Category: Featured Content

News & Notes 22/03/24

Covid-19 update As of March 14 As of March 21
Total cases statewide 300,511 301,308
Total current infections statewide 821 911
Total deaths statewide 2,417 2,436
New cases 860 (March 8 to March 14) 797 (March 15 to March 21)
Current infections: Hillsborough County 196 242
Current infections: Merrimack County 67 65
Current infections: Rockingham County 142 151
Information from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.

Covid-19 news

On March 16, the state Department of Health & Human Services announced in a press release that its 11 state-managed Covid-19 vaccination sites will permanently close on March 31. Additionally, four of the seven mobile vaccination teams will demobilize that same day. The announcement comes just one day after health officials permanently closed all of the state-run testing sites. Vaccines are still easily accessible through medical providers, pharmacies, urgent care centers and mobile vaccination clinics, the release said.

State health officials announced 53 new positive Covid test results on March 21. The state averaged 119 new cases per day over the most recent seven-day period, a 4 percent increase compared to the week before. Hospitalizations continue to be low, at just 30 statewide as of March 21 — that’s the fewest since Aug. 2 of last year.

Child advocate plan

Last week the state Office of the Child Advocate released its 2022-2025 Strategic Plan, a collaboration of members of the community and state leaders. Child Advocate Moira O’Neill said in a press release that forming the plan was an “opportunity to engage with the broader community to co-create a road map for deeper impact and lasting system reform,” and input was received from children, parents, foster parents, providers, attorneys, government leaders and the Oversight Commission on Children’s Services. According to the release, the plan was developed after looking at the office’s progress and talking to the community about its future vision, mission, values, priorities and needed changes. Focus groups and interviews showed that the four-year-old Office of the Child Advocate is “respected, reliable and transparent,” the release said, but it is still not well-known throughout the state. Another issue is an unbalance of independent oversight with collaborative relationships; both of those problems could be attributed in part to not having enough staffing, the release said. The Strategic Plan has four goals: continue to be responsive to complaints, incidents and opportunities to improve the state’s support and protection of children; expand public knowledge of the office as a resource to understand and advocate for children; invest in building the capacity of the office to support the safety and well-being of children; and strengthen and expand relationships with system partners based in trust, collaboration and impact. According to the release, O’Neill has completed her four-year term of service and is waiting for the governor to appoint a replacement.

SleepOut

On Friday, March 25, hundreds of people in the Granite State will sleep outside for Waypoint’s eighth annual SleepOut, which raises awareness and funds to help end youth homelessness in New Hampshire. According to a press release, the funds will support Waypoint’s new overnight youth shelter in Manchester and its drop-in resource centers in Concord and Rochester, as well as help sustain its existing services. This year’s event will be held remotely, with sleepers spending the night outside at a place of their choosing and sharing the experience virtually. The online event will also be livestreamed on the agency’s Facebook page, allowing members of the community to show their support even if they are not registered sleepers. Last year, Waypoint had nearly 1,500 contacts with youth who were on the streets and offered services like survival aid, basic needs relief, educational support, job and life skills training, driver’s ed, access to mental health services and more, the release said. Visit waypointnh.org.

Oil tank leaks

The New Hampshire Insurance Department has received numerous questions from consumers regarding insurance coverage for cleanup costs associated with heating oil spills. According to a press release, those costs can exceed $100,000, and there are no admitted insurance carriers in the state who cover home heating oil spills. However, the state Department of Environmental Services has two programs to help consumers who have home heating oil tanks that have leaked or are in danger of leaking: the Safetank Program and the Petroleum Reimbursement Fund Program. The Safetank Program provides financial assistance to income qualified homeowners — up to $2,250 to upgrade or remove and replace an above-ground oil tank and up to $2,500 to remove an underground tank. The Petroleum Reimbursement Fund Program reimburses costs incurred by DES-required cleanup at eligible properties where a petroleum release has occurred from a tank system, with coverage of up to $500,000. The Insurance Department encourages homeowners to upgrade or replace their heating oil tanks before a release occurs, the release said.

A presentation and conversation called “The Russian Invasion of Ukraine – Why Did it Happen? What Are the Global Implications?” will be held Tuesday, March 29, at 6:30 p.m. at the Goffstown Public Library, according to a press release. Registration to attend in person or virtually is required at https://bit.ly/GPLUkraine329.

Last week, Memorial, Central and West high schools in Manchester hosted their first-ever Sports Nights, where representatives from high school and middle school athletics and youth sports leagues in the city came together to help students find a sport they love. According to a press release, the event also highlighted the schools’ current student-athlete stars who have signed with colleges and universities to compete for them next year.

Daytime road work on the Route 101 Bridge replacement project in Bedford has begun and, according to a press release, there will be alternating one-way traffic between 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Route 101 from Twin Brook Lane to Joppa Hill Road. Construction will continue in the area throughout the summer and fall, the release said.

Jersey Mike’s Subs locations in New Hampshire — most locally in Londonderry, Hudson and Plaistow — are supporting the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games through its 12th Annual March “Month of Giving” campaign. According to a press release, customers can make a donation at any Jersey Mike’s to help local Team NH athletes get to the Games, happening in June in Orlando. On March 30, Jersey Mike’s will have a “Day of Giving,” when the restaurants will give 100 percent of the day’s sales — not just profits — to the Games, the release said.

Saying goodbye

Fifteen years ago, as a new board member of the Animal Rescue League of NH, I pulled into the parking lot one day and met the sweetest beagle out for a walk. I went home and began negotiating with my husband, anxious for our 2-year-old son to have a canine companion to grow up with. He reminded me we were leaving on vacation. We agreed if the dog was still there when we got back, we could bring it home. The dog was adopted in the interim, but a few weeks later I received a call that he had been returned.

Potter and his sibling had both arrived at the shelter as strays. Their owner had been called but declined to pick them up. The shelter staff estimated Potter’s age as 1 at the time. When I saw Potter’s patience with our curious toddler, I knew he was meant for us. That patience never wavered with our son, nor with the next beagle I brought home, nor with the addition of a Brittany spaniel, and certainly never with our grandchildren.

This is not to say Potter didn’t have his quirks. UPS deliveries were a challenge as he assumed responsibility for judiciously guarding the front door from any drivers of brown trucks. A few years ago I noticed Potter no longer reacted to the sound of the UPS truck, and we soon realized he had gone completely deaf.

As he entered his senior years he slowed down remarkably, spending his days sleeping in his favorite chair, only rising (punctually) for his four meals a day. As one aging issue developed into another, Potter received his very own pill box so we could better manage his medications. We arranged our schedules to accommodate mealtimes and meds. He became increasingly anxious and restless, frequently pacing throughout the night, symptoms of doggie Alzheimer’s.

The past several months, we have struggled with when to let him go. At a recent vet visit, Potter became aggressive with the vet staff. I knew then that it was time, his pain and confusion causing atypical behavior for him. Potter did his job well, and the little boy who grew up with him is now a 17-year-old teenager. I will be forever grateful that he chose us all those years ago to be his forever home. His steadfast love and companionship made our family whole. He has more than held up his end of the deal and it is time to bid him farewell. May you rest in peace, our sweet boy.

Shape shifter

With a new album, Samantha Fish hits Manchester

Until New Year’s Day delivered omicron to the world, Samantha Fish was looking forward to a European tour in March. Like so many of her plans over the last two years, it was postponed. But the continent’s loss is America’s gain, as Fish is now doing a co-headlining tour with the Devon Allman Project. A St. Patrick’s Day stop in Manchester is, ironically, a replacement date for a canceled Allman Betts Band show at the Palace Theatre.

Singer-guitarist Fish’s latest album, Faster, is another step away from the blues sound that defined her early days, earning her supporters like Buddy Guy. “Hypnotic” evokes mid-’80s Prince from its first notes, a synth-y stew that also hints what David Bowie’s collaboration with Stevie Ray Vaughan might have produced had it lasted more than one album.

Produced by Martin Kierszenbaum (Lady Gaga, Sting), the new record’s most engaging departure is “Loud.” A rock/hip-hop mashup featuring rapper Tech N9ne, who like Fish hails from Kansas City, it’s a solid genre-bender. In a recent phone interview, Fish sounded amazed that she’d lured “Eminem’s favorite all-time rapper” to work with her.

“When I first met Martin, we went to Tech’s studio to work in one of the writing rooms,” she said. “Martin just sort of brought it up offhand, like, ‘It would be really cool to have Tech on a record.’ I just kind of laughed it off; I never thought he would in a million years. Then, he actually went and got him.”

The new record is a buoyant, danceable celebration, but it didn’t begin that way; Fish started writing in the pandemic’s early days, fresh off a narrow exit from an overseas tour that had her spending nearly two days in airports.

“I went through a lot of feelings and different phases of just dealing with this terrible thing that was going on,” Fish said. “All I could do was really go sit in my house and write.”

That’s how every record begins, Fish said, but “the introduction of it is never what it ends up being.”

She shifted gears when her new producer entered the frame. “When I met Martin, I just kind of got this really infectious energy, enthusiastic and encouraging and very positive overall,” she said.

His mood compelled Fish to “write songs that were fun, that made people feel good. I wanted to have an energetic show; I wanted to come out jumping around after this pandemic. I feel like this record really serves that kind of an approach, and it feels nice to be able to own that.”

Along with producing, Kierszenbaum co-wrote several tracks and played on most of the record, while Rob Orton (Lana Del Ray, Sting, Mumford & Sons) did the mixing.

“I just feel like it has this level of … I don’t want to call it gloss, which sounds like a bad thing, but it’s got sparkle to it that I don’t know has been present in my past work. I really admire Martin for his ability to pull that out.”

Fish started her own record label a few years back and has produced two records by Jonathan Long and another one for Nicholas David.

“My job as a producer is to help the artists facilitate their vision and to make it cohesive and also get it done on time and under budget — you know, like the boring part,” she said. “I like helping people shape their vision, help them get what they want, and that’s been kind of a fun journey for me.”

For the upcoming show Fish expects a well-rounded evening. Allman’s band will include two special guests: harmonica player and vocalist Jimmy Hall of Southern rock stalwarts Wet Willie and veteran blues guitarist Larry McCray. Each band will play a full set, and they’ll end up together at evening’s end.

“It’s going to be a collaborative event, but also evenly showcasing our bands and our music,” Fish said. “You know, the best of all worlds.”

Devon Allman Project with Samantha Fish Band & River Kittens
When: Thursday, March 17, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester
Tickets: $35 and up at palacetheatre.org

Featured photo: Samantha Fish. Photo Credit Kevin King.

Turning Red (PG)

Turning Red (PG)

A 13-year-old girl discovers that strong emotion transforms her into a red panda in the Pixar animated movie Turning Red, a movie about puberty, moms and daughters, friends and, occasionally, Canadian-ness.

The kids at Lester B. Pearson School hustle to earn loonies in this 2002-era Toronto. Add that to the bits of late-1990s, early aughts culture — Tamagotchis, Backstreet/’N Sync-y boy bands — and Turning Red is a smorgasbord of delightful little surprise moments nestled in some top-tier storytelling.

Thirteen-year-old Meilin Lee (voice of Rosalie Chang) enjoys being a rules-following straight arrow who crushes it at school and is a dutiful daughter at home. Or has she just convinced herself she enjoys it because she has always been so eager for her mother’s (voice of Sandra Oh) approval? But her mother doesn’t understand about 4*Town, the boy band that has Mei and her friend group — Miriam (voice of Ava Morse), Abby (voice of Hyein Park) and Priya (voice of Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) — all aflutter. Mei herself doesn’t understand her buddies’ lusting over Devon (Addie Chandler), the 17-year-old who works at the local convenience store whom Mei thinks “looks like a hobo.” “Yeah, a hot hobo,” Abby says. Yuck, is Mei’s opinion, until all of a sudden one day it very much isn’t and she feverishly fills a notebook with sketches of herself and Devon, who is sometimes a merman in these drawings.

When Ming, Mei’s mom, finds the sketches, she marches a mortified Mei right down to the store so Ming can yell at a clueless Devon about how Mei is just an innocent little girl and he had better stay away and a bunch of other things that make the world sort of fall in on Mei in a way that is as hilarious as it is horrifying (so much of this movie about this drama-and-zits phase of life is hilarious and horrifying). After a night of absolute agony over this never-to-be-recovered-from embarrassment, Mei wakes up to find that her body has become unrecognizably hairy and stinky and big.

Which, like, who hasn’t been there? But in Mei’s specific case, she has become an actual polar-bear-sized red panda.

“It’s happened already?” says Mei’s dad, Jin (voice of Orion Lee), when Mei’s parents find out about her transformation. It turns out that the family, which runs a temple dedicated to their ancestors, doesn’t just have a symbolic connection to red pandas but an actual one. A long ago-ancestor gained the ability to turn herself into a red panda to protect herself and her daughters, a power passed to every woman in the family since then. Now living in modern days, the women find the fur, the size and perhaps the anger an annoyance, as Ming explains, and they undergo a ritual to harness their panda-ness so that sudden emotional changes don’t lead to a tail and ears popping out. (There is a whole graduate dissertation to be written about this movie’s very clever handling of women and their relationship with anger.)

Mei learns that while extreme emotions can bring on the red panda, calming feelings of love and acceptance can help her turn back into a girl (one whose dark hair is now red). What Mei doesn’t tell her mother is that those peaceful feelings come not from her parents but from her group of besties, a sign that she is growing into her own person, apart from her mother. Her buddies, when they learn about the panda, aren’t repelled by the gross monster Mei feels she is and tell her they’ll be there for her no matter what — especially when “what” turns into a surprising money-making opportunity. The other kids at school are charmed and delighted by the big fuzzy red panda and will fork over their hard-earned loonies for pictures of the panda and panda merch — the perfect way for the girls to earn the money they need to buy tickets to the upcoming 4*Town concert.

Remember the end of Pixar’s Inside Out when the “puberty” button showed up on the control panel inside the emotional control center of the 12-year-old protagonist? Turning Red thematically picks its story up from there, with the fully realized, well-rounded and imperfect person that is Mei suddenly finding herself with all these new emotions and desires and thoughts. It isn’t that she’s “becoming a woman,” the blech-y phrase the movie repeats just enough to drive home the goofiness of putting all that on either getting your period or seeing a boy band, but that she’s finding new facets of herself and trying to figure out how to integrate them into who she has always understood herself to be. And, sorry to spoil the ending for you, kids, but this is basically a thing that continues for forever, as Mei’s growing up and growing apart from Ming means that Ming is also seeing some part of her identity change. What is a delight about Turning Red is that we don’t have to get all in to Ming’s head and her adult issues to see this; this movie (unlike, say, Toy Story 4 or Cars 3 or all the other movies that feel like middle-aged people working out their midlife identity crises) stays focused on Mei and her various relationships as she sees them. And it does this without making Ming either all correct or all wrong. This is another one of those Pixar movies where there is no “bad guy” per se, no person doing evil but more just a group of people, each person with their own Stuff, working through some difficulties.

Before I make this sound like a total afterschool special (which, actually, this would be a great addition to some health class about “your changing body”), Turning Red is a boisterous good time with lots of smart observations about teen life, pop music, parental expectations, the appeal of kittens. I feel like the physicality of the red panda comedy would probably make this movie fun for even middle-elementary kids (maybe 9 or so and up). And the lessons about watching your kid become their own awesome self, however painful the loss of their younger version, and the movie’s overall joy — not to mention some truly beautiful animation — is a good time for an older audience as well. A+

Rated PG for thematic material, suggestive content and language, according to the MPA on film ratings.com. Directed by Domee Shi with a screenplay by Julia Cho & Domee Shi, Turning Red is an hour and 40 minutes long and is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on Disney+.

Featured photo: Turning Red.

Stories around the table

Rambling House and TaleSpinner Brewery open in Nashua

Since Debbie and Denis Gleeson founded The Nature of Things (now known as 2nd Nature Academy) in 1997, the South Nashua school has evolved to have a multi-faceted curriculum focused on sustainability — the Gleesons also operate a sister farm where they raise their own eggs, lamb and cattle. Twenty-five years later, the couple has a new locally sourced restaurant with a seasonally rotating menu, along with an accompanying craft brewery onsite.

Rambling House Food & Gathering opened March 4 on Factory Street and it’s a true family affair — all three of the Gleesons’ daughters, Erin, Kerry and Meghan Ayer, are co-founders, while TaleSpinner Brewery is spearheaded by their uncle Dave, a longtime avid homebrewer.

Multiple connections to the family’s farm or school are present, from spent beer grains going back to feed the cows, to baked goods sourced directly from the campus’s commercial kitchen. It’s a concept that’s been several years in the making, said Erin Gleeson, who serves as president.

“When I was graduating college, I had it in my mind that I wanted to run my own business [and] I was interested in food, craft cocktails and farming,” she said. “I think what we were finding was that there were places around to eat and drink, but they felt like just that, places to just eat or just drink. … What we’re trying to be … is more of a community gathering space. That was our goal, and I think luckily since the time we started thinking about this, a lot of that has been popping up in Nashua. It’s growing in that way, which I definitely think is the right direction.”

In addition to the Gleesons’ own farm, the eatery’s dinner and bar menus feature ingredients sourced from purveyors all over New England, and an in-house cafe with locally roasted coffee and grab-and-go items is expected soon. Here’s a closer look at each core part of the business.

Rambling House

Erin and Kerry’s paternal grandfather, Maurice Gleeson, immigrated to the United States from Ireland as a teenager. Growing up on a farm in the small village of Glenflesk in County Kerry, Maurice would visit a traditional “rambling house,” an informal inn of sorts that was known by all the locals as the family home to come gather and share stories, play games or listen to music.

cocktail in glass with ice, set on fire
Crohan craft cocktail. Photo by Donna Desimone Photography.

“It was just the spot where everyone knew in the community to be almost like that safe harbor, and it was also the place where a weary traveler was always welcomed in by the fire to lay their head for the night,” Kerry Gleeson said. “He’d tell us all the time about how when he was young he would go visit the rambling house that was up the street from him. … He had such fond memories of it, and we just loved that sentiment, so that was a no-brainer for us for the name.”

Today, the Gleesons remain very much connected to their Irish heritage. Framed photographs taken by Maurice throughout the 1950s and early ’60s adorn the walls, and a small plaque by the door heading out to the upstairs balcony proclaims the “Margaret Mary Martha Murphy Mezzanine,” an inside joke and reference to their cousin overseas, with whom they are close.

But despite the strong family influences, Rambling House is not an Irish pub — rather, what you’ll find here is a diverse offering of meat, seafood and vegetarian options that will change every few months based on product availability and seasonality.

“We’re going to start with four menus a year, but that will probably grow to six menus a year, because our seasons are a little quick,” Erin Gleeson said. “We’ll keep a lot of the skeleton of the menu, so for example we’ll always have a burger on it, but the toppings will be different. We’ll always have a chicken [dish] on it but it might not be the lemon roast chicken we have now.”

The Gleesons have brought on Jeremy Guyotte to serve as the eatery’s head chef. A native of Gloucester, Mass., Guyotte has extensive experience working with seafood, notably during culinary stints he spent at Captain Carlo’s Oceanfront and at Passports Restaurant in Cape Ann.

Out of the gate, seafoods at Rambling House include a pancetta-wrapped Atlantic monkfish loin; pub mussels sourced from Blue Hill Bay in Maine with tasso ham, onion and herbs; and a bouillabaisse, featuring shrimp, scallops, mussels, littleneck clams and whitefish.

“When Jeremy first started making us seafood samples, we were like, ‘Oh, my gosh, who have we brought on?’” Kerry Gleeson said. “He is an artist, and our sous chef, Karyn [Polley], is fantastic too. She has been with us even longer, working at the school.”

Other menu items, like the porchetta and the shepherd’s pie, have so far received rave reviews. The latter is a traditional version made with lamb, veggies and house herbed gravy.

Baker Angel Lopez is an ardent bread maker and Erin Gleeson herself even makes her own small-batch ice cream, passion projects that are now part of Rambling House’s menu respectively in the form of desserts like brioche bread pudding and house brownie sundaes.

The restaurant’s main dining area features a unique post and beam layout with a bartop and shelves all designed by Erin and Kerry’s brother-in-law, Kyle Ayer of Green Building & Consulting Group. Once it gets a little warmer, an outdoor rooftop deck with additional seating areas will open, offering panoramic overhead views of the Nashua River.

“Our favorite thing so far is that when you’re up on that top deck, that skyline is where you can see the fireworks on the Fourth of July,” Erin Gleeson said.

A full bar features TaleSpinner brews on tap, in addition to a menu of craft cocktails, hard ciders, wines, non-alcoholic beer and hard kombucha. The cafe, meanwhile, is at the front of the restaurant and will soon be offering coffee from Bedford’s Flight Coffee Co., as well as various takeaway items like baked goods and breakfast sandwiches.

TaleSpinner Brewery

On the first level below Rambling House, TaleSpinner Brewery can be accessed through the opposite end of the building, on the Water Street side. The tasting room is at the top of a short flight of stairs from the entrance, and overlooks its full production area.

The brewery, which opened a few weeks earlier than its restaurant counterpart, was similarly named with Erin and Kerry Gleeson’s grandfather — described by Kerry as “a consummate tale spinner,” or storyteller — in mind. Their uncle Dave works closely with head brewer Scott Karlen to create TaleSpinner’s lineup of brews, which currently include a few New England-style IPAs, in addition to a Belgian blonde ale, a raspberry sour, a German-New Zealand Pilsner lager, and a Belgian strong ale. They’re also working on a peach apricot sour and an Imperial brunch stout with maple syrup, cacao nibs, vanilla bean and coffee from Flight Coffee Co. There are a total of 24 taplines: a dozen each in the restaurant and brewery.

“My uncle … made great stuff as a homebrewer and had a passion for it, and it became part of a conversation that it would be really fun to open a brewery,” Kerry Gleeson said. “So it was a natural sort of thing where the two concepts just fit into each other like puzzle pieces.”

A small bar menu is available out of the tasting room, featuring some items you’ll find upstairs at Rambling House, as well as others mostly exclusive to that space, like the fish and chips, the poutine and the duck confit flatbread. Those items, while not on the regular dinner menu at the restaurant, do become available upstairs as well after 9 p.m., Kerry Gleeson said.

Guyotte will sometimes cross-utilize TaleSpinner’s products with his food, notably a beer gravy for the poutine and spent grain waffles for the chicken and waffle sliders.

“There’s definitely a cycle with everything, and we want to build on that and make it as close to coming full circle as we can,” Kerry Gleeson said.

Rambling House Food & Gathering and TaleSpinner Brewery
Where: 57 Factory St., Nashua, Suites A and B
Current hours: Wednesday and Thursday, 4 to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5 to 11 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. (extended hours likely coming soon)
More info: Visit ramblingtale.com or follow them on social media (@ourramblinghouse and @talespinnerbrew on Facebook, and @ramblinghouse and @talespinnerbrew on Instagram)
TaleSpinner Brewery’s entrance is accessed at the opposite end of the building on Water Street.

Featured photo: Winter charcuterie. Photo by Donna Desimone Photography.

Backyard Sugarhouse

New space and new equipment for Beaver Brook Maple

Curiosity — that’s essentially how Andrew Mattiace ended up with the brand new sugarhouse on his property in Bow. After his grandmother’s funeral in 2017, Mattiace and his family visited her favorite sugarhouse in Charlestown; at one point, Mattiace looked at the evaporator and thought, “This thing just boils water? I can do this.”

So, being a “curious engineer,” he built his own evaporator, tapped some maple trees in his backyard, and in 2018 produced maple syrup for the first time — a whopping 5 gallons.

“The first year was horrendous,” he laughed.

Mattiace learned mostly by scouring the internet, and then through trial and error — and there were a lot of errors, he said. But what he produced in the end was good stuff, worthy of bottling and selling.

“It was like, OK, I can make syrup now, but how do I sell it?” he said.

He decided to build a self-serve farmstand on his property and named his business Beaver Brook Maple. Once he started selling, the demand quickly outpaced how much he was producing, even after he started to get the hang of it.

Andrew Mattiace’s sugarhouse at Beaver Brook Maple. Photos by Meghan Siegler.

Mattiace now has plenty of sap, tapping into some of his neighbors’ trees too. On a recent Friday 13-year-old Miles Miller and his dad Joe dropped off almost 130 gallons of sap from their own trees. It was their second run of the week; a few days earlier, they’d brought 80. Miles, who does the majority of the tree tapping and sap collecting, walked away Friday with $55 for that day’s delivery. He said they’ve lucked out with the maple trees on their property.

“They have a pretty high sugar content,” he said.

With neighbors selling him sap and plenty of people buying his syrup, the sugarhouse was the next logical step for Mattiace. He wanted to upsize his tank to produce more syrup in a shorter period of time.

Plus, he said, “I got tired of freezing my a** off. It’s very laborious and time consuming, and I wanted to get out of the outdoor process.”

His old evaporator processed eight gallons of sap in an hour, while the new one can process 35 gallons. His goal for this year is to produce 50 gallons of syrup, up from 23 last year, which will be much easier with the new equipment and warmer space, he said.

Mattiace isn’t in this for the money. In fact, if he sells those 50 gallons, he’ll just about break even.

“If I count my labor, I’m completely in the red,” he said.

Mattiace doesn’t want to grow Beaver Brook Maple into a big business. He has a full-time job that pays the bills, and this “hobby” already takes a lot of time.

“I want to make it worthwhile, but I never want to exceed 100 gallons a year,” he said.

Mattiace’s main goal has always been to create a sense of community, a place where friends and family come to hang out.

“That’s a real driving factor for me,” he said. “Everybody loves sweet, sugary things.”

Featured photo: Andrew Mattiace and his new sugarhouse at Beaver Brook Maple. Photos by Meghan Siegler.

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