Derry Road in Hudson) with a costume contest, raffles, a haunted house and more, according to hudsonnhsbest.com, where you reserve a timeslot in advance.
• The New Hampshire Fisher Cats will host a Trick-or-Treat at the Ballpark event at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium (1 Line Drive, Manchester) on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. All festivities are free and include a kids’ dance party, a costume contest and more. Visit nhfishercats.com or call 641-2005.
• Exeter’s annual Halloween parade and costume contest will take place at Swasey Parkway (316 Water St., Exeter) on Saturday, Oct. 29, with costume judging at 10:30 a.m. and the parade at 11 a.m., followed by trick-or-treating downtown. Visit exeternh.gov.
• Raymond’s Trunk or Treat returns to the Raymond Shopping Center (15 Freetown Road) on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Vehicles will be adorned with Halloween decorations and stations filled with candy to trick-or-treat. Visit raymondareanews.com.
• Join the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (6 Washington St., Dover) for its annual Not So Spooky Halloween Spectacular on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 9 a.m. to noon or 1 to 4 p.m. The event features a costume parade, science experiments, take-home crafts, photos with props and a pumpkin scavenger hunt. All activities are included with the cost of admission to the museum, which is $12.50 for adults and children over age 1 and $10.50 for seniors age 65 and up. Register in advance online at childrens-museum.org.
• Bow will have a trunk or treat in the Bow High School parking lot (55 Falcon Way) on Sunday, Oct. 30, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Visit bownh.gov.
• Merrimack Public Library (470 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack) hosts a trunk or treat in the parking lot on Sunday, Oct. 30, from 1 to 3 p.m. There will be decorated vehicles with candy, crafts, stickers and more for trick-or-treaters. Park at the Town Hall across the street. Visit merrimacklibrary.org.
• Local children’s musicians Mr. Aaron will host his annual Halloween Bash at the Bank of NH Stage (16 S. Main St., Concord) on Sunday, Oct. 30, at 11 a.m. The event features Halloween arts and crafts, a costume contest with prizes and a special spooky musical performance by the Mr. Aaron Band. General admission tickets cost $10 per person. Visit ccanh.com/show/mr-aarons-halloween-bash.
• The Palace Teen Apprentice Company presents Zombie Prom: Atomic Edition on Wednesday, Nov. 2, and Thursday, Nov. 3, at 7 p.m., at the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester). Tickets cost $15 for adults and $12 for children. Visit palacetheatre.org.

Neighborhood trick-or-treat times:

Halloween treats for everyone

Events for the spooky-season fan in all of us

Compiled by Amy Diaz
[email protected]

• The Concord Public Library (45 Green St. in Concord; concordpubliclibrary.net) is holding a Halloween Photo Scavenger Hunt throughout the month. Pick up a scorecard at the library and return the completed form for a sweet reward between Oct. 24 and Oct. 31, according to the website.
• J&F Farms (124 Chester Road in Derry; jandffarmsnh.com) has a Halloween-themed corn maze through October. The maze is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The cost is $8 per person.
• Allenstown is holding its Halloween Lighting Contest now. Go to.allenstownnh.gov for a list of participating homes. Between now and Thursday, Oct. 27, at 5 p.m. vote on the website for the best decorations. At the Halloween Lighting awards ceremony on the Town Hall lawn on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 4 p.m., a first, second and third place winner will be announced, according to the website.
• Root Up & More (Concord, rootupconcord.com) is holding Ghost Tour Stories in downtown Concord on Friday, Oct. 21; Saturday, Oct. 22, and Saturday, Oct. 29, with short tours at 6 p.m. (30 minutes) and hour-long tours at 8 p.m. The cost is $10 per person for the short tours, $20 for the long tours; see forms.gle/9SssGtuxdpAkCSpD7 to RSVP.
• Before there was Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera there was Lon Chaney’s take on the classic horror character. Chaney starred in the 1925 silent big screen adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera, which will screen Friday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m. at the Derry Public Library (64 East Broadway in Derry; 432-6140) featuring live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis. The event is free and open to the public.
• Chunky’s Cinema Pub (707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com) will hold a “props allowed” screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (R, 1975) on Friday, Oct. 21, at 9 p.m. at Chunky’s in Manchester, Nashua and Pelham. Costumes are encouraged. Tickets are $10.
• As advertised, the Pumpkin Smash at the Portsmouth Farmers Market (City Hall, 1 Junkins Ave. in Portsmouth) will offer you the opportunity to smash a pumpkin from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Oct. 22, to raise money for the Portsmouth Halloween Parade. Pick your pumpkin to smash and use available mallets and other implements, according to portsmouthhalloweenparade.org.
• Get Halloween Photos with your dogs on Saturday, Oct. 22, from 9 a.m. to noon at Trombly Gardens (150 N. River Road in Milford; tromblygardens.net). The event is held by Sato Heart Rescue of Milford, which is suggesting a minimum donation of $10, according to the rescue group’s Facebook page.
• The Harvest Festival at Applecrest Farm (133 Exeter Road, Hampton Falls) is going on every Saturday and Sunday in October, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with pick-your-own opportunities, a corn maze, live music, tractor rides, barnyard animals and more. Admission is free. On Sunday, Oct. 23, to see the Great Pumpkin Carve, where a master carver will take on an 800-pound jack-o’-lantern. The musical lineup for the upcoming weekends is Unsung Heroes on Saturday, Oct. 22; Bolt Hill Band on Sunday, Oct. 23, and Taylor River Band on Saturday, Oct. 29, according to applecrest.com.
• Saturday, Oct. 22, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. is Flashlight Night Maze at the corn maze at Coppal House Farm (118 N. River Road in Lee; nhcornmaze.com). The cost is $12 for ages 5+ (buy tickets online). Daytime hours for the maze are Monday, Thursday and Fridays from noon to 5 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission for daytime costs $9 for 13+, $7 for kids ages 5 to 12 and seniors, military and college students (kids ages 4 and under get in for free).
• The Deerfield Police Department will hold its 6th Annual Haunted Stables event — “a night of terror and fright” according to the Department’s Facebook post — on Saturday, Oct. 22, from 7 to 10 p.m. Free to all town residents, the event takes place at the horse barns, Gate B at the Deerfield Fairgrounds, the post said. Food will be available for purchase at the event.
• Join To Share Brewing Co. (720 Union St., Manchester) for Pints and Pumpkins on Sunday, Oct. 23, from 1 to 3 p.m., featuring pumpkin painting with all the necessary supplies (and a pint of beer) for $12 per person. Visit tosharebrewing.com.
• O’neil Cinemas at Brickyard Square (24 Calef Hwy. in Epping; 679-3529, oneilcinemas. com) has some spooky films on the schedule. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (R, 1992) will show on Sunday, Oct. 23, and Thursday, Oct. 27, at 7 p.m. On Saturday, Oct. 29, get a double feature with Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and Phantom of the Opera (1943), which starts at 1 p.m.
• Director Jordan Peele’s Get Out (R, 2017) will finish up Red River Theatres’ (11 S. Main St. in Concord; 224-4600, redrivertheatres.org) October Scary Film series on Wednesday, Oct. 26, at 6 p.m. A discussion will follow the film.
• The Cat and the Canary (1927), a silent horror film presented with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, will screen on Wednesday, Oct. 26, at 7 p.m. at Rex Theatre (23 Amherst St. in Manchester; palacetheatre.org). Tickets cost $10.
• Author Alice Hoffman will head to the Music Hall Lounge (131 Congress St. in Portsmouth; themusichall.org) on Wednesday, Oct. 26, at 7 p.m. to discuss her work including The Book of Magic, which is now in paperback and is the final installment in the Practical Magic Series. Tickets cost $35 and include a book.
• The Witch of Weston Tower will haunt McIntyre Ski Area (50 Chalet Court in Manchester; mcintyreskiarea.com, 622-6159) Thursday, Oct. 27 through Sunday, Oct. 30, according to a press release. Take a scenic chairlift ride to the summit of McIntyre Ski Area and travel the treacherous trail to the Witch of Weston Tower to see “the most spooktacular views of Manchester,” the release said. On Saturday, the event will include a Trunk-Or-Treat, costume contest and more, the release said. The cost is $20 for ages 13 and up for lift ride and the witch ($10 for ages 6 to 12 and free for kids 5 and under), the release said. Bring money for food trucks, face and pumpkin painting, live music and more.
• Manchester will hold its Spooktacular Downtown Manchester Fall Festival from 3 to 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 28, with downtown trick-or-treating, a photo booth, kids’ games and activities, limited pumpkins available for carving and more. See manchesternh.gov.
• Intown Concord will cap off a month of Halloween-themed events with its Halloween Howl on Friday, Oct. 28, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Main Street in downtown Concord. The evening will feature community trick-or-treating along Main Street with a “Not so Scary” dance party with Nazzy, costume contests, games and family activities as well as a Trunk or Treat on North Main Street, according to intownconcord.org. There will also be a carved pumpkin contest at the Concord Co-op (drop off pumpkins Oct. 24 through Oct. 28, when pumpkins will be on display and people can vote), the website said.
• Park Theatre (19 Main St. in Jaffrey; theparktheatre.org) has some spooky films on the schedule. On Friday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m. catch the 1959 film House on Haunted Hill, starring Vincent Price. On Saturday, Oct. 29, at 2 p.m., Jeff Rapsis will play the organ to accompany a screening of Nosferatu (1922), the silent horror film from director F.W. Murnau starring Max Schreck. At 6:15 p.m. on Oct. 29, catch the 1988 horror comedy from director Tim Burton Beetlejuice (PG), which starts Winona Ryder, Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin and of course Michael Keaton. George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead will screen at 8:15 p.m. on Oct. 29. On Sunday, Oct. 30, the theater will screen director Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) at 7 p.m.
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show (R, 1975) will screen at the Red River Theatres (11 S. Main St. in Concord; 224-4600, redrivertheatres.org) on Friday, Oct. 28, and Saturday, Oct. 29, at 9:30 p.m. Costumes are encouraged at this 18+ event but props will be provided by the theater only. Tickets cost $20.
• Goffstown Ace Hardware (5 Depot St. in Goffstown) will hold its Spooktacular Dog Costume Contest on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with treats, toys and photo ops for dogs, according to a post on the store’s Facebook page.
• Exeter will hold its Halloween Parade & Costume Contest followed by a downtown trick-or-treat on Saturday, Oct. 29, according to exeternh.gov. The costume contest in Swasey Parkway will be at 10:30 a.m., followed by the parade at 11 a.m. Downtown trick-or-treating will run from noon to 3 p.m., the website said.
• Hocus Pocus on Hanover will take place at the Spotlight Room (96 Hanover St. in Manchester) on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission costs $5 online, $6 at the door. Described as a “spiritual fair featuring readers, healers, artists and metaphysical goods,” the event is presented by Soul and Shadow Emporium (22 Hanover St. in Manchester). See shadowandsoulemporium.com.
• The Wilton Main Street Association will hold its The Haunting of Wilton on Saturday, Oct. 29, with scary stories at the Wilton Library at 11 a.m., a costume parade down Main Street at noon, trick-or-treating with downtown merchants from 1 to 2 p.m., a murder mystery clue game with downtown merchants from 2 to 3 p.m. and a costume dance in Main Street park with a DJ, according to the schedule at visitwilton.com. Get the spooky weekend going with the haunted trail behind the Wilton police department, running Thursday, Oct. 27, and Friday, Oct. 28, from 6 to 9 p.m. Admission costs $5.
• The Bizarre Bazaar at Prayers of Nature Studio (33 Howard St. in Wilton) will run Saturday, Oct. 29, from noon to 7 p.m. and will feature a “bootique” filled with art, gemstones, decor, artisan jewelry and apparel, according to a press release. The day will also feature divination readers and Laurie from the Eclectic Green Witchery. See prayersofnature.com.
• Merrimack will hold its 30th annual Halloween Party in Wasserman Park on Saturday, Oct. 29, from noon to 3 p.m. The event will include games, crafts, face painting, food for sale, a scavenger hunt, a costume contest and more, according to merrimackparksandrec.org.
​• The Dover Zombie Walk & Evening Movie will be held Saturday, Oct. 29. The Zombie Walk will start at 2 p.m. and head down Central Avenue from the Dover Chamber of Commerce parking lot to the Rotary Arts Pavilion, according to Dover Main Street’s Facebook page. Wear zombie outfits or other Halloween costumes. Participants get a grab bag of goodies and the day will include games and a costume contest, the post said. The Woodman Institute Museum will also have a Victorian exhibit about mourning, according to the post.
At 7:30 p.m. at the pavilion stage, Ghostbusters (PG, 1984) will screen; bring lawn chairs and blankets, the post said.
• Beaver Brook Association (Maple Hill Farm, 117 Ridge Road in Hollis; beaverbrook.org) will hold its Enchanted Forest Family Halloween Event on Saturday, Oct. 29, with arrival times starting at 4 p.m. Tickets cost $12. The event will feature “stars, stories, songs and s’mores,” according to the website, which bills the event as “non-spooky fun” with a wildflower trail featuring pumpkins, learning about New England wildlife and more.
• Nashua will hold its Halloween Boo Bash on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the Bandshell in Greeley Park. The evening will feature a haunted house, hay ride, bonfire and, at 6 p.m., a silly scary movie, according to the Nashua Parks and Recreation Department. See nashuanh.gov.
• The Concord Parks & Recreation Department will hold an adult Halloween Dodgeball Tournament on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Citywide Community Center. The cost to register is $50 per team of six players who must be dressed in themed or matching Halloween costumes, according to concordparksandrec.com where you can register.
• The Amherst Orthodontics Trick or Trot 3K will be held on Sunday, Oct. 30, in Arms Park in Manchester. A kids’ Halloween Festival starts at 9:30 a.m. and Stonyfield Lil’ Pumpkin Fun Runs start at 10:30 a.m. The 3K begins at 11 a.m. Registration costs $25 in advance, $30 on race day for adults; $20 in advance, $25 on race day for ages 12 to 20; $15 in advance and on race day for kids ages 9 to 11 and $10 for kids 8 and under in the Lil Pumpkin Runs, according to millenniumrunning.com.
• See Rocky Horror Show Live at the Seacoast Repertory Theatre (125 Bow St. in Portsmouth; seacoastrep.org) on the evening of Sunday, Oct. 30 (the show begins at 11:59 p.m.) and at 9 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 31, after the Halloween Parade. This is an encore performance of the theater’s summer production of Rocky Horror. Tickets cost $27 to $54. See the website for rules about what not to bring.
• Portsmouth Halloween Parade steps off on Halloween, Monday, Oct. 31, at 7 p.m. with community members who want to march in costume gathering at Peirce Island by Prescott Park (no sign-up is required), according to portsmouthhalloweenparade.org, where you can find the rules of what to wear if you want to be in the parade and the route if you’d like to go watch.

Eat, drink and be scary

Costume parties, drink specials and more grown-up Halloween fun

By Matt Ingersoll
[email protected]

• The fifth annual Boos and Booze event will kick off at Bonfire Country Bar (950 Elm St., Manchester) on Wednesday, Oct. 26, at 5:45 p.m. Costumes are encouraged during this run or walk cemetery tour from Bonfire to Valley Street Cemetery. The cost is $10 per person, and attendees 21 and up will receive a ticket for one complimentary brew. Visit bonfiremanch.com.
• From Thursday, Oct. 27, through Sunday, Oct. 30, To Share Brewing Co. (720 Union St., Manchester) will host beer and Halloween candy pairings while supplies last. Visit tosharebrewing.com.
• Enjoy an Undead Beat Night at Portsmouth Book & Bar (40 Pleasant St.) on Thursday, Oct. 27, from 7 to 9 p.m. In addition to an open mic of “poetic ramblings,” according to the Portsmouth Halloween Parade’s website, there will be raffle prizes, beverages, special costumes and more. Visit portsmouthhalloweenparade.org.
• Join LaBelle Winery Derry (14 Route 111) for an adults-only Spooktacular Halloween party on Friday, Oct. 28 — the festivities begin at 7:30 p.m. and go until 11 p.m. inside the Vineyard Ballroom, featuring a local DJ, appetizers, snacks and desserts included for late-night munching. Costumes are encouraged (although not required), with prizes being awarded for the best Halloween costume. The bar will also be open all night, featuring themed cocktails available for purchase, as well as wine, beer and mixed drinks. Tickets are $35 per person (18+ attendees only). Visit labellewinery.com.
• Eleganza Dance Co. will hold the second annual Halloween Spooktacular at XO Bistro (827 Elm St., Manchester) on Friday, Oct. 28, from 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Drinks and food will be available for purchase, and there will be a photo booth set up for pictures. Costumes are encouraged, with a contest and the chance to win prizes. Salsa lessons, dancing and music will be featured, courtesy of DJ Jersey. The cover charge is $15. Visit eleganzadance.com.
• Diz’s Cafe (860 Elm St., Manchester) will host its annual Nightmare on Elm Street crawl on Friday, Oct. 28, beginning at 5 p.m. with food and drink specials, prizes, a zombie parade downtown and more. Visit dizscafe.com.
• Join Angel City Music Hall (179 Elm St., Manchester) for a Halloween show with Cat 5 on Friday, Oct. 28, at 9 p.m., followed by its second annual Halloween party on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m., featuring a performance by DJ Sam Smoove. Visit angelcitymusichall.com.
• Greg & The Morning Buzz presents a Brews & Boos Halloween party at The Hill Bar & Grille (50 Chalet Way, Manchester) on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 8 to 11 p.m. Costumes are encouraged at this 21+ event, which will also feature specialty appetizers and brews. Tickets are $25 per person, granting you entry into a costume contest. Visit mcintyreskiarea.com.
• An Interactive Nightlife Halloween Party will take place on Saturday, Oct. 29, at the Bank of NH Stage (16 S. Main St., Concord), from 8 p.m. to midnight. The night will include a costume contest, aerialist, drag performers, karaoke with DJ George Cox, burlesque performances and more, according to the website. Tickets are $39.75 general admission, $68.75 for VIP in advance; $50 general admission and $90 VIP at the door, plus fees. Visit ccanh.com.
• The Shaskeen Pub and Restaurant (909 Elm St., Manchester) holds its 16th annual Halloween Bash on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 9:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., featuring a night of costumes, drinks, dancing and live music from DJ Myth. Prizes will be awarded for the best costumes. Visit theshaskeenpub.com.
• Join The Farm Bar & Grille (1181 Elm St., Manchester) for its annual Get Haunted Costume Party on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 9 p.m., featuring costume contests, giveaways, live entertainment and half price drink specials. Visit farmbargrille.com.
• Join Chunky’s Cinema Pub in Manchester (707 Huse Road) for its annual live “Ghouling” Pianos event on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 9 p.m. A special Halloween edition of Dueling Pianos, the event features the professional piano players positioned on stage in front of the theater and decked out in costume. Tickets are $20 per person. Visit chunkys.com.
• See a live witches dance on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 3 p.m. outside The Hop Knot (1000 Elm St., Manchester) which will also offer drink specials. Visit hocuspocusonhanover.com.
• Pipe Dream Brewing (49 Harvey Road, Londonderry) will hold a Halloween party on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 6 to 10 p.m., featuring a live performance from DJ Ache, as well as a full food menu and more than 28 taps of beer available. Costumes are encouraged. Visit pipedreambrewingnh.com.
• Averill House Vineyard (21 Averill Road, Brookline) is hosting a Spooktacular Halloween Comedy Show on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., to be held outside, with headliner comedian Bill Simas and a few other guest comedians. The wine bar will be open with more than 15 wines to choose from, and charcuterie boards and wine cream ice cream will be available for purchase. Tickets are $5 per person (event will be held rain or shine). Visit averillhousevineyard.com.
• Join The Chop Shop Pub (920 Lafayette Road, Seabrook) for a Halloween Bash on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 6:30 p.m., featuring costumed contests, cash prizes, spooky drink specials and a live performance by Casual Gravity. Tickets are $25. Visit chopshoppub.com.
• Fody’s Tavern in Derry (187½ Rockingham Road) has a Halloween party on the schedule for Saturday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m., featuring music by Brian House. Visit fodystavern.com.
• Saddle Up Saloon (92 Route 125, Kingston) will hold a Halloween party on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m., featuring costume contests, spooky drink specials, giveaways and a live performance from Bite the Bullet. Visit saddleupsaloonnh.com.
• Enjoy a Halloween party and costume fest at Area 23 (254 N. State St., Concord) on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 8 to 11 p.m., with music from the Dalton Gang. Visit thearea23.com.
• Tandy’s Pub & Grille (1 Eagle Square, Concord) will hold its 13th annual Halloween Bash on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 9 p.m., with cash prizes awarded to the three best costumes, along with Jack Daniel’s and Deep Eddy drink specials, and music from DJ Lance. Visit tandyspub.com.
• Makris Lobster & Steak House (354 Sheep Davis Road, Concord) is planning a Lobster Mash Halloween party on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 7 to 11 p.m., featuring a costume contest with first, second and third place winners, a 50/50 raffle benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a Sam Adams Oktoberfest stein hoisting competition, giveaways, food and drink specials, live music and more. Visit eatalobster.com.
• Red’s Kitchen + Tavern (530 Lafayette Road, Seabrook) will hold a Halloween party on Saturday, Oct. 29, featuring a spooky night of live music, food and drink specials, dancing and prizes awarded for the best costumes. Visit redskitchenandtavern.com.
• Join The Wild Rover Pub (21 Kosciuszko St., Manchester) for its annual Halloween costume party on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 10 p.m. Cash prizes will be awarded for the best costumes. Visit wildroverpub.com.
• Don’t miss the annual Halloween Monster Bash happening at Derryfield Country Club (625 Mammoth Road, Manchester) on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m. Cash prizes will be awarded for the best costumes, and there will also be live performances from Mugsy and D-Comp. Tickets are $25 per person. See “2022 Halloween Monster Bash” on Eventbrite to purchase them.
• Block Party Social (51 Zapora Drive, Hooksett) is holding a Sam Adams Halloween Bash on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m., featuring an adult costume contest with prizes awarded for the best costumes, along with sampling, drink specials, prizes and giveaways. Visit blockpartysocial.com.
• Wally’s (144 Ashworth Ave., Hampton) hosts its 13th annual Halloween Bash on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m., featuring national recording and touring act Prospect Hill. Prizes will be awarded for the best costume. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. Visit wallysnh.com.
• Join Feathered Friend Brewing Co. (231 S. Main St., Concord) for a Halloween party on Saturday, Oct. 29, which will include live music with Andrew North & The Rangers from 5 to 8 p.m. Visit featheredfriendbrewing.com.
• It will be time for Halloween Scaryoke at AJ’s Sports Bar & Grill (11 Tracy Lane, Hudson) on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m. Prizes will be awarded for the best and scariest costumes, and there will be Ice Pik vodka and Rocky Peak whiskey tastings. Visit ajs-sportsbar.com.
• Join 603 Bar & Grill (1087 Elm St., Manchester) for a Hip-Hop Halloween Bash on Sunday, Oct. 30, at 8 p.m., which will include a full lineup of live local hip-hop performances, along with prizes awarded for the best costumes. Tickets are $10 in advance online and $15 at the door. See “Hip Hop Halloween Bash” on Eventbrite or visit 603barandgrill.com.
• Catch a special Halloween drag brunch and costume contest at The Big House Nightclub (322 Lakeside Ave., Laconia) on Sunday, Oct. 30, at 9:30 a.m. Tickets start at $40 general admission and are available at the door or via Eventbrite. Visit bighousenightclub.com.
• There will be a Halloween brewery crawl in Derry on Sunday, Oct. 30, kicking off at Daydreaming Brewing Co. (1½ E. Broadway) at noon before going to Kelsen Brewing Co., From the Barrel Brewing Co. and Rockingham Brewing Co. Costumes are encouraged. Visit daydreaming.beer.

Finding Hercule Poirot, becoming Mr. Toad and other tales of actors getting into their fall show roles

New Hampshire is in the thick of fall theater season, with professional and community productions filling the schedule with musicals, dramas, comedies and productions with young performers. We talked to several local actors from some upcoming shows who will be hitting the stage over the next month about how they are getting into character and what makes their shows a must-see.

Connor Weeks, as Mr. Toad

The Community Players of Concord presents The Wind in The Willows, a children’s theater project featuring 24 young actors,at the Audi Concord (2 Prince St.). Showtimes are Friday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m., and Saturday, Oct. 15, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15. Visit communityplayersofconcord.org.

What is The Wind in the Willows about?

The Wind in the Willows is about a group of animals, specifically a toad, a badger, a mole and a rat, [who] go on a bunch of wild adventures together.

Describe the character you’re playing.

I’m playing the role of Mr. Toad. He’s a very posh and very energetic toad who will spring for the new thing when it comes out. He’s a little self-centered but he doesn’t show it. He tries to pride himself on being Mr. Toadwithout sounding too cocky.

What attracted you to this show?

I [wanted] to be in this because I’ve done a ton of shows with the people who are working on [it] and they’re really nice. Also, my uncle had read the book and he said it was a really good show, so that’s why I’m doing the show.

What is the most challenging thing about playing this character?

One of the challenging parts about being Mr. Toad is [that] I have to do an onstage costume change in a very short amount of time, and I haven’t really gotten the chance to practice that yet a lot, and that’s really kind of difficult.

What do you like most about playing this character?

What I like most about playing Mr. Toad is his enthusiasm, being around my friends and just being myself and singing.

What are you most looking forward to about being in this show?

I’m most looking forward to being around all my family and friends, and being on stage and showing Mr. Toad off.

Why do you think this is a show that audiences will enjoy now?

They should come to the show and they might enjoy it because it’s really fun. It has a lot of songs that are really fun to dance to, and all of us worked so hard, and I believe the final outcome is going to be so much better than anyone had imagined.

— Mya Blanchard

Izzy Bedy, as Edgar

The Peacock Players (14 Court St., Nashua) presents Disney’s The Aristocats Kids, performed by kids and teens in grades 2 through 12, from Friday, Oct. 14, through Sunday, Oct. 16, and from Friday, Oct. 21, through Sunday, Oct. 23. Showtimes are at 7 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday, and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets range from $12 to $18. Visit peacockplayers.org.

What is The Aristocats Kids about?

It’s based on a Disney movie about a family of cats. They live with Madame, their owner, and Edgar the Butler, who is me, and Edgar is the bad guy. He wants to get rid of them so he takes them away and they have to try and find their way back to Paris.

Describe the character you’re playing.

[Edgar is] a Disney villain, so lots of the songs are … big songs about being evil, and he hates the aristocats. His goal in life is to get rid of them. Madame is his boss and he always tries to impress her. It’s a very fun role because you can be over the top and everything.

What attracted you to this show?

Well, I love theater. I’ve been doing it for five years. I was looking at the new shows, and I was in the age range for this one. I thought, ‘Oh, that might be fun. I think I have an audition song, so I might as well try out.’

What have you been doing to prepare?

Well, I’ve watched The Aristocats a couple times, like, clips from it, especially with Edgar in them … and I’ve read the script over more times than I can count. … If you think about the goal, your character’s goal in life, or like, what your character is thinking or probably doing in the moment, then it can really help you … decide how you’re going to say your lines and how you’re going to show the audience what you mean with those lines and those lyrics. Facial expressions are also everything. So if you practice how you’re going to look at the audience or who you’re going to look at when you’re saying a certain line, it really helps show the character and the personality of the character.

What is the most challenging thing about playing this character?

The most challenging part is probably because it’s a character that’s very different from me, or from most people you will meet in real life. Disney villains are these evil people and they’re very, very over the top and exaggerated in their emotions. It’s hard to find exactly who that person would be in real life.

What are you most looking forward to about being in this show?

I really look forward to our finale and our prologue or opening scene. We have almost the entire cast in both of those numbers and we’ve worked on them for a long time. It was [one of] the first things we started working on, and I think they look really good and everyone is doing a great job of showing their character and their … vocal and acting skills.

Why do you think this is a show that audiences will enjoy now?

Musicals are known for having these big over-the-top numbers and having these characters with very big personalities. There’s so much going on in a musical, and it’s a musical based on a Disney movie, so it’s [so] lively and energetic that it’s really hard to forget it.

— Katelyn Sahagian

Nancy Rosen, as Ida Straus

The Manchester Community Theatre Players presents Titanic — performed by actors playing both historical figures and characters that were invented by the show’s writers — at the North End Montessori School (698 Beech St., Manchester) on Friday, Oct. 14, and Saturday, Oct. 15; and from Friday, Oct. 21, through Sunday, Oct. 23. Showtimes are at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $20. Visit manchestercommunitytheatre.com.

What is Titanic about?

It’s a musical that was written around the time of the movie. … The subject matter is the Titanic, but it differs in that there’s no Rose and there’s no Jack. The musical is all about the music. … It’s a real musician’s musical. It’s all kind of classical sounding.

Describe the character you’re playing.

Her name is Ida Straus and she was born in the mid-19th century in Germany. She came over to America and married her husband, Isadore. He was a successful businessman. They were very much in love throughout their 40-plus years of marriage. They were traveling back from spending some time in the south of France. They were supposed to take separate ships coming home, but because of a coal strike, they ended up coming home together. They never made it home, because the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank. Isadore, even though he was an older gentleman, said, ‘No, there are younger people that need to go [on the lifeboats], not me,’ and Ida just says, ‘I’m not going, either.’ Their relationship kind of became a symbol to many at the time of true love and total dedication.

What attracted you to this show?

I was asked if I would be interested and I said absolutely. I thought that this is a nice challenge … of a role.

What have you been doing to prepare?

I look at the lines and then I try to think, ‘How do I parallel this woman?’ My parallels are [that] I’m not married 40 years, I’m married 32, and I try to envision how I feel about my husband. … So it’s just total dedication. I just try to make it real. You have to find elements of ‘How do you connect to the person?.’

What is the most challenging thing about playing this character?

Because it’s not a huge role and there might be a line coming in and out, [it’s] the one-liners when you’re walking across [and] just getting the timing of lights and the chronology of certain things.

What are you most looking forward to about being in this show?

Just running it from top to bottom, [and] just getting the flow going with the music. We’ve been in a rehearsal process where we can start and stop a lot. But when the show starts, when we start doing actual performances, it’ll be nice just having a flow going, anticipating what happens next. Just being able to live in the show will be nice.

Why do you think this is a show that audiences will enjoy now?

I think they’ll be swept up by the music and the story. Most people know the story and they know, of course, the inevitability. And the music is the emotion of this grandiose ship. People will be swept up in the whole preparation of the launching of the thing and how it was once in a lifetime. They’ll be swept up in the story of it.

— Katelyn Sahagian

Sam Rogers, as John Proctor

The Seacoast Repertory Theatre (125 Bow St., Portsmouth) presents The Crucible, which runs various dates from Oct. 13 through Nov. 5. Tickets start at $27. Visit seacoastrep.org.

What is The Crucible about?

It takes place in the Puritanical time. The girls are found in the woods at the beginning of the play and they’re doing some kind of dance so that they can talk to the dead. Mr. Paris, who is the minister of the church, catches them in the woods and then they start getting sick. So the girls are sick and everybody in the town is freaking out because they think it’s witchcraft. But the girls know the truth. They know that they were out in the woods and they were dancing naked around in the woods. So they say that it was because of witchcraft and that there were so many people in the town that were sending their spirits out on them and they’re just like these victimized girls. … Eventually things start going to court, and that’s when John and Elizabeth Proctor come in. Elizabeth’s name has been mentioned in court. John is livid. He fights in court as hard as he can, but the court there is just so bloodthirsty and they don’t want any sort of undermining to happen because they’ve sent so many people to death. … Eventually, John gets taken away even though he fights super hard.

Describe the character you’re playing.

I’m playing John Proctor. … He’s the kind of a character that I get really excited about as an actor because he has so many complexities. Something that I really like about him that makes him kind of easy for the actor is that he makes a very clear choice in the middle of the play, in terms of where his storyline is going to go. He has a very important choice to make and he makes it and then that fuels the rest of the play.

What have you been doing to prepare?

I think that something that really helps me prepare for a role as an actor is thinking about the relationships that the character has to the other characters. I know that there’s a lot of things that people can do, but for me, understanding where John’s heart lies with the other characters, like who he trusts, who he doesn’t trust, and who he has faith in.

What is the most challenging thing about playing this character?

In terms of physicality, like, a personal thing for me is that … I’m pretty naturally inclined to … make faster, quicker movements. Like, you know I’ll move across a room quickly or I’ll make … just, like, quicker jolty or movements with my body. And that’s not really what this character is like. … Also just the last scene where he sees Elizabeth again in the jail is really difficult to get to that place emotionally.

What are you most looking forward to about being in this show?

I just love to act. … I’ve been working on a bunch of musicals this whole year, which has been great … but obviously a musical is a different beast than a play. … I really love completing a character’s journey. I really like being in a different place at the end of a play than I was at the beginning.

Why do you think this is a show that audiences will enjoy now?

It is definitely a classic. Arthur Miller is a great writer, so people obviously just like it for that reason. However, it’s timeless because it kind of speaks on … our own history. I think that people like to see things that talk about what we’ve actually been through as a country and things that have happened for real. It’s like, you watch it and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t even believe that that happened.’

— Katelyn Sahagian

Sean Bushor, as Lord Farquaad

The Epping Community Theater presents Shrek the Musical at the Epping Playhouse (36 Ladd’s Lane) from Friday, Oct. 21, through Sunday, Oct. 23; and from Friday, Oct. 28, through Sunday, Oct. 30. Showtimes are at 7 p.m. on both Fridays and on Saturday, Oct. 22; and 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 23, Saturday, Oct. 29, and Sunday, Oct. 30. Tickets range from $15 to $20. Visit eppingtheater.org.

Describe the character you’re playing.

Lord Farquaad is a tiny tyrant who is an unscrupulous pragmatic opportunist, a charismatic bully who has gotten to the top with wit, charm and above all else, fear. He is ‘that’ boss who sweet-talks you into working the weekend of your child’s birthday, and angrily berates you for not being a team player, all while upper management or the home office hasn’t heard a peep of his antics. … On a deeper level, Lord Farquaad is that little voice inside all of us that keeps us from chasing our dreams, telling us that we are too little, too ugly to make it, that we should either conform to an impossible standard of perfection or wallow in an oozing mud pit in resignation.

What attracted you to this show?

Lord Farquaad is a funny little villain. If you look at all the great villains, most people will name one who is powerful, who is able to directly put the protagonist into mortal danger. Lord Farquaad’s power is completely illusory, a sham. Shrek goes along with Lord Farquaad’s demands because it is the path of least resistance, which I think is hilarious. … That’s the satire behind Lord Farquaad — we’re all pitted against each other to the benefit of tiny little men whose only power over us is itself a fairy tale. Therefore, the part needs to be played big and extra large to signify how Lord Farquaad is himself overcompensating for his own self-imposed limitations.

What have you been doing to prepare?

I’ve been watching as many different interpretations of Lord Farquaad as I can. I’ve always been a big fan of John Lithgow. … I also love Christopher Sieber’s performance on Shrek the Musical on Netflix. … I’ve pored through YouTube and watched a myriad of other interpretations, both to see how they actually moved [and] what props they used, and what I thought did and didn’t work. I’ve used some open-source audio software to record my lines and add in the rehearsal tracks, and instead of my normal music, I’ve been just listening to my lines on repeat while I work.

What is the most challenging thing about playing this character?

I spend most of the show on my knees. … There’s also a part where I am practically running while singing. However, these challenges are also really fun to do, and I think the audience will really get a kick out of it.

What are you most looking forward to about being in this show?

I have a few silly bits that I think the audience will love. It’s also super fun being in a show with my family. My kids are [playing the] fairy tale creatures, and my wife is working backstage. I have an older daughter who isn’t in the show, but I was in a different show [with her] before, so now I’ll have done a show with my whole family, which I think is pretty cool.

Why do you think this is a show that audiences will enjoy now?

There is this timeless aspect to Shrek that is hard to put a finger on. There are still memes being made about Shrek to this very day, for a movie that came out over 20 years ago in 2001! … Also, like an onion, Shrek the Musical has layers. We have simple slapstick comedy, which for me, never gets old. We have puns and dad jokes, and as a dad myself, that is also another genre that never gets old. There is comedy where we have to explain to the kids in the cast how to do the joke because they don’t get it, but we adults think it’s funny. … Aside from the jokes being funny, there’s also the underlying themes of the show, which I think really gives it that timelessness aspect — that heroes can be found in unlikely places, [and] that you can find true love even if you look like an ogre. The importance of standing up for yourself and not just waiting for wishes to come true. There is strength in diversity, unity, friendship, and in forgiveness. And sometimes, the people who speak out against fairy tale creatures the most are deeply in denial of being a fairy tale creature themselves.

— Matt Ingersoll

Hadley Harris, as Janet Van de Graaff

The Riverbend Youth Company presents The Drowsy Chaperone at the Amato Center for the Performing Arts (56 Mont Vernon St., Milford) from Friday, Nov. 4, through Sunday, Nov. 6. Showtimes are at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Ticket sales are TBA. Visit svbgc.org/amato-center.

Describe the character you’re playing.

Janet Van de Graaff is a glamorous showgirl giving up the stage for marriage. She is incredibly dramatic and loves attention and praise. But Janet also has a soft, affectionate side and would do anything for love.

What attracted you to this show?

I’ve been participating in shows with the Riverbend Youth Company for about five years now, this being my final season as a senior in high school. I knew I would be in the fall musical, but when I saw the directing team and title, I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. The Drowsy Chaperone is such a fun title because it combines elements of old Broadway, but possesses the entertaining qualities of a modern musical. And, of course, MaryEllen [Stevenson], Meg [King] and Henry [Kopczynskie] are such incredible directors to work with.

What have you been doing to prepare?

I’ve been doing a lot of stretching and endurance training. Before being cast as Janet, I didn’t know just how physically demanding the role would be. There is quite a bit of singing with high-energy dancing. Additionally, I’ve been researching 1920s fashion and performance to get a better sense of the show’s setting.

What is the most challenging thing about playing this character?

While I’m similar to Janet in a lot of ways, we’re also quite different. I hope to have just half the confidence and presence she does. I also feel challenged by Janet’s fast-paced and upbeat numbers, which include lots of tricks and intense acting.

What are you most looking forward to about being in this show?

I can’t wait to see it all come together. Undoubtedly, the costumes and lighting will be spectacular. The Drowsy Chaperone is such a layered show, so it takes time to come together. But, as with any production, once the pieces click, it’s like magic. The interactive set and fun direction — including roller skating, tap dancing, encores and a power outage — make this show so full of energy and joy.

Why do you think this is a show that audiences will enjoy now?

I can’t wait for audiences to share in the joy that is The Drowsy Chaperone. I love the “show within a show” trope and think our audiences will find it very entertaining. Ben Erdody, playing Man In Chair, is such a fantastic actor, and I think he is the piece of the puzzle that makes the story come alive. His skillful narration allows the audience to truly dive into the story with him. Altogether, this title builds such lovable characters that I’m ecstatic to share.

— Angie Sykeny

Hannah Shepherd, as The Chaperone

Describe the character you’re playing.

The Drowsy Chaperone is an over-the-top performer. The world is her stage. The Chaperone is rough around the edges and does what she thinks is best.

What attracted you to this show?

I’ve been performing with the Riverbend Youth Company for many years. I was looking forward to the fall season, but I wasn’t familiar with the title of the show and was interested in learning more about it. I listened to the soundtrack, and I loved the 1920s setting and feel. This past March, I was in a production of Chicago where I realized how much 1920s musicals have to offer. Old shows are replete with grand dance numbers and musical ballads. These numbers make for fun choreography and impressive vocal tracks.

What have you been doing to prepare?

The directing team has compared my character of the Chaperone to many other characters in shows and other musicals. For example, Karen in Will and Grace. I’ve watched many clips of Megan Mullally as Karen to observe her acting style. When practicing my track, I’ll sing it to myself in the mirror, trying out different stances and facial expressions. Then, at rehearsals, I’ll try what I’ve worked on to see what feels the most natural.

What is the most challenging thing about playing this character?

The most challenging part of playing The Chaperone is the fact that she pays no mind to the other characters on stage. In other words, their problems aren’t her problems. The Chaperone is also a very monotone character. Naturally, I have a bubbly personality and feel emotions deeply, so I’ve learned that I have to put Hannah aside for the shows in order to step into the character.

What are you most looking forward to about being in this show?

I’m looking forward to seeing what we’ve rehearsed all put together. One of my favorite parts of any show is seeing what we’ve worked on for months finally together on stage. [With] this one especially, I feel each actor individually has put an immense amount of effort into making these characters come to life.

Why do you think this is a show that audiences will enjoy now?

I think audiences will enjoy this show because of its clever comedic timing and fun choreography. Meg, our choreographer, has worked hard to create amazing dances that challenge us as actors and entertain the audience.

— Angie Sykeny

Sean Damboise and Zakariah Tber, as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Lend Me a Theatre presents Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at the Hatbox Theatre (270 Loudon Road, Concord) from Friday, Nov. 4, through Sunday, Nov. 6; Friday, Nov. 11, through Sunday, Nov. 13; and Friday, Nov. 18, through Sunday, Nov. 20. Showtimes are at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets range from $16 to $22. Visit hatboxnh.com.

What is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead about?

Damboise: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two … kind of small characters in Hamlet. Basically their role is just to kind of spy on Hamlet for the king and queen. Halfway into the show they have to take him to England. The original letter to the English king says, ‘OK, here’s Hamlet, you get to take his head off.’ Unfortunately, Hamlet got the letter twisted around so that when they show up in England, it says, ‘We’re supposed to cut your heads off.’ And Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die. … It’s basically Hamlet from their perspective. And at the same time, they’re kind of floating around going, ‘Something doesn’t seem right here. … We’re being pushed around and asked to be doing weird things,’ and they’re basically just trying to puzzle their way through it.

What attracted you to this show?

Tber: I like that both characters are constantly pondering their situation in the storyline and it’s almost weirdly metaphorical. They’re trying to talk about what’s the meaning of a person, what is existence.

Damboise: These guys are just sorting their way through trying to say, ‘OK, why were we chosen to die? Why can’t we actually change our destiny? Why is it that we have to die?’ But they’re still stuck.

What have you been doing to prepare?

Tber: I watched the movie. I took a look at certain scenes. This show is so heavy on lines, and this show is so heavy on [the question of] what is the true meaning of what they’re trying to say. Every rehearsal, I figure out why I’m saying certain things. Sometimes I don’t know why I’m saying certain things in this show because the language is different.

Damboise: And it does shift from modern speech to actually reciting lines from Hamlet. So now they’re jumping from, ‘Hey, what’s going on here,” to iambic pentameter, and then back again to the regular speech. The constant shifting is a little difficult.

What is the most challenging thing about playing these characters?

Tber: Unless I’m flowing, unless I start the scene and then I move from a motion to a motion seamlessly, I can’t start back up again. So, if I pause and then we give it a director’s note or if I pause and then we resituate something, I’m going to lose it and then I’m going to have to come back.

Damboise: The hardest part for me is [not that it’s] difficult to … flow through the emotions so much as actually trying to pull them out. Going from frustration to happiness, and there are a couple of scenes where he has to shift. It’s very difficult to try and make such a dramatic shift so quickly.

Why do you think this is a show that audiences will enjoy now?

Tber: There is a director’s note that says there’s only two times this show has failed. And it was when they decided to make it serious. Yes, it’s supposed to be a comedy.

Damboise: Yeah, it’s a comedy at heart. If you go deep, you’re not going to have a decent show because it’s way too much. These characters are not deep. They’re just incidentals in Hamlet’s. And now they’ve got a little bit of depth and background and they’re trying to figure themselves out. But if you try to go too deep, you’re just going to lose the point, which is following these two schlubs through Hamlet.

— Katelyn Sahagian

John Jenks Seymour, as Claudius

John Jenks Seymour, playing Claudius, will also perform in Lend Me a Theatre’s production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Describe the character you’re playing.

The character I’m playing is Claudius. He’s the king. He’s not a really nice guy. Just kind of a person who’s out for his own interests.

What have you been doing to prepare?

My training was as a method actor. I try to find some feelings that I’ve had, that I can recall. That’s a lot of fun when doing a character who’s a really nasty, rotten guy.

What is the most challenging thing about playing this character?

I haven’t really been in the rehearsal process that long, so honestly it’s really just kind of fun.

Why do you think this is a show that audiences will enjoy now?

It’s a very, very funny play, and it’s a lot of just crazy humor, but it’s also very intelligent humor. You can take things at a couple levels. There’s some stuff that’s just silly and kind of slapstick, but there’s also some very deep humor.

— Katelyn Sahagian

TreVor Nantel, as Spike

Bedford Off Broadway presents Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at the Old Town Hall (3 Meetinghouse Road) from Friday, Nov. 4, through Sunday, Nov. 6; and from Friday, Nov. 11, through Sunday, Nov. 13. Showtimes are at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and at 2 p.m. on Sundays (doors open one hour before curtain). Tickets are $15 general admission, and $12 for children, students and seniors. Purchase them at the door or at brownpapertickets.com.

What is Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike about?

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is about three adopted siblings in their 50s, two of which — Vanya and Sonia — live a miserable life together, while their other sibling, Masha, is a very … renowned, famous actress. … Enter Spike, and he is a 29-year-old stud that Masha has picked up across the way, and she introduces Spike to already regretful siblings. The family goes through some hardships and they learn to live and love each other along the way.

What attracted you to this show?

This is my first ever play, but I consider myself to be a natural actor. … My dad, Rick Nantel, has performed [in] many shows here [throughout] the years. He read this script hoping to get Vanya, and suggested that I audition, as he thought I fit this role perfectly. I decided to give it a shot on the last night of auditions. … What attracted me to do the show was the kind of character Spike is. I feel like he is a very fun role.

What have you been doing to prepare?

I had some fun nights out with a friend and my girlfriend, and we would read lines and I’d constantly get scrutinized for getting them wrong, yet they were very supportive. … It came down to my girlfriend reading lines with me, and me sitting in my work van during the day and constantly reciting them in customers’ yards. … I was hoping they wouldn’t look out the window and see me talking to myself in a dramatic manner.

What is the most challenging thing about playing this character?

The most challenging part of playing Spike is the expectation of fulfilling who he really is in the playwright’s eyes, but I’m having fun and the cast has been amazing.

What are you most looking forward to about being in this show?

To be able to impress the audience, while making my friends, family and girlfriend proud.

Why do you think this is a show that audiences will enjoy now?

I think the audience will enjoy the show for the raw comedy, and the fact that they will be able to relate to a lot of the content.

— Matt Ingersoll

Greer Danzey, as Curly

The Kids Coop Theatre presents Oklahoma! at the Derry Opera House (29 W. Broadway). Showtimes are Friday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m., and a matinee on Sunday, Nov. 20, at 1 p.m. Tickets are $15. Visit kidscooptheatre.ludus.com.

What is Oklahoma! about?

Oklahoma! is a musical that was made [in the] late 1940s through 1950s by Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is about a cowboy during 1906 who is in love with [a] farm girl named Laurey Williams, and [he] wants to get her to marry him. [Laurey is] described as [being] the most beautiful girl in town, [and] she doesn’t know much about him. [The town is] very small, [and] everybody knows each other. With her being known by everybody, many people are after her in a romantic way. She has a love triangle with the lead, Curly McLain … and her farmhand named Jud Fry. Now, this farmer and the cowboy do not get along very well and it’s made very apparent throughout the whole show that they are romantic rivals. On the other side of the story you have a … different cowboy [named] Will Parker, [who’s] in a love triangle as well with this girl named Ado Annie … and a peddler [named] Ali Hakim. The story is a romantic comedy drama [about] these two love triangles happening in early America. It’s very interesting, [and] some parts are darker than others. Overall it’s quite an experience.

Describe the character you’re playing.

Curly is a curly-headed cowboy [with] a big ego. He’s very energetic, [and is] always trying to pitch in on a conversation. He likes to be engaged, [and is] very prideful. His biggest strength is also his biggest weakness [because] it’s what gets [him] in trouble, but it’s what people love about him. Not everybody always agrees with what he does [because] he’s very sporadic, but that energy is what makes him lovable, yet annoying.

What attracted you to this show?

I had seen Oklahoma! once before and I enjoyed the show. I saw the movie version [and] I thought the characters were really fun. The lead cowboy, Curly McLain, was very funny because he has a very big ego, and my friends always made fun of me for having a big ego, so I [decided I’d] go try for it. When I was researching, I started [to get] more into the show, I learned more about it, and I started to feel more connected to it.

What is the most challenging thing about playing this character?

He has a more serious tone to him and when it’s used it’s hard to separate that from his energetic side. You only see it a few times, but when you do it’s like you’re seeing a whole other person. It almost feels like you’re playing two different characters [and] it’s hard to understand that he’s the same guy that everybody loves, but he has this much darker, serious tone to him. Then there’s also the accent that goes with it. They have a silly Southern accent that makes it sound ridiculous so it’s hard to portray a serious tone when you’re talking like you just got scared.

What are you most looking forward to about being in this show?

I’d probably say I’m [most looking] forward to having stage interactions with a lot of my friends. [My friends and I] have been this little group who have been doing shows [together] for a while. [We] always audition for the same shows and always get characters that … interact with each other, and it’s always been really fun. Having that chemistry with each other and getting to put it on stage is always so much fun. We’ll talk to each other about who’s going to get this role, who’s going to get that role, and then if our predictions come out right everything just works out because in our rehearsal process we’ll just feel comfortable with each other and we know that in the end our stage production will feel very true to all of us.

Why do you think this is a show that audiences will enjoy now?

It’s funny [because] it’s very different from today. It seems like a lifetime ago which, really, it was. It takes place over a century ago, but the story itself has been adapted [into] so many other ways that it seems very relatable. Oklahoma! is very similar to the plot of West Side Story, which is another very popular musical. It’s similar to Grease, which is another great show. It has that classic spin to it that a lot of audience members would feel connected to and just be able to catch on [to] very easily.

— Mya Blanchard

Jim Gocha, as Hercule Poirot

The Community Players of Concord present Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express at the Audi Concord (2 Prince St.). Showtimes are Friday, Nov. 18, and Saturday, Nov. 19, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 20, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults and $18 for kids and seniors. Visit communityplayersofconcord.org

What is Murder on the Orient Express about?

It’s a murder mystery. … It’s a story about a murder that takes place on a train. One character, a man named Sam Ratchett, is stabbed in the middle of the night multiple times … and then it becomes a matter of who did it.

Describe the character you’re playing.

I am playing Hercule Poirot, the main character [and] the very famous detective. [The investigation] turns to me, and so I’ve got to try to figure out what the heck happened.

What attracted you to this show?

Oh my gosh — who would not want to perform as Hercule Poirot? I mean, he’s one of the most famous detectives in all of literature. I couldn’t pass that up. … He’s such a great character, so iconic, and it’s just a matter of putting your own little twist on playing him. So I jumped at the chance, and I was actually surprised that I got it. … I went to school for theater for a while, but … eventually I switched to teaching English. That’s my main job now, but I’ve been doing theater again for probably a good 10 to 12 years now.

What have you been doing to prepare?

I did some background [research] on Poirot, not only from the original text written by Agatha Christie, but also looking at other versions of the character. There’s a famous film with Albert Finney playing him and, more recently, Kenneth Branagh, and also David Suchet on television. … So I looked at all the different versions that they did and how they put their own little twist on a character that is so iconic. … I also read some other information about him from the other Agatha Christie books, just to get an idea of who he is, and how he functions and how he is, not only physically but also just his background. He’s actually from Belgium, not France. … A lot of people make that mistake because he speaks French. But he’s from Belgium, and that actually becomes a joke throughout the show.

What is the most challenging thing about playing this character?

The most challenging thing for me is getting everything right about him. … For example, he has a limp and he walks with a cane. So it’s making use of that physical attribute, along with making sure that I get the accent right. … I’m a stickler for accents, and if you’re going to do an accent, you’d better do it right. … I’ve actually been working on that quite a bit, just looking up videos on how people speak with a French accent and, in particular, how Poirot would speak with a French accent, since he is Belgian.

What are you most looking forward to about being in this show?

As with any show, I look forward to the group that we work with. We’ve got such a really fantastic group of actors, and [I love] the camaraderie that takes place when you’re putting a show together that is such an ensemble piece. … Yes, Poirot is … supposed to be the main [character], but it doesn’t matter what I do if I don’t have these other people to rely on. … So that’s the part I look forward to the most, is interacting with the other folks on the stage.

Why do you think this is a show that audiences will enjoy now?

I think this show in particular is one that people would enjoy anytime, partly because it is such a well-known show. … I mean, Hercule Poirot and the story itself … are so well-known that it’s almost like visiting an old friend. … I think people will have a good time seeing that, remembering and comparing our show to somebody else’s but also [seeing] the twist that we’re going to add. It’s written by Ken Ludwig, and he added a few twists here and there. … So people [will] enjoy the little changes that he has made to the story.

— Matt Ingersoll

Featured photo: The cast of Murder on the Orient Express, to be performed by the Community Players of Concord. Photo staged by Nora McBurnett.