On The Job – Brooke Tilton

Dog treat baker

Brooke Tilton is the owner of Buff Cake Barkery, a Nashua-based all-natural dog treat business.

Explain your job and what it entails.

I’m the owner and baker for Buff Cake Barkery, which is a gourmet, all-natural treat and custom cookie barkery for dogs. It’s predominantly an online business, with a variety of pop-ups, but we just recently expanded into several retail stores.

How long have you had this job?

I’ve been in business since January 2021.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

I started making treats and food for our rescue dog after we learned that he has a sensitive stomach. I love to bake, so it was a fun new endeavor. After I was making treats and food for a couple of years, we decided to see if it could turn into a business, and it has.

What kind of education or training did you need?

Degrees are not required for this line of work because it is something that can be self-taught. However, you do need to know the laws surrounding pet feed, distribution and what ingredients are dog-safe. Treats need to be lab-tested, and labels need to be approved by the DOA. All of that aside, I actually do have the formal education, a degree in Baking and Pastry Arts and a Servsafe certification.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

When I’m in the kitchen, it’s whatever is comfortable — with an apron.

What was it like starting during the pandemic?

Starting the business was both fun and scary. There was a level of uncertainty, but also a “no time like the present” mentality. It’s been a wild ride, to say the least. Each new opportunity has inevitably opened the door to something else. I wish I had started it sooner, but I’m grateful for the opportunities, and I think it has panned out exactly how it was meant to.

What do you wish you’d known at the beginning of your career?

Not everyone will understand or appreciate what you do, and that’s OK, because there are still plenty of people who do.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

I’m not a mass-production operation. Every ingredient is carefully sourced and picked. Every treat is rolled and cut by hand. Every bag is labeled, filled and sealed by hand. Every order is packed with a handwritten note. There are so many steps to the process, and the prices reflect that.

What was the first job you ever had?

I was a coffee maker and doughnut filler at Dunkin’ Donuts.

What’s the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received?

Just be yourself and the right people will find you.

Five favorites

Favorite book: You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero
Favorite movie: Pretty Woman
Favorite music: Everything from classical to heavy metal, and almost everything in between
Favorite food: Chocolate
Favorite thing about NH: Its beauty

Featured photo: Brooke Tilton. Courtesy photo.

Treasure Hunt 23/01/05

Hello Donna,

Came across this 3” x 2½” trinket. Looks like it could have been used for a clock. There are no company names on it so it’s hard to tell. Any thoughts?

Pat

Bedford

Dear Pat,

You are right! It was a clock case at one time. Now, with the clock mechanism missing, knowing the value is tough!

It’s got to either go to a clock person to find a new timepiece, or be used for another decorative purpose.

If the metal had any value it would have been marked sterling and with a maker. So that’s not the case here. As it stands the value would be in the $15 range.

Pat, it would be much more fun to do something creative with it. Thanks for sharing and if you’re looking for a couple of decorative ideas send me another note.

Donna

Kiddie Pool 23/01/05

Family fun for the weekend

On ice!

“Find Your Hero” is the theme of this weekend’s Disney On Ice show at the SNHU Arena (555 Elm St. in Manchester; snhuarena.com, 644-500). Princesses, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Olaf the snowman and other Disney characters will take to the ice on Thursday, Jan. 5, at 7 p.m.; Friday, Jan. 6, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, Jan. 7, at 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., and Sunday, Jan. 8, at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Tickets start at $18.

On the seas!

The Super Stellar Friday program on Friday, Jan. 6, at 7 p.m. at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (2 Institute Drive in Concord; starhop.com, 271-7827) is about “New Hampshire’s Rye Riptide STEM Miniboats.” Learn about the unmanned mini sailboats gathering wind and currents information, according to the website. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the event will be followed by planetarium and telescope viewing. The cost (which includes admission to the exhibits and a planetarium show as well as the Super Stellar programming) is $12 for adults, $9 for kids ages 3 to 12, $11 for seniors and students. The program can also be viewed virtually; see the website for information.

In the skies! (Well, imagine they’re in the skies)

The “Holiday Festival of Toy Planes and Model Aircraft” exhibit continues at the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road in Londonderry; nhahs.org, 669-4820) and features more than 2,000 aviation toys and models, according to a press release. The exhibit will be on display through Sunday, Jan. 22; the museum is open Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. Admission costs $10 per person ages 13 and up, $5 for ages 6 to 12 and ages 65 and up; ages 5 and under and veterans and active military get in free, the release said.

In nature!

Squam Lakes Natural Science Center (23 Science Center Road in Holderness; 968- 7194, nhnature.org) will hold the first of its Wild Winter Walk events for 2023 on Saturday, Jan. 7, at 10 a.m. The program runs through 11:30 a.m. and includes a naturalist-guided walk through the live animal exhibit trail to see how native animals adapt to winter, according to the website. The program will be all outside and is recommended for kids ages 7 and up (kids must be accompanied by adults). An afternoon program at 1 p.m. may be offered if the morning program fills up, the website said. The cost is $13 per person; register online.

For the littlest littles

The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (6 Washington St. in Dover; childrens-museum.org, 742-2002) begins its series of baby storytimes on Thursday, Jan. 5. The storytimes run every Thursday from 9:30 to 10 a.m. and are geared to ages 6 months to 2 years, according to the website, where you can reserve spots for the morning play session (9 a.m. to noon). Admission costs $12.50 for adults and children over 12 months old; $10.50 for ages 65+.

The year’s lessons from the garden

Whatever happens, keep planting and learning

At the end of the year I always like to take a little time to reflect on what worked well in the garden — and what didn’t. This year I also called some gardening friends — some experienced, some less so — to ask what they had learned.

I’ll go first. In 2021 I planted some bare-root oaks I bought from the State of New Hampshire and planted them for a client in an open meadow in what had previously been a lawn. Most did well last year and really took off this year. Based on that success, I planted even more this year in part because I could get unusual trees not available locally — northern pecan, hardy persimmon, pawpaw and more. We’ll see how they do next year.

Bare-root trees are usually the thickness of a pencil and have a foot or so of root with 18 to 24 inches of bare trunk. Although I found a grower in Vermont willing to sell them to me, most growers sell them to nurseries that pot them up and sell them in a year or two. But if you go online you can find growers who will ship bare-root trees and shrubs in the spring. They are easy to ship — no soil is included — and are less expensive than trees that have been tended and watered for a couple of years.

The downside is that bare root trees are generally only sold when dormant, and need to be planted soon after arrival. Some growers keep big coolers full of bare-root material, but you still need to get them in the ground soon after you get them. Look for them now and order what you want for spring delivery.

A friend bought a house in southern New Hampshire and had her first vegetable garden this year. She was surprised and delighted that there was no blight on her tomatoes. This did not surprise me at all. The fungus that blights so many tomatoes lives in the soil, and in a new location it rarely shows up until Year 2.

She also reported that some of her new raised beds were placed on ground so hard that she couldn’t even get a shovel in it. The wood beds were 8 inches tall but didn’t drain well, and none of her root crops did well. In the spring she is going to dig out the soil, remove the beds, and put 2 inches of coarse sand on the ground. Then she will replace the wood-sided beds and soil, and hope for the best. I predict that will solve the problem, particularly if she adds lots of compost to the soil in the beds.

Another friend was reminded this year that if a perennial is not “happy” where it is planted, you should move it! She said she had divided some phlox and, lacking a good spot for it all, put some in a place that was too shady for it. So she dug it up and moved it to a better place late in the season. Almost anything can be moved; just do it on a cool cloudy or rainy day. Even peonies can be moved if you are careful.

Another friend said that he learned to use hydrogen peroxide as a preventive for fungus on grapes. He bought some industrial-strength peroxide (30 percent concentration) and diluted it (10 parts water to one part peroxide). He then filled his big sprayer to apply it. He sprayed after pollination but before the grapes had appeared. Unlike chemical sprays, he says, it just breaks down to water and oxygen.

Another friend moved to Vermont from New York and has been working to maintain and personalize the large flower gardens that came with the house. She has learned to focus on one area at a time. She also said she has learned that it is important to act on your own ideas, even if you have inherited wonderful gardens. I agree. For example I learned that I love flowers called burnets (Sanguisorba spp.) and I collect them.

Burnets bloom in mid to late summer and come in size from miniature (6 inches tall) to huge (6 feet tall) and do best in sun with moist soil. Each year I add a few. My most recent addition is a S. hakusanensis called Lilac squirrel. I think of it as “the pink squirrel” as its blossoms are fuzzy and much like a squirrel’s tail, though much smaller. Mine are pink, not lilac in color. Not common in most garden centers, it is available from Digging Dog Nursery in California.

So yes, we all learn new techniques, try new plants and do our best to be good gardeners. All my best to you for the year ahead.

Featured photo: ‘Lilac Squirrel’ Sanguisorba blossoms are delightful to touch and see. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

The Art Roundup 23/01/05

The latest from NH’s theater, arts and literary communities

• New exhibit at Art 3: “Multi-Mediums,” an exhibit featuring works on canvas and panel, wall reliefs in ceramic and metal and sculptures in stone and wood, is open now at the Art 3 Gallery (44 W. Brook St. in Manchester; 668-6650), according to a press release. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 1 to 4:30 p.m. and a virtual exhibit should be available soon, the release said.

• Photo exhibit: The 23rd annual New Hampshire Society of Photographic Artists Member Exhibit and Sale will open Saturday, Jan. 7, with a reception from noon to 4 p.m. at the Exeter Town Hall Gallery (10 Front St. in Exeter), according to a press release. Some of the photographers with works in the exhibit will be on hand to answer questions, the release said. The exhibit will run through Sunday, Jan. 29, and the gallery is open Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 4 p.m.

The Society recently established a permanent studio space at the Kimball Jenkins School of Art in Concord that gives members access to studio lighting, printers and more. See nhspa.org for membership information.

• Sing! The Rockingham Choral Society will hold an open rehearsal on Tuesday, Jan. 10, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Exeter High School for its spring concert, which will feature works by Beethoven and Brahms, according to a press release. The group is open to singers age 16 and up and a brief placement audition for new members will take place at the end of the rehearsal; dues are waived for high school and college students, the release said. See rockinghamchoral.org.

• January at Gibson’s: Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St. in Concord; 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) has several recently announced events on the January schedule. James T. McKim Jr. will be at the bookstore on Tuesday, Jan. 10, at 6:30 p.m. to discuss his book The Diversity Factor: Igniting Superior Organizational Performance; the event is free and no registration is required.

On Tuesday, Jan. 17, at 6:30 p.m, Honorable John T. Broderick Jr. (former chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court and current senior director of external affairs at Dartmouth Health) will be at Gibson’s to discuss his book Backroads and Highways: My Journey to Discovery on Mental Health.

On Friday, Jan. 27, at 8 p.m. the bookstore will be part of a virtual event featuring author and director Joyce Chopra discussing her book Lady Director: Adventures in Hollywood, Television and Beyond with journalist Annie Berke. See the store’s website for a link to the event page, where you can purchase a ticket/book bundle.

Save the date for Tuesday, Feb. 21, at 6:30 p.m. when Farzon A. Nahvi, MD, an ER physician at Concord Hospital, will be at Gibson’s to discuss his book Code Gray, a memoir about his life in medicine.

New Art Show
“Beginnings,” the first group show at the art studio Girl from Mars (135 Route 101A in Amherst), is opening on Friday, Jan. 6, with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Melissa Richard, the owner and chief artist at the studio, said she was excited to have 14 local artists showing 24 pieces of new work.

“Some are artists I knew; some I met through other galleries and shows along the way,” Richard said, adding that she’s “hoping to rotate between group and solo shows in the space.”

All of the artwork on display will be available for purchase either online at the gallery’s website or at the show. The show will run from Jan. 6 through the end of February. The Gallery’s hours are Thursday through Saturday by appointment. Visit marsartstudio.weebly.com.

• Book and film: Eva’s Promise, a documentary about Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss (whose mother married Anne Frank’s father after the war), will have its New England premiere at the Park Theatre (19 Main St. in Jaffrey; theparktheatre.org, 532-8888) on Friday, Jan. 13, at 7 p.m. The film’s director (Steve McCarthy) and the producer (Susan Kerner) will attend the Sunday, Jan. 15, 4 p.m. screening of the film and hold a discussion after the film that will include a special video message from Eva Schloss, according to a press release. When Eva and her brother Heinz Geiringer were put on a train to Auschwitz in 1944, Heinz, who was 17, told her that he’d hidden paintings and poetry he’d created in the family attic and asked her to retrieve them if he didn’t survive the war, the release said. Eva (who is 93 and lives in London) wrote a book, The Promise, in 2006, and signed copies will be available at the theater (as well as at Toadstool Bookshops), the release said. Tickets for the Sunday event cost $10 to $15; tickets for regular screenings cost $8 to $9. In addition to the Friday and Sunday screenings, the film will also screen Saturday, Jan. 14, at 2 and 7 p.m., and Tuesday, Jan. 17, through Thursday, Jan. 19, at 7 p.m.

• Jazz and classical: The Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra will head to Jimmy’s Jazz and Blues Club in Portsmouth with their “Up Close & Personal” chamber music and dinner series on Sunday, Jan. 15, at 5:30 p.m. The PSO Brass quintet will explore the boundaries between jazz and classical music, according to a press release. The show will feature a tribute to Stephen Sondheim, music from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, selections from Thomas Wright “Fats” Waller and the score to George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, the release said. Tickets cost $90 per person and include the concert, appetizers, dinner and dessert, the release said. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. See portsmouthsymphony.org to purchase tickets.

More than music

A choir made up of refugee girls from across the world will sing at the Mariposa Museum

By Katelyn Sahagian

[email protected]

A girls’ choir from Maine will be giving a free performance at the Mariposa Museum, but what makes this choir special isn’t the music they perform. It’s the girls themselves.

The Pihcintu Multinational Girls Choir is composed completely of refugees fleeing famine, war and other atrocities. The choir promotes peace, understanding and kindness through their music and has performed for the United Nations, alongside classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

Con Fullan, the man who created the choir and has directed and written music for it for the last 17 years, said these girls are inspiring to watch.

“These kids have a powerful impact on audiences they perform for,” Fullan said. “It’s not meant to be about the perfection of their voices; it’s meant to be much more. The message is the importance here … how important and necessary the refugees are to this country and how to support them.”

Fullan, who started his music career as a singer-songwriter, said he is thrilled to offer these girls a community and a place to learn and grow. He said most of the current singers are Congolese and Angolese, but the choir has 300 past members and has had girls from more than 40 nations.

Fullan said he loves the confidence the choir gives the girls, remembering the story of one Congolese refugee who begged to join the choir even though she didn’t know a word of English. He said that in three months she knew the lyrics to all of the songs, and by the time she graduated from high school she was a National Scholar and was accepted to the University of South Maine.

“To understand what they’ve gone through and how resilient they are is really jaw-dropping,” Fullan said. “The Congolese girl walked through jungles and God knows what horrors, and is now a wildly successful young woman. That’s a typical success story of my kids.”

According to Karla Hostetler, the executive director at the Mariposa Museum, the Pihcintu Multinational Girls Choir represents everything that the museum stands for.

“The Mariposa is dedicated to fostering peace and celebrating diversity while affirming a shared humanity and planet,” Hostetler said. “The mission of the museum and chorus are perfectly aligned.”

This is the second time the choir is performing at the museum, Hostetler said. The first was before the pandemic shut everything down. Now that the Mariposa is opening up again, Hostetler hopes to build a relationship with the choir so that they can perform at least once a year.

There couldn’t be a better time for their performance than now, Hostetler said. The featured exhibit currently at the museum is “The Luminous Worlds of Omar Victor Diop,” by a Senegalese artist who photographs the African diaspora around the world. The exhibit was extended through Sunday, Jan. 8.

“It’s a beautiful way to start the new year and a great way to celebrate and bring people in,” Hostetler said. “It’s really for everybody and a great chance to see what we at the Mariposa are all about too.”

Pihcintu Multinational Girls Choir
Where: The Mariposa Museum, 26 Main St., Peterborough
When: Saturday, Jan. 7, at 3 p.m.
Price: Free for members, $20 for nonmembers
Visit: mariposamuseum.org

Featured photo: Pihcintu Multinational Girls Choir. Courtesy photos.

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