Nicole Chalfant of Derry is the owner and founder of Bungalow Bakes (bungalowbakes.com, and on Facebook and Instagram @bungalowbakes), offering a variety of scratch-baked cakes, cupcakes, scones, biscuits, sweet breads and other items available to order. Named after her bungalow home in Derry where she first launched her business, Chalfant now bakes in a commercial kitchen at The Grind Rail Trail Cafe (5 W. Broadway) downtown, which also regularly features her items. She’ll often collaborate with craft breweries in town too, including baking sourdough loaves for the weekly sandwich specials available at From the Barrel Brewing Co. (1 Corporate Park Drive). Cask & Vine (1½ E. Broadway), meanwhile, almost always carries one of Chalfant’s own cheesecake flavors on its dessert menu.
What is your must-have kitchen item?
My KitchenAid mixer. She was a birthday present from my husband. Her name is Buttah, because she is butter yellow. We’ve gone through a lot together and she has never failed me!
What would you have for your last meal?
My husband and I traveled to Tuscany last April and we stayed at an agriturismo, which was this beautiful farmhouse on an olive farm. We took a cooking class with a chef and his wife and the woman who owns the farm, and we spent the whole afternoon with them, learning how to make pasta and we made a ragu and we made tiramisu from scratch. … I would do all of that again. It was the most amazing meal I’ve ever had.
What is your favorite local restaurant?
It’s been The Grind and Cask & Vine [both in downtown Derry]. They are both amazingly passionate about what they do and about supporting local businesses.
What celebrity would you like to see trying something you have baked?
I think it would be Mary Berry. … I fell in love with her on The Great British Bake Off and her other cooking competitions, because she is so knowledgeable and yet so gentle, and she wouldn’t say mean things about your food, ever. She just seems like a delightful human being.
What is your favorite thing to bake for someone?
I love doing babies’ first birthday cakes. I’ve done a lot of them — I have 14 nieces and nephews between my husband’s family and my family, and they are all under the age of 8 at the moment, so in the last 10 years I’ve done a ton of baby’s first birthday cupcakes and smash cakes. … I love when they just get in there and get the frosting all over themselves.
What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?
Something that I really love is the use of local ingredients and smaller makers. I try really hard to source ingredients locally, and seasonally, when possible.
What is your favorite thing to make at home?
That would be Henrietta’s pound cake. … Henrietta was a friend of my grandmother’s back when she lived in upstate New York. This pound cake is a huge family recipe. It always gets made by my mother and my aunts, and it’s my favorite thing to eat. … It’s just simple and delicious and it reminds me of my family. I can’t make it too often because I would eat the whole thing.
Henrietta’s pound cake From the kitchen of Nicole Chalfant of Bungalow Bakes in Derry
1 cup butter, at room temperature 2 cups sugar 3 eggs, at room temperature ½ teaspoon almond extract 1 cup milk, at room temperature 3 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking powder Sliced almonds
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-cup Bundt or tube pan. Sprinkle a few sliced almonds in the bottom of the pan. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder. Set aside. Using a mixer, cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and the almond extract and mix thoroughly. Add the flour mixture in three portions, alternating with the milk, mixing lightly in between additions. Spoon the thick batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Slice and enjoy.
Featured photo: Nicole Chalfant, owner and founder of Bungalow Bakes in Derry. Courtesy photo.
New Hampshire Maple Weekend returns with sugarhouse tours, syrup samples and more
March is prime maple season in New Hampshire, and sugarhouses large and small are inviting you to partake in a celebration of the sweet stuff. During New Hampshire Maple Weekend — returning on Saturday, March 18, and Sunday, March 19 — there will be opportunities at participating sugarhouses for visitors to attend free tours, view maple syrup making demonstrations and sample all kinds of exclusive maple-flavored goodies.
The weekend is overseen by the New Hampshire Maple Producers Association, a nonprofit founded in 1943 that today represents more than 350 maple purveyors statewide. A full list of participating sugarhouses and their Maple Weekend plans is available on the NHMPA website.
On March 13, during the annual gubernatorial tree tapping at the Remick Country Doctor Museum & Farm in Tamworth, Gov. Chris Sununu announced a proclamation officially recognizing March 2023 as Maple Month in the state of New Hampshire. The Granite State ranks seventh in the nation in the total production of maple syrup, according to the proclamation, and generates about $10 million in sales revenue annually from syrup and other maple products.
Andrew Chisholm, president of the NHMPA, is a maple producer himself — he runs Chisholm Farm in Hampstead, which is known for its flavored syrups, from cinnamon and vanilla to cardamom-infused syrup. During Maple Weekend he’ll also have maple ice cream that’s produced by Shaw Farm, just over the state line in Dracut, Mass.
Chisholm has been at the forefront of promoting the maple syrup industry in New Hampshire, which he said has steadily been on the upswing statewide as an agricultural product. On Sept. 5, 2022, the NHMPA received a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to execute a marketing campaign for promoting maple syrup “beyond pancake’s best friend” — Chisholm said this will include an overhaul of the Association website, with the goal to improve its user-friendliness among maple producers and consumers. The grant cites that in 2021 New Hampshire was the No. 1 exporter of maple syrup and maple sugar in the United States.
“That’s really been my focus over the last year, is trying to promote maple as a natural sweetener that has a lot of minerals that we’re trying to get on a daily basis anyway,” Chisholm said.
Here’s a look at how this year’s maple season has gone so far for some in southern New Hampshire, plus what you can expect when you visit a local sugarhouse on Maple Weekend.
Maple madness
Although they welcome visitors all month long for weekend tours, Journey’s End Maple Farm, a small family-run operation in Pittsfield, turns into a syrup lover’s destination on Maple Weekend.
“There are literally hundreds and hundreds of people that come through that weekend,” said Amy Lemire, whose fiance, Marty Boisvert, runs the maple production at Journey’s End. “It’s crazy busy, but it’s fun. … The great thing too is that right in our area there are numerous maple producers, so we find that a lot of families are coming out and making a whole day of it.”
Both days, Journey’s End will be serving treats like maple shakes and maple sundaes, plus “sap dogs,” or slightly sweeter versions of hot dogs, cooked in sap water. They also host vendor pop-up events, with onsite purveyors offering everything from microgreens, homemade artisan breads, jams and jellies to candles, home decor, birdhouses, woodworking signs and more.
“We’ll be boiling sap and we’ll be giving samples of product … right off the evaporator,” Lemire said. “We also set up a maple tree and we kind of simulate tapping it for the kids, so it’s a good learning experience for them.”
At Ice Mountain Maple in Boscawen there will be maple fudge, maple candy and maple coffee. The evaporator will also be running all day, inviting visitors to see the maple production process. Established in the fall of 2019, Ice Mountain Maple is also a small family-run sugarhouse that spent its first season tapping trees the following year.
“Last year we had the most people we’ve ever had,” said Chrisi Gray, who owns Ice Mountain Maple with her husband, Jon. “It’s just phenomenal to see how popular it’s become.”
In addition to its own treats, Ice Mountain Maple is partnering with Confections by Kate, a baking business based in Boscawen.
“She uses our syrup exclusively for her baked goods that feature maple,” Gray said, “so we’re going to have her baked goods in our sugarhouse this year as well.”
In Chester, Folsom’s Sugar House plans to have ongoing tours throughout each day of Maple Weekend and will be providing samples of maple syrup and maple cream.
“We explain to people how we tap the trees, the collection of the sap and bringing it back to the sugarhouse, and then the process of boiling it,” co-owner Brian Folsom said. “We also talk about how we use the reverse osmosis to concentrate the sap and then how we bring it to a finished product … and then we have a little store where they can go in and sample or purchase our different products.”
Journey’s End Maple Farm in Pittsfield. Courtesy photo.
Folsom said that on a good day he can collect between 600 and 900 gallons of sap from the trees, collected in five-gallon pails from tree to tree across nearly two dozen locations and gathered in a large tank in the back of his truck.
It takes roughly 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. But using reverse osmosis, Folsom said, they’re able to save time and energy by concentrating the sap, producing the same amount of syrup by the use of just 15 gallons.
After the reverse osmosis process, the sap goes through an evaporator, which boils between 60 and 70 gallons an hour on average. Visitors then learn about how the syrup is filtered and bottled, as well as the four types of Grade A syrup that are produced and how each is different in flavor and color.
“We have golden, which is a very light, delicate maple flavor, and then we go on to the amber, a nice rich maple flavor that we’re making,” Folsom said. “Then we get into the dark and then there’s very dark, a very strong robust maple flavor. All of those four are considered Grade A.”
Let the sap flow
As a whole, sugarhouses across the Granite State are well ahead of where they were at this time last year, according to Chisholm, thanks to a steady combination of mild days and cold nights.
“I know a lot of producers in southern New Hampshire and even in Vermont were producing maple syrup in January, which is incredibly unusual,” he said. “Some of them that I spoke with had already produced 40 percent of their 2022 crop by Valentine’s Day of this year. … We got a little nervous around then, because it was getting really warm and wasn’t cooling off at night, but then … as we got into late February and early March, we had that pretty hard freeze for a few days, and that’s exactly what we needed right there at that time.”
Chisholm said the recent late-season winter storm that blanketed much of the state in 8 to 14 inches of snow on March 4 was also very beneficial for maple producers.
“The snow actually helps the trees, because it keeps kind of a refrigerator effect going in the woods,” he said. “It really does help extend the season for us a bit, because if you think about it, as we get into that early spring sun in March, if there’s no snow in the woods, it will heat the ground faster and the woods don’t retain some of that cold weather that we need for the sap to run.”
Folsom said he produced more syrup this February than he has in any February of the last 30 years.
“The start of this month has already been very strong for us, so we’re going to end up with an excellent season,” he said. “If it had warmed up and stayed warm, our season would have ended. But that hasn’t been the case.”
Ideal temperatures for maple producers are around 40 to 45 degrees during the day, and 20 to 25 degrees at night. For many, Chisholm said, the maple season could stretch into early April this year the way the forecast is trending.
“We haven’t seen an April flow of sap around in the southern part of the state for a while,” he said. “Up north it’s very common. You go north of the Franconia Notch and they are typically into April just because of the latitude up there and the little microclimates that they can get in some of the valleys.”
New Hampshire Maple Weekend When: Saturday, March 18, and Sunday, March 19 Where: Participating sugarhouses and farms statewide Visit: nhmapleproducers.com For a full list of participating sugarhouses, click the “Find a Sugarhouse” tab on the New Hampshire Maple Producers Association website. Some will be offering maple sugaring tours and demonstrations, while others will be selling and providing samples of their own maple syrup and a variety of maple-infused products.
Joyce’s maple shortbread cookies Courtesy of Journey’s End Maple Farm in Pittsfield (makes about 50 small cookies)
2 sticks butter ¼ cup Journey’s End dark maple syrup ⅓ cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon maple extract 2½ cups flour Journey’s End granulated maple sugar
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Cream together the butter, maple syrup, brown sugar and maple flavoring until light and fluffy. Add the flour and mix well. Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured board to 1/4 inch thickness. Using small cookie cutters, cut out and place onto an ungreased baking sheet. Use a small fork to make light dents in the cookie tops. Sprinkle the tops lightly with maple sugar. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.
Asian maple Brussels sprouts Courtesy of Ice Mountain Maple in Boscawen
3 to 4 cups Brussels sprouts, halved 3 Tablespoons dark maple syrup 2 Tablespoons olive oil ¼ cup soy sauce 1 teaspoon powdered ginger 3 to 4 shakes Cholula sauce
Toss all the ingredients into a bowl. Set aside for 15 minutes. After marinating, spread the Brussels sprouts evenly in a greased roasting pan. Roast in a 450-degree oven for 20 minutes — a multipurpose toaster oven on the Roast setting works best, according to Ice Mountain Maple co-owner Chrisi Gray. Note that the cooking time might vary, based on the size of the Brussels sprouts.
Featured photo: Photo courtesy of Ice Mountain Maple in Boscawen.
• Wine in the dark: Join LaBelle Winery for a blindfolded wine tasting at its Amherst facility (345 Route 101) on Wednesday, March 22, from 6 to 7 p.m. During this session led by LaBelle wine educator and sommelier Marie King, participants will be blindfolded and must rely on their senses of smell and taste to identify five of the vineyard’s wines. No previous knowledge of wine is required — just a curiosity and a desire to learn about and taste wine. A similar class is also planned at LaBelle’s Derry location (14 Route 111) on Wednesday, April 12. The cost is $40 per person and advance registration is required. Visit labellewinery.com.
• Brews and eats at the golf course: Get your tickets now for a special 603 beer dinner happening at Stonebridge Country Club (161 Gorham Pond Road, Goffstown) on Saturday, March 25, from 5 to 9 p.m. The three-course prix fixe menu will feature selections from Ed Ceccherini, executive chef of the club’s Drumlins Restaurant, alongside craft beer pairings from Londonderry’s 603 Brewery. The cost is $40 per person (event is 21+ only) and tickets must be purchased by March 20. See golfstonebridgecc.com.
• Spring into deliciousness: Save the date for the annual spring wine and cheese festival, happening at Fulchino Vineyard (187 Pine Hill Road, Hollis) on Saturday, March 25, and Sunday, March 26, with multiple available time slots to choose from on either day, including from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Tickets are $49 per person and allow attendees access to sample all kinds of cheeses, meats, seafoods and desserts from around the world during their designated time slots, in addition to complimentary samples of wine and a souvenir wine glass. Visit fulchinovineyard.com to purchase tickets in advance and to see the most up-to-date details on time slot availability.
• Edible art: And speaking of cheese, check out a charcuterie-board building class with the team at 603 Charcuterie — new classes at local breweries, wineries and restaurants across the Granite State are added to the calendar on an almost daily basis. The next available dates include a brunch-themed charcuterie class at Boards & Brews (941 Elm St., Manchester) on Sunday, March 26, at 10 a.m. as well as classes at Mountain Base Brewing (553 Mast Road, Goffstown) on Monday, March 27, at 6:30 p.m., and at KC’s Rib Shack (837 Second St., Manchester) on Monday, April 3, at 6:15 p.m. Tickets for classes usually range between $115 and $128 depending on the location (those that are held at breweries usually include two drinks in the price). Attendees get to eat all of the provided charcuterie board-building materials and even get to take their boards home. See 603charcuterie.com/classes for details.
Michael Brochu runs a specialized printing press at Amherst Label, a custom label manufacturer in Milford.
Explain your job and what it entails.
My job is to run a digital and flexographic hybrid printing press. I print labels for commercial and small businesses alike, from medicine bottles to beer labels and everything in between. The machine I run is very long in length and has state-of-the-art digital ink jet and flexographic technology.
How long have you had this job?
I have had this job for exactly 10 years. I started in March 2013.
What led you to this career field and your current job?
By chance. I was looking for work fresh out of high school. I was getting my hair cut by the hairstylist who has been cutting my hair since I was a baby, and she happened to say that her husband sometimes hires kids over at Amherst Label. He was VP of manufacturing at the time. I sent in my application, and he just so happened to know my family. After one quick interview, I was hired.
What kind of education or training did you need?
I started out as a press assistant, which taught me about presses and how to set and clean them up. Being a press assistant is a little like being an apprentice: You can watch, learn and ask questions to the operators running the press. After about one year of being an assistant, my boss said that he ‘had big plans’ for me, and one month later I was put on a straight flexographic press to start training. In 2019 I transferred departments to run our digital roll to roll and die-cut finisher. I ran that press for two years, and at that time we purchased the current hybrid press that I run now.
What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?
Company T-shirts and sweatshirts with jeans or khakis —anything I’m OK getting ink on.
What is the most challenging thing about your work, and how do you deal with it?
The most challenging aspect of my job is how to manage the workload and to always try to improve myself. I am challenged to find the best way to complete a high volume of work while maintaining a very high quality of work.
What do you wish you’d known at the beginning of your career?
To not be so worried about speed and how fast I was being, and to just focus on learning and improving. Like my father said long ago, ‘Speed will come with experience. Down the line your normal speed will be fast.’
What do you wish other people knew about your job?
Just how much goes into making a label. People look at labels and don’t think twice about them. They may go, ‘Oh, that’s a cool-looking label,’ or ‘I will buy this wine because the description sounds good.’ However, so much love and care has gone into that little piece of paper that they are looking at.
What was the first job you ever had?
I worked at a grocery store as a bagger for three months part-time while I was in high school.
What’s the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received?
My boss who hired me always had great advice. Some of his best was to always collect the facts before you react; approach every issue you have with a cool head; if you get frustrated, step away for a moment and breathe; and look at the issue on hand from everyone’s perspective.
Five favorites Favorite book: Berserk, the Japanese manga Favorite movie:Austin Powers Favorite music: It’s a three-way tie between classic rock, alternative and country. And Taylor Swift! Favorite food: Seafood Favorite thing about NH: The hidden sceneries. You can just be driving along some old back road, come over a hill and, bam, you’re hit with a gorgeous view.
Featured photo: Michael Brochu, Amherst Label. Courtesy photo.
I’m looking to find out what your thoughts are on this bracelet. It was my mom’s and she always said it was special. It does not say a name or anything that looks like it’s gold. Any information you can provide would be appreciated.
Bev
Dear Bev,
I want to assume with no maker mark or a gold mark it is costume jewelry. That doesn’t make it less valuable to your mom. It might have had sentimental value to her.
Your bracelet looks like a very common design even now. The stones would be colored glass and the finish of the metal, gold-filled or plated. It has a more modern look to it with the double strand.
I would say the value is in the $20 range. I hope this helped and thanks for sharing with us.
• The Peacock Players’ (14 Court St., Nashua) youth mainstage production Once Upon a Mattress is opening on Friday, March 17, at 7 p.m. The show, which is a musical retelling of The Princess and the Pea, runs at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday through March 26. Tickets start at $12 and can be purchased at peacockplayears.org.
• Join the Kids Coop Theatre for Big, The Musical at the Derry Opera House (29 West Broadway in Derry) on Friday, March 17, at 7 p.m. The show, based on the 1987 movie, features performers age 8 to adult and also runs Saturday, March 18, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, March 19, at 1 p.m.. Tickets cost $15 and are available at kidscooptheatre.ludus.com.
• Join Chunky’s 707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com) for a little lunch date featuring the movie Home (PG 2015) on Friday, March 17, at 3:45 p.m. Tickets are free, but a $5 food voucher is required to reserve a spot.
Books galore
• Children’s author Matt Tavares is doing a book signing at Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord) with his debut graphic novel, Hoops, on Thursday, March 16, at 6:30 p.m. The novel, based on a true story, follows Wilkins Regional High School girls’ basketball team in 1975 and how the girls grow from having to make their own uniforms and practice at an elementary school while being undefeated. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com for more information.
• The annual Friends of the Nashua Library Book Sale is happening at the Nashua Public Library (2 Court St.) on Saturday, March 18, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, March 19, from 1 to 4 p.m. Books, movies, music, games, puzzles and more will be on sale, prices ranging from 25 cents to $2. Visit nashualibrary.org.
Indoor adventures
• Join the New Hampshire Historical Society (30 Park St., Concord) for a family fun day on Saturday, March 18, at 10 a.m. Families can tour the historic buildings, test their local trivia knowledge and do a New Hampshire-themed craft. For more information, visit nhhistory.org.
• Learn more about the Girl Scouts at their sign up and unicorn party on Monday, March 20, at 6 p.m. at the Center Woods School’s music room (14 Center Road, Weare). Girls will get to do a unicorn-themed craft as well as find out what the Scouts are all about. Visit girlscoutsgwm.org for more information.
• The Nashua School District Art Exhibition is on Tuesday, March 21, at 6 p.m. at the Nashua High School South (36 Riverside Ave.). Students in all grades will have their artwork on display, and there will be activities like face painting, a scavenger hunt and a $5 ice cream social. Visit nashua.edu/south for more information.
Summer camp catch-up
• Executive Health and Sports Center’s (1 Highlander Way, Manchester) 2023 Summer Camp is open for registration. The camp has eight sessions, each session being one week long. The kids are broken into groups for ages 5-6, 7-8 and 9-10. Pricing for a partial week starts at $130, for a full week at $275. Visit ehsc.com to register.
• Registration is open for You’re Fired’s summer camp Camp Fired. The summer camp will have eight week-long sessions for kids ages 5 to 12 running from June 26 through Aug. 25. Registration for one week is $135, and for two or more weeks it’s $125 per week. For more information or to register, visit yourefirednh.com
Save the date
• The Girl Scouts are offering a kindergarten readiness series on April 4, April 6, April 11 and April 13 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Marion Gerrish Community Center (39 West Broadway, Derry). Girls entering kindergarten in the fall in Derry and the surrounding area are welcome to come and meet new teachers and friends. Visit girlscoutsgwm.org for more information.
