An impromptu party a couple of summers ago is the impetus for a two-day event blending live music, movement, camping, inclusion and environmental responsibility. The Barefoot Music & Arts Festival happens at a yoga center in the woods of Hillsboro that’s popular for healing retreats and farm-to-table community dinners. It’s not the first place that comes to mind for a mini-Woodstock, and that’s part of the inspiration.
The Evocatives, an eclectic, electric reggae sextet, played an evening show at Bethel Farm Yoga and Living Art Center that was closed out with a DJ set by the son of farm owner Steve Bethel. The vibe was infectious, as revelers danced late into the night.
“It put a little bug in our brains,” Evocatives singer Jennifer Bakalar said by phone recently. “Maybe we want to turn this into something that we could do again … share it with more people.”
Fifteen performers are booked to perform over two nights, but this is no simple rock show, Bakalar said.
“We really wanted to have a clear intention, so we decided on two founding principles,” she said. “Whatever we did needed to live up to the names ‘Leave No Trace’ and ‘Radical Inclusion.’”
The first principle is easy to understand and is detailed in a National Park Service article linked on the festival website. The second is less concrete. “It’s just about being the kind of human that you’d want to run into at a festival,” Bakalar said, “and a willingness to tolerate ambiguity or open-endedness. Maybe not necessarily understand but be OK with it.”
It begins with a varied musical lineup that includes singer-songwriters Tyler Allgood, Caylin Costello, Jon Stephens and Ian Galipeau doing sets, Cajun and zydeco dance music from Bayou X, led by New Orleans native Peter Simoneaux, along with the jammy Modern Fools. Electronica duo Deep Seize blends hand pans with hip-hop and funky grooves; psychedelic folk band Party of the Sun and indie rockers Hug the Dog are some of the other acts.
In addition to leading his eponymous jazz trio, Ben Jennings will help in a community kitchen. “We expect people to bring a lot of their own food because they’re camping,” Bakalar said, “but we also want to offer something for the crew and the volunteers, and for people that might not have packed enough. He has a great chili recipe, so he’s going to do a huge batch.”
Such collective spirit is the underlying ethos of the festival. All musicians are donating their time, but any profits beyond production costs will be split.
“Anyone who had a stake, who was really invested and involved” will share, Bakalar said, adding, “it’s been amazing how things have kind of fallen into place; any time there’s been a real significant need, someone has stepped up and found a way for us to fill it.”
When onstage performances are over, the festival crowd will provide the music.
“We have a drum circle planned around a fire,” Bakalar said. “Bring your drums, sit around the fire, and drum until it’s time for bed.”
There’s plenty beyond music; everyone is encouraged to participate.
“It’s going to be whatever people make it to be,” Bakalar said. “If you don’t try a class or… explore the art, you’re only going to have a limited experience of the festival.”
Bakalar is an art teacher and enjoys giving her brethren a platform.
“I don’t think they get that opportunity often enough in a way that really does them justice,” she said. “We have two visual artists that are coming to do an installation and make their work on site, [and] we have a vendor village full of artists making things and selling things that they’ve made, artwork, face painting, temporary tattoo, artwork, that kind of stuff.”
The living arts aspect is particularly unique. “Yoga, breathwork classes, movement workshops, self-massage, things that I’ve never even tried I’m really excited about,” Bakalar said, adding that all yoga classes are complimentary. “Really, if you were a yoga fan, coming for all the free workshops that we’re offering would be well worth the value of the ticket.”
When attendees leave their tidy campsites, carrying anything non-recyclable in a compostable trash bag provided by the festival organizers, Bakalar wants no one to feel exhausted.
“It’s a festival where you’re not walking away from it feeling like you need a few days to recover before you can go back to work; it’ll feel inspiring and rejuvenating and creative,” she said. “It’s not just a crazy music festival. It’s about community and really building something that’s sustainable that we could do again and keep doing in years to come.”
Barefoot Music & Arts Festival When: Friday, Aug. 4, at 5 p.m. through Saturday Aug 5, at 10 p.m. Where: Bethel Farm & Yoga Studio, 34 Bethel Road, Hillsboro Tickets: Two-day passes $90.57, Friday only $43.61, Saturday only $54.92 at theticketing.co
Friday lineup: Tyler Allgood Caylin Costello Lord Magnolia Bayou X Superbug Evocatives Saturday lineup: Jon Stephens Ian Galipeau Party of the Sun Deep Seize Modern Fools The Ben Jennings Trio Evocatives Hug the Dog DJ Flex
LaKeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson and Tiffany Haddish all board Haunted Mansion, a particularly strong ride-to-movie translation.
This is basically the ride — all wacky paintings and expanding rooms and floating candelabras — with the story serving as the car on a track that takes us from the murderous ghost bride to the head (Jamie Lee Curtis) in the crystal ball.
Doctor Gabbie (Dawson) and her son Travis (Chase W. Dillon) move to an old house outside of New Orleans to make a fresh start after some unspecified difficulty in New York. Sure, the house is a fixer-way-upper, but, Gabbie tries to reassure Travis as spooky things happen behind her, a vanilla-scented Yankee Candle and a little work and this mansion will feel like home. And then a spooky thing appears behind Travis and Gabbie says oh heck no, grabs him and runs out of the house.
When Father Kent (Wilson), an alleged priest with a real “surfside cabana bartender” vibe (i.e. an Owen Wilson vibe) seeks out New Orleans tour guide Ben (Stanfield), we pretty quickly figure out that just running out of the house did not solve Travis and Gabbie’s issues with ghosts. Before he was the depressed leader of a historic walking tour, Ben was an astrophysicist working on a camera that could capture “ghost particles,” which for the purposes of this movie pretty much just means “ghosts.” Kent offers Ben a nice payday to go to Gabbie’s house and photograph the spooky stuff floating through her would-be bed and breakfast. Ben thinks this whole endeavor is goofy — so goofy that he goes ahead with it, making “click” noises at the appropriate time, even though his camera is out of batteries — but he shows up and takes the money. And then he leaves and puts it all behind him.
So he thinks.
As Gabbie and Father Kent know and Ben quickly learns, the house’s ghosts are, as Gabbie describes, like bedbugs — once you step in the house they cling to you and you can’t get rid of them. Ben, having actually captured a photo of a ghost in his own living room, decides to take photographing them seriously. Eventually psychic medium Harriet (Haddish) and historian Bruce (Danny DeVito) also end up at the house, making for a Scooby Gang that decides to investigate the house’s history in an attempt to rid it of its most malevolent of spirits.
Along the way, there’s some stuff about grief, there are some indications that some ghosts are more well-intentioned than others and there are a fair amount of “ghosts do the darnedest things” visual gags that are more ghosty visual cleverness and/or jump scares than actual horrors. Which is probably why my 11-year-old was adequately entertained and not scared by the movie (though she wasn’t a fan of the more “feelings”-centered moments).
“Adequately entertaining” is probably the most accurate way to describe this movie overall. It is staffed with talented people (including writer Katie Dippold, who also did 2013’s buddy comedy The Heat and 2016’s “Ghostbusters but ladies” — which I enjoyed and which this feels a lot like, tonally). Stanfield brings way more to this movie than it probably deserves but he does help make this movie overall not a chore to watch. Haddish and DeVito sort of sprinkle on their individual brands of funny — the movie isn’t a laugh riot but no one element becomes so “Johnny Depp in later Pirates of the Caribbean movies” that it’s tiresome. It’s light, enough fun to complement the air conditioning that would be the main reason to see this in a theater and many-ages enough that you could entertain a tweens-and-up audience. B-
Rated PG-13 for some thematic elements and scary action, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Justin Simien with a screenplay by Katie Dippold, Haunted Mansion is two hours and two minutes long and distributed in theaters by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
For the past nine years, Vernon Family Farm, a livestock farm in Newfields, has been supplying the community with fresh meat, farm-to-table meals and agritourism events like live music and outdoor classes hosted by other organizations. Their next event will be on Friday, Aug. 4, from 4 to 8 p.m. with dinner and live music by New Hampshire Grateful Dead tribute band Not Fade Away.
Having grown up in New London in a family that raised and processed animals for consumption, Jeremiah Vernon developed a love for the farming lifestyle. This interest was reinforced while attending college in Maine.
“There was a big dairy farm near the school and the dairy farm had a restaurant … and I just became enamored with the whole farm scene they had going on over there,” he said. “That was sort of my start of production farming and basically I’d been farming for other people for about 10 years and then in 2014 we bought our own property and started our one farm.”
What started out as Jeremiah’s passion has turned into a family affair, his wife Nicole Vernon, a Spanish teacher at Exeter High School, co-owning the farm with him.
“It’s what I wanted to do having worked on farms for so long. This is who I am and what I want to do,” he said. “Nicole at the time [was] on the outside looking in as far as her farming experience, but now 10 years in she’s as deep in it as I am. … Now it’s definitely a shared passion and shared career.”
The farm has come a long way since growing 1,200 broiler chickens on leased land in 2012. They now annually produce about 15,000 to 20,000 chickens as well as other livestock, like pigs and sheep and a small amount of vegetables, such as cherry tomatoes and sugar snap peas, on their 33-acre property. They have a farm store open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., host dinners on Thursdays and Saturdays from 4 to 8 p.m. and Sunday brunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and have even created a second business, Vernon Kitchen. While the catering company used to be a part of Vernon Family Farm, it made more sense to have it be its own entity that the Vernons could hire to cater events.
“[It] means that we can do more events more often and we also have more resources available to us,” Jeremiah said. “It is also the highest-profit market aspect of our business, so having a customer buy a ticket and sit down for a fried chicken dinner, that’s the most profitable way we can get that chicken to you.”
On average, about 50 to 100 people attend these events, with upward of 300 on nights when there is live music. Tickets can be purchased on their website ahead of time or upon arrival for music events. For non-music events, a $5 cover is charged that is donated to various nonprofits.
In addition to dinners, entertainment and tours, the farm also functions as a space for other businesses to use for classes on yoga and meditation, cooking and art.
“Our farm is very beautiful, like many in New Hampshire,” Jeremiah said. “We have a big wildflower meadow, nice seating, there’s animals everywhere [and] ample parking. It’s a nice … creative space to occupy.”
Upcoming events at Vernon Family Farm
Kids Art Classes: Treehouse Construction When: Friday, Aug. 4, 10 a.m. to noon Where: 301 Piscassic Road, Newfields Visit: vernonfamilyfarm.com
Not Fade Away When: Friday, Aug. 4, 4 to 8 p.m. Where: 301 Piscassic Road, Newfields Visit: vernonfamilyfarm.com
Featured photo: Event at Vernon Family Farm. Photo courtesy of Vernon Family Farm.
In the end, it is the elated, tragic and everyday moments in between that make life beautiful. This is the feeling I was left with after reading Tom Lake, the latest novel by award-winning author Ann Patchett, which is set partially in New Hampshire. Patchett will be at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord for the sold out Authors on Main series event on Tuesday, Aug. 8, at 7 p.m.
For as long as she can remember, Patchett has wanted to be a writer.
“If you had interviewed me when I was 5, seriously, I would have been like, ‘Yeah, I want to be a writer,’” she said. “I don’t understand where that comes from, but it’s the sort of defining thing about me that even when I was a kid I always knew that was what I was going to do and I really never strayed from that, which made my life very simple.”
When Patchett first read her favorite piece of American literature, Our Town by Thorton Wilder, in high school, it planted a seed in her mind that would blossom into her ninth novel decades later. Our Town follows Emily Webb and George Gibbs, two neighbors who fall in love, get married and go through the course of life together.
“Nothing really happens,” Patchett said. “It’s not a play of action so much as it is a play about learning to see that life is beautiful and brief and we are best advised to pay attention to it.”
The same could be said about Tom Lake, a sentimental, heartfelt portrait of one woman’s life. Lara’s three daughters return to the family cherry farm in the spring of 2020. We follow along as Lara tells her children the story of her romance with a famous actor in the summer of 1988 during her time at Tom Lake, a theater company in Michigan.
Lara’s story begins in New Hampshire, where her spontaneous involvement in the community theater production of Our Town as Emily sets the ball rolling.
At the Authors on Main event, Patchett will discuss her new book with her longtime friend, author and editor Katrina Kennison, and will take part in a Q&A hosted by NHPR Morning Edition host Rick Ganley.
“We are old friends … and she was somebody who I talked to a lot about this book early on in the process, so she feels like she’s really a part of the story,” Patchett said of Kennison. “I like to go see somebody that I know while I’m on book tours. It’s just really helpful to have somebody who’s kind of an anchor for me in every place, so the fact that Katrina lives nearby and that we will be doing this event together makes it a very happy thought.”
When asked where she draws inspiration from for her stories, Patchett said, “Life itself is inspiration. It’s just a matter of being an observant person and an interested person and a good listener.”
“I think that appreciating what you have is maybe a good thing to take away from this book,” Patchett said. “It’s a lot about what we want [when we’re young] versus what we want when we’re older, [and] also telling the story of your life to the people that you love.”
On July 7, while walking a trail in Goffstown, mushroom forager Christine Gagnon shared with me her No. 1 piece of advice for foraging beginners.
“Don’t eat anything until you can identify it yourself. [Not] until you’re 100 percent sure,” she said. “The only way to know if a mushroom is safe to eat is if you have learned to 100 percent, confidently, identify that mushroom on your own and you’ve researched edibility. … The only rule is to know your mushrooms before you eat them.”
With about 30,000 different species of mushrooms in New Hampshire, according to Gagnon, it’s no wonder that more and more Granite Staters are joining in on mushroom hobbies from observing, foraging and collecting, to cooking, eating and making dye.
“The interesting thing about the Northeast in general is that I think we have a greater variety of species than a lot of other parts [of the country], or at least the east in general,” she said. “So that kind of makes it exciting.”
Mushroom foraging classes and events
Mushroom Walk Join Christine Gagnon of Uncanoonuc Foraging Company for a two hour introduction to all things mushrooms and foraging in Dunbarton on Saturday, Aug. 5 at 4 p.m. The cost is $30 and $10 for ages 10 to 13. Children 9 years old and under are free. Email christine at uncforaging@gmail.com to reserve your spot, arrange payment and for the exact location. Find Uncanoonuc Foraging Company on Facebook.
Friday Night Forage Join New Hampshire Mushroom Co. (153 Gardner Hill Road, Tamworth; nhmushrooms.com) for their Friday Night Forage this month on Aug. 4, Aug. 18 and Aug. 24, from 5 to 7 p.m. Attendees will walk or carpool to a neary trail to collect, observe and identify mushrooms using proper techniques. Tickets are $20.
Sunday ID Session New Hampshire Mushroom Co. (153 Gardner Hill Road, Tamworth; nhmushrooms.com) will hold their Sunday ID Session on Aug. 6 and Aug. 20, from 1 to 3 p.m. Everyone is invited to bring mushrooms they have found to lay out on a picnic table for Eric to go around and identify. The cost is $15.
Can you Eat it? Mushroom ID SessionNew Hampshire Mushroom Co.’s next Can you Eat it? Mushroom ID session is on Sunday, Aug. 13, from noon to 4 p.m. starting at the farm (153 Gardner Hill Road, Tamworth; nhmushrooms.com). The class begins at the farm with a brief introduction to mushroom hunting before going to the woods to gather some. Students will enjoy a meal at the farm and discuss their findings.
Mushroom Walk Join Eric Milligan of New Hampshire Mushroom for a mushroom walk at Weeks State Park (200 Week’s State Park Road, Lancaster) on Saturday, Aug. 19, from 1 to 4 p.m. to observe, collect and learn about mushrooms and their role in the ecosystem. Participants will meet on the porch of the Summit Lodge before the start time. Visit weeksstateparkassociation.org.
Foraging: Wild Mushroom Walk: Beginner Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center (928 White Oaks Road, Laconia) is holding a wild mushroom foraging walk on Saturday, Aug. 26, from 10 a.m. to noon. New Hampshire Mushroom Foraging Co. will guide you along the trails to collect, identify and learn about the different species of mushroom. The event is recommended for adults and costs $30. Visit prescottfarm.org.
Mushroom Meander with the Morel Quandary Club in Walpole Naturalist John Benjamin and mushroom enthusiast George Caughey lead this walk through Distant Hill Gardens (507 March Hill Road) in Walpole from 4 to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 31. Register at harriscenter.org.
Women in the Woods: Fun Fungi Foray Society for the Protection of NH Forests mushroom enthusiast Carrie Deegan leads this foray through the Merrimack River Outdoor Education & Conservation Area in Concord (54 Portsmouth St.) on Sept. 28, from 1 to 4 p.m. Learn about mushroom biology and how to collect and identify mushrooms before putting this into practice on the Merrimack River floodplain. Make sure to bring a basket to collect your findings. This event is limited to 25 participants. Register at extension.unh.edu.
Mushroom season
Gagnon founded Uncanoonuc Foraging Co. in 2021. She led me through our walk much like she would lead her foraging classes on local trails where she looks for mushrooms and talks about the different characteristics that can help people identify them. It turns out, the rain and humidity we got in July made for perfect mushroom weather. Gagnon had returned to New Hampshire from California the day before, and told me how she couldn’t wait to get back.
“I saw here that it was exploding [with] mushrooms with all the rain and suddenly, of course, [they] decided to show themselves while I was on the other side of the country,” she said. “I got back yesterday morning … and [by] noon I was in the truck … to go look for mushrooms.”
According to Gagnon, as long as they have adequate rain and moisture, mushrooms can be found and foraged anywhere, from your lawn with full sun exposure, to a shady spot in the woods under a tree.
She says August through October, ending around November, is generally the ideal time for mushroom foraging, but each mushroom has its own season, with morels popping up the earliest, usually any time between April and June.
Corey Fletcher, owner and chef at Revival Kitchen & Bar in Concord, who often cooks with mushrooms, adds that chanterelle season is typically in July and August, chicken of the woods around August and September, and hen of the woods in September and October. The seasons all depend on having the ideal weather conditions.
“A lot of times it’s related to rain,” Gagnon said. “If we have a really dry summer, we’re not going to see a lot of mushrooms until the fall when it starts to get wet again.”
Gagnon administers several groups on social media where she helps people identify mushrooms, and speaks at events where she educates people about mushrooms’ role in the ecosystem and planet.
During our walk, she told me how her fascination for mushrooms sprouted when she was in elementary school while living on her grandparents’ farm in Quebec.
“Down the road there was a log cabin in the woods that a Scandinavian family lived in and they foraged for mushrooms,” she said. “I remember going in and they had all these mushrooms on the table … and I became immediately fascinated. Even though I never did anything with mushrooms for years, that image always stuck in my head.”
Her obsession was reignited about five years ago when hiking the Uncanoonuc Mountains with her family.
“I saw the most bizarre mushroom I had ever seen at the time on the side of a tree. … I got it identified as a Hericium americanum, which is bear’s head tooth, … so that’s when I became obsessed again.”
What are mushrooms?
During our forage, Gagnon and I came across Monotropa uniflora, a plant that is often mistaken for a mushroom. While not a mushroom itself, it does rely on mushrooms to grow.
“It [doesn’t have] chlorophyll, so it can’t convert heat to energy [or] photosynthesize,” Gagnon said. “So it parasitizes the mycelium from the ground to get what it needs to grow.”
Mycelium is the organism for which mushrooms are the reproductive body. The mushrooms emit spores to propagate the organism.
As Eric Milligan puts it, the fruit body we pick, the mushroom, is like the apple on a tree. Milligan is the manager of New Hampshire Mushroom Co. in Tamworth, through which he leads forages and identification sessions. While existing underground, mycelium has a white, cotton-like appearance that he says can be found in the woods underneath logs. According to Milligan, the role of mycelium in ecosystems is critical.
“You could say mycelium is sort of like Mother Nature’s internet,” he said. “If we had four pictures next to each other of mycelium underground, … a picture of the internet and how that sends out information, a picture of the human brain and how that sends out electrical impulses and then a picture of the universe, all four pictures are exactly the same. How they operate are exactly the same.”
Mushrooms, he says, keep ecosystems all over the planet balanced, mycelium being an agent for bioremediation, the process through which biological organisms break down pollutants. He notes that mushrooms have been used to clean up oil spills, a species exists that blocks radiation, and some could potentially be used to digest plastic by turning petroleum-based hydrocarbons into biodegradable hydrocarbons.
“There isn’t an aspect of our lives right now that fungi could not benefit,” Milligan said.
Mushroom Turnovers 6-8 servings. 30 minutes.
1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed according to the package instructions 8 ounces black pearl oyster mushrooms, roughly chopped 1 Tablespoon butter 1 shallot, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 Tablespoon fresh thyme leaves Salt and pepper to taste 2 Tablespoons truffle oil 3 Tablespoons balsamic glaze ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese 1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
Preheat your oven to the temperature indicated on the puff pastry package instructions. Add the oyster mushrooms to the skillet and cook for about 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they are tender and lightly browned. Season with salt, pepper, and fresh thyme leaves. Cook for an additional 2 to 3 minutes to allow the flavors to meld together. Remove the skillet from the heat and let the mushroom mixture cool slightly. In a skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and minced garlic, and sauté until the onion becomes translucent and the garlic is fragrant. On a lightly floured surface, unfold the thawed puff pastry sheet. Roll it out slightly to smooth the creases and create an even thickness. Cut the puff pastry sheet into squares or rectangles of your desired size. Drizzle a little truffle oil and balsamic glaze over a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on top. Place a spoonful of the mushroom mixture a few inches apart. Bake the mushroom puff pastries in the preheated oven according to the package instructions for the puff pastry, usually around 15 to 20 minutes, or until they turn golden brown and flaky. Once baked, remove the puff pastries from the oven and let them cool slightly before serving.
Recipes from New Hampshire Mushroom Co.’s forthcoming cookbook, Mycophile’s Kitchen: The Culinary Kingdom Fungi
Identifying
When you spot a mushroom, you will notice many characteristics, such as its size, the color of the stem, its cap, gills, and spores, and the location where it is found. Some mushrooms even have distinct scents, like candy caps, which Gagnon says smell like burned sugar or maple syrup. There are various factors to consider, making the identification process very tedious. While people often try to make generalizations on how to identify them, Gagnon says there is no one way to identify any mushroom. The description of one mushroom could match that of a totally different one.
“A lot of mushroom books have a key where you start by saying, ‘Does it have gills, pores, tubes or teeth?’”she said. “‘Does it have a stem or does it not have one? Are there decorations on it? ….’ There are so many things to look at when identifying and the rules aren’t across the board, so you really have to learn each mushroom or least genus of each mushroom.”
While it’s important to be confident in the identity of a mushroom, confidence can be a killer.
“Sometimes when people are new they start to get a little confident,” Gagnon said. “Deadly mushrooms I think make up 0.2 percent of all the mushrooms in the world, so it sounds very small, but they occur a lot. They’re here all the time. There’s a mushroom called Galerina marginata, also called funeral bells or deadly Galerina, and it looks very much like some more edible mushrooms.”
Gagnon cited a time when someone posted a picture on social media announcing that she found what she thought was wild enoki and was going to cook with them for Thanksgiving. Come to find out, it was actually Galerina.
“I [was] desperately trying to reach her and message her not to eat those,” Gagnon said.
Luckily she saw Gagnon’s message before it was too late.
Common edible mushrooms
According to Gagnon, some of the most common edible types in the state are chicken of the woods, hen of the woods, chanterelles and black trumpets. The following descriptions come from Michael Kuo at mushroomexpert.com.
Chicken of the Woods. Photo courtesy of Christine Gagnon.
• Chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus and Laetiporus cincinnatus)
Characteristics: Perhaps the most obvious characteristic for this mushroom (Laetiporus sulphureus) is its yellow and orange colors, but the suede-textured caps eventually become dull, sometimes almost white as they age. They can grow to be 90 centimeters across with overlapping clusters and no stem. Their flesh is thick, watery and soft when they are young, but becomes tougher with age.
Where they grow: Chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) is a saprobic mushroom found living on oak trees, dead or live ones, and sometimes on other hardwoods as well. Gagnon adds that Laetiporus cincinnatus has a white pore spore surface with rose and peach colors, and this mushroom appears to grow near hardwoods from the ground.
Hen of the woods. Photo courtesy of Christine Gagnon.
• Hen of the woods (Grifola frondosa)
Characteristics: Hen of the woods has clusters of brown caps spanning 15 to 40 centimeters across and 10 to 30 centimeters high. Each individual cap is around 3 to 14 centimeters across, can be dark to a pale gray-brown and are usually fan-like in shape.
Where they grow: These mushrooms can be found near the base of oak and hardwood trees.
Chanterelles. Photo courtesy of Christine Gagnon.
• Chanterelles
Characteristics: There is an unknown number of chanterelle species, and not all will match any given description. In general, they are usually recognized as being medium or large-sized mushrooms ranging from yellow to orange in color. They are known for their fruity aroma, similar to the smell of apricots.
Where they grow: Chanterelles do not tend to have any specific mycorrhizal relationships. They are usually found in hardwood forests.
Black trumpets. Photo courtesy of Christine Gagnon.
• Black trumpets (Craterellus fallax)
Characteristics: The cap and stem of black trumpets are not as clearly defined as in other mushrooms. While they are black, their outer surfaces can turn yellow or orangeish as the spores mature. They stand about 3 to 9 centimeters high and 1 to 5 centimeters wide with smooth, sometimes slightly wrinkled outer surfaces and have thin, brittle flesh.
Where they grow: Black trumpets are mycorrhizal with oaks and possibly other hardwoods as well and are usually found in mossy areas.
According to Gagnon, they can also be found in dead oak leaves. She says they grow in small clusters or scattered loosely down embankments and slopes where water travels after rainfall.
Common toxic mushrooms
These descriptions also come from Michael Kuo at mushroomexpert.com.
Jack O’Lanterns. Photo courtesy of Christine Gagnon.
• Jack O’Lanterns (Omphalotus illudens)
Characteristics: Jack O’Lanterns, often confused with chanterelles, are bright orange mushrooms with gills that run down the stem and spores that are white or pale yellow.
Where they grow: You will find these mushrooms often growing in large clusters on buried roots or stumps.
Deadly galerina. Photo courtesy of Christine Gagnon.
• Deadly Galerina or funeral bells (Galerina marginata)
Characteristics: Deadly Galerina are fairly small mushrooms with brown or tawny colored caps
Where they grow: They grow on rotting hardwoods and conifers.
Gagnon adds that they can also be found in mulch.
Cooking with mushrooms
From broth to tea, the possibilities are endless when it comes to cooking with mushrooms. Each mushroom has its own flavor, which is something you likely have not experienced if you’ve only ever had mushrooms from the grocery store.
“In the grocery store, if you buy a button mushroom, a baby bella or a portobello, those are all the exact same mushroom at different stages of growth, so they’re not going to taste much different,” Gagnon said. “If you don’t like mushrooms and that’s all you’ve ever had, I would always suggest trying wild mushrooms because … each mushroom has a completely different flavor.”
One of Gagnon’s favorite mushrooms to eat is chicken of the woods. When it’s young, she says, it has a moist, meaty texture with a hint of lemon flavor, and as the name suggests, can be prepared the same way you would prepare chicken for many dishes.
“Hen of the woods [is] very similar but they have the tendency to be more flaky,” Fletcher said. “They have more of a grain to them so you can almost shred them. Some people will make a pulled mushroom dish with them depending on the size. I’m simpler in my preparation of them [as] I just want the natural mushroom flavor, look and texture to be there, so I’ll just do a quick sauté with oil or butter, salt [and] maybe a little … garlic and let them speak for themselves.”
Gagnon adds that hen of the woods, which she says has an earthy umami flavor, is very versatile, makes for a great chicken marsala, and can be pickled and made into jerky.
Chanterelles, on the other hand, have a fruity aroma according to Kuo. Fletcher, who says their texture is soft and meaty, loves to pair them with corn as the earthiness of the mushroom pairs well with the sweetness of the corn.
According to Fletcher, there are some classic Italian recipes that call for mushrooms. Black trumpets, which have a strong, sweet aroma and nutty, smoky taste according to Gagnon, are often the one of choice for risotto. Mushrooms also offer nutritional value, according to Milligan. He gives the example of king oyster mushrooms, which have five grams of protein, fresh weight, and all 11 essential amino acids.
In order to reap the nutritional benefits, he says almost all mushrooms need to be cooked, as humans do not have enough of the necessary enzymes to break down the mushroom’s cell structure. In fact, some mushrooms are toxic if eaten raw. Button mushrooms, brown mushrooms, baby bellas and portobellos, which are all the same species, contain chemicals that do not flush out of your system but instead build up in your liver when consumed raw. Heat is required to cook these chemicals away.
Buying fresh mushrooms
Two mushroom varieties that you are likely to find at local farmers markets this season are chestnut mushrooms and black oyster mushrooms. These mushrooms are listed on Joyberry Farm’s website as seasonal mushrooms as well as on New Hampshire Mushroom Co.’s website as mushrooms that they cultivate. Joyberry Farms attends the Bedford, Nashua and Salem farmers markets, and New Hampshire Mushroom Co.’s products can be found at the Concord farmers market.
Once you get them home, Fletcher says, it is best to keep them in a cool, dry place, ideally the refrigerator. As far as when to eat them, he says the fresher the better.
“You want to try to eat them as soon as possible because the quality of them is just going to diminish [and] you’re not going to get as much flavor out of them,” he said.
According to New Hampshire Mushroom Co., phoenix oyster mushrooms have a mild flavor that makes for a great addition in creamy soups, over pasta, with eggs or other lighter dishes. This fluffy, woodsy-flavored mushroom, as reported by Joyberry Farms, is very versatile and is also great when sautéed with butter or olive oil, onions and garlic.
Chestnut mushrooms have a nutty flavor that goes well in gravy, stuffing, stir-frys and roasted with chicken, according to New Hampshire Mushroom Co.
Salem NH Farmers Market (1 Mall Road, Salem) Sundays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Devriendt Farm (178 S Mast St., Goffstown)
Blueberry and Black Trumpet Mushroom Upside-Down Cake 2 servings. 15 minutes
Ingredients for the topping: ½ cup unsalted butter ½ cup packed brown sugar 1 cup fresh blueberries 4 to 6 black trumpet mushrooms, sliced
Ingredients for the cake: 1¾ cups all-purpose flour 1½ teaspoons baking powder ¼ teaspoon salt ½ cup unsalted butter, softened 1 cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ½ cup milk zest of 1 lemon (optional)
Preheat oven to 350℉ (175℃). Grease a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar until it dissolves. Pour the butter and brown sugar mixture into the prepared cake pan, spreading it evenly. Sprinkle in blueberries and sliced black trumpet mushrooms. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate large bowl, cream the softened butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla extract. Gradually add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients, alternating with the milk. Fold in the lemon zest, if using. Spread the batter over the topping in the cake pan, ensuring it’s even. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Once baked, remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then, invert the cake onto a serving platter or plate.
Recipes from New Hampshire Mushroom Co.’s forthcoming cookbook, Mycophile’s Kitchen: The Culinary Kingdom Fungi
Dyeing with mushrooms
One of the things I was most surprised to learn during my walk with Gagnon was that mushrooms can be used to make dye. According to Allison Allen, this is a fairly new phenomenon.
“The earliest publication on using mushrooms to get a rainbow of color is from the 1970s from Miriam Rice out of Mendocino, California,” she said. “She was a natural dyer and was drawn to experimentation with it … found mushrooms and threw them into a pot of boiling water, simmered them with wool and, lo and behold, she started getting really promising results of color. We’re still in our infancy of discovery with what fungi can do as far as getting color.”
Allen started her business, Mycopigments, a term she coined back when she started dyeing with mushrooms in 1998, in 2011. From Seattle, Washington, Allen travels where she is requested to hold workshops. Having formerly lived in Massachusetts right on the New Hampshire border, she would often forage mushrooms in New Hampshire, and still comes back to the Granite State to collect mushrooms for dyeing.
“It’s a pretty simple process … and there are some nuances to testing mushrooms for color that I teach in my workshops,” Allen said. “Basically, you boil the mushrooms and you add the fiber and then that mushroom imparts color into that fiber and it’s permanent … brilliant dye.”
When choosing what fiber you want to work with, Allen says that wool, or other protein, animal-based fibers like silk, work best. In some instances you can even add mordant, mineral salts such as aluminum sulfate or ferrous sulfate, to intensify, brighten or darken the colors. For efficiency, Allen prefers to dry her mushrooms before using them for dye due to their high water content.
“It takes away the guessing game of how much mushroom you have to dye your wool,” she said. “When you’re dyeing wool you use one part mushroom to one part fiber by dry weight, so if you have an ounce of wool, you’re going to need an ounce of dry mushroom, which is actually a lot of mushrooms. But if you had an ounce of freshly picked mushrooms, depending on where you are with the rain cycle, they could be 99 percent water and so that ounce isn’t very much mushroom dye material. It’s just water so you can miscalculate and get disappointing results, so by dehydrating them you take away that guessing part.”
One New Hampshire mushroom that is suitable for dyeing is Cortinarius semisanguineus. These are small mushrooms, about 2 inches across with a mustard-colored cap and blood-red gills and result in a bold red when used with aluminum sulfate mordant. Red dye, according to Allen, is historically considered one of the most precious.
Dyer’s Polypore is a fairly common mushroom in New Hampshire that grows with conifers and pine.
“It is one of the strongest dye-makers in the fungal world, so a little bit goes a long way for that mushroom,” Allen said. “If I find it fresh and young … [I] can get away with using one part fungus to five parts fiber. … It will make a brilliant yellow and a deep gold and a nice olive green depending on how you extract the dye and what mordants you add.”
It is fairly simple to achieve yellow according to Allen. She breaks up the fungus into smaller pieces and adds a splash of vinegar to the mix. If you’re more advanced, you can add modants to get the yellows to come out, but vinegar does the trick just fine, she says.
To get a green hue, add iron by using ferrous sulfate power. You can even use iron vitamins, Allen says, after washing off the coating.
The most complicated color to achieve from dyeing with mushrooms is blue. To get a dye this color from mushrooms, Allen says you need identification skills, as very few mushrooms have the potential to make blue, access to pristine forests and a little bit of open-mindedness on the definition of blue.
“Blue is really hard to achieve in the mushroom dye world, especially as a beginner,” Allen said. “You have to have the right mushroom, you have to pre-mordant your fiber … then you have to monitor the pH of the extraction and then you can get, if you’re lucky and the temperature didn’t get too hot, some blue-green shades.”
Mushrooms in New Hampshire that have this potential belong to the Hydnellum, Sarcodon and Feldon genuses.
A mushroom that proves that what you see isn’t necessarily what you’re going to get for dye is Tapinella atrotomentosa, a suede brown-colored mushroom with tan gills that makes purple without any mordants and a deep forest green when iron is added.
According to Allen, the most prized dye species in New Hampshire is the Hapalopilus.
“This mushroom makes a purple dye that is dark and deep and really permanently binds to the fiber, so in that way I think it’s one of the most precious purple dye makers in the world because other purple sources tend to have some fading and some trouble with sticking around.”
According to Allen, mushroom dyeing is a very approachable mushroom hobby.
“You go out and you forage them and you don’t have to worry about if they’re edible or poisonous or anything,” Allen said. “it’s a really accessible way to get your hands on mushroom hunting without taking any risks at all. It’s a way to get engaged with nature and access these colors.”
Featured photo: Chanterelles. Photo courtesy of Christine Gagnon.
Gov. Chris Sununu signed a number of bills into law on July 28, according to a press release, including SB 215, which aims to address the national shortage of nurses by allowing fully qualified individuals to join the workforce and contribute their nursing skills across various settings; SB 268, which allows for pre-hospital treatment and transportation for supporting K9 members of law enforcement, search and rescue and military operations, ensuring that the animals receive the necessary resources for their health and safety while serving and protecting the communities; SB 161, which aims to provide clean energy benefits to low-income families who have been particularly impacted by inflation and high energy costs, to facilitate a fair and equitable energy transition for all residents; and HB 249, which establishes regulatory standards for the pet insurance industry and allows restaurant owners to keep their companion dogs on the premises. Gov. Sununu vetoed one bill, according to the release; SB 42 would have allowed interest-free loans to be provided to individuals who received benefits they were not eligible for due to manipulating the system. In response to the veto, New Hampshire Employment Security Commissioner George Copadis and Deputy Commissioner Richard Lavers expressed appreciation for the governor’s decision, stating that it is crucial to discourage such behavior and uphold honesty and integrity in the program.
Help for kids
Granite VNA is reintroducing the “Helping Heal with Others” (H2O) program, providing support for grieving children ages 6 to 18 and their families. According to a press release, the monthly program offers coping skills and peer support, aiding children in experiencing and processing grief. Led by agency staff and volunteers, the sessions incorporate age-appropriate creative activities, pet therapy and stress management techniques to encourage healing. Concurrently, the program offers supportive sessions for accompanying parents and caregivers. A drop-in information session will take place on Saturday, Aug. 5, at the Boys & Girls Club of Central NH in Concord. From Sept. 9, 2023, to June 8, 2024, H2O will run on the second Saturday of each month. The program is offered at no charge, and participants will receive lunch during each session. To register, call 224-4093, ext. 82822, or visit granitevna.org.
Consumer help
The New Hampshire Insurance Department’s Consumer Services Unit has released its statistics for Fiscal Year 2023, revealing a record-breaking recovery of approximately $6 million for New Hampshire consumers. Throughout the year, the unit processed 1,078 consumer complaint investigations, 4,086 assistance requests and 88 applications for external health review, according to a press release. The unit’s mission is centered around educating, navigating and investigating to assist residents with insurance-related issues. Consumers can contact the Consumer Services unit for assistance and guidance on insurance matters by calling 271‐2261 or by email at consumerservices@ins.nh.gov.
Dental assistants
Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) is addressing the community’s dental health concerns by partnering with the Hartford Area Career and Technology Center (HACTC) to offer scholarships for their new dental assisting program. According to a press release, the program is an online certificate program that provides hands-on work experience as dental assistant trainees with participating dental offices and aims to increase the local dental workforce and improve access to dental care. Students interested in the program can contact Aron Tomlinson at tomlinsona@hartfordschools.net or calling 802-359-4752.
Firefighter grants
The New Hampshire delegation, including Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, along with Reps. Annie Kuster and Chris Pappas, has announced more tha $700,000 in Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG) program funding for fire departments in rural New Hampshire towns, including Errol, New Hampton, Surry and Warren. According to a press release, the grants will be used to enhance the safety and training of firefighters and to purchase necessary equipment, such as a tanker vehicle, firefighter turnout gear, vehicle extrication equipment and firefighter breathing apparatus.
Certification
Joshua Mann, Chief of Operations, Radio Communications Maintenance for the New Hampshire Department of Safety, Division of Emergency Services and Communications, has achieved the Certified Public-Safety Executive (CPE) designation, a prestigious initiative aimed at elevating professionalism and recognizing excellence in the public safety communications industry. According to a press release, the program, established in 2016, consists of two 12-week online courses and a 10-day capstone seminar at APCO headquarters in Daytona Beach, Florida, focused on equipping participants with essential skills to lead organizations in the complex and ever-changing environment of public safety agencies
The Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire (NOFA-NH) has announced the return of the Collaborative Regional Alliances for Farmer Training (CRAFT) of Farming for its fifth season. According to a press release, the program features on-farm workshops in summer and early fall, aimed at building farming skills and fostering community among local growers, aspiring farmers and consumers. The 2023 CRAFT season starts at Callie’s Creamery, an organic micro-dairy in Peterborough, on Thursday, Aug. 3, from 4 to 6 p.m. The workshop, focused on intensive rotational grazing and grassland management, is open to all, with free admission for farmers, farm workers and NOFA members, and a sliding scale fee of $5 to $15 for other attendees. Register at nofanh.org/craft.
The New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) will begin work on a bridge replacement project on Route 107 in Deerfield at Freese’s Pond on Aug. 7. According to a press release, the work will require a full closure of the section for 30 days, with detours for southbound and northbound traffic. This is part of a larger $975,000 effort to replace the bridge, which is expected to be completed by Nov. 3, 2023.
The Upper Room in Derry is providing backpacks filled with school supplies for the new academic year. According to a press release, families enrolled in Upper Room programs can register to receive backpacks in late August. The organization is seeking donations of backpacks, folders, notebooks, pencils, pens, erasers, highlighters, index cards and loose-leaf paper. Around 75 to 100 children will benefit from the annual backpack distribution day. Donations can be dropped off at The Upper Room’s front desk on Tsienneto Road until Aug. 21.
For many musicians, having space in life to create and stages to play on is the measure of success. While stream counts and ticket sales are fine for rock ’n’ roll fantasy, a Friday night in front of a supportive group of fans and friends is a dream that might actually come true — but it won’t happen alone.
That’s the idea driving Always Forward, a promotion effort led by Sam Beachard, who’s also a singer for Manchester nu-metal band House Lights. Beachard has been part of the local music scene since Rocko’s Bar & Grill regularly presented shows in the early aughts, along with the Sad Café in Plaistow. Between those and spots like Milly’s (now Stark Brewing), he and his college friend Mathew Laramie’s band Horns Become Haloes always had a place to play.
Sad Café and Rocko’s have been gone for nearly a decade and getting from the basement to the big stage is a bigger challenge. Beachard aims to change that.
“I want to build a community within the music scene of New England,” Beachard said by phone recently, adding that indie bands face an uphill battle. “A lot of times they don’t bring the crowd, but even ones that do, a lot of promoters and venues won’t work with them because they don’t have name recognition. They’re not willing to give them a chance.”
Incorporated in late 2022, Always Forward has done five shows already, with four more planned in the coming months. A typical bill is composed of an out-of-town act surrounded by a few local performers. On July 29 at The Strand in Dover, rambunctious Albany, New York, punk rockers The Snorts appear, along with Oziem, a Manchester band equally inspired by Social Distortion and the Misfits. Rounding out the undercard is Lovewell, described by Beachard as “emo alt rock indie that’s good for fans of Death Cab.”
The Jerritones, a Newmarket duo that’s fond of fuzzy guitars and oddball costumes, will headline. “I liken them to early Weezer with elements of the Hives … irreverent silly lyrics, with fuzzy guitars and catchy melodies,” Beachard said. “I tell people it’s something you probably weren’t expecting, but it will put a smile on your face and have you reevaluating a bit of your musical taste.”
The following weekend in Concord’s at Penuche’s Ale House, New Jersey’s Bobby Mahoney & the Seventh Son appear. Beachard calls them “an Americana punk band … very much like John Mellencamp or Bruce Springsteen’s style.” Local support will come from Wired for Sound and Sauce on the Side.
Soon, Beachard’s own band will appear, in support of a new album that’s been a long time coming.
House Lights, which also includes Adam Soucy on drums and bassist Bobby Spence, rose from the ashes of Horns Become Haloes. In 2014, the group made a “Seven Stages of Grief”-themed EP, then scattered. “It was more a getting-back-on-the-horse moment,” Beachard said of making the record. “For us to kind of prove … we can work together, we’ve done a little bit of growing up here, we can be mature about this. But we all kind of had our own thing.”
Laramie and Beachard pivoted to career and family, Spence had a myriad of projects, and Soucy left to study at Berklee. One day in the depths of the pandemic, Laramie reached out to his college friend and former bandmate to share the material he’d built up in the intervening years. “He and I have always worked well together, our styles just blend very well,” Beachard said. “I love the music he writes; it resonates with me emotionally. So it’s easy for me to write lyrics to it that I can fully get behind and I’m proud of.”
What It Means to Feel is set for release Sept. 1, followed by a series of live shows. The first single, “Love and Understanding,” came out July 21. A Beachard lyric could be read as a mission statement for his promotion effort. “You’re not alone in this battle you’re fighting,” he sings. “I’m beside you, still fighting.”
Regarding Always Forward, Beachard stresses that the community he aims to foster needs support from everyone, not just musicians.
“Find one or two bands,” he said, “and make it a point to get out to their shows regularly. That’s what keeps us doing what we do; that’s what makes it worth it, even if it’s not financially. Musicians are stubborn as hell and don’t know when to quit. We’re going to do it, but we need mental support too.”
The Jerritones, Oziem, The Snorts & Lovewell When: Saturday, July 29, 7 p.m. Where: The Strand, 20 Third St., Dover Tickets: $12 at eventbrite.com
Wired for Sound, Bobby Mahoney & the Seventh Son, Sauce on the Side When: Friday, Aug. 4, 9 p.m. Where: Penuche’s Ale House, 16 Bicentennial Square, Concord Tickets: $5 at the door
The blond, permanently tip-toed Stereotypical Barbie visits the decidedly un-pink human Real World of Los Angeles in Barbie, another win for director and co-writer Greta Gerwig.
In Barbieland, pink — particularly that very specific Barbie hot-pink — abounds, with a pink wardrobe ready for Barbie (Margot Robbie) in her Dream House closet at the start of every day, perfect to wear while driving around in her pink car, waving to her other friends named Barbie, a bunch of Kens and the occasional one-off, like Ken’s skittish friend Allan (Michael Cera) or the discontinued pregnant Midge (Emerald Fennell). Except for our heroine, the Barbies of Barbieland have empowering jobs — President Barbie (Issa Rae), Scientist Barbie (Emma Mackey), Writer Barbie (Alexandra Shipp), Lawyer Barbie (Sharon Rooney), a whole slate of Barbie Supreme Court justices, a mermaid (Dua Lipa) — which, as the narrator (Helen Mirren, who is just chef’s kiss with every line delivery) informs us has helped the girls and women of the Real World reach their full feminist potential and solved all the problems of sexism forever. The Kens of Barbieland are all just sorta Ken — Ken’s job is “Beach” and there seem to be opposing Ken cliques, of which Ken (Ryan Gosling), who is in love with Barbie (Robbie), and Ken (Simu Liu), seem to be the leaders. Gosling’s Ken is particularly desperate for Barbie’s affection and notice. Whereas Barbie finds Ken to be a kind of unnecessary accessory.
All the Barbie empowerment doesn’t apparently come with a lot of introspection, because when Barbie suddenly has thoughts of death, she doesn’t know what to do with them. The thoughts of death seem to quickly metastasize into other problems, like morning breath, cellulite and, most horrifying of all, flat feet. Barbie goes to see Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), a Barbie permanently in the splits with a “kid just learning to use scissors” hair cut, to get advice on what to do. Weird Barbie tells Barbie that the answer is to find the girl who is playing with her and whose sadness must be leaking to Barbie’s subconscious. With the help of this girl and Mattel, Barbie will be able to fix the ruptured membrane between Real World and Barbieland. To accomplish this, Barbie will have to go to the Real World, a trip that involves several wardrobe and Barbie vehicle changes. Because he doesn’t seem sure he can exist without her, Ken tags along.
Most of this plot is revealed in the trailer and it’s fun to go in not knowing a whole lot more. I’ll give these extra notes: In the Real World, Barbie meets Gloria (America Ferrera) and her sullen middle-school-ish daughter Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) and Ken discovers the Patriarchy, which may or may not have something to do with horses and Sylvester Stallone in fur coats.
I came into this movie a hardcore Greta Gerwig fan; I think her Lady Bird and Little Women are basically perfect movies. But I’d argue as much as this predisposed me to like this movie, I was also worried that this wouldn’t be up to that Gerwig standard.
Well, it is and I loved it — loved it so much I seriously considered watching it again immediately. Loved it so much I looked up the price of the official Gloria doll (it’s $50, which would be worth it if I could figure out how to send it back in time to my 9-year-old self). Loved it in a way that is both un-ironic and deeply appreciative of how wall-to-wall weird this movie is. Barbie is deliciously weird, even in its genuine emotional moments, right up until its very last second. And I loved, like those other Gerwig movies, that this movie tells a story of a mother-daughter relationship, this time going surprisingly deep in a short amount of screentime on the mother’s perspective.
If I can start making some Oscar picks now: Of course I choose Gerwig to get a director nod and a screenplay nod along with her partner (in this screenplay and in life) Noah Baumbach. I also put forth Ferrera, for a good all-around performance plus maybe two scenes that had me worrying I was about to cry in a packed movie theater. (I also did a fair amount of big out-loud guffaw laughing.)
And for Best Actor let me suggest Gosling, who is just absolutely going for it with his needy, addled, emotional Ken. He is so thoroughly game for anything in this role and absolutely appears to be having a ball.
Robbie by comparison can at times seem flatter than her supporting characters — but I think this is intentional and it ultimately pays off with what the movie is trying to do with her character. She’s able to bring genuine emotion and humanity to her character while still having a doll-like rigidity (both physically and in her thinking), at least for a while.
In smaller roles, Mirren is note perfect, Rhea Perlman has a great part that is surprisingly touching and Will Ferrell as the head of Mattel takes his The Lego Movie character Lord Business and pushes it to an even weirder place.
The movie also looks amazing, both in its set design and in the way the characters move through Barbie Land. Similar to how the Lego movies use the visuals of the Lego toys, their movements and their accessories to give layers to the jokes and the way the world is built, this movie uses Barbie’s physicality, the elements of her dream houses and fashions and fun little notes about how kids play Barbies both for humor and to build its characters. It’s fun but also smart and it makes you appreciate the work that went in to this movie while still making it look seamless. A+
Rated PG-13 for suggestive references and brief language, according to the MPA at filmratings.com. Directed by Greta Gerwig with a screenplay by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie is an hour and 54 minutes long and distributed in theaters by Warner Bros.
Oppenheimer (R)
Cillian Murphy is the titular physicist who becomes the “father of the atomic bomb” in Oppenheimer, a three-hour biopic and meditation on nuclear weapons from Christopher Nolan.
The movie loops around, primarily in three time frames: J. Robert Oppenheimer (Murphy) as he builds his career as a noted physicist, pushing the field into new realms of theoretical physics, and becomes the head of the U.S. efforts to build an atomic bomb; Oppenheimer in the early 1950s facing a hearing to keep his Atomic Energy Commission security clearance, and Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), a professional opponent of Oppenheimer’s in the post-war years, facing his own U.S. Senate confirmation hearing.
In the security hearing, Oppenheimer faces criticisms for some of his pre-war connections to communist party groups, including his affair with Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh), a party member he dated before and during his marriage to Kitty (Emily Blunt), who was herself married to someone else when their relationship started. In those 1930s scenes, we also see Oppenheimer and other scientists follow the news about German scientists and their experiments with nuclear fission. When the U.S. enters World War II and decides to build its own atomic weapons program, Lt. General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) charges Oppenheimer with running the overall program and setting up the Los Alamos, New Mexico, middle-of-nowhere lab/makeshift town where all of the country’s efforts to build the weapon will converge and where, out in the desert, the weapon can eventually be tested. Scientists will need to be in New Mexico for the duration, and the existence of a town allows them to bring their children and wives, many of whom also have scientific backgrounds.
For all that the scientists are sort of dazzled by the puzzle of building an atomic bomb, it’s really the “we have to make one before the Nazis do” motivation that gets many of the scientists past their unease with the weapons. Oppenheimer is driven by both the science and the Nazi-beating but beyond that his feelings about the weapons he’s building seem more complicated.
In the Strauss hearing scenes, we see how Strauss’ attempts to torpedo Oppenheimer’s influence in the scientific community and the U.S. nuclear weapons program (where Oppenheimer seems to want to go slower than the ever-one-upping of the arms race) after the war lead to his own political problems. Downey gives a solid performance here but I’m not entirely sure why this layer was added. In addition to a needless padding of the runtime, it adds an element of earnestness and naiveté about politics that feels sorta goofy in this movie that already has a fair amount of “oh no, is our horrible invention going to be horrible for humanity?” silliness. On the one hand, the movie paints a fairly complex picture of a time (the 1930s) when pro-labor efforts, the fight against fascism in Spain, domestic social issues and the American communist party slosh around together, and when women play this sort of one-step-forward three-steps-back role, with highly educated women chafing against the homemaker role marriage seems to shove them in. And we see bits of scientists wrestling with the idea that developing the atomic bomb is an existential necessity (especially the scientists who are refugees of Nazi aggression) but also an existential threat.
But then we get elements that feel more black-and-white (sometimes literally going to black-and-white footage) and take us to, like, West Wing: Mid-Century and seem to suggest that these people who have been through a depression, international political upheaval, war and into the McCarthy era are unaware that cynicism, pettiness or moral compromise exist in politics.
All that said, Murphy gives a wonderfully agonized performance as an Oppenheimer who is self-aware and yet also self-deluding. He does a good job of showing us a man who is permanently shaken by what he’s done.
And the movie looks great — the explosions it makes so much of in the trailers are actually not as impressive as the vastness of the New Mexico desert and the way it shows us Los Alamos popping up from nothing. That part of the story — the pre-war scientific and political landscape through the Trinity test — is really well-drawn, with lots of texture and details you want to dig in to (like the women who get a chance to work in Los Alamos because they already have security clearances via their husbands, or the small professional world of the pre-war physicist community and their various alignments to the U.S./U.K., the Nazis or the Soviets).
Oppenheimer could have benefited from a cleaner, more streamlined approach to its story but it is nevertheless packed with good performances and standout bits of story. B+
Rated R for some sexuality, nudity and language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Christopher Nolan with a screenplay by Christopher Nolan (based on the book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin), Oppenheimer is three hours long and is distributed in theaters by Universal Studios.
A Milford institution for more than 50 years, the Mile Away Restaurant is best-known as a frequently visited spot for special occasions of all kinds, from birthday and anniversary parties to weddings. A new outdoor space directly adjacent to the eatery’s main dining area is inviting guests to enjoy lighter fare in a more casual setting, featuring its own separate kitchen and menus, along with a seated bar with TVs and additional seating at patio tables with umbrellas.
The Patio at the Mile Away, which recently opened for the season, operates during the same hours as its main restaurant and event center, weather permitting. It’s open to walk-in guests and, unlike the Mile Away’s plated four-course European-style dinners, offers a menu of shareable tapas, entree-sized salads and soups, and burgers and sandwiches with choice of a side. The outdoor bar even has its own draft lines and specialty cocktail offerings.
“It’s essentially a completely separate concept, and it’s like having a completely different restaurant that just happens to also be on the premises,” Mile Away general manager Kyle Altman said. “[We wanted to] have a more casual option for people to come out and just have a drink after work, which the four-course European-style fine dining thing doesn’t necessarily appeal to that particular occasion. But now, we can appeal to both.”
Although the patio space was constructed during the summer of 2019 before making its debut that fall, this is the first season in which the new outdoor kitchen is up and running. It’s full of unique amenities that longtime Mile Away owner Joshua Murphy built himself, from a corrugated steel roof over the bar seats to a pulley-like mechanism on its wooden fence, the latter designed to give wedding guests privacy during concurrent ceremonies.
Mile Away executive chef Mark Worcester, an industry veteran, has worked several stints at the restaurant on and off over the years, dating back to 1978. He said the patio’s menu was created with simplicity in mind, as well as various best-sellers on previous menus. Only a few items, like the Mile Away’s famous Swedish meatballs, cross over with the restaurant’s main dinner menu.
“We’ve been here for over 50 years, but the thing is that … people will get used to just coming here for special occasions, and we wanted to kind of shake it up a little bit,” Worcester said.
Photo courtesy of the Mile Away Restaurant.
But despite its more casual approach, Altman said the menu will still feel familiar to guests who expect that traditional tried and true cuisine the Mile Away has long been known for.
“You don’t have to be constantly doing the newest things with the newest ingredients, if you do the classic recipes perfectly,” Altman said. “That’s some of the appeal. … Sometimes you don’t want to try a new thing every time you go out. You want this thing that you get every year on your anniversary, because we do it perfectly and no one else can do it.”
According to Altman, the Mile Away building was originally a farm built way back in 1746, and was one of the earliest settlements of the town of Monson, New Hampshire (now parts of Hollis, Brookline and Amherst). The farm is one mile away from Monson rock, hence the eatery’s name.
The plan is for the patio to operate from around late April through mid-October, or around when the Mile Away hosts in annual Oktoberfest celebration, although they do have propane heaters they can install on colder nights. Altman added that it can also be available to wedding clients.
“If people want to have a bachelor party, or if they want to just rent this out as part of their program with our wedding packages, this is an option … just the same as they can rent out the private room inside the restaurant,” he said.
The Patio at the Mile Away Where: Mile Away Restaurant, 52 Federal Hill Road, Milford Hours: Wednesday through Saturday, 5 to 8 p.m., and Sunday, 1 to 6 p.m. (hours are weather permitting). Closed Mondays and Tuesdays. More info: mileawayrestaurantnh.com/the-patio Walk-ins are welcome for outdoor patio service; no reservations required.
National Night Out, the annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnership (according to natw.org), takes place Tuesday, Aug. 1, this year and features community outreach events in several area towns.
• Bedford Fire Department will face Bedford Police Department for a game of softball at Selvoski Field (at County and Nashua roads in Bedford) at 6 p.m., according to the town’s Parks and Recreation page.
• Chichester Police Department will hold its event in Carpenter Park (8 Bear Hill Road in Chichester) from 6 to 9 p.m., according to a posting on its Facebook page.
• The Concord Police Department will hold its event at Rollins Park from 5 to 8 p.m. with free parking at Rundlett Middle School and a complimentary shuttle to the park, according to concordnh.gov/828/National-Night-Out. The event will feature police and fire equipment, K9 demonstrations, touch a truck and food available with $1 food tickets, according to the website.
• The Deerfield Police Department’s event will take place at the gazebo at 10 Church St. (behind the firehouse) from 5 to 7 p.m. and feature the Fire and EMS departments, games, vehicles to explore and food, according to the department’s Facebook page.
• The Derry Police Department will hold its event in MacGregor Park (12 Boyd Road in Derry) from 6 to 9 p.m. It will feature free music from The Slakas, lawn games, freebies and more, according to the department’s Facebook page.
• The Dunbarton Police Department will join the Goffstown Police Department for their event at Goffstown High School (27 Wallace Road in Goffstown) from 5 to 8 p.m. The evening will feature food, a dunk tank, live music, face painting, a climbing wall, ax throwing, a Police vs. Fire tug of war competition, a NH State Police helicopter and more than 45 area businesses and organizations, according to a Facebook post by the departments.
• The Epping Police and Fire departments will hold their event at Epping Middle/High School (213 Academy St. in Epping) from 4 to 7 p.m., according to a post on the town’s Facebook page.
• The Hollis Police Department will hold its event at the Lawrence Barn in Nichols Field (40 Depot Road) starting at 6 p.m. The evening will feature bounce houses, music, a cookout and a movie night, according to the department’s Facebook page.
• The Hooksett Police Department’s event will be at Donati Memorial Field (51 Main St. in Hooksett) from 5:15 to 7:45 p.m., according to the department’s Facebook page.
• The Hudson Police Department will hold its event from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Rogers Memorial Library (194 Derry Road in Hudson) and will feature touch a truck, a dunk tank, a rock climbing wall, a K9 demo, a water balloon fight and safety vendor booths as well as food vendors with food for purchase, according to the department’s Facebook page.
• The Manchester Police Department will hold its event from 5 to 8 p.m. at the J.F.K. Coliseum and Beech Street School. The evening will feature games, activities, giveaways, a motorcycle rodeo, the mounted patrol, Patch the Comfort Dog and more, according to the department’s Facebook page.
• The Merrimack Police Department will hold its event from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in Abbie Griffin Park and feature music, games, hot dogs, ice cream and s’mores, according to a post on the department’s Facebook page.
• The Milford Police Department will offer touch a truck, a barbecue, games and more in Emerson Park from 6:15 to 8:15 p.m.
• The Nashua Police Department will hold its event in Greeley Park (100 Concord St. in Nashua) from 5 to 8 p.m. and feature a petting zoo, food trucks, music, ice cream, touch a truck and more, according to the department’s Facebook page.
• The Pelham Police Department will have music, food, games, a dunk tank, cars and trucks, a tour of the police station and more from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Village Green, according to the department’s Facebook page.
• The Salem Police Department will hold its event at the department (9 Veterans Memorial Parkway) from 5 to 8 p.m. The evening will include food, a DJ, a dunk tank, a K9 demonstration, giveaways, a bounce house, a taser demonstration, face painting, a petting zoo and more, according to the department’s Facebook page.
• The Tilton Police Department will hold its event at the police department field (45 Sanborn Road) from 5 to 8 p.m. with food, music, entertainment, child fingerprinting, a dunking booth, a bike raffle, first responder vehicles, a police department tour, car show and more, according to the department’s Facebook page.
