Category: Featured Content

Touching down on barbecue

Aviation Museum holds its summer get-together

By John Fladd
jfladd@hippopress.com

There is a phenomenon familiar to pilots called the Hundred Dollar Hamburger. Allegedly, hobbyist pilots, wanting a destination to fly to in a day or an afternoon, will pick a small, local airport a few hundred miles away, fly to it, eat at the diner or cafe there, then fly home. Ten dollars for a burger plus $90 in fuel makes for a Hundred Dollar Hamburger.

“At this point it’s more like a $150 hamburger by the time you factor in the price of fuel,” said Jeff Rapsis, the Director of the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire in Londonderry in a telephone interview. The Aviation Museum is capitalizing on the Hundred Dollar Hamburger tradition for one of its major fund-raising events of the year, its annual Father’s Day Weekend Fly-In Barbecue, which will be held Saturday, June 15, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

This year’s Barbecue will be held at Nashua’s Boire Field (Nashua Airport, 83 Perimeter Road). Pilots are invited to fly in, with vintage airplanes and home-built aircraft especially welcome.

“This is a good opportunity for families with children to get really close to real airplanes and check them out. We have some very unusual aircraft coming,” Rapsis said. It’s an event that pilots and enthusiasts both benefit from, he added. “The public is welcome to see a student-built plane, experience aerobatic flying via virtual reality, and enjoy some excellent barbecue.”

The barbecue itself will be prepared off-site by Celebrations Catering of Manchester and served buffet-style in the hangar of Nashua Jet Aviation, so the event will be held rain or shine. The meal includes salads, pasta, barbecued chicken, pulled pork, baked beans, desserts and drinks, including Moxie.

“This is a New England event,” Rapsis said, “so we have to serve Moxie.”

The chicken and pork are a perennial hit, said Rapsis. The chicken, for instance: “These are boneless chicken breasts that have been seasoned with a special rub, then wood-grilled. This is really special chicken.” One of the surprising but essential elements to serving the pork is the bread at the buffet, Rapsis said. “There are some people who absolutely insist on having pulled pork on white bread; other people have other ideas. These are very strongly held beliefs.”

“We’ve been doing the food service for this event for many, many years,” said Amy Strike, the Director of Events at Celebrations Catering, “and the members really like it. Our recipes have been crafted over many years.”

A case in point is the Texas-Style Baked Beans. “For me, this is the real stand-out dish,” Rapsis said. “I’ve had some left over from a previous event and I’ve been rationing them out. They’re magical.”

This makes Amy Strike laugh, but she agrees that a lot of work has gone into developing baked beans that are more than just a side dish. “They are made with our special homemade barbecue sauce,” she said, “the one with 50 ingredients. Our chef, Don Robey, uses three different types of beans — pinto, great northern, and kidney — and we use a bacon/onion blend that was developed by our president, Fred Manchuck.”

Father’s Day Weekend Fly-In Barbecue
When: Saturday, June 15, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: Hangar of Nashua Jet Aviation at Nashua Airport, 83 Perimeter Road, Nashua
Tickets: Purchase BBQ tickets in advance to avoid a sell-out at aviationmuseumofnh.org; ramp tickets to visit planes will be for sale at the door. Adult barbecue, $30; Ages 6-12 barbecue, $10; ramp ticket (no barbecue), $10

Berry Delicious

Berries!

Almost time for strawberry and blueberry seasons

By Zachary Lewis
zlewis@hippopress.com

‘Tis the season where farms invite ordinary people to come onto their land to take part in the berry harvests.

Although last summer may have been a slight disappointment for berry aficionados, this year’s harvest is appearing to be much better.

Samantha Fay, Farm Stand Manager at Sunnycrest Farm (59 High Range Road, Londonderry, 432-7753, sunnycrestfarmnh.com),is positive about this year’s crop of berries.

“Everything seems to be going really well this year. Last year was pretty devastating due to the late frost that we had … strawberries last year with the rain was really bad,” Fay said.

It was the worst of yields but now it’s the best of yields in this tale of two berry seasons.

“This year, everything looks good. We haven’t had a frost and we haven’t had the really really cold temperatures, so all the crops thus far look really good,” Fay said.

Future pickers should keep an eye on the weather.

“As long as we don’t get too much rain, the strawberries should look great,” Fay said. “Right now, fingers crossed, everything looks great.”

Not all berries grow the same way, though, and depending on foraging style, certain berries may be more fun to pick than others.

“Your strawberries are really low to the ground, so you’re more down on your knees harvesting them, where[as] raspberries, they’re a higher bush, so people can walk through those and pick at their height, which is nice,” Fay said. Since Sunnycrest only has a few rows of blackberries, visitors will only be able to pick these up at the farmstand when they do ripen.

The schedule typically flows from strawberries to blueberries and cherries to raspberries, then peaches and finally apples. A family could pick berries all summer long at the many farms and farm stands in the state.

“I think that it’s a really nice family activity for people to do and it’s really important for people to be able to have access to fresh fruit,” Fay said. “It’s nice to be able to harvest your own fruit and bring that home, because you have the satisfaction of seeing where it grows and being able to take it home and have it yourself.” But how much of the tasty reward can one bring home? A few ounces? A couple pounds?

“Maybe like 80 pounds at once just for a regular customer that comes in because we have some people come in that like to jam, so they’ll buy a good amount for jamming,” Fay said. “I’d say like 80 to 100 pounds for some people. But it’s not like an everyday thing…. That’s their one pick for the season when they make their batch of jam.” Ten to 20 pounds is a more typical amount for people to acquire in a single visit.

The delicate dance of berry harvesting is not for the faint of heart, but it is worth the effort. “They’re definitely a difficult crop to grow. They take a lot of care and the weather definitely plays a huge factor because they don’t like too much rain. It’s very rewarding when you get a great crop but it does take a lot to grow them. And we enjoy it,” Fay said.

Where to pick your own berries

Here’s a list of local farms that plan to offer fresh berries for pick-your-own throughout this upcoming season — we’ve included those that will have everything from strawberries and blueberries available for picking to raspberries, blackberries, cherries, and even peaches at some locations. Do you know of any in our area that we may have missed? Tell us about it at food@hippopress.com.

Apple Hill Farm

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

What: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, black currants, apples

When: Projected opening date is around mid to late June, starting with pick-your-own strawberries, then blueberries from early July to early September, raspberries from mid-July to early August, black currants from late July to early August, and apples from late August to mid October, according to their website.

Applecrest Farm Orchards

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

What: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, nectarines, pears

When: The farm stand is open daily 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; projected opening date TBA for pick-your-own strawberries will be around mid-June; followed by blueberries in early July and raspberries in mid-August; peaches, nectarines and pears early August through mid September, according to their website.

Bartlett’s Blueberry Farm

648 Bradford Road, Newport, 208-270-0466, bartlettsblueberryfarm.com

What: blueberries

When: Hours of operation are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and the picking season is from mid-July to August; the self-service farm stand is open now from 9 a.m to 5 p.m. daily, or by appointment, offering items like blueberry jam, local maple syrup and honey, according to their website.

Bascom Road Blueberry Farm

371 Bascom Road, Newport, 359-7703, bascomroadblueberryfarm.com

What: strawberries and blueberries

Expected hours: The farm store is open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The farm is offering pick-your-own strawberries for limited days in June to early July. Pick-your-own blueberries are expected to happen from July through September, according to their website. 2023 pricing, according to their website, was $12 for a small bucket, around 3 pounds, or $22 for a large bucket, which was around 6 pounds.

Beaver Pond Farm

1047 John Stark Hwy., Newport, 543-1107, beaverpondfarm.com

What: blueberries and raspberries

When: Daily 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., weather permitting, call on the day for conditions. Their season usually begins between July 1 and July 10 and typically runs through July and into early August, according to their website. They charge by the pint, not the pound, and offer free containers as well as water to pickers, according to the website.

Berry Good Farm

234 Parker Road, Goffstown, berrygoodfarmnh.com

What: blueberries

When: Anticipated to be open Wednesday and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. as well as Friday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Their pick-your-own blueberries will likely start around mid-July, according to their website.

Berrybogg Farm

650 Province Road, Strafford, 664-2100, berryboggfarm.com

What: Blueberries

When: Pick-your-own blueberries will likely start sometime shortly after the Fourth of July, according to last year’s dates. Last year’s prices were $3.50 per pound (seniors 65 and older and military $3.40 per pound), and if participants pick 10 or more pounds the price will be $3.25 per pound, according to their website.

Brookdale Fruit Farm

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

What: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, black raspberries and blackberries

When: Pick-your-own strawberries are expected to be available around mid to late June, followed by blueberries and raspberries by early July and blackberries and black raspberries into August, according to their website.

Carter Hill Orchard

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

What: blueberries

When: Pick-your-own blueberries will likely start sometime in July, according to their website.

Devriendt Farm Products

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

What: strawberries

When: Pick-your-own strawberries expected around the second or third week of June and they will have Pick Your Own boxes at a cost of $1 for you to pick into if you do not bring your own container, according to their website.

Elwood Orchards

54 Elwood Road, Londonderry, 434-6017, elwoodorchards.com

What: cherries

When: TBA; pick-your-own cherries are expected to be available around early July.

Gould Hill Farm

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

What: Blueberries, peaches

When: Farm stand is closed until mid-July. Pick-your-own blueberries will likely start around mid-July and will run into early August; peaches typically start in early August and run to early September, with peaches available in the store from late July to early September, according to their website.

Grandpa’s Farm

143 Clough Hill Road, Loudon, 783-5690, grandpasfarmnh.com

What: blueberries

When: Daily 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. They offer blueberries from the middle of July to the middle of August and their new Lower Field has three varieties, Duke, Spartan and Bluecrop, which will ripen in that order, according to their website.

Grounding Stone Farm

289 Maple St., Contoocook, 746-1064, groundingstonefarm.com

What: blueberries, Certified Organic by the NH Dept. of Agriculture, Markets & Food, according to their website

When: Open July 6 through the third week of August.

Hackleboro Orchards

61 Orchard Road, Canterbury, 783-4248, hackleboroorchard.com

What: blueberries

When: Daily, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; pick-your-own blueberries are expected between mid-June and late August, and will be $3.29 per pound, according to their website.

Kimball Fruit Farm

Route 122, on the Hollis and Pepperell, Mass., border, 978-433-9751, kimball.farm

What: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries

When: Pick-your-own strawberries are projected for the middle of June, blueberries from July to early August (best picking usually mid-July), raspberries from July to early October, and blackberries from August to early October. The farm stand is open daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., according to their website.

Lavoie’s Farm

172 Nartoff Road, Hollis, 882-0072, lavoiesfarm.wordpress.com

What: strawberries and blueberries

When: Their hours vary by season but they are normally open June 1 until Oct. 31, according to their website.

McKenzie’s Farm

71 Northeast Pond Road, Milton, 652-9400, mckenziesfarm.com

What: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and peaches

When: Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily; strawberries are expected to be ready by the middle of June, followed by raspberries around July 4 and blueberries also in early July, with peaches available in August, according to their website.

Norland Berries

164 N. Barnstead Road, Center Barnstead, 776-2021, norlandberries.com

What: blueberries

When: Berries will likely be available by early to mid-July, according to last year’s dates.

Saltbox Farm

321 Portsmouth Ave., Stratham, 436-7978, saltboxfarmnh.com

What: blueberries

When: The farm stand is open only during seasonal hours during their berry picking season and typically runs from early July to early September, according to their Facebook page.

Smith Farm Stand

15 Smith Farm Road, Gilford, 524-7673, smithfarmstand.com

What: raspberries and blueberries

When: The farm features three raspberry beds and one blueberry field, according to their website. Raspberries are expected to be ready for picking around the second week of July, followed by blueberries in mid-July. If their supply allows, one night each year they stay open late for twilight picking with special discounts, according to the same website.

Spring Ledge Farm

37 Main St., New London, 526-6253, springledgefarm.com

What: strawberries

When: Pick-your-own strawberries expected in June, and their picking field address is 985 Pleasant St. in New London, according to their website.

Sunnycrest Farm

59 High Range Road, Londonderry, 432-7753, sunnycrestfarmnh.com

What: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, cherries and peaches

When: 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily for pick-your-own strawberries beginning in June, with cherries starting around June 15, followed by blueberries and raspberries around the start of July and peaches in August if supplies allow, according to their website.

Trombly Gardens

150 N. River Road, Milford, 673-0647, tromblygardens.net

What: strawberries and blueberries

When: Pick-your-own strawberries are expected later in June, followed by blueberries in early July.

When are they ready?
Sources: agriculture.nh.gov and extension.unh.edu
• Strawberries: early to mid-June
• Blueberries: early to mid-July
• Raspberries: early to mid-July
• Cherries: early to mid-July
• Blackberries: mid to late July or early August

Lavender fields forever

2024’s hot flavor gets its own harvest season

By John Fladd
jfladd@hippopress.com

Get acquainted with lavender by starting at the source — a field where it’s grown.

“We have generations that come here together, and it’s really a lovely sight,” said Missy Biagiottie, owner of Lavender Fields (393 Pumpkin Hill Road, Warner, 456-2443, pumpkinblossomfarm.com), a farm where families can pick their own lavender. “You see mothers, grandmothers and granddaughters all picking together. It’s a really nice experience.”

If you’re imagining groups of women in sundresses and straw hats, Biagiottie said, that’s pretty much what she sees. “Our target market is women. I’d say 95 percent of the people who visit us are women. It’s a nice, family, low-key event. It’s meant to be serene.”

Lavender is a perennial plant — meaning that it continues to grow, season after season — but requires year-round maintenance to be at its peak for a two- to three-week harvesting season in mid-July. This year, Biagiotti estimated her farms will be open for “U-Pick” customers between July 5 and July 21. When the farm’s staff harvests lavender, they use old-fashioned sickles, bundle the stalks, and hang them to dry in the farm’s barn to dry until it is needed.

“Of course, we give our U-Pickers nice little garden snips,” she said, “and give them instruction on how to cut the lavender so it might generate another bloom later in the season.”

She said most customers are not looking to take a lot of lavender home with them.

“They’re usually looking for a perfect stem,” Biagiotti said. They take it home and make lavender lemonade or lavender cookies. They might use it decoratively or for craft purposes. Most people will take it home for a memory and hang it up to dry like another herb. The scent lasts for a very long time, she said.

Biagiotti and her team harvest the rest of the lavender to distill into lavender hydrosol — a lavender-infused water — and lavender oil, both of which they use as a base for lavender products that they sell at the farm and online. They sell bath and body products but also lavender food products and cooking ingredients, such as lavender simple syrup, lavender honey, lavender-infused vinegar and oil, white hot chocolate with lavender, a blueberry lavender drink mixer and culinary lavender buds.

Inspired to cook with your lavender? According to pastry chef Emilee Viaud, owner of Sweet Treats by Emilee and pastry chef for Greenleaf Restaurant in Milford, lavender is not an ingredient you can throw into a recipe on a whim; it needs a bit of planning.

“With lavender, it’s not really enjoyable to eat in itself,” she said. “In pastry, infusing it into pastry cream is what I like to do, because the floral soapiness complements the creaminess of the pastry cream really well. They kind of balance each other out.”

Viaud said lavender often works best as a supporting flavor.

“Lemon and lavender work well together. The spices I like to add to that is cardamom or fennel. With fennel seed, you can grind it up and infuse it into the pastry cream, and when you strain it, you’ll remove all those extra components you don’t really want to eat,” Viaud said.

“My husband [chef Chris Viaud] uses it in one of his cocktails,” she said. “He infuses it into a simple syrup and uses it that way.”

He is not the only one to do that. For the past several years, as bartenders have experimented with more and more nontraditional flavors for cocktails, lavender has become a go-to flavor to play off more orthodox ingredients.

“We do a couple of lavender drinks,” said Niko Kfoury, bartender at Firefly Restaurant in Manchester. “Under the Favorites section of our cocktail menu, we’ve got a lavender-blueberry lemonade. We’ve got a lavender gin gimlet as well. The Favorites never change; those are always on the menu. I think it [lavender] has a floral quality. It’s just a really calming, soothing flavor that’s really complementary with a lot of different ingredients. It adds a calmness to a flavor profile.”

Lavender!

Lavender to pick

Lavender Fields at Pumpkin Blossom Farm
393 Pumpkin Hill Road, Warner
456-2443, pumpkinblossomfarm.com

Tentative dates for picking lavender are Friday, July 5, through Sunday, July 21, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

Lavender to taste

Sweet Treats by Emilee
facebook.com/EmileesSweetTreats

Greenleaf
54 Nashua St., Milford
213-5447, greenleafmilford.com
Open Tuesday through Sunday, 5 to 9 p.m.

Firefly Bistro and Bar
22 Concord St., Manchester
935-9740, fireflynh.com
Open Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m; Saturday and Sunday brunch 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Saturday dinner 4 to 9 p.m.; Sunday dinner 4 to 8 p.m.

Market season

Farmers markets build customer loyalty

By John Fladd
jfladd@hippopress.com

Selling at a farmers market, meeting your customers one-on-one, letting them try your product and answering their questions is a way for farmers, craftspeople and other makers to build customer loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing.

Becca and Mindy Dean, for instance, have a passion for goat milk, and their farm, Galomime Farm Too in Mont Vernon, sells its goat products at the Bedford Farmers Market on Tuesday afternoons.

Co-owner Becca Dean said that working at a farmers market gives them the opportunity to introduce goat milk products to customers who wouldn’t normally look for them.

“We have a unique product and it may not be for everyone, but everyone who has tried our product seems to love it!” Dean said. She has noticed that the sorts of customers who shop at farmers markets seem to be open to new experiences.

“One [customer] stated that he and his family plan dinners for the week based on what they get at the market,” she said

Although some New Hampshire farmers markets open in May, most wait to open until June, when the weather is more reliable and some fresh produce is ready to pick and sell. John Blake of DJ Honey, who also sells at the Bedford market, said business will pick up significantly with the end of the school year.

“The beginning of the season seems to be normal,” he said. “We did start a few weeks earlier than usual [this year]. When school gets out the market will be in full swing. I see the rest of the season being a good one.”

If you shop at a farmers market, you will notice that many vendors there sell a variety of goods other than fruits and vegetables.

Donna Silva of Lone Willow Farms in Mont Vernon sells her farm’s products in Milford and Bedford but limits her food sales to Milford.

“This is my first year at the Bedford Farmers Market,” she said. “I don’t sell food products there because they have enough farm-to-table vendors. … This will be my fourth year at the Milford Farmers Market, where I do sell my awesome veggies, produce, herbs and edible flowers. At both markets I sell flowers and gifts [or] art I make from my flowers.”

According to Joshua Marshall, the Director of the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture’s Division of Agricultural Development, numbers and statistics for New Hampshire’s farmers markets can be elusive.

“New Hampshire has a pretty vibrant farmers market industry and the interesting thing is we don’t have any sort of centralized registration that they [farmers markets] are required to do, so it’s hard to get a big picture of how many are out there,” he said. The Agriculture Department keeps a voluntary publication on its website where farmers markets can publish their events, but submitting information to it isn’t mandatory.

“Between the summer and winter markets, we have just over 40,” Marshall said. “That is a little bit down over previous years, which has been closer to 50, but I know that there are a lot more out there.”

Marketeers

Galomime Farm Too
60 Old Amherst Road, Mont Vernon
facebook.com/GalomimeFarmToo
Sells at Bedford Farmers Market

DJ’s Pure Honey
facebook.com/djspurehoney
Sells at Bedford Farmers Market and Nashua Farmers Market

Lone Willow Farms
70 Tater St., Mont Vernon
731-0611, lonewillowfarms.com
Sells at Bedford Farmers Market and Milford Farmers Outdoor Market

Granite State stories

Mystery Stone and more at the NH Historical Society

Elizabeth Dubrulle is the Director of Education and Public Programs at the New Hampshire Historical Society as well as the editor of their publication, Historical New Hampshire. She talked about the importance of New Hampshire history and its mysteries that have yet to be uncracked. Visit nhhistory.org.

What does the Historical Society do?

We have a library and archive, which is probably one of the best, if not the best, collection of material related to the state of New Hampshire and its history. We have a museum with exhibits about different aspects of New Hampshire history, and we have a collection of over 35,000 objects related to New Hampshire and its past…. We are also the Presidential Library for Franklin Pierce. We hold manuscript collections for many well-known New Hampshire people, like David Souter and Daniel Webster. We offer field trips for kids — about 10,000 school kids a year come to the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord. … We offer the statewide social studies curriculum called “Moose on the Loose,” … We support local historical societies and their work. We offer public programs, lectures, tours, workshops on how to do genealogy…. We do a lot of different things.

What is ‘Moose on the Loose’?

It’s an online resource and curriculum about state history, civics, geography and economics. It was created for kids, originally in grades 3 to 6, but we’re expanding it to encompass kindergarten all the way up through 8th grade. It’s a free resource and it’s an open access website. …. It has a lot of content and information but it also has all these images and videos and audio clips and activities and games and things that people can do to learn about New Hampshire history. It’s got lesson plans for educators, virtual field trips and projects…. The URL is moose.nhhistory.org.

What exactly is a presidential library?

We’re kind of the de facto presidential library. Franklin Pierce doesn’t have an official presidential library; modern presidents really have those. Essentially, we hold a huge collection of Franklin Pierce material documenting his political life, his personal life, his family life, his legal practice, all the activities he was involved in, so we have a lot of his possessions. He was a very active member here in the 19th century and he donated objects from his family like his father’s uniform from the American Revolution. We have Franklin Pierce’s sword from the Mexican American war, we have the pen with which he signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act…. His books from his personal library… .

Do you have a favorite historical fact about the Granite State?

Since we’re coming up on the anniversary of the American Revolution, I’ll throw this one out: New Hampshire, they wrote their own state constitution in January of 1776. … What was unique about their Constitution was that they didn’t mention any royal authority, so in a sense they were essentially the first state to declare independence six months before the rest of the colonies issued the Declaration of Independence.

Why is it important for people to learn the history of New Hampshire?

One is just there’s an awful lot to be interested in about New Hampshire and its history and to be proud of its history. It’s done a lot of great things … I also think in general people need to know history because it gives them a sense of perspective. .

What’s another fascinating or fun aspect of New Hampshire history?

One of the items we have in our collection is this thing called the Mystery Stone. It’s like an egg-shaped stone with carvings in it. It’s made out of a kind of rock that doesn’t exist in New Hampshire but it was found in New Hampshire. Nobody knows how it got here. The carvings look like they might be Native American, but they’re not, really. … It’s an out of place object that nobody can figure out how it got here and it was found in 1872 … We have it on display here. It’s been featured in documentaries and people come from all over the country to see the mystery stone. There are all sorts of wild theories about what it is, if it was made by aliens or if it got spewed out of a volcano somewhere else in the world and dropped here in New Hampshire or if it’s a hoax. … The Smithsonian tried to buy it and we refused. We kept it for ourselves. There’s just all sorts of fun and quirky things that you can always find in history. —Zachary Lewis

Featured image: Mystery Stone. Photo courtesy of the NH Historical Society.

News & Notes 24/06/06

Browntail moths

According to a press release, the New Hampshire Forest Health Bureau announced that Browntail moth caterpillar winter webs were located and removed at the Isles of Shoals off the New Hampshire coast in the first confirmed incident of the species in the Granite State in 75 years.

Browntail moth caterpillars have poisonous fine hairs that can produce skin rashes similar to poison ivy even when the exposure to them is airborne, and inhaling the hairs can also cause serious respiratory issues in some individuals, so people should not handle the caterpillars without wearing proper gloves and, if possible, a mask, according to the press release.

The species, which originated in Europe, is fuzzy with a dark brown coloration and has two conspicuous red-orange dots on the tail end. In New England, the moths’ caterpillar stage happens from August to late June, and from April through July is when the risk of exposure to the hairs is greatest, according to the press release.

Their winter webs are small, tight clumps on two or three leaves at the tip of a branch and tend to be completely enclosed in silk, formed in the fall and can be removed any time between November and mid-April; oak and apple trees are the primary hosts for browntail moth caterpillars, but winter webs can also be found in coastal shrubs like beach plum and cherry, as on the Isles of Shoals, according to the press release.

Browntail moth webs are different from the webs of the fall webworm, which are built into big nests in large areas of foliage in autumn, and they also differ from the webs of the eastern tent caterpillar, whose webs are also large but only occur in spring, according to the release.

The browntail moth was accidentally introduced to North America in the late 1800s and spread to all the states of New England, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, according to the release.

Massive federal work projects in the 1920s and 1930s, in cooperation with biocontrol research, reduced the infestation area to a small region along the Maine coast but in 2022 the browntail moth was found in more than 150,000 acres, although mostly in the southern half of the state, according to the same release. Visit nhbugs.org for more information about how to identify browntail moth caterpillars or to report any sightings.

Traditional art grant

The deadline for the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts’ Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant is Friday, June 14, according to their website.

This grant is offered to help communities preserve their cultural heritage and funds a master traditional artist to teach an experienced apprentice in one-to-one sessions for a minimum of 65 hours over six to 10 months, according to the website.

Traditional arts are passed down from one generation to the next within communities andcan evolve as people, communities and the environment interact and transform, according to the website. The State Council on the Arts through its Heritage and Traditional Arts Program seeks to grant a master artist and apprentice team a combined total of up to $4,000 per year with the maximum request for the master artist $3,000 and the maximum request for the apprentice $1,000, according to the same website.

Any traditional artists active in any artistic or cultural expression that can demonstrate there is a community context for the tradition within New Hampshire may apply for a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant. The grant period is Saturday, Nov. 1, 2024, through Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2025. For details on eligibility, types of art included, and how to apply, visit nh.gov/nharts/programservices/traditionalarts.html.

Clinic closures

According to a recent press release from the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, since the unexpected closure of all New England Medicine and Counseling Associates locations in New Hampshire and Vermont, NEMCA patients with prescriptions for controlled medications should try to re-establish care with another medical provider.

According to the release, Emergency Departments may see an increase in patients experiencing withdrawal symptoms or requesting buprenorphine, a medication for the treatment of opioid use disorder, until they can establish with another medical provider.

The New Hampshire locations impacted are at 120 Route 10 South in Grantham, 17 Coit View Drive in Newport, 376 S. Willow St. in Manchester, and 40 Winter St. in Rochester

In a statement, DHHS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jonathan Ballard said that “when patients who have been treated with medications like buprenorphine suddenly lose access to their medication, they are at increased risk of an opioid overdose and may have significant withdrawal symptoms if care is not reestablished quickly.”

The opioid overdose reversal agent naloxone can be obtained through all New Hampshire Doorway locations (thedoorway.nh.gov) or over the counter at pharmacies across the state.

Patients of New England Medicine and Counseling who need assistance with finding a new medical provider can reach out to 211 in New Hampshire.

Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center in Laconia (928 White Oaks Road, prescottfarm.org) will host a workshop on “Poisonous Plants and Natural Hazards” on Saturday, June 8, at 10 a.m. Discover the healing properties of plantain, a common weed found in lawns and fields. Free for members and $25 for nonmembers to register. Visit prescottfarm.org.

Manchester Makerspace (36 Old Granite St.) invites amateur locksmiths for a fun and interactive event to learn the art of lock manipulation at Locksport for Dads on Monday, June 10, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $45 for any adult, or $55 for a father and offspring (recommended for ages 12+). See manchestermakerspace.org. The Makerspace is also hosting an open house night from 6 to 10 p.m. that night.

Led Zeppelin tribute show Kashmir comes to the Nashua Center for the Arts (201 Main St., Nashua, 800-657-8774, nashuacenterforthearts.com) Saturday, June 8, at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $29.

Ivory dreams

Dueling piano bar new in Manchester

Sonya Gelinas embodies the spirit of an entrepreneur. She and her husband, Josh Philbrick, run The Smoothie Bus, a mobile business that now has brick-and-mortar locations. Gelinas is also CEO of CARE Counseling Services, with offices in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and she’s one of the company’s therapists.

So when Gelinas strolled past the former Black Brimmer in downtown Manchester a few years back and imagined turning it into a dueling pianos bar, it was inevitable that she’d see the idea through to fruition. When Penuche’s shuttered, she and Josh began to make a move.

On May 2, Keys Piano Bar & Grill had its soft opening; a bigger celebration will happen later. For now, every Friday and Saturday has a pair of pianists playing audience requests, bantering and leading sing-alongs to favorites like “Friends In Low Places.” There’s also a spinning wheel containing several NSFW stunts.

Gelinas became a fan of dueling pianos while she was attending college in Tampa, Florida, where she regularly went to Howl at the Moon, a chain of bars. “I had so much fun, so those memories are embedded in my mind forever,” she said during an interview in Keys’ downstairs sports bar.

She’s looking to recreate that feeling at Keys.

“We want to be in line with what Howl at the Moon has created. We want a very interactive experience,” she said. “We want to have a place where people can go out and sing along and have fun and interact with the pianist…. That’s our goal, really, just a lot of audience participation.”

When she first began dreaming about opening Keys, Gelinas wanted a franchised version of the place she fell in love with in Tampa. “I said, I’m going to turn that into a Howl at the Moon one of these days. But Howl at the Moon doesn’t franchise, so we couldn’t do that. We had to build our own,” she said.

A Manchester native — she graduated from Central High in 2001 — Gelinas has a sentimental streak for the energy at the old “Brimmer” and hopes to bring it back.

“I’ve heard a lot of stories,” she said. “We had one couple come in, and they’re like, do you know we met here? Twenty years ago, we met here at the Brimmer. That’s really cool … it is kind of a hallowed space.”

Keys has launched a Caribbean-themed menu with jerk chicken, a Cubano sandwich and Island Fusion Tacos among the dishes. Also, they offer an adult take on the couple’s daytime business.

“We have eight different frozen boozy smoothies, which will be nice on a hot summer day,” Gelinas said.

Shows are free, but the only way to guarantee a seat at the bar is by signing up on the Keys website. Every performance is preceded by a party. “People can come in and eat during that time or have a couple drinks,” Gelinas said. “That way when the show’s on they’re just ready to have fun.”

A rotating cast of performers is provided by Shake, Rattle and Roll Pianos, a New York City agency.

“Every weekend we can expect a different combination, which makes it really exciting, but these aren’t just pianists, they’re entertainers,” she said. “That’s what makes them special. I’ve been to enough dueling piano shows to know that the personality of the guy behind the keys is way more important than whether or not they can play or sing.”

Keys Piano Bar & Grill has a lot in common with the couple’s other ventures.

“We build businesses based [on] passion,” Gelinas said. “My husband and I were really fond of helping people live happier lives, which is perfectly in line with the smoothie shop…. I know when I drink a smoothie every day I feel good. My health care business is about making people better. Now we have this venue, which is all about bringing people together, in happiness and fun.”

Dueling Pianos
When: Fridays and Saturdays (pre-party 6:30 p.m., show 7:30 p.m.)
Where: Keys Piano Bar & Grill, 1087 Elm St., Manchester
Tickets: keysmanch.com

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (R)

A young girl is stolen from a “place of abundance” and introduced into the harsh world of post-apocalyptic Australia in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, a downbeat and fairly unnecessary origin story for the character played by Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road.

I mean, I assume it’s Australia, because of the accents and the Mad Max of it all.

As we learned in Fury Road, Furiosa (Alyla Browne as a kid, Anya Taylor-Joy as an older angrier girl) grew up in the “green place” in a world (or, at least, an Australia) that was otherwise a war-torn, resource-scarce desert. Due to some technical difficulties at the theater I went to, I missed the first few minutes of the movie and started watching as young girl Furiosa is thrown over the seat of some marauding grungy dude’s motorcycle. Her mother (Charlee Fraser) goes after her, both to save Furiosa and to prevent the three grungy bikers who are stealing her away from telling anybody about their hidden fertile land. With the help of a resourceful Furiosa, her mom is able to eventually kill all the kidnappers before they can tell the secrets of the “place of abundance” as they describe it. But she can’t get to Furiosa before the girl is taken to Dementus (Chris Hemsworth, thoroughly de-handsomed with some fun prosthetics), the biker gang leader. Furiosa won’t give up her homeland’s location, even when he is torturing her mother, but Dementus decides to keep her around, perhaps hoping that one day she might lead him there.

Eventually Dementus hears about another “place of abundance” — the Citadel run by Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), the skull-face-breathing-mask guy from Fury Road. Dementus decides he and his gang will take it over but his first attempt fails in the face of Joe’s overwhelming force of War Boys. He hatches a craftier scheme to gain control of Gasland, one of the wasteland fortresses and the source of fuel for Joe’s empire. Eventually, Dementus makes a deal with Joe for him (Dementus) to run Gasland in exchange for Joe getting Furiosa as one of his eventual brides. Furiosa is still a kid, mostly non-talking, when this deal is made, and after a few days of watching a childbirth and trying to dodge Joe’s creeper sons (Josh Helman, Nathan Jones) she runs off and hides among the mechanics at the Citadel, posing as a boy.

Years later, when she has grown into Taylor-Joy, Furiosa becomes a worker on a newly crafted War Rig. After a battle with raiders during the initial run, the truck’s driver Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) realizes: that Furiosa is a badass during a fight, that Furiosa is a girl and that he rather likes this badass girl. They do food-for-fuel runs together, with Furiosa hiding her rage toward Dementus until his growing recklessness puts him in direct conflict with Immortan Joe — and eventually with her.

In Fury Road it was Theron doing the big, interesting performance; here it’s Hemsworth. Not unlike Mad Max, Dementus lost his family — a stuffed animal that belonged to his long-gone children is always strapped somewhere to his person. He seems to cause chaos and suffering not for any particular thrill but because it’s something to do. Likewise, his interest in seizing power seems more like a nonchalant troll than an ambition for leadership. Hemsworth, the actor, seems to enjoy the scruffy unprettiness of his character.

His general rightness for the role unfortunately highlights the “not quite” fit of Taylor-Joy with the Furiosa role. Or maybe it’s the role that’s just not that exciting. Something about the character just doesn’t quite have the same pull as in Fury Road.

Also not quite standing up to the predecessor for me are the visual elements. Though one of Furiosa’s more successful components, they don’t quite smack you in the face the way they did in Fury Road. I do think the fact that we’ve seen this desert wasteland and the mutant-like people who populate it before — all dirt-caked and weird hats and the whole War Boy body paint thing — reduces the wow factor. Also, you know, it’s more sand. The second Dune maybe filled my “the beautiful wasteland of sand dunes” needs for a while.

I said about Fury Road that it was a B movie with first-class movie visuals, and that is true here. The B-movie-ness pokes through constantly and it’s a not unfun aspect of the movie. I don’t know if it’s a sense of humor, exactly, but the movie definitely has a smirky quality that when paired with the stop-motion-y-speedy-closeup thing does give you that overall “schlocky in a good way” vibe. At 90-ish minutes, this would be kind of a bummer romp — all despair and ruin but with hints of camp. At its actual two-hour-and-nearly-30-minute run time, it’s got more of a saga feel, yes, but in the slog sense rather than the “sweeping epic adventure and drama” sense. I feel like this movie, like the cobbled together cars in it, should get me in the audience all revved up and “ha, let’s go, crazy racers!” Instead, I felt more grumpy, more “OK, movie, tick tock, let’s go.” C+

Rated R for sequences of strong violence and grisly images, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by George Miller and written by George Miller and Nick Lathouris, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is two hours and 28 minutes long and is distributed in theaters by Warner Bros.

Featured photo: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Stay in the loop!

Get FREE weekly briefs on local food, music,

arts, and more across southern New Hampshire!