Tag: 260723

Sunflower fields

Sunflower fest celebrates tasty oil while flowers bloom

By Chelsea Spear
listings@hippopress.com

With their tall stems and big yellow blooms, sunflowers are the perfect symbol of the height of summer.

No one in New Hampshire knows this better than Coppal House Farm, the first farm in the state to harvest sunflowers for their oil. Coppal House will be hosting the 10th annual Sunflower Festival at its location in Lee from Saturday, July 25, to Sunday, Aug. 2.

The Sunflower Festival is a celebration of the farm’s signature crop.

“John and Carol [Hutton], who own the farm, are my aunt and uncle,” Hannah Bendroth, who organizes the festival, said in a recent Zoom call. “They started growing canola and that was the oil. They looked at the local market and saw that there was … no local oil, so they started with canola oil.”

They quickly learned canola wasn’t the best crop for a farm in New England.

“The problem with canola is that it’s a winter crop and the deer would come and eat all of it,” Bendroth said. “They did some research and they found sunflowers and they grew sunflowers for oil for a couple of years.”

Sunflower oil went over well with their clientele.

“We have people who use it for soap and for face care products, lip balm, things like that,” Bendroth said, noting that New Hampshire gourmands especially enjoyed the crop. “I personally prefer roasting my vegetables in it, so drizzling it on my veggies and then roasting it with whatever seasoning. It has a very light flavor. We like to say that it just enhances your food.”

While Coppal House Farm’s sunflowers look the same as the blooms you’d see at the florist, there are some differences between oil seed blooms and ornamental sunflowers.

“Oil seed sunflowers have bigger heads,” Bendroth says. “They are single blooms, so there is only one flower per plant. Whereas ornamentals … can either have one flower per plant [or] can have branching sunflowers, but typically those will continue to bloom longer than just the oil seed sunflowers.”

Since oil seed sunflowers bloom for just two weeks, a celebration is in order when they do. Thus Booze & Blooms will take place on Friday, July 24, from 6 to 9 p.m. This is a collaboration with Flag Hill Distillery and Winery for ages 21+, with tickets $40 per person.

“Brian, the [Flag Hill] owner, and John [Hutton] have been working together for many, many years,” Bendroth said. “We do some land share and crop sharing and equipment sharing with them. Currently Brian’s growing rye on our property…. We assist them in harvesting their corn and their rye.”

The party continues on Sunday with Sunrise in the Sunflowers, the result of another collaboration with a local farm.

“We are working with Strafford County Farm Bureau for the second year in a row … so people can come take pictures … and then they can also buy a breakfast sandwich which supports the Strafford County Farm Bureau,” Bendroth said. An array of children’s activities will be a mainstay of the event, with story times, children’s yoga, and appearances by local children’s authors scheduled for the festival and more activities to be announced.

Coppal House Farm’s spirit of community extends to the food trucks and vendors planned for the event. Larry’s Hawaiian Hut, Crescent City Kitchen, Flag Hill Distillery and Winery, Chicki’s Gourmet Grill, Mimi’s Gourmet Popcorn, Butter Belly bakery, Whipperwill Dairy homemade ice cream, and Ken and Mimi’s Gourmet Popcorn have been confirmed for the fair. Visitors can quench their thirst at Pours and Petals handcrafted lemonade trailer or at the Kona Ice food truck.

Photography and social media play a big role in this year’s Sunflower Festival.

“John, Carol, and Meghan [Kelly], the other manager, have always had an eye for how to enhance and give a little bit more to someone’s experience,” Bendroth said. “Our props range from a small white picket fence to a larger rail fence to a door that you can open and look like you’re walking through the sunflowers to a picture frame where it looks like you’re taking a selfie. … We have a chick, a tractor, a lamb, and then a sunflower. We have butterfly wings that you can take a picture with.”

The Sunflower Festival is scheduled around peak sunflower bloom.

“We can never really predict peak bloom until we’re in it,” Bendroth said. “Our goal is that we have probably 75 percent of the field in bloom for opening weekend and then continuously throughout the week the remaining 25 percent will continue to bloom. Some years they’re a little late, some years they’re a little early. Our goal is having about 75 percent in bloom for the opening weekend.” As of this writing, Coppal House Farm is on track for their bloom goal.

Sunflower Festival
When: Saturday, July 25, to Sunday, Aug. 2; daily field hours 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. (last admission at 6 p.m.)
Where: Coppal House Farm, 118 N. River Road, Lee
Tickets and more info: nhsunflower.com. General festival admission prices range from $6 to $16 per person. Special events (Booze & Blooms, Sunrise in the Sunflowers) are ticketed separately. Sunrise tickets must be purchased in advance, according to the website.

Featured photo: Photo by Ella Beth Photography.

The Weekly Dish 26/7/23

• Opening: The July 15 MEDO Minute, the newsletter for the Manchester Economic Development Office, reported that Grey Dog at 657 Elm St. in Manchester, described on its Instagram as a cocktail lounge, will hold a ribbon cutting on Friday, Aug. 7, at 4 p.m. The spot opened in April, according to its Facebook page.

• Pup on a can: The Animal Rescue Leauge of New Hampshire and Great North Aleworks are holding a Paw Prints Beer Can Label Contest through Monday, Aug. 3, according to a press release. “[P]et owners can enter any animal for a chance to appear on a limited-edition Great North Aleworks ‘Paw Prints’ beer can. Last year’s contest featured everything from dogs and cats to rabbits, donkeys and lambs, proving every pet has a chance to become a local celebrity,” the release said. “Entries are a $10 donation, and each vote costs $1, with all proceeds benefiting ARLNH’s lifesaving programs, including animal sheltering, adoption, foster care, humane education, the Pet Food Pantry, Low-Cost Spay/Neuter Clinic, and community assistance initiatives,” the release said. “To enter, visit www.gogophotocontest.com/arlnh, upload one photo, share your pet’s story, and make a $10 donation. Encourage friends and family to vote through August 3, 2026.” The three highest-vote-receiving pets will each get featured on a one-pint can, with winning labels revealed at the Paw Prints Beer Release Party on Saturday, Sept. 26, at Great North Aleworks in Manchester, the release said.

• Eats guide: The Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire (NOFA-NH) has released its 2026 New Hampshire Organic Farm & Food Guide, according to a press release. The guide includes organic farms and food producers, recipes and more. Find a downloadable version at nofanh.org/organic-farm-food-map, where you can also request copies for libraries, farm stands, markets and other locations.

• New venue for hot sauce festival: The annual New England Hot Sauce Fest (newenglandhotsaucefest.com) will take place at a new location this year. It will be held Saturday, Aug. 1, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Strawberry Banke Museum in Portsmouth. One of the highlights of this year’s festival — the fifth annual — will be an appearance of Pepper X, reputedly the hottest pepper in existence. Register early at newenglandhotsaucefest.com. General admission tickets start at $15 through the festival’s website.

• Home cooking: Spend Date Night learning Japanese Home Cooking at the Culinary Playground (16 Manning St., Derry, 339-1664, culinaryplaygroundnh.com) Friday, July 24, at 6:30 p.m. Learn to make katsu curry, cabbage salad with sesame dressing, and ichigo sando, a Japanese strawberry sandwich. The cost is $180 per couple through the Culinary Playground website.

• LaBelle eats: LaBelle Winery in Derry (14 Route 111, Derry, 672-9898, labellewinery.com) will host a Reggae and Jamaican Dinner on Sunday, July 26, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Experience a carefully curated island-inspired dinner menu, followed by dancing to the island vibes of the Redemption Band. Tickets are $89 each through the LaBelle website.

LaBelle Winery in Derry will also host a cookie decorating class taught by instructor Kelli Wright on Wednesday, July 29, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. After class you’ll leave with a set of four summer-themed decorated cookies and the knowledge to re-create your designs at home. The cost is $59 per person through the LaBelle website

Roller skating, food trucks, music

Nashua’s Summer Stroll offers a day of community fun

Nashua’s Summer Stroll, put on by the Downtown Nashua Association, will take place Saturday, July 25, from 4 to 8 p.m. along Nashua’s Main Street.

Alyssa O’Mara, the Association’s director, said that, as always, the Stroll will focus on Nashua’s arts, music and sense of community.

“But we have a few more activities than we’ve had in previous years,” she said. “We’re excited. The ice skating rink that was part of our Winter Stroll was such a hit that we’ve got a roller skating rink for the Summer Stroll with free skate rentals, just like the winter stroll had. Positive Street Art will be there with some of their activities. Art City Nashua is a newer organization that will be there with a mural wall for kids to paint. We have spin art this year. We have some cool spin art bikes; people will pedal to make the spin art machines work, and spin art vinyl records.”

“All of it is free as always,” she said. “We’ll have the stage set up and there will be three different performances over the course of the day. One of the churches that participated the last few years is [organizing] a basketball game. Everyone’s really excited.”

The timing of Saturday’s Stroll has been carefully planned out, O’Mara said.

“The event gets over at around eight -ish,” she said. “We have our summer music series that we brought back this year in partnership with the National Arts Commission. The concerts are every Saturday from 7:30 to 8:30, so our last band will end at around 7:30 in the hopes that as people are finishing up they’ll move down to the Riverwalk to the Pavilion Stage and see our band that’s playing on Saturday night.”

As always, there will be food-trucks and vendors at this year’s Summer Stroll, O’Mara said.

“We have between 50 and 55 vendors [participating]” she said. “They are all food vendors or art-focused vendors, and then anyone else who’s involved, such as nonprofits and things like that, have family-friendly activities.”

Summer Stroll
When: Saturday, July 25, between 4 and 8 p.m.
Where: along Main Street in Nashua
More: downtownnashua.org/summer-stroll, where you can find a list of vendors

Canterbury puts on a small but mighty fair

Fun food, friendly farm animals and more

By Chelsea Spear
listings@hippopress.com

The town of Canterbury celebrates its 300th anniversary this year. What better way to celebrate than by attending the Canterbury Fair?

This annual event has been entertaining Merrimack County residents for almost 70 years. By keeping an intimate focus on local artisans and family fun, the fair has given the people of Canterbury and beyond a sense of community pride.

The Canterbury Fair had a modest start in 1958, when the Canterbury Ladies Benevolent Society added a chicken barbecue to the annual Canterbury Country Fair and Bazaar. This new addition met with greater attendance and a tenfold increase in net income, and the proceeds from the chicken barbecue were used to furnish and equip a new parish house for the Canterbury United Community Church. In the years that followed, local organizations like the PTA, the Fire Department and the Church Council joined the Ladies Benevolent Society to run the fair, helping to keep it going for seven decades.

This community sensibility is one of the highlights of the festival, according to Canterbury Fair representative Jayne Hastings.

“It’s all volunteers who do everything. It involves the whole community and people are helping in every way that they can,” Hastings said in a recent Zoom interview. “Everybody’s involved and everyone pitches in. Sometimes it’s last minute, sometimes it’s just for cleanup, but it’s all hands on deck and it’s awesome.”

While the Fair organizers have kept the fair small and community-focused, they’ve added some new attractions over the years.

“We decided last year that maybe we should not just flip burgers but we should have some food trucks,” Hastings said. “This is our second year with food trucks available for some of the tastier things to eat at the fair.” Cheese Louise, The Glizzy Wagon and Teenie Wienies are among the food trucks scheduled for the Fair, in addition to the famous barbecue chicken.

Canterbury hosts a wide array of music at its farmers markets and bandstand concert series, and some of the most popular artists will be performing at the Fair this year. Mr. Aaron starts the day with a welcoming set of children’s music, and students of Sue Ann Erb’s Suzuki Strings program will also perform an hour-long set. Lindsey Schust & the Ragged Mountain Band will close out the day with two sets of Americana music with international influences.

Those looking for demonstrations will want to check out the wood turning and carving demo, as well as the broom-making presentation, which Hastings notes “might be good for the local witches getting ready for Halloween.” The Fair also has a gathering of vintage vehicles for antique car aficionados, which is close to Hastings’ heart: “I supply one of those because I drive a ’48 Chevy pickup,” she says.

The Canterbury Fair has become “a tradition with fairgoers because once they come and they experience that hometown atmosphere and what we have to offer, they look forward to coming back,” Hastings said.

Canterbury Fair
When: Saturday, July 25, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Woodchuck Classic 5K and Chipmunk Scramble 2K sign-in at 8 a.m. at Canterbury Elementary School.)
Where: Canterbury Center
More: canterburyfair.com
Admission to the fair is free. A $5 donation for parking is appreciated.

Kiddie Pool 26/07/23

Family fun for whenever

Family tunes

• On Saturday, July 25, Manchester Parks and Recreation will hold the second of four concerts at 10 a.m. at Livingston Park on Hooksett Road in Manchester with musician Miss Alli between Brigit’s Garden and the playground, according to a post on the department’s Facebook page. “These concerts are free and open to everyone. Gather the family, and enjoy a morning of music in the park,” the post said.

• Kimball Jenkins, 266 N. Main St. in Concord, will continue its “Summer Songs: A Kids Music Series!” with Friend Andrea on Friday, July 24, from 5 to 7 p.m. on the lawn, according to kimballjenkins.com/events. “The fun begins at 5 p.m. with an interactive art activity for kids led by KJ Tiny Artist teacher Ari Murphy. Then, at 6 p.m., enjoy a lively musical performance that will have kids singing, dancing, and playing along,” the website said.

• Children’s musician Judy Pancoast celebrates 30 years of performing with a show at the Goffstown Public Library on Monday, July 27, at 11:30 a.m., according to a press release. See judypancoast.com.

Potatoes and coconut

• The NH Fisher Cats continue their run of games against the Somerset Patriots at Delta Dental Stadium in downtown Manchester, according to milb.com/new-hampshire, where you can purchase tickets. The game on Thursday, July 23, is at 12:05 p.m.; games on Friday, July 24, and Saturday, July 25, are at 6:03 p.m., and the Sunday, July 26, game is at 1:05 p.m. At Friday’s game, the team will change up their identity to play as the New Hampshire Space Potatoes; stay for the postgame fireworks. Saturday’s game will also end with fireworks and the first 1,000 fans to arrive can get a WWE X Fisher Cats co-branded jersey, the website said. On Sunday the team will debut their Manchester Coconut Tenders alt — a slight flavor variation on their Manchester Chicken Tenders identity — and the first 500 fans can receive the third of three bobbleheads in the Manchester Chicken Tender Series, the website said.

On stage

• The Palace Youth Theatre Summer Camp, featuring performers in grades 2 through 12, will present another show this weekend at the Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St. in Manchester, according to palacetheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets. This weekend’s performance is The SpongeBob Musical: Youth Edition, which will be on stage Friday, July 24, at 7 p.m., and Saturday, July 25, at 11 a.m.

• The Palace Theatre’s 2026 Bank of New Hampshire Children’s Summer Series also continues with a new show each week and showtimes Tuesday through Thursdays at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. and Fridays at 10 a.m., according to palacetheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets. The Wizard of Oz Youth Editionconcludes its run with shows on Thursday, July 23, and Friday, July 24, and How To Train Your Dragon Jr. runs next week, Tuesday, July 28, through Friday, July 31.

• RB Productions, which is a “non-profit community theatre organization founded in 2003 by Ryan Brown to provide experiential and educational theatre opportunities for youth and young theatre professionals throughout greater Concord and the state of New Hampshire,” will present Disney’s The Lion King Jr. on Friday, July 24, and Saturday, July 25, at 7 p.m. at Capitol Center of the Arts’ Chubb Theatre, according to ccanh.com, where you can purchase tickets.

Treasure Hunt 26/07/23

Hello, Donna,

My husband and I purchased a property over a decade ago and this “stove” was in an outbuilding where the previous owners used to slaughter and smoke farm animals, like pigs. We have puzzled for years about how this stove/cooker was used. Any ideas? No need for estimating a worth since we are not looking to sell it, but we would love to know how it was used back in the day.

Thank you.

Gail

Dear Gail,

I have to say you got me! This is not anything I know a lot about.

I did some research, and I believe your stove is from around the early 1900s, judging from the style and cauldron on top. Now my opinion is if it was used for smoking meat it would have another grill part on top or a cover to hold in the smoke. Wood or coal would go into the bottom.

I did find a couple similar styles that were actually used for laundry as well. So maybe it started off as one thing and was used for others. It could have also been made to fit the family’s smoking meats need.

It’s an interesting piece, I’m glad you’re holding on to it. It could become useful again for another purpose.

Thanks for sharing, Gail, I wish I could have been more helpful.

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