Category: Outdoors

Run, or walk, or ride the rides

Warner Fall Foliage Festival returns

By Chelsea Spear
listings@hippopress.com

Want to celebrate the height of fall foliage season and help raise money for some good causes? Check out the Warner Fall Foliage Festival.

Now in its 79th year, the festival features carnival rides, woodsman’s contests, music and of course some of the prettiest foliage in the Granite State. What’s more, money raised at the festival goes to local programs and charities.

The festival has its roots in the post-World War II boom.

“The railroad came right into town … early in [the] 1930s,” WFFF president Ray Martin said over Zoom in a recent interview. “There were probably seven or eight hotels in town at the time, and … they got together along with the businessmen and said they needed something to happen in the fall. So they started the festival at that time in 1947…. The festival as it exists today was an outgrowth of that. And it was set up to raise money to provide economic activity in the town for a good weekend in the fall, but also to provide money for various organizations in town. And the church has gotten money for various things. It’s a real community effort.”

It takes a village to raise a festival, and for Warner residents like Martin the festival is a labor of volunteer love.

“Working with this for over 50 years,” he recalls. “You move into town and the next thing there, somebody’s calling you and wants you to help and volunteer. And if you can’t say no, then you end up being on boards and running it off and on. It’s a good organization.”

The work these volunteers do is reinvested in the community.

“Any net proceeds go to [the] community,” Martin says. “They submit grant requests and [the money goes] to community organizations.” The fair usually raises between $18,000 and $28,000, which goes to organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Warner Connects Food Pantry, Warner Family Closet and Food For Thought.

“It’s a real community-type event,” Martin reiterates.

While the festival has become known in recent years for its road races for kids and adults, not to mention its oxen pull, a lobster bake and chicken barbecue have been big draws.

“I think two families have run it forever, literally, since Day 1,” Martin says. “You can have a steamed lobster with the fixings that go with that, or you can have a barbecued quarter [or] half a chicken. And so it’s a good meal.” In addition to the fun run and chicken dinner, a few of the local restaurants have set up a tent to serve dinner and showcase live performers. Music fans will want to check out the Main Stage at Jim Mitchell Community Park to see local favorites like singer-songwriter Katie Dobbins on Saturday morning and yacht rock cover band Corduroy on Saturday evening.

Fairgoers can also ride the amusement park rides throughout the weekend and catch the grand parade on Sunday afternoon.

The Warner Fall Foliage Festival represents almost 80 years of work from the Warner community.

“This is a festival that is completely run by volunteers,” Martin says. “We have a volunteer board of 10 people that meet during the year to organize it and get it going.” If you’d like to do some leaf-peeping, ride some amusement park rides and enjoy some delicious food to benefit the local community, make your way to Warner for the Warner Fall Foliage Fair.

Warner Fall Foliage Festival
Where: Warner, off East Main Street and Kearsarge Mountain Road
When: Friday, Oct. 9, from 6 to 9 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 10, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Sunday, Oct. 11, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The 5K run/walk is Saturday at 9:30 a.m.; race-day registration $40 starting at 8 a.m. Kids’ Fun Run is Sunday at 9:30 a.m., recommended for ages 5-16, free registration and a parent/guardian must be present to check in the runner.
More: Visit wfff.org for parking information and a full fair schedule.

Fall fun on the Oval

Milford has pumpkins and plenty more

It is pumpkin festival season.

Wade Campbell is the president of the Granite Town Festivities Committee, which organizes the Milford Pumpkin Festival, which will take place in downtown Milford this weekend, Friday, Oct. 9, through Sunday, October 11.

“It’s our 36th anniversary,” he said. Because there are no tickets sold, there is not an official head count, but Campbell anticipates a large turnout. “We could probably safely say that there’s at least 25,000 people who roll through the Oval over the three days.”

Many of the events that take place during the Pumpkin Festival will happen on Milford’s “Oval” in the center of town, which will be closed to traffic, Campbell said. “This is the third year in a row that we’re shutting down the Oval entirely, so that allows people to walk around the Oval instead of driving, especially if you’re a local, you won’t have to walk on the crosswalks and you can actually walk where you need to. Then there’s a lot of businesses on the Oval that participate as usual.”

The Festival will begin on Friday night with a presentation to Milford’s Citizen of the Year, Campbell said.

“The Lions and Rotary [Clubs] put together a citizen of the year. It gets voted on. … And they nominate somebody that’s been very active in the community, whether it’s years of service or somebody that’s been doing great things in the past year. And then it’s kept hush-hush until the night of the festival, because we actually like to surprise the actual winner.”

“We have a pumpkin runner who opens the Festival, too,” Campbell continued, “where we shut down all the lights on the Oval and the fire department gets involved and we use our ladder truck. The fire department has a department member climb the ladder and touch the pumpkins and they light up.”

Some of the events over the three days will include a Pumpkin Fest 5K and Kids Fun Run.

“And then we’re also doing a pumpkin-carving demo on the Oval Saturday until dusk,” Campbell said. “We have a plethora of live music for three days. Friday we have music on the Oval Stage and the Community House Lawn Stage. Saturday we have music down at Keyes Memorial Park. There is a performance shell there. Everybody calls it Milford Stonehenge music stage. They took an old quarry building and repurposed it.”

On Saturday, Campbell said, Dollars for Scholars will raise money with a trebuchet that will launch pumpkins into the water at Railroad Pond.

“Folks can make a donation, and they get a pumpkin and they get to launch a pumpkin off into the water. They try to hit a dummy or a mannequin out on the water in a kayak. We have plenty of food, which is great — we have upwards of 20-plus food trucks and trailers, including the businesses that also participate around town.”

“We still do a Haunted Trail, which is put together by Witches Springs. We do that on Friday and Saturday night. Then we have the Tent Taste — a wine, beer and spirits tasting put on by the Rotary Club and Lions over on the community house lawn. There are distillers and microbreweries, a whole boatload from surrounding areas. Our website has a list of beverage purveyors. A lot of people come for that.”

On Friday and Saturday evening amateur astronomers will set up their telescopes for astronomical viewing, weather permitting, in Keyes Memorial Park.

“There’s just a lot of stuff going on,” Campbell said. “There’s like a little bit of something for everybody.”

Milford Pumpkin Festival
Where: Milford Oval
When: Friday, Oct. 9, 5-9 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 10, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sunday, Oct. 11, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Pumpkinfest 5K and kids’ fun run start Saturday at 7:30 a.m.; runners can pre-register online.
More: Full schedule and ticket information at milfordpumpkinfestival.org

Late fall color in the garden

In baseball terms, this is not the last inning for our gardens. It’s more like the seventh-inning stretch. Many flowers have finished up and are dying back, but a few are yet to come.

Let’s take a look, starting with two bulb plants that have not come up yet in my garden but will soon: autumn crocus (Colchicum speciosum) and saffron crocus (Crocus sativus). The first are not true crocus but resemble crocus on steroids. They send up big leaves in the spring to provide the bulbs with the energy needed for fall blooming, then they die back and disappear. In September the blossoms appear, but without any leaves. Their blossoms resemble crocus blossoms, but are 4 to 5 inches long and appear on 5-inch stems. For me, these pink or white blossoms usually flop over but still look good. And they can last in a vase for a few days.

Planted in August, saffron crocus blooms that same year in October or November. Each beautiful little blue flower has three stamens, which when picked and dried is used in cooking and is fabulously expensive.

The crocus bulb that blooms this fall produces several little bulbs around the “mother corm,” then dies. Those little corms may bloom the next year but might not. I’ve grown them but haven’t had luck getting blossoms in Year 2, probably because they need full sun and I planted mine in part sun.

But on to the reliable fall bloomers. Grocery stores and garden centers are selling pots of annual chrysanthemums, many in pots with 100 blossoms or more. They are a sure antidote for the end-of-summer blues! They’re bright and colorful — good for the front steps or to replace annuals that melt after the first timid frost. Be sure to water them regularly if they’re on your front steps in a peat pot, as they dry out quickly.

Then there are the perennials, most of them tall and bold. Right now, in bloom, a few I have are white mugwort, goldenrod, Joe Pye weed, sneezeweed and black-eyed susans.

Although its cousin, common mugwort (Artemesia vulgaris), is a pernicious weed that spreads vigorously by root and seeds, white mugwort (Artemesia lactiflora) stays in tidy clumps 3 feet tall with masses of delicate white flowers. My mugwort is finishing up its bloom cycle now.

Goldenrod can be weedy, but there are certain species that are not. ‘Fireworks’ is a named variety that is a clumper and is very lovely, 3 to 4 feet tall. Pollinators love goldenrod, so don’t dismiss it. Those sold at garden centers are probably not weedy.

Most of you know Joe Pye Weed, a tall, spreading native plant that has been blooming for me since mid-August and still looks good and attracts pollinators. Last year a large flock of monarchs stopped in one day to fill their gas tanks with nectar before the flight to Mexico! It does best with rich, moist soil in sun or part sun.

There are now shorter cultivars available for sale, though I haven’t tried any. ‘Little Joe’ sounds good but is still 3 to 5 feet tall in 2- to 3-foot-wide clumps. I have a full-sized variety called ‘Gateway’ that is 6 to 8 feet tall and has spread over the decades to a 10-foot-wide clump. Not for the small cottage garden!

Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) is a lovely 3- to 6-foot-tall flower in the aster family that does not make you sneeze, though it was used as snuff long ago, hence the name. It comes with pure yellow flowers, or with orange, red or brown petals mixed in. It needs full or part sun and is best in the back of a perennial bed as it has “bad legs,” meaning the leaves on lower parts of the stem tend to brown up early.

You all know the black-eyed Susans, so I will only mention a variety called ‘Henry Eieler,’ which is very tall and has petals separated by spaces like the teeth on a jack-o’-lantern. Six feet tall in an ever-expanding clump, it needs to be staked.

Some shrubs and trees have leaves with wonderful fall color; a few even bloom in late fall. Of the bloomers there are many kinds of hydrangeas, seven-son flower tree (Heptacodium miconioides) and the witch hazel tree (Hamamelis virginiana), which blooms in October and November with ribbon-like flowers.

Of the hydrangeas, I like ‘Pink Diamond’ best for its big conical panicles on stiff, non-flopping stems. At age 20, mine is 15 feet tall and wide. But ‘Quick Fire’ is a great smaller one — I keep mine pruned to 4 feet tall and wide with an annual cutting back of last-year’s blossoms in the spring. That also stimulates more blossoms. They start out white in early summer, mature to pink and red in the fall, and look good all summer. And of course the Pee-Gee hydrangea is an old favorite that does get big.

For foliage color, you can’t beat fothergilla (Fothergill major). A slow-growing native, fothergilla displays red, yellow, orange and purple leaves late in the fall. In spring it has early white bottlebrush flowers.

But if you lament the demise of burning bush, now on the invasive species list, look for a disanthus (Disanthus cercidifolius). The leaves turn a rich purple and the plant holds on to them till late in October. It is hard to find in nurseries, so if you see one, grab it! It stays as a medium to large shrub that likes sun to part sun.

Enjoy the fall, and make sure you have some plants that will make you want to stroll your gardens, camera in hand.

Henry can be reached at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.

Kiddie Pool 26/10/01

Family fun for whenever

Hands-on fun

• The Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains will hold The Expo on Saturday, Oct. 3, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the NH Sportsplex, 68 Technology Drive in Bedford, according to a press release. The day will feature performances, workshops, exhibitors with hands-on activities and more, many with a focus on STEM, the arts or the outdoors. “Take advantage of over 75 family-oriented exhibits with hands-on activities. See amazing stage shows, investigate new technology in our STEM Zone, fire an arrow at a target, meet a superhero, and so much more,” according to girlscoutsgwm.org. Admission costs $10.

Fall excitement

• Charmingfare Farm in Candia will hold its annual Pumpkin Festival Saturday, Oct. 3, and Sunday, Oct. 4, and Saturday, Oct. 10, through Monday, Oct. 12. Pick a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, take a tractor- or horse-drawn wagon ride, meet costumed characters, enjoy a children’s corn maze, watch a juggling and comedy show and listen to live music, according to visitthefarm.com, where you can purchase tickets to a specific time during the two weekends.

• Rochester Main Street will hold its Spooktacular & Pumpkin Patch on Saturday, Oct. 3, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Central Square in downtown Rochester, according to rochestermainstreet.org. Kids can pick and decorate a pumpkin, participate in a trunk-or-treat, listen to live music (with performer Sean Fell), play games and more, the website said.

• Squam Lakes Natural Science Center, 23 Science Center Road in Holderness, will hold Grandparents Day on Saturday, Oct. 3, when “grandchildren ages 16 and younger will receive free admission when accompanied by a grandparent,” according to a press release. In addition to the Live Animal Exhibit trail, the center will feature Up Close to Animals presentations at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., the release said. “Grandparents Day will also feature a special offer in the Howling Coyote Gift Shop. Grandparents accompanied by a grandchild can buy one and get one free of a featured stuffed animal, while supplies last,” the release said. See nhnature.org for admission information.

Movie time

• Merrimack Parks and Recreation will screen Toy Story 5(2026) on Saturday, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m. in Wasserman Park, 116 Naticook Road in Merrimack, according to merrimackparksandrec.org

What would Molly Stark wear?

See fashions from the past and more at MHA show

Kristy Ellsworth is preparing to strip to her underwear for history.

As director of education for the Manchester Historic Association, Ellsworth is excited about “Whose Revolution Is it Anyway?,” a day of historic presentations at the Millyard Museum on Oct. 3, focused on life in Revolutionary-era Derryfield, New Hampshire. Ellsworth’s presentation, “Undressing History: 1776 Edition,” will focus on the clothing likely worn by one of New Hampshire’s most famous founding mothers, Molly Stark.

“I will be getting dressed head to toe from my stockings and shift to my gown and hat,” Ellsworth said. “And we’ll have a slideshow talking about the different types of clothing, the process of making clothing, the value of clothing, how the war with England affected the clothing choices of colonists here in Derryfield. And then I will get dressed from head to toe in person, so people will get to see, A, how long that takes, [and] B, the structure of the clothes. Afterward, we’ll put the clothes out and they can look at them and see how they’re constructed. They’re all hand-sewn. This is the second time we’ve done this type of program. We did 1850s a few months ago, and it was wildly popular. So hopefully it will be again. “

Ellsworth said that while she will start her presentation in period under-clothing, by modern standards it is pretty modest.

“I will be in my underwear, yes,” she said, “But I wear less at the beach.” She said that a woman like Molly Stark makes a good subject for the study of 1770s fashion. “She was middle class at a time when there actually was a true middle class. She was still in a position where she did hard labor often.”

Unfortunately for modern scholars, few of Stark’s actual items of clothing still exist, Ellsworth said. “She certainly could have afforded some nice things. She still would have had that sort of Yankee frugality where the things she owned were very precious to her. And we do at the Historic Association have a small collection of her things, but unfortunately she was part of a very big family and a lot of those things probably got flung to the far corners of the Earth unidentified. We have a few of her pockets, we have one of her gowns, we have a pair of her shoes, a few of her personal jewelry items like earrings and a hair bracelet. But a lot of the research comes from other primary sources of women of similar age, social status, and geographical location.”

This sort of hands-on approach to history represents a change of focus from the days when historians spent much of their time memorizing treaties and analyzing speeches by men in white wigs. At Saturday’s event for instance, Ellsworth said, “we have two lectures, [but also] hands-on activities, docent-led program, and live demonstrations like butter-churning. We have a children’s story time, and then as a separate paid admission we have an American Girl Doll Tea Party, 1776, in which the guests, with their parents — every guest has a paid ticket — will get to bring their dolls to the museum and we’ll have a tea party from the 1700s, including Shrewsbury cakes and apple tartlets, tea, cream, and activities just for the children and families that are participating in that event.”

Ellsworth said she is a fan of the historically themed American Girl Dolls. “We’ve been doing [events with] them for 10 years,” she said. “I really like exposing young children to hands-on history in a relatable way. We use them [the dolls] a lot in our school programming, in our public programming. We use them for adults, children, boys, girls, because they are small enough that you can make the items for them pretty cost-effectively, but they are large enough that they can actually see how things are constructed, they can touch the items, whereas so many of the things in our collection we can’t let people handle.”

“Whose Revolution Is It Anyway”
When: Saturday, Oct. 3, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: Manchester’s Millyard Museum, 200 Bedford St., Suite 103, Manchester, 622-7531, manchesterhistoric.org.
More: Lectures and presentations, with the exception of the American Girl Tea Party, are free with admission to the Museum. Visit manchesterhistoric.org/event/whose-revolution-is-it-anyway.

Featured photo: Previous “Undressing History” presentation. From the museum’s Facebook page.

Fair play

Deerfield Fair celebrates its 150th

By Chelsea Spear
listings@hippopress.com

In 1876 the town of Deerfield held its first fair in honor of the American centennial. Since then, the Deerfield Fair has become one of the area’s most popular agricultural fairs, attracting 100,000 people to a four-day event featuring rides, games, live music, sheep dog herding and a tractor pull.

For several generations of Granite State youth, the Deerfield Fair has been a highlight of their year. Members of organizations like Rockingham County 4-H and the Future Farmers of America have presented their work at the fair.

“It’s an opportunity for our 4-H members and the families to showcase their projects that they’ve been working on throughout the year,” Emmalee Garvin, the program manager for 4-H Rockingham County, said in a recent Zoom interview. “This is our capstone event for our Rockingham County 4-H members. We have an exhibit building … and members come in and they showcase and display the projects that they’ve been working on all year. It’s just really a great opportunity to see all the things that our members have done throughout the year.”

“For years and years, the Deerfield Fair has welcomed FFA to the fairgrounds, and we’ve had various contests over the years,” Future Farmers of America Executive Director Maria VanderWoude said in a separate Zoom interview. “Most of our chapters from across the state go to it. It’s a big deal for the students, and it’s really the first activity of the school year. So students are super excited for it.”

Both 4-H and the FFA are youth-oriented activities. While many 21st-century high school students might be encouraged to learn coding or other tech-related skills, “the great thing about 4-H is that it really offers kids the chance to explore things that they’re interested in, which sometimes develops into lifelong passions,” Garvin observes. “It’s not just kids on farms that have animals, it’s kids from all over the community. It’s just a mix of everybody. And that’s the great thing about 4-H is that there’s a little bit of everything for everyone.”

Both Garvin and VanderWoude describe the Deerfield Fair as the highlight of their students’ year. How do their presentations go from idea to reality?

“It’s what the clubs want to do,” Garvin says. “I ask my club leaders leading up to the fair, ‘What do you want to do within the building? How much space do you need?’ The exhibit building is a conversation between me, the volunteers, my club leaders, and we have the opportunity to provide electricity. It has to be within reason of the spacing that we have.”

For the FFA, the exhibits are a bit more predetermined.

“[We’ve been doing] these contests for years and years. I think [FFA volunteer coordinator] Diane House would present that to the fair association and hopefully get their approval. And we have to give teachers plenty of lead time so that they can prepare students.”

Both FFA and 4-H have built barns for their organizations’ exhibitions. What can we expect to see at the Deerfield Fair this year?

“We have our exhibit building with all the projects that the members are showcasing, and then our fence talks and building talks,” Garvin says. “Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, our exhibit building is open from the start of the fair to the close of the fair for people to come in and see. We’re also doing a kind of scavenger hunt activity in the building for the public to participate in and to be entered to win a prize if they complete it. And then of course, seeing the kids doing their public speaking. We’ll have members and volunteers in the building for people to interact with and talk to. And then Saturday and Sunday are our 4-H youth animal shows.”

For Garvin the Deerfield Fair reflects a youth experience that doesn’t get as much attention now. “People nowadays just think kids are stuck on tablets or on video games,” she observes. “This is just showcasing that no, there are kids out there building things, creating things, working with animals and doing things that it’s amazing to see when you walk through that building, you’re like, ‘Oh, I can’t believe a 10-year-old made this,’ or things like that. So it’s really just great to see.”

Deerfield Fair
When: Thursday, Oct. 1, through Sunday, Oct. 4
Hours: Thursday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Where: 34 Stage Road, Deerfield
Admission: adults $12; children 12 and under free; discounts available for seniors and military.
More: See a full schedule, download a fair map, and purchase advance tickets online at deerfieldfair.com.

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