On stage and off, Kathryn and Erik Hodges are in love, and the married Penacook couple brings that real-life emotion to Love Letters, a two-person show that explores the relationship of Andrew and Melissa through letter writing over the course of 50-plus years.
“It’s an unconventional love story,” said Lauren Shelby Douglas, who’s directing the piece for Hatbox Theatre. “It’s not high-energy, it’s not anxiety-driven — it’s a very kind show.”
Love Letters was written by A. R. Gurney and nominated in 1990 for a Pulitzer Prize in drama. The Hodges first performed it to limited, socially distanced audiences in September 2020 at Hatbox, during the brief period when the venue was allowed to reopen after being shut down due to Covid, only to be shut down again shortly after.
“Love Letters was very well-received critically, but it was lightly attended,” Hatbox Theatre founder Andrew Pinard said. “[I brought it back because] I thought the work was really strong, and it’s a powerful piece about keeping people together when they’re apart. … I’m not so concerned about ticket sales. This level of work deserved more eyes.”
This is Douglas’s directorial debut, replacing the previous director and offering a new perspective.
“Everybody comes in with their own insight, which is what you want — even though our previous director did a wonderful job,” Kathryn Hodges said. “She’s a youngster, and she does have her own vision.”
Douglas said she had never seen or read the play before, so she really came into it with fresh eyes.
She said it’s a subtle, understated play, with no grand drama — just a conversation between two people that starts in grade school and continues through war, the Great Depression, marriages and more, with ups and downs throughout the years.
“It’s not your average play in the fact that the actors don’t memorize their lines — they read from the script right on the stage,” Douglas said. “Gurney strictly had instructions not to memorize lines, [because he] wanted it to be like they were really reading these letters.”
There are no costume or scene changes either, which allows the actors to focus on how they’re emoting through their words.
“You don’t have to sweat the small stuff — you don’t have to learn the blocking [for example],” Kathryn Hodges said. “The lights come up and you start reading these lovely snapshots of these bygone times.”
The real-life couple has been together for 36 years, and Kathryn Hodges said they really relate to the relationship between Andrew and Melissa.
“They are very fond of each other, they are very much each other’s best friend, and that’s us in a nutshell,” she said.
Andrew and Melissa’s relationship, though, evolved during a very different time period, so understanding their characters was a process.
“As a warm-up for this production we did a little exercise where we reversed roles,” Erik Hodges said. “This play is very much written from the analogous male point of view [and] seeing the character from her point of view was an eye-opener. While the male just sails through [life] … [Melissa], because she’s a little eccentric and different, she’s penalized.”
The Hodges have been part of the local theater scene for decades; Erik Hodges started performing with the Community Players of Concord when he was 10, and Kathryn Hodges joined the Players when she was 20.
“Even though both Erik and I have a long history with community theater, we don’t often appear in the same show, or if we are in the same show our characters have nothing to do with each other,” Kathryn Hodges said.
Love Letters has been a special opportunity for them as actors, and it’s a unique play for audiences to experience as well.
“The show seems very, very simple, but it’s so much more,” Kathryn Hodges said.
Love Letters Where: Hatbox Theatre, 270 Loudon Road, Concord When: Friday, March 18, and Saturday, March 19, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, March 20 at 2 p.m. Tickets: $22 for adults, $19 for members, seniors and students and $16 for senior members. Tickets may be reserved by calling 715-2315 or visiting hatboxnh.com.
The future of Hatbox Theatre
It’s been a tumultuous month for Hatbox Theatre founder Andrew Pinard. The venue was unexpectedly served with an eviction notice from Steeplegate Mall Realty on Feb. 11; that notice was rescinded shortly thereafter. Pinard said in a phone interview on March 9 that he couldn’t imagine how he would have packed everything up and gotten out of there in 30 days.
Now, Pinard has faith that the verbal agreement that Hatbox made with the mall to stay put — and to extend the amount of eviction notification time — will be honored.
“We’re waiting for the mall to provide written confirmation. We expect that will be the case,” he said.
And while the news that Hatbox could stay came as a relief, it also served as a wake-up call.
“It was a very alarming moment in time,” Pinard said. “[We realized] we need to be thinking of our future and forever homes. We hope to stay in our current location for a long time, but we have to be pragmatic and look into other options.”
Even if the mall allows Hatbox to stay indefinitely, the theater company itself has been struggling since the pandemic started, which might force some changes anyway.
“The numbers are still not what they ought to be,” he said. “Things where people congregate — sports, concerts … are still not attended in the way that people expect.”
Pinard recently attended a meeting with fellow performing arts groups, and the general consensus is that most are not expecting to get back to even 70 percent of their typical audience numbers until summer 2023.
“From an artistic perspective … even though we’re starting to reconnect in person, there’s still a lot of concern,” he said.
Along with less income from ticket sales, venues are also dealing with increased costs. Pinard said he had about $7,500 worth of utility bills in two months, when revenue was “maybe $800, maybe $1,000.”
“We can only continue to operate a deficit for so long,” he said. “We’re in the hole, and every weekend we do performances, if we don’t meet a certain number of attendees, we continue to be in the hole.”
Pinard said he’s “cautiously optimistic that we’re going to make it through this,” and they’ve invested heavily in protective measures like UV filters to make sure patrons are safe and feel comfortable returning. But things are going to need to start improving fairly quickly.
“If this doesn’t come back within a year, we may not be able to afford to stay open,” Pinard said.
New space and new equipment for Beaver Brook Maple
Curiosity — that’s essentially how Andrew Mattiace ended up with the brand new sugarhouse on his property in Bow. After his grandmother’s funeral in 2017, Mattiace and his family visited her favorite sugarhouse in Charlestown; at one point, Mattiace looked at the evaporator and thought, “This thing just boils water? I can do this.”
So, being a “curious engineer,” he built his own evaporator, tapped some maple trees in his backyard, and in 2018 produced maple syrup for the first time — a whopping 5 gallons.
“The first year was horrendous,” he laughed.
Mattiace learned mostly by scouring the internet, and then through trial and error — and there were a lot of errors, he said. But what he produced in the end was good stuff, worthy of bottling and selling.
“It was like, OK, I can make syrup now, but how do I sell it?” he said.
He decided to build a self-serve farmstand on his property and named his business Beaver Brook Maple. Once he started selling, the demand quickly outpaced how much he was producing, even after he started to get the hang of it.
Andrew Mattiace’s sugarhouse at Beaver Brook Maple. Photos by Meghan Siegler.
Mattiace now has plenty of sap, tapping into some of his neighbors’ trees too. On a recent Friday 13-year-old Miles Miller and his dad Joe dropped off almost 130 gallons of sap from their own trees. It was their second run of the week; a few days earlier, they’d brought 80. Miles, who does the majority of the tree tapping and sap collecting, walked away Friday with $55 for that day’s delivery. He said they’ve lucked out with the maple trees on their property.
“They have a pretty high sugar content,” he said.
With neighbors selling him sap and plenty of people buying his syrup, the sugarhouse was the next logical step for Mattiace. He wanted to upsize his tank to produce more syrup in a shorter period of time.
Plus, he said, “I got tired of freezing my a** off. It’s very laborious and time consuming, and I wanted to get out of the outdoor process.”
His old evaporator processed eight gallons of sap in an hour, while the new one can process 35 gallons. His goal for this year is to produce 50 gallons of syrup, up from 23 last year, which will be much easier with the new equipment and warmer space, he said.
Mattiace isn’t in this for the money. In fact, if he sells those 50 gallons, he’ll just about break even.
“If I count my labor, I’m completely in the red,” he said.
Mattiace doesn’t want to grow Beaver Brook Maple into a big business. He has a full-time job that pays the bills, and this “hobby” already takes a lot of time.
“I want to make it worthwhile, but I never want to exceed 100 gallons a year,” he said.
Mattiace’s main goal has always been to create a sense of community, a place where friends and family come to hang out.
“That’s a real driving factor for me,” he said. “Everybody loves sweet, sugary things.”
Featured photo: Andrew Mattiace and his new sugarhouse at Beaver Brook Maple. Photos by Meghan Siegler.
Celebrate the sweet stuff with sugar house visits and maple tastings
Season of syrup
New Hampshire Maple Weekend returns
New Hampshire Maple Weekend When: Saturday, March 19, and Sunday, March 20 Where: Several participating sugarhouses and farms statewide Visit: nhmapleproducers.com
On March 5 and March 6 Ben’s Sugar Shack in Temple kicked off the first two days of its maple touring season to a great turnout — and an overall “back to normal” type of feeling, operations manager Emily Sliviak said. Free tours are set to continue every weekend through April 3.
“This is the first year that we’re starting to do samples again,” Sliviak said. “Everyone wanted a sample, and it was great to see that nobody really seemed uncomfortable or scared or anything, especially in the evaporator room, just because it is kind of a tighter space.”
Ben’s is one of hundreds of sugarhouses across the Granite State gearing up for New Hampshire Maple Weekend, happening on Saturday, March 19, and Sunday, March 20. Maple producers large and small traditionally hold open houses throughout the weekend — or all month long in March — for families to visit, take a free tour, and sample syrup and other maple goodies.
Maple warm pudding. Photo courtesy of Ben’s Sugar Shack.
It’s overseen by the New Hampshire Maple Producers Association, a nonprofit founded in 1943 that now represents roughly 350 maple purveyors statewide, president Andrew Chisholm said.
“Last year we decided to advertise it as Maple Month so that producers would have the option to spread everything out over the entire month and not have large groups come to sugarhouses, as is common on Maple Weekend,” said Chisholm, a maple producer himself who runs Chisholm Farm in Hampstead. “This year we’re doing kind of a hybrid, so we’re giving producers the option to advertise themselves as participating in Maple Month or Maple Weekend, and then my guess is that by 2023 we’ll hopefully be fully back to … calling it a Maple Weekend.”
Here’s a look at how this year’s maple sugaring season has gone so far in southern New Hampshire and what you can expect when you visit a local sugarhouse on Maple Weekend.
Maple warm pudding Courtesy of Ben’s Sugar Shack in Temple. Recipe by Mareh Bleecker
2½ cups whole milk ⅔ cup maple sugar ½ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 3 Tablespoons cornstarch 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened Strawberry jam Fresh whipped cream
In a small bowl, mix half a cup of cold milk with the cornstarch. Place the remaining two cups of milk, the maple sugar and the salt in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook just until the mixture begins to steam. Add the cornstarch mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture starts to thicken and barely reaches a boil, about 5 minutes. Immediately reduce the heat to very low and stir for five minutes until thick. Remove the pudding from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla extract. Spoon the pudding into individual jars or ramekins and let cool slightly. Top with jam, compote, fresh fruit and whipped cream.
Tapping traditions
Tours are offered at Ben’s every 15 minutes between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. and will typically last about half an hour depending on questions, Sliviak said. Attendees learn all about the process of collecting sap and the importance of daily maintenance of the trees, especially against windy or rainy weather conditions and the intrusions of animals like squirrels, bears and moose.
“We walk them across the woods to where they can see the modern way of collecting, which is through the tubing system and the vacuum system,” she said. “Then we’ll walk groups back over to where the trucks will bring the sap. We have a 10,000-gallon holding tank, and all of the sap from there will run into the reverse osmosis room, which is a fancy system that separates the water from the sugar molecules … and that makes it much less work for the evaporator to boil.”
Depending on the sugar content levels and the time of the season, Sliviak said it takes roughly 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. After the reverse osmosis process, the sap then runs into the evaporator room, where tour attendees learn about the boiling, filtering and bottling of the syrup, as well as the grades that are produced and how each is different in taste.
Samples are provided at the conclusion of the tour, and a gift shop will also have various maple products for sale. Last weekend Ben’s began offering maple ice cream — that’s expected to continue through the last two weekends of the month, Sliviak said, in addition to their maple roasted nuts, maple cotton candy and their popular maple doughnuts.
“We’re just kind of easing into everything and gradually getting back into all of the other stuff that we normally would do with the tours,” Sliviak said.
In May, following the end of this year’s production season, Ben’s is expected to break ground on a new 16,000-square-foot building on the corner of Route 101 and Webster Highway in Temple, which Sliviak said will accommodate tours that much better by this time next year.
Chisholm will similarly open his operation up for free tours, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day of Maple Weekend. He’ll have maple ice cream sourced from Shaw Farm just over the state line in Dracut, Mass., as well as maple doughnuts and a variety of his own products available for sale.
“What I like to do that’s a little unique are infused maples, so I do a vanilla-infused maple and a cinnamon-infused maple, and then also some barrel-aged stuff,” he said.
Weathering the storm
Despite a slow start to the 2022 maple season, the temperatures over the last couple of weeks and the forecast have set the stage for an ideal Maple Weekend, according to Sliviak.
“A lot of times we’re able to produce a decent amount in January and even in February, and that was not the case this year,” she said. “We’re looking for warmer days and colder nights, ideally 40 degrees or 45 at the most, but definitely a slight freeze at night, so around 25 to 30 degrees. … Overall it looks like it’s going to turn out really well, and one of the reasons is because of the amount of rain that we had in the past year, in the summer, fall and through the winter, even.”
Maple onion jam. Courtesy of Ben’s Sugar Shack.
It’s already shaping out to be a better season for sugarhouses compared to last year, which Chisholm said was widely classified as a disaster due to very warm and dry conditions.
“Most producers only made about 40 percent of what they would expect to make, myself included,” he said. “Last year was an early start and a very early finish. … It warmed up real quick at the end of March, and I think for us down here in southern New Hampshire it never went below freezing. As a whole the 2021 season was a short crop across the entire region.”
Sugarhouses haven’t been immune to rising costs and supply chain issues impacting all kinds of industries in the pandemic’s wake, from plastic containers and glass bottles and jars to everything in between. But with that, Sliviak said sales of and demand for syrup are still up from before.
“We literally had some farm stands double their average sales with us last year,” she said. “I don’t really know what it’s from, whether people are more out and about or their kids are home more and they needed maple syrup, but we’re still seeing that upward trend.”
Maple onion jam Courtesy of Ben’s Sugar Shack in Temple. Recipe by Mareh Bleecker
2 large onions, thinly sliced (about 2 cups) 2 Tablespoons neutral oil (grapeseed, avocado or ghee) 2 Tablespoons Ben’s organic maple syrup 1 teaspoon fresh thyme 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard 1½ teaspoons salt 2 teaspoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
Heat a saucepan over medium heat. Add the oil, onions and salt. Turn the heat to low and cook, stirring frequently until the onions begin to soften and turn translucent. Add maple syrup, black pepper and thyme. Add a little bit of water if the onions begin to stick to the bottom of the pan. Continue to cook the onions for 25 to 30 minutes or until the onions are caramelized and deep brown in color. Add the mustard and lemon juice and stir for one minute. Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed. Pour into a small jar and let it cool. Refrigerate for up to two weeks.
Visit a sugarhouse
Here are some local farms and sugarhouses participating in this year’s New Hampshire Maple Weekend, scheduled for Saturday, March 19, and Sunday, March 20. Some will be offering maple sugaring tours and demonstrations, while others will be selling and providing samples of a variety of maple-infused products. Be sure to contact each one directly for their most up-to-date plans for Maple Weekend. For a full list of sugarhouses, visit nhmapleproducers.com.
• 6 Saplings Sugarhouse (31 Kearsarge Valley Road, Wilmot, 526-2167, find them on Facebook) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., offering tours, samples and products for sale, from maple syrup to maple cream, sugar, candied nuts and more.
• Babel’s Sugar Shack (323 Hurricane Hill Road, Mason, 878-3929, find them on Facebook) Open on Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., for an open house, with samples and syrup for sale.
• Beaver Brook Maple (1 Beaver Brook Drive, Bow, 491-0500, find them on Facebook @bbmaple) Open on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for maple demonstrations.
• Beaver Meadowbrook Farm Sugar House (402 Route 103 East, Warner, 224-2452, find them on Facebook) Visitors welcome any time, but calling ahead is recommended. Face masks are required when inside the sugar house.
• Ben’s Sugar Shack (83 Webster Hwy., Temple; 693 Route 103, Newbury; 924-3111, bensmaplesyrup.com) Open on Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free maple sugaring tours are offered every 15 minutes and last about a half hour, depending on questions. Samples and products for sale include maple syrup, soft serve, doughnuts, roasted nuts and more.
• Beyond the Horizon Farm (19 Gillis Hill Road, Bennington, 588-6210, beyondthehorizonfarm.com) Open on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., featuring complimentary maple cinnamon swirl rolls and doughnuts as well as coffee, cocoa and tea while supplies last.
• Blueberry Hill Sugarworks (31 Blueberry Hill Road, Raymond, 300-6837, wickedsappy.com) Open weekends during maple season; hours vary. Check back on the website or call for details.
• Charmingfare Farm (774 High St., Candia, 483-5623, visitthefarm.com) Open Saturday and Sunday for its annual Maple Express event, to be held at various times between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. each day. Tickets start at $22 and include horse-drawn and tractor train rides, maple syrup demonstrations and tours, taste testing, visits with the animals and more.
• Chisholm Farm (641 Main St., Hampstead, 421-4727, chisholmfarm.com) Open on Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tours will be conducted on an on-demand basis and a variety of products will be available, from maple ice cream and doughnuts to all kinds of infused syrups.
• Chris-Mich 3 Farm (285 Elm Ave., Antrim, 588-2157, find them on Facebook @chrismich3farm) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a variety of maple products available, from maple syrup to maple cream, sugar, candies, walnuts and more.
• Connolly’s Sugar House (140 Webster Hwy., Temple, 924-5002, find them on Facebook) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., for tours. Connolly’s, which is also a family-owned dairy farm, will have its own maple ice cream made fresh on site with its syrup.
• Dill Family Farm (61 Griffin Road, Deerfield, 475-3798, find them on Facebook) Open on Saturday and Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., featuring maple syrup samples available, in addition to maple candy, cream and sugar for sale.
• Fletcher & Family Sugar House (2528 E. Washington Road, Washington, 340-4035, fletcher-farm.com) Open on Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., featuring maple syrup, candy and sugar for purchase, in addition to some free samples. Coffee, hot chocolate and doughnuts will be served in the morning and hot dogs and chips will be served for lunch.
• Folsom’s Sugar House (130 Candia Road, Chester, 370-0908, folsomsugarhouse.com) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tours will be ongoing throughout each day, and there will be a variety of specialty products available, from maple syrup, candies and cream to maple barbecue sauce, mustard, pepper seasonings and pancake mixes.
• Gould Hill Farm (656 Gould Hill Road, Contoocook, 746-3811, gouldhillfarm.com) Open on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., featuring free maple syrup samples, as well as cider doughnuts and maple hard cider for sale. The Contoocook Cider Co.’s tasting room will also have live music by Colin Hart from 1 to 4 p.m. that day.
• Ice Mountain Maple (276 Queen St., Boscawen, 341-4297, icemountainmaple.com) Open on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., offering maple syrup and candy for sale, as well as maple coffee.
• Jessie James Maple Farm (164 Allens Mill Road, Gilmanton, 267-6428, jessiejamesmaple.com) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., featuring its own maple syrup for sale, in addition to other specialty products like maple mustard, maple chipotle seasoning and cinnamon maple sugar.
• Journey’s End Maple Farm (295 Loudon Road, Pittsfield, 252-6669, journeysendmaplefarm.com) Open on Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., featuring live maple sugaring demonstrations, a local vendor pop-up event and a variety of maple products for sale, from maple syrup to iced maple lattes, maple shakes, sundaes, cotton candy and more.
• Kaison’s Sugar House (75 Forest Road, Weare, 660-6019, find them on Facebook @kaisonssugarhouse) Open on Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., featuring maple sugaring demonstrations and maple products for sale like syrup, lollipops and candy drops (cash only).
• Kearsarge Gore Farm (173 Gore Road, Warner, 456-2319, teamkgf.com) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., for maple sugaring demonstrations and syrup samples.
• Ledge Top Sugar House (25 Oak St., Boscawen, 753-4973, ledgetop.com) Open on Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., featuring maple syrup and other products for sale.
• Main Street Maple and Honey Farm (186 Main St., Belmont, 527-9071, mainstreetmapleandhoney.com) Open on Saturday and Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., featuring maple syrup making demonstrations and a variety of products for sale.
• Mapletree Farm (105 Oak Hill Road, Concord, 224-0820, mapletreefarmnh.com) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., featuring self-guided maple sugaring tours and a variety of maple products available, like maple syrup, cream, candy and more.
• Matras Maple (821 Catamount Road, Pittsfield, 724-9427, find them on Facebook @matrasmaple) Open on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 12:30 to 5 p.m. There will be maple syrup making demonstrations and all kinds of maple products for sale, like maple cream, maple sugar and local ice cream topped with maple syrup and crunchy candies.
• Munson’s Maple (44 Blueberry Hill Road, Raymond, 303-8278, find them on Facebook) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., for maple tours, samples and products for sale.
• Old Pound Road Sugar House (37 Old Pound Road, Antrim, 588-3272, oldpoundroadsugarhouse.com) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., featuring maple tours and a variety of free samples, like coffee, maple syrup and candy.
• Parker’s Maple Barn (1316 Brookline Road, Mason, 878-2308, parkersmaplebarn.com) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for maple tours, and specialty products like gourmet maple coffee and maple glazed doughnuts will also be available for sale.
• Peterson Sugar House (28 Peabody Row, Londonderry, 383-8917, [email protected]) Open Saturday and Sunday, from noon to 5 p.m., featuring maple sugaring demonstrations, maple syrup samples and various maple products for sale.
• Pfeil Family Farm (311 Cram Hill Road, Lyndeborough, 801-3158, pfeilfamilymaple.com) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., featuring maple syrup for sale as well as coffee, doughnuts and other various maple products.
• Remick Country Doctor Museum & Farm (58 Cleveland Hill Road, Tamworth, 323-7591, remickmuseum.org) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., featuring outdoor maple sugaring demonstrations and maple syrup for sale while supplies last.
• Ridgeland Farm (736 Loudon Ridge Road, Loudon, 520-4337, ridgelandfarmnh.com) Open on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., featuring tours of the sugarhouse and samples of maple syrup and maple peanut butter fudge.
• SMD Maple Syrup (6 Falcon Drive, Merrimack, 978-815-6476, find them on Facebook @smdmaplesyrup) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., featuring maple syrup making demonstrations, samples, maple syrup for sale and more.
• Somero Maple Farm (21 Poor Farm Road, New Ipswich, 562-0822, someromaplefarm.com) Open on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., featuring free maple syrup making tours and a variety of products available for sampling and for sale.
• The Sugar House at Morning Star Farm (30 Crane Crossing Road, Plaistow, 479-0804, find them on Facebook @thesugarhouseatmorningstarfarm) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., offering its full line of maple products, which include syrups, cream, jelly, mustard, nuts, candy, confections, homemade doughnuts and more.
• Sunnyside Maples (1089 Route 106 N, Loudon, 848-7090, sunnysidemaples.com) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., featuring maple sugaring demonstrations and several maple products for sale in its gift shop, like syrup, cream, mustard, candy, seasonings, coffee, pancake mixes and more.
• Trail Side Sugar House (246 Currier Road, Andover, 748-1307, trailsidesugarhouse.com) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., offering maple tours, samples and demonstrations. Available products all weekend will include maple syrup, candy, cream, barbecue sauce, mustard, doughnuts, cotton candy, nuts and whoopie pies.
• Turkey Street Maples (673 Turkey St., Chocorua, 323-9320, turkeystreetmaples.com) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., featuring maple sugaring demonstrations and various maple products available for purchase, including syrup and cotton candy.
• Two Sappy Guys Sugar Shack (324 Joppa Hill Road, Bedford, 860-7992, find them on Facebook @2sappyguys) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., featuring fresh maple syrup for sale.
• Windswept Maples Farm (845 Loudon Ridge Road, Loudon, 491-9130, windsweptmaples.com) Open Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., featuring maple demonstrations and maple syrup, maple sugar candy and other products for sale.
Featured photo: Maple sugaring tours at Ben’s Sugar Shack in Temple. Courtesy photo.
If you like corned beef and cabbage, this is your day. In last week’s (March 10) issue of the Hippo, Matt Ingersoll gathered all the St. Patrick’s Day eats and treats plans from area restaurants, bakeries and more. Find that story on page 24 in the e-edition of the Hippo, available at hippopress.com.
Friday, March 18
The Dueling Pianos return to the Tupelo Music Hall (10 A St. in Derry; tupelomusichall.com, 437-5100) tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $20. Find more concerts this weekend or beyond on page 41.
Saturday, March 19
Learn how to become an Eastern Bluebird trail monitor at the New Hampshire Audubon’s Massabesic Center in Auburn. Register in advance for today’s free event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Bring a lunch; the morning will be spent in the classroom and the afternoon on the trail, according to nhaudubon.org.
Wednesday, March 23
What is the Postmodern Jukebox? Watch the “Evolution of the Friends Theme Song 1920s-1990s” video on the Capitol Center for the Arts’ website, ccanh.com, to see them take “I’ll Be There For You” from flappers to a Freddy Mercury riff. The Postmodern Jukebox’s Grand Reopening Tour comes to the Cap Center (Chubb Theatre, 44 S. Main St. in Concord; ccanh.com) tonight at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7 p.m.; tickets cost $39 (plus fees).
Thursday, March 24
Author Keith O’Brien will sign and discuss his book Fly Girls, about aviation’s female pioneers, at the Aviation Museum of N.H. (27 Navigator Road in Londonderry; aviationmuseumofnh.org, 669-4820) tonight at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $10 or $40 for admission plus a hardcover copy of the book, according to a press release. Tickets can be purchased in advance at eventbrite.com (search “Aviation Museum Fly Girls” ) or by calling 669-4877.
Save the Date! March 31
The New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival kicks off on Thursday, March 31, with an in-person screening of the documentary The Automat (which will screen at the Rex Theatre in Manchester at 7 p.m.). The line-up includes 11 feature-length films, a five-film shorts program, five in-person screenings in a theater, and seven at-home film programs. A screening of the 1972 film Cabaret will close out the in-person portion of the festival on Sunday, April 10, at 3:30 p.m. at Red River Theatres in Concord. During a bonus week of the festival, April 11 to April 14, four of the in-person films will be available to view at home, according to the event’s website, nhjewishfilmfestival.com, where you can buy individual tickets for films ($12) or festival passes for either in-person and virtual events ($130 for one person, $180 for two people) or for virtual only events ($118). In addition to The Automat (see the trailer, which includes Colin Powell, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Carl Reiner talking about their automat experiences over a recording of Mel Brooks singing an ode to automat coffee), the feature film line-up includes the documentary Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen, which focuses on the making of the 1971 movie The Fiddler on the Roof, a nice companion to the delightful documentary from the 2020 festival, Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles, about the musical theater play and its lasting impact (available for rent or purchase and on Amazon Prime).
Featured photo. Corned beef and cabbage from The Shaskeen Pub and Restaurant in Manchester. Courtesy photo.
Celebrate chicken tenders, Marvel characters and Northwoods Law, among other fun themes, with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats this season. The team recently announced its promotional schedule for 2022, with Atlas Fireworks shows, giveaways, brand new theme nights, and the debut of Benny the Bat Dog (In Training) on May 13. According to a press release, Manchester Chicken Tenders Night will be Saturday, June 4, when the F-Cats will don specialty jerseys and chicken tender hats to honor Manchester’s culinary history. Marvel’s Defenders of the Diamond Night is Friday, June 17, featuring Marvel music, movie clips and Thor jerseys worn by the Fisher Cats. Hockey Night pays homage to the history of hockey in the state on Friday, June 24, with Manchester Monarchs-inspired jerseys, a mini stick giveaway and appearances from former NHLers including Derek Bekar and Jeff Giuliano. The stars of Northwoods Law New Hampshire return Friday, July 8, to meet fans; the first 1,000 fans will receive a replica conservation officer jersey. Star Wars Night returns on Saturday, July 23, with Star Wars characters, music, movie clips, intergalactic fireworks and Mandalorian jerseys featuring Baby Yoda.
Score: +1
Comment: The Fisher Cats home opener is on schedule for Tuesday, April 12, against the Hartford Yard Goats, with a magnet schedule giveaway and a post-game fireworks show.
Hey kids, want to be a governor?
After a Covid hiatus, the Governor for a Day initiative that was launched in New Hampshire in 2018 will return. According to a press release, the goal of the program is to “foster civic education and promote youth participation in government,” and it’s open to all middle and high school students in the state. Applicants are asked to submit a 250- to 500-word essay completing the sentence, “If I were governor for a day, I would…” One student will be selected to serve as “Governor for a Day,” joining Gov. Chris Sununu for a day on the job.
Score: +1
Comment:Submissions are due by April 22, and may be submitted to [email protected], by mail or via Facebook Messenger.
Here’s hoping for a warm spring
The good news is that warmer temperatures are coming. The bad news is that a final oil-tank fillup this season is going to cost you. According to a report last week from WMUR, the prices for oil in most New Hampshire communities is more than $5 a gallon. The price at Lemay’s Oil Services in Manchester last week was $5.32 a gallon, and owner Dan Lemay told WMUR he’s never seen it like this. Rymes Propane and Oil in Concord had its price listed at $5.29 a gallon on March 12; on March 15, the price had risen to $5.54.
Score: -2
Comment:QOL got an automatic delivery March 11 and was shocked to see the price had skyrocketed to $5.29 per gallon. QOL will be canceling automatic deliveries for now, in the hopes that prices will be less heart-attack-inducing in the fall.
Math is where it’s at
Brainly, an online homework help community, surveyed 900 American students throughout the country about math in honor of Pi Day on March 14 to find out how they feel about the subject. According to a press release, New Hampshire ranks No. 3 for states where math is the students’ favorite subject, with 37.6 percent of students preferring math over science, English, social studies or history, or “other.” Students in New Jersey and Massachusetts like math the most, at 41.7 percent and 41.6 percent, respectively.
Score: +1
Comment:QOL doesn’t understand the “new math” they’re teaching in schools these days but is all for it if it’s making the subject more accessible — and even enjoyable — for kids.
QOL score: 65
Net change: +1
QOL this week: 66
What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire? Let us know at [email protected].
I said last week that baseball’s work stoppage would amount to a big nothing, and it did when a deal was struck on Thursday. Big whoop.
Although echoing the media hysteria mentioned last week was Boston Globe Sports Business Reporter MichaelSilverman describing it as something that “infuriated fans.” It did? Where’s the evidence of that, pal?
There was some reporting on the financials, but they didn’t seem to have much significance so you have to wonder what it was all about.
The dumbest part is that if the All-Star game is tied after nine innings the league that wins the Home Run Derby will now be declared the winner. How stupid is that? Just leave it a tie, Rob.
What was bargaining in mutually agreed upon changes like a universal DH throughout baseball, and the mechanism to address more changes for 2023. They include pace of play issues, possibly banning the infield shift and making the bases larger. Not sure if I’m for the ban, as major leaguers should learn to hit the other way to beat it, and I don’t get what larger bases will do, but both sides working together to improve the game is progress.
News Item: Round 1 To Brooklyn
Brooklyn took the early lead in the debate over who won the JamesHarden–BenSimmons trade.
Thanks to a complete 3-17, 11-point no show by Harden, Philly got smoked by 29 at home in the first match-up since the trade went down and Simmons didn’t even play. But, to his credit, he did show up on the bench to get roasted and he gets a bonus point for that.
News Item: Stat Geekdom Finally Comes Up With Good One
Here’s a stat from the new-age stat geekdom I can get behind. It’s Celtics center RobertWilliams holding everyone he defends to 6 percentage points below their normal field goal percentage. That means if the combined FG percentage of the guys he covers is 50, they only shoot 44 percent against him. That tells you what kind of man-on-man defender he is.
News Item: Ridley Suspended For Doing Something NFL Promotes
When I was in the PR business in the ’90s and the NH Lottery was my client, a bill was advancing in the legislature to make football betting cards legal. I went one day with Lottery Director JimWimsatt to hear a young NFL PR flack, who my memory says was a young RogerGoodell, though a search couldn’t verify that, testify before the committee considering it, to voice the NFL’s opposition to the bill. After it was over Wimsatt, who loved talking to the press, did an impromptu press conference and predicted the NFL would be against betting on football until it could figure out how to get a piece of the action.
He was correct; that day has now arrived and their ongoing hypocrisy is worse than ever, exemplified specifically by suspending wide receiver CalvinRidley last week for at least a year for betting on a few games while he was sidelined with mental health issues. A suspension handed out by an organization that is the official sports betting partner of Draft Kings, in whom Patriots owner BobKraft was one of the early investors, and whose game broadcasts every Sunday are chock full of ads promoting legal betting on its games.
And while I have nothing against sports betting, it seems ludicrous to suspend an inactive player for doing what ads on their games are inviting viewers to do. So, Roger, is gambling good or bad?, ’cause your actions send a very mixed message.
News Item: NFL Free Agency Opens
To paraphrase the famed sideline rant by legendary Green Bay Coach VinceLombardi during a breakdown for his five-time champion Packers, here’s a question for Coach B as the new NFL year gets started: What The Heck Is Going On Down There?!
A year ago the Pats had the best secondary in football. But that was before he failed to get a long-term deal done with JC Jackson in advance of his free agency year even as he was throwing $175 million around at lesser free agents. And that was before he screwed up the StephonGilmore stalemate. Now both are gone with no obvious successors.
No SB was won in the Brady era without a top-flight cornerback. TyLaw was there for the first three. Then you put up a doughnut for 10 years until DarrelleRevis arrived in 2014, followed by MalcolmButler in 2016 and Gilmore in 2018.
News Item: Flores Lawsuit Gets Stronger
The lawsuit ex-Dolphins coach BrianFlores filed against the NFL for discriminatory hiring practices picked up a little ammo last week thanks to moves related to two big-name quarterbacks. Quarterback-needy (OK, QB-desperate) Denver’s choice of NathanielHackett and rejection of Flores was based on the notion the ex-Green Bay OC could bring disgruntled and wanting out of GB AaronRodgers with him to Denver to solve their QB ills. And since Flores couldn’t make that happen, his interview was a sham, the latest bogus Rooney Rule forced interview. But Rodgers magically became un-disgruntled when the Pack made the reigning MVP the highest-paid player in history. Which I always suspected his phony disgruntled act was designed to produce all along. That forced Denver, ah, to punt, sending three players and a boatload of draft picks to Seattle for QB RussellWilson. Since they could have done that no matter who the HC was, that weakened the rationale for taking Hackett in the first place, and should give his legal team an extra arrow in the quiver.
News Item: Brady Un-Retires
I don’t care if you play or don’t play. So our only question is, Hey, Tom, when did you become such an attention-seeker?
