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Food: The Ubiquity of Pumpkin *
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The Ubiquity of Pumpkin
A Look at Fall's Trendiest Flavor
Written by Angie Sykeny (asykeny@hippopress.com)
Images: Courtesy Photo
From cupcakes and ice cream to lattes and beer, pumpkin-lovers have no trouble finding their favorite flavor when fall creeps in. The explosion of pumpkin-flavored everything started as a trend but seems to have evolved into more of a tradition; coffee shops, bakeries and breweries start rolling out their pumpkin-flavored menu items each year as soon as summer starts to wind down, anticipating their customers’ eagerness to get a quintessential taste of fall.
Local foodies share some theories on why pumpkin is the thing, plus what they have to offer and what goes into making their goodies. We’ve also compiled a long list of where you can go to get your pumpkin fix. Did we miss any of your favorites? Let us know at food@hippopress.com.
Why Pumpkin?
Richard Tango-Lowy, master chocolatier at Dancing Lion Chocolate in Manchester, has a theory about why pumpkin is so popular and why it seems to have outdone apple as the signature fall flavor.
“Apples are ubiquitous this time of year. You can’t just grab a pumpkin and take a bite out of it. You have to cut it up and do a lot with it before you can cook with it,” he said, “so pumpkin is more precious in a lot of ways.”
Roni Vetter, owner of Jake’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream of Nashua, said she can’t understand why people have been neglecting apple and turning to more pumpkin-flavored things, especially since an apple on its own tends to have more flavor than a pumpkin, but she guesses it’s because of the other flavors often used with pumpkin, like nutmeg, cinnamon and brown sugar that people associate with the overall pumpkin flavor.
“Pumpkin itself is very bland and boring on its own,” she said. “It’s really the enhancement of the spices that help bring out the natural flavor straight from the pumpkin.”
Of course, it’s possible the spike in popularity of pumpkin could just be part of the natural cycle of foods going in and out of favor. Erik Croswell, owner of Incredibrew in Nashua, said he’s enjoying the craze but won’t be surprised if apple comes to the forefront again.
“When you look at how flavors trend, variety is the spice of life,” he said. “This year was bad for apples, but they’ll be back around. Pumpkin is just what’s trending right now.”
In Your Cup
Do you want a pumpkin-y pick-me-up in your coffee or tea? Many local cafes have the ever-popular pumpkin spice latte as well as other coffee drinks.
“Pumpkin latte, pumpkin mocha, pumpkin chai — anything you can combine with pumpkin, we’ll do it,” said Alex Horton, owner of Cafe la Reine in Manchester.
If you’re not a fan of fancier drinks, some cafes, including Cafe la Reine, also have regular coffee with pumpkin roasted directly into the beans. Horton said it’s very popular among her customers who like to drink their coffee black but still want a taste of fall in their cup.
Hilltop Cafe is in a unique position when it comes to making their pumpkin lattes. Since they’re located right on Temple-Wilton Community Farm, they’re literally able to source their pumpkins from their backyard.
To use pumpkin in their lattes, they roast it, blend it with sugar and spices, then mix it in with the espresso, steamed milk and some nutmeg.
“You can tell the difference. It’s real pumpkin, and it’s fresh, and I think that’s why people like [the lattes],” cafe Manager Ben Reed said. “There’s more texture to it. As finely as we blend the pumpkin, it still adds something to the drink, and that’s augmented by the spices.”
For even more flavor, you could try the white chocolate pumpkin or salted caramel pumpkin latte at True Brew Barista and Cafe in Concord, or you can add some ice cream with the pumpkin spice affogato from Bonhoeffer’s Cafe in Nashua, made with pumpkin spice ice cream from Hayward’s.
No matter what kind of drink it is, Horton said, there’s something about the coffee-pumpkin combination that has people always coming back for more.
“It’s one of our top selling flavors of the year. I feel like the majority of people wait all year for it,” she said. “The warm, rich flavor of the coffee just goes well with the cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin flavor.”
In the past few years, many breweries have been joining the pumpkin craze by producing pumpkin beers. Peter Telge, owner and brewmaster at Stark Brewing in Manchester, said Stark’s pumpkin ale was one of the first pumpkin beers when it was first brewed in 1994, and it’s always a big attraction at beer festivals.
“It’s very well-known and very good, and there’s a reason for it,” he said. “It’s not just that we’re good brewers. It’s the way we do it. … Ninety percent of brewers that do pumpkin ale use a pumpkin pie flavored mix. We use three to four hundred pounds of real pumpkins in every batch we do.”
Other local breweries followed with their own variations of pumpkin beer, such as 603 Brewery of Londonderry with a toasted pumpkin ale, and Rockingham Brewing of Derry with a pumpkin stout.
Pumpkin beer fans can even brew their own at Incredibrew. Smashed Pumpkin is based on Shipyard Brewing’s Pumpkinhead beer and features a full-bodied pumpkin undertone with a rush of cinnamon, nutmeg and other holiday spices at the end.
“I think [pumpkin] goes well with a lot of the wheat flavors and the malt,” Croswell said. “It really complements the pumpkin and lets the pumpkin’s flavor come out.”
Beer isn’t the only way to enjoy pumpkin with a kick. Zorvino Vineyards makes Jumping Jack’s pumpkin dessert wine from local sugar pumpkins, which Tom Zack, Zorvino wine director, said is one of the few pumpkin wines in the country.
“It’s made with 100-percent pumpkin but spiced a little bit, so it really tastes like pumpkin pie,” he said. “It’s a great meal closer. Excellent with pumpkin cheesecake or a strong cheese.”
If beer and wine aren’t your thing, try going out to a local restaurant for a pumpkin martini or cocktail. For example, the Copper Door Restaurant in Bedford has a martini called The Great Pumpkin, made with vanilla vodka, Bols Pumpkin Smash, a splash of cream and a graham cracker rim, and The Peddler’s Daughter in Nashua has a pumpkin pie cocktail made with vanilla vodka, Shipyard Pumpkinhead beer and a cinnamon sugar rim.
Something Sweet
If you walk into a local bakery, chances are you can find something pumpkin-flavored, whether it’s a sweet treat like whoopie pies, cupcakes and cookies, or maybe something for breakfast, like muffins, bread or bagels.
“We do a pumpkin cookie with cream cheese frosting and spices on top that’s absolutely delicious,” said Denise Nickerson, owner and baker at The Bakeshop on Kelley Street in Manchester. “And we do pumpkin whoopie pies with a salted caramel filling, and people seem to love that.”
Many bakers use cupcakes as a versatile food to experiment with different pumpkin flavors. For example, Cupcakes 101 in Bedford has a pumpkin spice latte flavored cupcake (the cake is made with pumpkin and espresso) and a cupcake infused with Shipyard Brewing’s Pumpkinhead ale. Sophisticakes of Windham has cupcakes in pumpkin caramel, pumpkin latte, spiced pumpkin pie and pumpkin Oreo flavors.
“It’s so popular. It seems like everyone is looking for pumpkin spice things right now,” Nickerson said. “It’s funny how much it just takes over this time of year.”
Ice cream comes in all flavors imaginable, so it’s no surprise that you can also find pumpkin ice cream this time of year. The Puritan Backroom in Manchester, The Inside Scoop in Bedford and Jay Gee’s Ice Cream in Salem are just some of the local places to get pumpkin ice cream. Some places have creative flavors, like Hayward’s Ice Cream in Nashua with its pumpkin cheesecake and pumpkin Oreo. Vetter said she starts getting requests for pumpkin ice cream as early as Sept. 1.
“I think [pumpkin and ice cream] are amazing together,” she said “The pumpkin flavor just blends nicely with the cream and gives it a velvety texture, and the spices come out really nicely.”
Vetter purees locally sourced pumpkins for her ice cream and adds spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg. Many pumpkin ice creams use a synthetic pumpkin flavoring and orange food coloring rather than real pumpkin, she said, but in her opinion, there’s no comparison in taste between the two.
“[Pumpkin flavoring] is extremely sweet because they’re trying to heighten the desired flavor with more sugar,” she said, “but I find there’s an aftertaste to it, almost like a chemical taste, from the lab-formulated flavor of the pumpkin.” Vetter said.
You can also find pumpkin incorporated into candy or paired with chocolate, such as the pumpkin caramels dipped in milk chocolate available at Granite State Candy Shoppe in Concord and Manchester, and pumpkin bon bons and brownies available at Dancing Lion Chocolate in Manchester.
“Pumpkin is nice with the type of chocolate we use,” said Tango-Lowy. “The chocolate is not too sweet on its own. … It’s more on the savory side, so it brings out these complex, beautiful flavors with the pumpkin.”
Baked Goods & Desserts
• Bagel Alley (1 Eldridge St., Nashua, 882-9343, find them on Facebook) has pumpkin bagels.
• The Bakeshop on Kelley Street (171 Kelley St., Manchester, 624-3500, thebakeshoponkelleystreet.com) has pumpkin whoopie pies, cookies, cake and swirl cheesecake.
• Benson’s Bakery & Cafe (203 Central St., Hudson, 718-8683, bensonsbakeryandcafe.com) has pumpkin cupcakes, muffins, scones and whoopie pies.
• Black Forest Cafe (212 Route 101, Amherst, 672-0500, theblackforestcafe.com) has pumpkin-maple whoopie pies, pumpkin spice big cookies and praline-frosted pumpkin cupcakes.
• Bonhoeffers Cafe (8 Franklin St., Nashua, 883-6879, bonhoefferscafe.com) has pumpkin bagels with pumpkin cream cheese and gluten-free pumpkin muffins.
• Cafe la Reine (915 Elm St., Manchester, 232-0332, cafelareine.com) has pumpkin muffins.
• The Cake Fairy (114 Londonderry Turnpike, Hooksett, 518-8733, cakefairynh.com) has pumpkin bread, cupcakes and whoopie pies.
• Cheers Grille & Bar (17 Depot St., Concord, 228-0180, cheersnh.com) has homemade pumpkin donuts.
• Chez Vachon (136 Kelley St., Manchester, 625-9660, chezvachon.com) has pumpkin mousse pie and layered pumpkin cake.
• Cupcakes 101 (132 Bedford Center Road, Bedford, 488-5962, cupcakes101.net) has cupcakes in four pumpkin flavors: regular pumpkin, pumpkin spice latte (espresso pumpkin), pumpkin whoopie pie (devil’s food cake) and Shipyard Pumpkinhead spice (ale infused).
• Frederick’s Pastries (109 Route 101A, Amherst, 882-7725; Bedford Square, 25 S. River Road, Bedford, 647-2253, pastry.net) has a pumpkin torte, velvet torte and mocha-pumpkin torte; pumpkin cheesecake, velvet cheesecake, cheesecake cup and caramel-pumpkin spice cheesecake cup; regular pumpkin cake, whoopie pies and a pumpkin velvet cupcake.
• The Fresh Plate (69 Stearns Road, Amherst, 465-1863, thefreshplatenh.com) has organic pumpkin yeast bread and organic multigrain bread with pumpkin seed and cranberry.
• Gone Baking (Bedford, 305-6026, gonebaking.com) has a pumpkin cupcake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting.
• JajaBelle’s Pastry & Coffee Shop (182 Main St., Nashua, 769-1873, jajabelles.com) has pumpkin bread.
• Jake’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream (57 Palm St., Nashua, 594-2424, jakesoldfashionedicecream.com) has pumpkin cake.
• Kay’s Bakery (443 Lake Ave., Manchester, 625-1132) has pumpkin whoopie pies.
• Klemm’s Bakery (29 Indian Rock Road, Windham, 437-8810, klemmsbakery.com) has pumpkin bread, muffins and donuts.
• The Newell Post Restaurant (125 Fisherville Road, Concord, 228-0522, newellpostrestaurant.com) has a pumpkin cheesecake.
• New England Cupcakery & Treats (28 S. Main St., Concord, 724-6464, necupcakery.com) has pumpkin spice cupcakes.
• Queen City Cupcakes (790 Elm St., Manchester, 624-4999, qccupcakes.com) has cupcakes in pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin spice and pumpkin maple flavors, and a pumpkin spice cookie sandwich.
• Sophisticakes of Windham (4 Cobbetts Pond Road, No. 6, Windham, 898-2442, facebook.com/sophisticakesofwindhamnh) has cupcakes in pumpkin-caramel, pumpkin latte, spiced pumpkin pie and pumpkin-Oreo flavors.
• Village Bean (33 Indian Road Road, Windham, 434-2326, villagebean.com) has pumpkin rolls.
Beer & Wine
• 603 Brewery (12 Liberty Drive, Londonderry, 630-7745, 603brewery.com) does Toasted Pumpkin Ale, available in 22-ounce bottles and on tap. See the website for a list of retailers and restaurants/bars that carry it.
• Able Ebenezer Brewing Co. (31 Columbia Circle, Merrimack, 223-2253, ableebenezer.com) does a harvest pumpkin ale called Homecoming, available on tap at many southern New Hampshire bars and restaurants. See the website for a full list.
• Incredibrew (112 Daniel Webster Highway, Nashua, 891-2477, incredibrew.com) has a brew-your-own Smashed Pumpkin beer.
• Rockingham Brewing Co. (1 Corporate Park Drive, Unit 1, Derry, 216-2324, rockinghambrewing.com) does a pumpkin ale called Gourdy and a pumpkin stout called Drunk Pumk, created in collaboration with Tuckaway Tavern. Gourdy is available on tap and in cans. Drunk Pumk is available on tap and in 22-ounce bottles. See the website for a list of retailers and restaurants/bars that carry these beers.
• Stark Brewing Co. (500 N. Commercial St., Manchester, 625-4444, starkbrewingcompany.com) does Grumpy Pumpkin Ale, available in 12-ounce six-packs, 22-ounce bottles and on tap. See the website for a list of retailers and restaurants/bars that carry it. It also does a blueberry pumpkin pie beer, available only in the taproom.
• Zorvino Vineyards (226 Main St., Sandown, 887-8463, zorvino.com) does Jumping Jack’s Pumpkin Wine. See the website for a list of retailers that carry it.
Coffee & Tea
• A&E Coffee & Tea (135 Route 101A, Amherst; 1000 Elm St, Manchester, 578-3338, aeroastery.com) has a pumpkin puree latte.
• Benson’s Bakery & Cafe (203 Central St., Hudson, 718-8683, bensonsbakeryandcafe.com) has pumpkin coffee.
• Bonhoeffers Cafe (8 Franklin St., Nashua, 883-6879, bonhoefferscafe.com) has a pumpkin spice latte, pumpkin spice affogato and vanilla pumpkin chai.
• Cafe la Reine (915 Elm St., Manchester, 232-0332, cafelareine.com) has a pumpkin spice latte, coffee, mocha and chai.
• Coffeeberries (Apple Tree Mall, 4 Orchard View Drive, Londonderry, 434-1030, coffeeberries.com) has a pumpkin spice coffee, latte, mocha and pumpkin chai.
• Extra Touch Gourmet Cafe (4 Hawthorne Drive, Bedford, 488-6620, extratouchgourmet.com) has pumpkin coffee.
• Hilltop Cafe (195 Isaac Frye Hwy., Wilton, 654-2223, hilltopcafenh.com) has a pumpkin latte.
• JajaBelle’s Pastry & Coffee Shop (182 Main St., Nashua, 769-1873, jajabelles.com) has a pumpkin flavor shot for hot drinks.
• Janie’s Uncommon Cafe (123 Nashua Road, Londonderry, 432-3100, janiescafe.com) has pumpkin spice coffee.
• Live Juice (5 S. Main St., Concord, 226-3024, livejuicenh.com) has a pumpkin pie smoothie.
• Pressed Cafe (108 Spit Brook Road, Nashua, 718-1250, pressedcafe.com) has a pumpkin spice latte.
• True Brew Barista and Cafe (3 Bicentennial Square, Concord, 225-2776 ; 45 S. Main St., Concord, 715-5833, truebrewbarista.com) has lattes in pumpkin spice, white chocolate-pumpkin and salted caramel-pumpkin flavors; and roasted pumpkin mate and decaf sweet pumpkin spice teas.
• Tucker’s (1328 Hooksett Road, Hooksett, 206-5757; 80 South St., Concord, 413-5884, tuckersnh.com) has a pumpkin spiced latte.
• Two Friends Cafe (542 Mast Road, Goffstown, 627-6622, twofriendsbagel.com) has pumpkin spice coffee.
• Unity Cafe (3 Sundial Ave., Manchester, 782-7325, unitycafe.com) has a pumpkin spice latte.
• Village Bean (33 Indian Road Road, Windham, 434-2326, villagebean.com) has pumpkin spice coffee.
• Waterworks Cafe (250 Commercial St., Manchester, 782-5088, waterworkscafe.com) has a pumpkin spice coffee and latte.
Ice Cream & Candy
• Dancing Lion Chocolate (917 Elm St., Manchester, 625-4043, dancinglion.us) has pumpkin zen brownies and pumpkin bon bons.
• Extra Touch Gourmet Cafe (4 Hawthorne Drive, Bedford, 488-6620, extratouchgourmet.com) has pumpkin caramels.
• Granite State Candy Shoppe (832 Elm St., Manchester, 218-3885; 13 Warren St., Concord, 225-2591, granitestatecandyshoppe.com) has pumpkin-flavored caramels dipped in milk chocolate, and ice cream made with a pumpkin fruit base.
• Hayward’s Ice Cream (7 Daniel Webster Highway, Nashua, 888-4663, haywardsicecream.com) has ice cream flavors in pumpkin, pumpkin cheesecake and pumpkin Oreo.
• The Inside Scoop (260 Wallace Road, Bedford, 471-7009, theinsidescoopnh.com) has pumpkin ice cream.
• Jake’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream (57 Palm St., Nashua, 594-2424, jakesoldfashionedicecream.com) has pumpkin spice and pumpkin and sweet cream ice cream pies, and regular pumpkin ice cream.
• Jay Gee’s Ice Cream (327 S. Broadway, Salem, 458-1167, jaygees.com) has pumpkin ice cream.
• Nelson’s Candies (65 Main St., Wilton, 654-5030, nelsonscandieswilton.com) has pumpkin and pumpkin-pecan fudge.
• The Puritan Backroom (245 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 669-6890, puritanbackroom.com) has pumpkin ice cream.
• Village Bean (33 Indian Road Road, Windham, 434-2326, villagebean.com) has soft-serve pumpkin ice cream.
Restaurant Dishes & Cocktails
• Bedford Village Inn (2 Olde Bedford Way, Bedford, 472-2001, bedfordvillageinn.com) has a pumpkin tiramisu.
• The Birch on Elm (931 Elm St., Manchester, 782-5365, facebook.com/Thebirchonelm) has a pumpkin bisque with apple and ginger and a pumpkin flan with apple cider and caramelized corn.
• Black Forest Cafe (212 Route 101, Amherst, 672-0500, theblackforestcafe.com) has pumpkin-pecan pancakes with apple butter praline (Sundays only).
• Bonhoeffers Cafe (8 Franklin St., Nashua, 883-6879, bonhoefferscafe.com) has homemade pumpkin crepes.
• Chez Vachon (136 Kelley St., Manchester, 625-9660, chezvachon.com) has pumpkin pancakes and muffins.
• The Common Man (25 Water St., Concord, 228-3463; 304 Daniel Webster Highway, Merrimack, 429-3463; 88 Range Road, Windham, 898-0088, thecman.com) has pumpkin tortellacci with apple cider cream, thin-sliced apples and spice pepitas.
• Copper Door Restaurant (15 Leavy Drive, Bedford, 488-2677, copperdoorrestaurant.com) has a pumpkin cupcake and a martini called The Great Pumpkin, made with vanilla vodka, Bols Pumpkin Smash, a splash of cream and a graham cracker rim.
• Firefly American Bistro & Bar (22 Concord St., Manchester, 935-9740, fireflynh.com) has a pumpkin spice latte martini.
• The Foundry Restaurant (50 Commercial St., Manchester, 836-1925, foundrynh.com) has a roast pumpkin bisque.
• Gale Motor Co. Eatery (36 Lowell St., Manchester, 232-7059, galemotoreatery.com) has a dessert cocktail called The Pumpkin Head, made with pumpkin Baileys and Russell’s Reserve bourbon, shaken over ice.
• Hanover Street Chophouse (149 Hanover St., Manchester, 644-2467, hanoverstreetchophouse.com) has pumpkin cheesecake with gingersnap crust, poached cranberries and Chantilly cream, paired with Amaretto Disaronno.
• The Little Creperie (138 N. Main St., Concord, 856-7807, thelittlecreperienh.com) has a spiced pumpkin waffle with cream cheese glaze.
• Martha’s Exchange Restaurant & Brewing Co. (185 Main St., Nashua, 883-8781, marthas-exchange.com) has a pumpkin martini with Stoli Vanil vodka, Black Velvet Cinnamon Rush whiskey and Martha’s pumpkin mix.
• The Peddler’s Daughter (48 Main St., Nashua, 821-7535, thepeddlersdaughter.com) has a pumpkin pie cocktail made with vanilla vodka, Shipyard Pumpkinhead beer and a cinnamon sugar rim.
• Red Arrow Diner (61 Lowell St., Manchester, 626-1118; 63 Union Square, Milford, 249-9222; 137 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, 552-3091, redarrowdiner.com) has peanut butter pumpkin pancakes.
• Restaurant Tek-Nique (170 Route 101, Bedford, 488-5629, restaurantteknique.com) has pumpkin creme brulee.
• T-Bones (25 S. River Road, Bedford, 641-6100; 39 Crystal Ave., Derry, 434-3200; 77 Lowell Road, Hudson, 882-6677; 311 S. Broadway, Salem, 893-3444, t-bones.com) has butternut and pumpkin lasagna, pepita-crusted chicken with pumpkin mashed potato, and pumpkin bread pudding.
• Tucker’s (1328 Hooksett Road, Hooksett, 206-5757; 80 South St., Concord, 413-5884, tuckersnh.com) has pumpkin pancakes.
News: Mental Health Misconceptions
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Mental Health Misconceptions
The Stigmas Behind Mental Illness & How To Start Changing Them
By Ryan Lessard (news@hippopress.com)
Images: Courtesy Photo
Derek Quintey suffers from depression. A middle-aged man from Londonderry, he was losing a lot of work because of it and didn’t tell his bosses what was going on for fear of how they’d react. But when he decided to seek treatment in June, it was actually his employer who helped him, through an employee assistance program that helped him confidentially navigate the resources available. Health care workers recommended partial hospitalization and connected him with a support group in Nashua.
To get to that point, Quintey had to overcome the stigma that surrounds mental health.
“Mental health is not treated the same as if my leg was broken. There’s still a big stigma out there,” Quintey said.
A Social Disorder
In fact, Quintey faced several stigmas: public stigma — how people at work or in social circles might view mental illness; self-stigma — how Quintey viewed his own condition; and structural stigma — how the view of health care providers, policy makers and insurers affected his access to care.
Gretchen Grappone, a New Hampshire native, is a training consultant specializing in mental health stigma with Atlas Research based in Washington, D.C. With grant funding from the Endowment for Health, she trains frontline health care workers and health center staff on the nature of mental health stigma and ways to overcome it.
Part of that training, which she recently facilitated for the Mental Health Center of Greater Manchester, goes over the seven different types of stigma.
In addition to public, self and structural stigma, there’s also perceived stigma (a belief in stigma held by others), label avoidance (avoiding treatment for fear of being labeled mentally ill), stigma by association (when stigma is extended to people connected to someone with a mental illness) and health professional stigma — because although it seems counterintuitive, research has shown that health care providers may share these attitudes with the general public.
Ken Norton, the executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in New Hampshire, said the day before his organization’s annual NAMIWalks fundraiser earlier this month there were 32 adults and one child in emergency rooms across the state waiting for mental health treatment beds.
“We would never treat any other medical illness that way, and we need to do better,” Norton said.
Grappone said stigmas can prevent people with mental illness from seeking help, and more broadly, they can limit work and social opportunities.
“When it becomes a problem is when it leads to prejudice, which leads to a negative action, which is discrimination,” Grappone said.
And that, said MHCGM President Bill Rider, comes with real consequences — possibly even death, if mental illness suffers are afraid to get the help they need.
“Mental illness has a mortality rate to it,” Rider said.
Studies have shown that people with mental illnesses have a life expectancy 20 to 25 years shorter than those without, and mostly from preventable conditions.
Education
One way to tackle this issue is by targeting misconceptions and stereotypes. The Campaign to Change Direction, which kicked off in New Hampshire in May, is one such initiative. The campaign outlines five signs of mental illness in oneself and others: feeling withdrawn, personality changes, agitation, poor self-care and feelings of hopelessness.
For even severe psychoses, Rider said, cases often start out during late adolescence, and there are usually plenty of red flags like “sort of unreal thinking, maybe some disjointed thinking, magical thinking,” Rider said. “And what, I think, individuals do themselves and what people around them do is they minimize it. … They say, ‘Geez, it’s just a phase that they’re going through, they’ve been hanging out with these weird guys lately’ … and they pass it off. And often there’s this cloak of silence where it’s not even discussed with the individual.”
Catching mental illness early, and maybe having those awkward conversations, can go a long way toward treating the issues and making sure they don’t get worse, Rider said.
Still, family members, friends or colleagues may not know how to treat people with a mental illness. Grappone said that in her trainings, most people don’t believe they are discriminating against anyone. But much of the discrimination happens unconsciously.
Potential employers might see a veteran with PTSD and believe that makes the person violent and unpredictable, for example. Hospital staff might see a person with depression and think they’re lazy. Family might believe a loved one with depression is lacking in strength or enough faith in a higher power.
None of that helps the issue of self-stigma, which can be affected by an individual’s upbringing, culture or military training.
“There’s a lot of research that shows that self-stigma is really key,” Norton said. “When we look at veterans, for instance, the numbers of them that report having some type of psychological injury as compared to the almost half who never seek treatment, that really speaks to the self-stigma. And that’s true of the general population as well.”
Grappone said about 30 to 40 percent of people nationwide report self-stigma. And with veterans and active-duty personnel, she said the issue seems to be wrapped up in notions of strength and weakness.
Exposure Therapy
Research shows education programs tend to work well only among adolescents, Grappone said. For the rest of the population, the thing that seems to work best at reducing public stigma is for more and more people to “come out” about their mental illness.
Grappone herself suffers from depression and said it was freeing when she first talked about it in a newspaper interview. This makes sense, she said, if you look at stigma as an anxiety disorder.
“We know the effective intervention for anxiety is to not avoid what you’re fearing or what you’re anxious about. We call it exposure therapy,” Grappone said. “So I see self-disclosure as exposure therapy.”
Norton also has a mental illness. He said he has suffered thoughts of suicide his entire adult life.
“I think the way out of that is realizing that you’re not alone and maybe talking to other people that are in recovery who talk openly about mental illness,” Norton said. “When we hear somebody talk about having a mental illness and being in recovery or having an addiction and being in recovery, that’s where it can really make a difference.” Grappone said she would like to see more people with mental health issues come out from the shadows. Only that, she said, will make a dent in normalizing mental illness.
Earlier this month, Quintey and his wife and friends walked in the NAMIWalks 5K walk through downtown Concord. He was one of more than 700 people who participated. When it first started 14 years ago, only about a tenth as many people took part in the walk.
Still, there’s a lot more work to do.
“So much money, millions and millions of dollars have been spent on these education campaigns,” Grappone said. “And that’s great and they’re well-intentioned, but ... research shows that over the last 10 years, there’s been absolutely no reduction in public stigma.”
She said recruiting mental health ambassadors from health care professions would be a good start. And Norton said that shouldn’t be hard, considering that one in five mental health professionals have a mental illness.
Arts: Lively Weekend
FEATURED ARTS
Lively Weekend
New Ways to Experience ArtWalk
Written by Kelly Sennott (ksennott@hippopress.com)
Images: Courtesy Photo
Nashua’s 12th annual ArtWalk is Saturday, Oct. 15, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 16, from noon to 4 p.m., and as usual, visitors will find artists — over 100, more than ever before — exhibiting and selling work at various downtown venues.
But this year’s ArtWalk presents new ways to experience and see the art. Judy Carlson, vice president of City Arts Nashua, the organization spearheading the event, said these changes come in response to artist and participant comments from 2015.
There was a call for an event closer to the holiday buying season — many didn’t have enough art to show in early September — and better advertising beforehand. In response, City Arts Nashua doubled its advertising budget, upped its Facebook, Twitter and Instagram presence and hired project manager Jillian Ketchen part-time to organize. Ginnie Lupi, New Hampshire State Council on the Arts director, also suggested making it more active.
“She said people nowadays love art, but they also love experiences. So we went into ArtWalk this year and wanted to make it more experiential,” Carlson said via phone.
Now, you can view art while eating at designed ArtWalk “food stops” — El Colima, Giant of Siam, Riverside Barbecue, Portland Pie, Fratello’s, The City Room Cafe, JajaBelle’s and the Thirsty Turtle, all which will feature artists — or by taking part in a Pokemon-themed scavenger hunt, which is now a regular monthly-meet-up organized by Great American Downtown.
“The last [Pokemon] event was attended by about 70 gamers,” said Paul Shea, executive director of the Great American Downtown. “We conducted weekly meet-ups throughout the summer, but we thought it would be best to switch to a monthly format. This time, the stops will coincide with more artistic venues.”
The Peacock Players present Willy Wonka at the Janice B. Streeter Theater Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and the candy man himself will be making an appearance between performances at the children’s art events on the library plaza. (He has also hidden a golden ticket in one of the ArtWalk programs; the winner gets two free tickets to see the show.)
Visitors will find a variety of free workshops and demonstrations for kids and adults downtown, plus live mural creation events, an adult coloring crawl, puppet shows and concerts. And the last Farmer’s Market of the season was extended to Oct. 16 in honor of this annual event, during which the winner of the downtown business scarecrow competition will be announced and Doctor Gasp! will perform. Afterward, there are a variety of ArtWalk “after dark” collaborative events to choose from.
The goal, as always, is to promote both the creative and downtown Nashua economy. Shea’s liking what he’s been seeing.
“We’ve gotten to the point that, on any given weekend, there may be several fair-sized events going on. Most weekends, that’s the case. It’s a pretty exciting time,” he said.
ArtWalk
When: Art studios are open Saturday, Oct. 15, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 16, from noon to 4 p.m.
Where: Headquarters is at 30 Temple St., at RJ Finlay and the ArtHub Gallery; other venues include Nashua Historical Society, Riverwalk Cafe, Riverside BBQ, Darrell’s Music Hall, The Framery, League of NH Craftsmen, Twill, Healing in Color, Studio C, Cardin Jewelers, Wine Not Boutique, S. Grigas Studio, Fresh of Nashua, Pompanoosuc Mills, Maison de l’Art, Tangled Roots Herbal, Hollis Arts Society, Beckonings, Just Lights and Picker Collaborative Artists
Contact: Visit cityartsnashua.org for a detailed schedule and full list of participating artists; follow @artwalknashua
See the Picker Artists’ New Home
About a year ago, longtime Picker Building owner Jack Bolger announced to his tenants — fine artists, craftspeople and creative entrepreneurs — that he was going to retire and accepted an offer from Clocktower Place Apartments to buy the building.
For these artists, the future was uncertain, but many have managed to remain together, and ArtWalk 2016 is their first opportunity to showcase their new space at 3 Pine St., just across the street from the original 99 Factory St. facility.
Jewelry artist Gail Moriarty and glass artists Mark and Kathleen Frank are leading the venture; they formed Picker Collaborative Artists, and the rest of the artists in the building — Cindy Goodman, Albert Wilkinson, Sid Ceaser, Bonnie Guercio, Cindy Loranger, Darold Rorabacher, Tanya Prather, Patricia Ahern and Chris Lehmkuhl — will be subtenants.
Moriarty said via phone the move-in date is Oct. 12, just a couple days before ArtWalk. Regardless, the artists will be ready to go; at 99 Factory St., there will be a red tag sale with free or marked-down items, and visitors will be able to buy new work and take tours at the new Pine Street place, which is in the midst of construction.
“The Picker Building is where we all met, and where we started our friendship and our community. … So we wanted to keep it in our name,” Moriarty said. “ArtWalk is very important to us. It’s been really near and dear to our hearts, and no matter what condition the building is in, we have to participate. … We’ll have products, as we always do, for sale.”
After the announcement last fall, this was the first building Moriarty looked at, and after seeing about 22 other possibilities, she knew this old mill was the one. She called the owner, Gate City Fence, last spring.
She was in full-blown “contractor” mode during her phone interview from the site; floors were going down, walls were going up and bathrooms were being installed. She said the artists have seen great public support, from anonymous donors to community members bringing coffee and doughnuts during this construction stage, but they’re still looking for more. (Its GoFundMe page is gofundme.com/pickerartists).
She was unable to pinpoint a finish date but has put all her energy into this. The plan is still to hold the group’s annual open house just after Thanksgiving.
“I’m out of business until I move,” she said. “We’re self-employed people, so we have to get back up as soon as we can.”
Music: For Fiddling Fanatics
FEATURED MUSIC
For Fiddling Fanatics
Music School Hosts Inaugural Fall Fiddle Festival
Written by Kelly Sennott (ksennott@hippopress.com)
Images: Courtesy Photo
New Hampshire fiddlers, rejoice — organizers at the Concord Community Music School launch the inaugural Fall Fiddle Festival this month, with events on Friday, Oct. 21, and Saturday, Oct. 22.
Music teacher Liz Faiella initiated the event, which takes inspiration from the school’s March Mandolin Festival, now entering its 15th year and organized by CCMS folk coordinator David Surette.
“[The March Mandolin Festival] is this wonderful event. Mandolinists descend on the music school for two days,” Faiella said via phone last week. “I just love the feeling of the festival. It’s so convivial, and David does such a wonderful job of putting together a weekend of multi-genre mandolin music. … I thought it would be so neat to see that happen with the fiddlers here.”
Particularly since the school’s fiddling program has been growing in popularity. When Faiella first started teaching there, there weren’t any fiddle ensembles. Now she heads four — two for adults, one for teens and one for kids. Surrette also leads a folk group for adults.
“Some teens might feel maybe a little too cool for folk music and these old traditions, but they’re so into it and come up with really cool arrangements and really creative ideas. A number of them signed up for workshops at the fiddle festival,” Faiella said.
The reasons for the increased popularity, she can only guess.
“At the music school, I think there is a growing interest in folk music. You’re seeing a lot of mandolins and banjos and fiddles being incorporated into more mainstream music now, and I think people are getting exposed to it a little more,” said Faiella, naming Mumford & Sons as an example.
On Friday night at 7:30 p.m., there’s a concert with Mark Shilansky’s Fugue Mill, who will play original group pieces and music by composers like Leonard Cohen and Samuel Barber.
On Saturday, there are three sessions of workshops from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., each of which contains something for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. (They’re recommended for teens and adults, and some basic fiddle experience is required.) They’ll be taught by Pascal Gemme (on the Quebecois fiddle), Mariel Vandersteel (on the Scandinavian and Old-time fiddle) and Faiella (on the Irish fiddle).
Later that night, the teaching trio will journey through several fiddling traditions in a concert at 7:30 p.m.
“I think that people are especially excited just about the idea of learning new styles of fiddling. I’m primarily an Irish fiddler and contra dance fiddler, and so it’s really neat for them, I think, to have the opportunity to expand their fiddling horizons a little bit and go outside their comfort zones,” Faiella said.
Vandersteel has been playing in New England the past 10 years, having moved from California to Boston to attend the Berklee College of Music. She thinks the New England fiddling scene is close-knit and bubbling with energy, in part due to schools like Berklee and the New England Conservatory, which foster traditional music at a high standard. She loves the sound of the instrument, and the people it brings together.
“I think it’s one of the instruments that sounds most like the human voice, and I think that has a lot of appeal for performers,” Vandersteel said. “The fiddle community is also a very small, tight-knit and welcoming one. Once you’re in it, you have this whole family of fiddle people across the country and internationally to play with.”
Concord Community Music School Fall Fiddle Festival
Where: Concord Community Music School, 23 Wall St., Concord
Concert with Fugue Mill: Friday, Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m., tickets $15, $12 for students & seniors
Fall Fiddle Festival Workshops: Saturday, Oct. 22, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., $75 for the whole day; deadline to register is Wednesday, Oct. 19
Fall Fiddle Festival Concert: Saturday, Oct. 22, at 7:30 p.m., $15 for adults, $12 for students and seniors (though this is included with the $75 workshop admission); featuring Pascal Gemme, Mariel Vandersteel and Liz Faiella
Contact: ccmusicschool.org, 228-1196
Film: Review of Girl On The Train
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Film Review
The Girl on the Train (R)
Written by Amy Diaz (adiaz@hippopress.com)
Images: Screenshot of The Girl on the Train
Emily Blunt is a woman so lost she’s not sure if she’s seen a murderer or become one in The Girl on the Train, an ultimately kind of lightweight story given gravitas by Blunt’s standout performance.
Rachel (Blunt) rides a commuter train each day from a suburban town to New York City, staring out the window as she goes. What we eventually learn is that she’s not actually commuting; she’s long since lost her job and is just riding the train into the city and then back out, keeping herself quite inebriated with booze sipped from a water bottle along the way. She also spends her time sketching and being fixated on a pretty blonde woman and her handsome husband — two people she sees from the train. She always notices their house and what they’re doing, perhaps because it’s only a few doors down from what used to be her house.
Rachel and husband Tom (Justin Theroux) broke up a few years ago and now he lives at the house — the house, as she tells us, that she decorated — with Anna (Rebecca Ferguson), the woman he had an affair with while still married to Rachel. Tom and Anna have a one-year-old daughter, a fact that seems to stab the knife into Rachel particularly hard. When looking at their life is too painful, she turns her gaze back to the blonde woman.
As it turns out, her life ain’t perfect either. Megan (Haley Bennett) is the woman’s name and she is bored and restless, and married to Scott (Luke Evans). He wants her to get pregnant; she wants to have an affair with Dr. Kamal Abdic (Edgar Ramirez), her therapist. Megan works for a while as Tom and Anna’s nanny — though she doesn’t seem particularly keen on stay-at-home mom Anna or her baby.
After months, maybe even more than a year, of watching Megan and imagining her happy marriage, Rachel is shocked when one day she sees Megan on the porch hugging and kissing a man who isn’t her husband. Later, extremely drunk, Rachel tells no one in particular that she wants to bash Megan’s head in for her betrayal. A little bit later and even drunker, Rachel sees, or thinks she sees, Megan go into a tunnel near the train station. She yells at her. Something happens to Rachel — does she fall? Is she knocked down? — and then she wakes up back at the apartment where she has been crashing with a friend for more than a year. She’s bloody and bruised and has no idea what happened.
Later, police Detective Riley (Allison Janney) shows up with questions about Megan, who has gone missing. Whether Riley thinks Rachel is a suspect or just a possible witness, she knows more than she initially lets on about the constant harassment Rachel has leveled at Tom and Anna. She perhaps even knows more than Rachel, who is fascinated by Megan’s disappearance but even more curious and worried about what she might have done that night and all the other times she blacked out.
The Girl on the Train is basically a nuanced, engrossing, Oscar nomination-worthy portrayal of a woman who has given in to sadness and addiction to such a degree that she can no longer figure out what’s real, surrounded by a bunch of Lifetime movie nonsense that could be called, like, Deadly Suburb. Before we know what Rachel’s deal is, before we even really know how much she drinks, we can see the sadness radiating off her. Somewhere around the halfway point, Rachel explains what has broken her heart and, while it’s interesting to hear her story, we already saw the depths of her brokenness. It almost doesn’t matter what has broken her. We know it’s more serious than just losing the cardboard cutout that is Tom
(An aside: seriously, though, let’s talk about Emily Blunt, who was awesome in Sicario last year but didn’t even get a Golden Globe nod, and her need for an Oscar nomination. She was fantastic in that movie and is really the only worthy thing in this one. She elevates this from throwaway goofiness to a real movie with real acting. Blunt in 2017! Blunt for America! Let’s make this happen, Academy members.)
But then, like reheated frozen chicken nuggets encircling a filet mignon, around that completely magnetic performance are the stories of Megan and Anna, which get nuttier and more melodramatic as the story unfolds. There’s Luke Evans, playing Scott with the subtlety of a classic-era 90210 very special episode about controlling boyfriends. There’s Justin Theroux, whose final scenes are borderline hilarious. And there’s the whole plot which — as with so many horror films — would basically not happen if the central couple just moved to a different house. I’m not necessarily saying I disliked all of these things. When, in early spring, I am stuck on the couch with some kind of respiratory situation and I flip past this playing on HBO in the early afternoon, I will totally turn back to it and watch it. I will tell myself it’s because of how awesome Emily Blunt is. And while that will be, like, 70 percent of the reason I watch this again, part of it will be because it’s just silly fun.
Can you enjoy an artisanal sausage served on a plate full of movie theater hot dogs? Will a perfectly seared ahi tuna be taken as seriously if it is surrounded by Doritos? Check back at awards time, I guess. Until then, feel comfortable checking out a bit of junk food suspense because it comes with a healthy helping of serious acting.
Grade: B-
Pop: Race of the Pumpkins
FEATURED POP
Race of the Pumpkins
Gofftstown Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off & Regatta Returns
Written by Matt Ingersoll (listings@hippopress.com)
Images: Courtesy Photo
It was the year 2000 when Jim Beauchemin of the New Hampshire Giant Pumpkin Growers Association reached out to the Goffstown Main Street Program with a fun way to use the last of the pumpkins they’d grown that season.
“I had this idea that we’d convert them into boats and race them down the [Piscataquog] river,” Beauchemin said with a laugh.
The Main Street Program ran with the idea, and now every October, during the weekend after Columbus Day, the Goffstown Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off and Regatta takes place, featuring a talent show, a pumpkin bake-off, kids’ slingshot competitions and more. It has become the signature annual event of the Main Street Program, and this year’s festivities will be held on Saturday, Oct. 15, and Sunday, Oct. 16.
“The town had actually been looking to create an event to make Goffstown an attraction,” Beauchemin said. “They loved the idea, and it’s been growing every year.” Kicking off the event on Saturday in downtown Goffstown will be several kids’ games, including a slingshot competition using apples, Beauchemin said.
“There will be moving targets in the Piscataquog River and kids will line up on the guardrail and compete to hit the targets,” he said.
A pumpkin-themed bake-off will also take place, as well as a chicken barbecue, and several local food vendors will be selling fair foods like fried dough and cotton candy. Don’t miss the weigh-off at 11 a.m., when dozens of pumpkins will be entered to win a prize for the heaviest.
At 2 p.m. on Saturday, the pumpkin boat building will begin.
“Everybody always comes to see that,” Beauchemin said. “Myself and usually two to three designated boat builders do the carving and cutting them open for the contestants. … There are usually 10 pumpkins that get made into boats.”
Each pumpkin boat is represented by a sponsor and three of them are routinely given away — one to the Goffstown Police Department, one to the Fire Department and one to the Board of Selectmen. A member of the Goffstown Main Street Program also takes the helm of one of the pumpkin boats. Beauchemin said local nonprofits and businesses are normally given their own boats as sponsors.
“We call [the boat riders] the captains, and they do their own decorating on Saturday,” Beauchemin said. “They bring all of their own decorations and we have a trophy that goes to the best-decorated pumpkin called the Jim Beauchemin Award. … That will get presented on Sunday, but the winner will be determined by the end of the day on Saturday.”
The pumpkin boats will then be guarded in a protected area overnight Saturday before being brought out early Sunday morning for a test run at 7:30 a.m.
“There’s a lot of planning that goes into it … The giant pumpkins are buoyant, and so a 1,000-pound fishing bob in the water needs to be balanced,” Beauchemin said. “We put sand inside the pumpkin so it settles down inside the water like a ship. Sometimes we have to put 200 pounds of sand into the boat to make it balance in the water.”
He said that as a rule, pumpkins need to already weigh at least 700 pounds in order to be suitable as boats.
Beginning Sunday at 8:30 a.m. will be the second annual Goffstown Pumpkin Regatta 10K Run, along with the Kids Pumpkin Dash at 10:15 a.m.
Beauchemin said an annual favorite with the kids is the Giant Pumpkin Drop, happening Sunday at noon. A crane will lift a 1,000-pound pumpkin up to 80 feet in the air before dropping it into the town pool.
“It shatters into a thousand pieces, and the kids just go crazy picking up the seeds and the chunks of pumpkin,” he said. “We have a countdown and everything — they just can’t wait.”
Also happening Sunday afternoon will be the 50/50 mini pumpkin race at 2 p.m., in which people can pay $5 to claim one of 600 tiny pumpkins that will be numbered and sent into the Piscataquog River. The owner of the pumpkin that crosses over the dam first wins half the proceeds in cash.
The regatta will then kick off at about 3 p.m. Beauchemin said the race goes by quickly, taking only about 5 to 7 minutes. The winner will receive a traveling trophy,
“[The race] goes down a wide section of river, so it’s pretty calm, not what you might think of as swift-moving water,” he said. “It spans right over the center of Goffstown, so thousands of people will line the riverbanks. … We have a launch site on the dam, so the race is actually upriver and it goes about 300 yards.”
Several other features are planned for both days, including wagon racing, pony rides, hot air balloon rides, a pie-eating contest and more.
All of the proceeds will benefit the Goffstown Main Street program.
Goffstown Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off & Regatta
When: Saturday, Oct. 15, and Sunday, Oct. 16 (weigh-off is Saturday at 11 a.m.; regatta is Sunday at 3 p.m.)
Where: Downtown Goffstown and the Piscataquog River
Cost: Free admission. Registration for the 10K will be $30 in advance and $35 on the day of for adults, $25 in advance and $30 on the day of for youths ages 17 and under, and free for the Kids Pumpkin Dash, which is open for kids ages 11 and under. Other activities may require a small fee.
Visit: goffstownmainstreet.org
MORE HEADLINES
Ride of the Undead
Ride of the Undead
Zombie Bike Ride invades Nashua
Written by Matt Ingersoll (listings@hippopress.com)
Photo: Freas Photography
Drawing inspiration from the nationally recognized event held every year in Key West, Florida, the first annual Nashua Zombie Bike Ride will roll through downtown, adding its own New Hampshire flavor.
Beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15, you can grab your bicycle and head over to the parking lot of the Old District Courthouse on Walnut Street in Nashua to get made up like a zombie, courtesy of Fright Kingdom, for a $5 to $10 fee. A $10 admission ticket per zombie — or $40 for a team of five zombies — will get you a commemorative bracelet to participate in the bike ride, which will be set up as a leisurely parade across town.
“I had actually been down in Key West and didn’t even know [the Zombie Bike Ride] was happening down there until I saw it,” said Tracy Hatch, president and CEO of the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce, which organized the event. “But once I found out, I went to a local CVS and got Halloween masks and toilet paper to dress up.”
Hatch said the Oct. 15 date was chosen specifically to coincide with Nashua’s 12th annual ArtWalk, also happening this weekend, along with the city’s first Food Truck Festival, both of which will be incorporated into the zombie event.
Several fun features are planned at the “staging area” in the courthouse’s parking lot before the ride kicks off.
Riders are welcome to come already dressed up as zombies, Hatch said, and even those who don’t have bicycles are welcome to join in on the fun as parade marchers. There will be three or four categories for the Best Zombie Costume Contest.
The ride will kick off at about 4 p.m. with Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess leading the way as the “Chief Zombie,” along with members of Fright Kingdom with a Cadillac hearse.
The nearly 2-mile route will head up Walnut Street and through the Nashua Heritage Rail Trail before passing City Hall, where Hatch said there will be a photo opportunity. The ride will then traverse down parts of Main, Temple, East Pearl and Spring streets. It will stop again at the parking lot at 30 Temple St.
“Then we’ll have members from Positive Street Art [in Nashua] come who are going to teach the zombies how to do the ‘Thriller’ dance, as well as a brief 5- to 10-minute performance by the Actorsingers,” Hatch said. “We’ll have a flash mob ‘Thriller’ dance of cyclists and zombies.”
That stopping point is also where the first annual Nashua Food Truck Festival, a sister event of the Chamber, will be taking place. (The first 25 zombies to check in at the staging area will receive a bracelet admitting them to the Food Truck Festival.) Dozens of local food and drink vendors will be showcasing their offerings at the festival, and there will be a DJ and live art demonstrations.
“People can either choose to stay and partake in the Food Truck Festival or head back to the courthouse to step off their bikes,” Hatch said.
Hatch said the whole ride is expected to take about an hour, with festivities winding down between 5 and 5:30 p.m. All of the sections of road during the ride will be closed off to traffic.
Registration is available on Facebook but will also be available on the day of at the staging area.
“It’s all about having fun,” Hatch said, “and we’re hoping it adds to the other downtown festivities for the weekend.”
Nashua Zombie Bike Ride
When: Saturday, Oct. 15, 2 p.m.
Where: Begins and ends at the old District Courthouse, 25 Walnut St., Nashua (Ride travels through Nashua Heritage Rail Trail from Walnut to Main Street, then down Main, Temple, East Pearl and Spring streets)
Cost: $10 admission per person; $40 per team of five; free for kids ages 12 and under ($5 to $10 fee for being made up as a zombie by Fright Kingdom)
Take Your Pick
Take Your Pick
Where to Go for Pick-Your-Own Apples & Pumpkins
Written by Angie Sykeny (asykeny@hippopress.com)
Photos: Courtesy Photo
If you’re looking for a fun way to get outside and make the most of this harvest season, consider taking a trip to one of these local farms where you can pick your own apples and pumpkins. Many farms will have their orchards and patches open until Halloween — or until there’s nothing left to pick, so farmers recommend getting there sooner rather than later if you don’t want to miss out. Always confirm pick-your-own availability by calling the farm or checking the farm’s website for updates. Know of another place to pick your own apples and pumpkins that isn’t listed here? Let us know by sending an email to food@hippopress.com.
• Apple Hill Farm (580 Mountain Road, Concord, 224-8862, applehillfarmnh.com) PYO apples through October as they last. Pricing ranges from $8 to $25, depending on the size of the bag. Picking hours are daily, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
• Brookdale Fruit Farm (41 Broad St., Hollis, 465-2240, brookdalefruitfarm.com) PYO apples through October. Pricing is $28 for a half bushel or $1.50 per pound. Picking hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Currier Orchards (9 Peaslee Road, Merrimack, 881-8864, facebook.com/CurrierOrchards) PYO apples and pumpkins through October as they last. Pricing is $1 per pound for apples, 50 cents per pound for carving pumpkins and 75 cents per pound for sugar pumpkins. Picking hours are daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Hackleboro Orchards 61 Orchard Road, Canterbury, 783-4248, facebook.com/hackleboro.orchards) PYO apples through October. Prices from $3 to $19, depending on the size of the bag. Picking hours are daily, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Hazelton Orchards (20 Harantis Lake Road, Chester, 493-4804, hazeltonorchards.com) PYO apples and pumpkins through October. Call for cost details. Picking hours are daily, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• J & F Farms (120 Chester Road, Derry, 437-0535, facebook.com/JFFarms) PYO pumpkins through October. Pricing is 59 cents per pound. Picking hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Mack’s Apples (230 Mammoth Road, Londonderry, 434-7619, macksapples.com) PYO apples and pumpkins through Oct. 16. Pricing for apples is $12 for a peck, $20 for a half bushel and $25 for a bushel; for pumpkins, it’s 50 cents per pound. Picking hours are daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• McLeod Bros. Orchards (75 N. River Road, Milford, 673-3544, mcleodorchards.com) PYO apples through late October. Call for pricing details. Picking hours are Monday through Friday, 1 to 5:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
• McQuesten Farm (330 Charles Bancroft Hwy., Litchfield, 424-9268, facebook.com/McQuesten.Farm) PYO pumpkins through October. Pricing is 44 cents per pound for carving pumpkins and $2 each for sugar pumpkins. Picking hours are Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and PYO includes a free hayride to the pumpkin patch.
• Meadow Ledge Farm (612 Route 129, Loudon, 798-5860, meadowledgefarm.com) PYO apples through October. Pricing is $1.45 per pound. Picking hours are daily, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Rossview Farm (85 District #5 Road, Concord, 228-4872, rossviewfarm.com) PYO pumpkins through October. Pricing is 50 cents per pound for carving pumpkins and white pumpkins, and 65 cents per pound for pie pumpkins, cheddar pumpkins and butternut squash. Picking hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Scooter’s Farm of Woodmont (223 Silver Lake Road, Hollis, 866-441-1854, scootersofwoodmont.com) PYO apples through Oct. 15. Pricing is $10 for a bag, $20 for three, $30 for four, $40 for six and $50 for all you can pick. Picking hours are daily, dawn to dusk.
• Sullivan Farm (70 Coburn Avenue, Nashua, 595-4560, sullivanfarmnh.com) PYO apples through October as they last. Pricing is $1 per pound. Picking hours are daily, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Street Eats
Street Eats
Nashua Gets its Own Food Truck Festival
Written by Angie Sykeny (asykeny@hippopress.com)
Photos: Stock Photo
Nashua is celebrating the food truck trend for the first time this year with a festival dedicated to food on wheels. The first annual Nashua Food Truck Festival is happening Saturday, Oct. 15, in the upper parking lot of R.J. Finlay & Co. on Temple Street.
“There [have] been a few conversations in previous years about doing something like this, but it never came to fruition,” said Michael Aquino, chairman for the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce Young Professional group, also known as iUGO Nashua, which is organizing the event. “So we decided to take it on and get something off the ground and see how much interest there was, and there’s been a lot of interest.”
There will be six food trucks featured at the festival, selling a variety of fare like poutine, barbecue, tacos, Jamaican cuisine, coffee and tea, vegan soups and more. Five of the trucks are coming from the New Hampshire seacoast area, and one is coming from Maine. There aren’t many food trucks currently based in the greater Nashua area, but Aquino said he’s hoping the festival will change that.
“We have a decent restaurant scene in downtown, and we aren’t as big as other cities, so there’s not many [food trucks] that travel around here day to day trying to sell food,” he said, “but I think we’re going to start to see it more. I know some local people looking to get into the food truck scene, and hopefully [the festival] paves the way for more of that kind of thing around here.”
Aquino said the response so far has been overwhelming; tickets to access the festival before it opens to the general public — 400 were available — have already sold out, and there’s been interest from more food trucks than the festival space can accommodate. iUGO is already looking into larger venues and additional vendors for next year’s festival.
As to the reason behind the growing popularity of food truck festivals, Aquino has a theory.
“A lot of these trucks specialize in what they serve, and I think people are attracted to that specialty food experience,” he said. “In any community, all you have are the same restaurants, so what better way to try a bunch of new things you don’t have access to throughout the year?”
Participating Food Trucks
- Boogalows Island BBQ (Jamaican cuisine)
- Hot Potato Food Truck (fries, poutine, barbecue smoked meat, chicken wings)
- The Kitchen Restaurant Group (tacos)
- The Soup Guy (gluten-free and vegan soups and chili)
- Todd’s Street Side Grille (wraps, burgers, french fries, etc.)
- Vagabond Coffee Car (coffee, teas, fresh-pressed juices)
1st Annual Nashua Food Truck Festival
When: Saturday, Oct. 15, open to the general public from 5 to 6 p.m.
Where: Upper parking lot of R.J. Finlay & Co., 30 Temple St., Nashua
Cost: Tickets to access the festival before the general public are sold out, but admission for the general public after 5 p.m. is free.
Visit: iugonashua.com
Speakeasy Spirit
Speakeasy Spirit
Rye Whiskey Released at Roarings 20's Party
Written by Angie Sykeny (asykeny@hippopress.com)
Photos: Courtesy Photo
After nearly three years of aging in barrels, Flag Hill’s much-anticipated batch of straight rye whiskey is making its debut — speakeasy style.
You can be among the first to taste the new spirit at the distillery’s Roaring ’20s Whiskey Release Party on Friday, Oct. 21, in Lee.
“We’re so excited about this rye whiskey,” Flag Hill event coordinator Christa Phaneuf said. “It’s something that had to sit and mature for years after we made it, so we’re pumped to finally be able to release it to the public.”
The whiskey, comprised of 85 percent rye and 15 percent malt, is one of the first of its kind released in the state, despite this region being specially habitable for rye. Flag Hill owner and distiller Brian Ferguson, whose background is primarily in making bourbon, said he wanted to create a different kind of spirit that represented New England and captured a more traditional style of rye whiskey.
“It’s something this region is particularly good for. … New England has a unique climate for aging spirits, and where you age a spirit matters because it picks up different flavor profiles,” he said. “We kept those grassy, hay, honey characters that come with a good rye whiskey, so it’s more similar to how they used to make it.”
The party will feature a costume contest for the guests with the best ’20s attire, live music, swing dancing and a bartender cocktail challenge, where local bartenders will compete using the straight rye whiskey to create unique mixed drinks.
“When you put rye whiskey in front of a bartender, they want to play and have fun with it,” Phaneuf said. “There’s so many cool flavors you can do with it to create a really fun cocktail.”
Party guests can participate in the first toast with the whiskey before a dinner prepared by Chef James Costello is served. The first course will include starters like fall soup shooters (corn chowder with crumbled bacon, tomato soup finished with fried mozzarella, and pumpkin bisque with toasted pumpkin seeds), “Buckets o’ Gluten” (brioche rolls, cornbread and sourdough boule paired with sweet and savory compound butters), ahi tuna tartare (sushi-grade tuna served with wakame salad, green onion and a crispy wonton) and black and blue hash (slow-roasted brisket, caramelized red onions and Brussels sprout hash with gorgonzola cheese sauce, crushed red pepper and lemon zest).
Then there will be a caprese salad, followed by the main course dishes, beef Wellington (sirloin, wild mushroom duxelle and peppercorn demi glaze) and pork roulade (apple and cornbread stuffed pork loin with maple brandy cream sauce), with two side options: sugar maple sweet potato mash and sauteed broccoli with garlic and sun-dried tomatoes. Dessert will be spiced rum apple crisp and creme brulee bites.
For this year, the whiskey will be available primarily through the Flag Hill tasting room while it lasts, but there is enough currently aging to double the production for next year so that it can be more widely distributed.
Ferguson said there’s been a lot of buzz about the new whiskey and he expects it to be very popular.
“Whiskey used to be thought of as an old man drink, but that’s completely shifted in the last 10 years or so. Now, who drinks it and how they drink it is across the board,” he said.
“For people who like to drink different things, new whiskey is something they’re always looking for and excited about.”
Weekly Review: Mythologie & More
Weekly Review: Mythologie & More
Written by Eric Saeger (news@hippopress.com)
Photos: Album Art
Delerium, Mythologie (Metropolis Records)
For decades now, since incorporating this Front Line Assembly side project, Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber have pushed the limits of sexiness in house-techno. Working with opera singers and pop idols like Sarah McLachlan, they build aural equivalents of the Venus de Milo, transcending the sugar-coated house-moll space to explore a Shangri-La of female-sung techno beauty that really has no equal. DJs like Tiesto and Above & Beyond would agree, having remixed a few Delerium tunes, and the line to remix some of this album’s songs is already filling up, with guys like Matt Lange, Alex Klingle and Blush having already taken a shot at “Ritual,” the original form of which is next-gen in intent, featuring the mononymed Phildel draping her soprano over swirling, trap-propelled synth lines. Opener “Blue Fires” is a similar animal but with a rainier feel; “Zero” takes a more snap-dance approach; “Keep on Dreaming” flirts with a tribal-electro steez. Stunning, top-drawer stuff as always.
Grade: A+
Holy Sons, In the Garden (Partisan Records)
Portlandian songwriter-drummer Emil Amos, the only person in this project, is a bit of an enigma, an ex-druggie who barely does any shows but, more to the point, has a habit of changing his entire vocal technique album to album, having had a Neil Young-soundalike period and so on. He’s also contributed multi-instrumentalist duties on records from Grails and Om, if that matters to you, but one of the other things in play here is his songwriting prolificness, which, as I’ve stated before somewhere, can tend to spell mediocrity, especially if you subscribe to the theory that many of the songs written by “prolific songwriters” should just have been combined in the first place. That said, this is a dreamy little slice of lo-fi indie-pop steeped in a 1970s-radio fetish — for example, opening track “Robbed and Gifted”’s sideways resemblance to Gerry Rafferty’s “Right Down the Line.” Amos’s voice tends to stay low and po-faced here, stopping to yodel a bit in the mud-caked Ryan Adams-ish “Denmark.” Despite the “lo-fi” tag, though, all the songs display obvious care, which is an awesome thing to behold when it’s done this well.
Grade: A
The Voice
The Voice
Aaron Neville Plays Intimate Area Show
Written by Michael Witthaus (music@hippopress.com)
Photos: Courtesy Photo
When Aaron Neville steps on stage Saturday night in Plymouth, the show will be all about his voice — the tremulous falsetto that’s propelled hits from “Tell It Like It Is” to “Don’t Take Away My Heaven,” and the voice of Neville the storyteller. Accompanied by piano player Michael Goods, the singer promises a free-ranging, often impromptu performance.
“It’s like a musical journey of where I come from,” Neville said in a recent phone interview. “People don’t want us to leave because it’s like I’m in my living room, and I’m just treating them to stuff that’s real ... a little bit of everything, and stories about my life."
One topic likely to come up is Neville’s hitmaking collaboration with Linda Ronstadt in the late 1980s and early ’90s. The two connected in Neville’s hometown in 1984.
“She was in New Orleans with Nelson Riddle … and she came to see me and my brothers at Pete Fountain’s club,” Neville said. “Someone told me she was in the audience; I dedicated a song to her and then called her up on stage.”
A year later, they sang “Ave Maria” together at a benefit show. “She said we should get together and record, right then and there,” Neville said. “We made ‘Don’t Know Much,’ and I said, ‘I’ll see you at the Grammys.’ I know that was saying a lot, but it was a great record. "She would tell people our voices were married, like we sang together in another lifetime.”
Stricken with Parkinson’s disease in recent years, Ronstadt no longer sings, but Neville reports that the two speak often. “I always remind her she was one of the greatest, and that I’m so grateful she and I were on the planet at the same time and we had a chance to sing together,” he said.
Ronstadt also served as Neville’s producer on 1991’s Warm Your Heart. “She did a great job — that’s one of my favorites,” he said.
Like most of his albums, the songs were curated for him; Neville’s reputation is as an interpreter, from his earliest hit “Tell It Like It Is” to his last Top 40 song, 2006’s “It’s All
Right.” On his latest album, Apache, for the first time he’s both singer and songwriter; nine of 10 tracks on Apache are Neville originals.
“I write poetry and I write rhythms,” he said. “Anytime I write, at the same time I’m thinking about rhythm.” Thousands of these poems are stored on Neville’s iPhone, and when he connected with Soulive guitarist and in-demand producer Eric Krasno, he found a way for them to become songs.
“He read my mind and arranged the music just the way I wanted it,” Neville said. David Getter of Widespread Panic also contributed to a funky stew of New Orleans rhythms, deep funk and heartfelt soul. The centerpiece is “Stomping Grounds,” a song that almost was the album’s title. It’s a travelogue of Neville’s hometown and influences, name-checking a panopoly of artists who with Neville helped define what Jackson Browne called “the city that gave us the first American music.” Writing the song was almost effortless, even for a man who lets the muse find him before he begins.
“It was so easy, “ Neville said. “When I write I can’t sit down and plan. It has to come to me, I have to be inspired, [but] it was like somebody was telling me what to write about.”
Closing out the album is “Fragile World,” a plaintive spoken-word track with a groove reminiscent of “Hercules,” an early hit written by Allen Toussaint. The song catalogs the pains of the planet, from natural disasters to unnatural horrors like suicide bombers.
“At least animals kill for food, man kills in his neighborhood,” he says, while referencing Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy Mercy Me” and “What’s Going On.” Krasno and Getter set it to music. “That was something that started as rhymes coming from my heart,” Neville said. “This is the real deal, this is what we’re going to, and I wanted to lay it out. You can’t get out of the way, people killing themselves to kill other people.”
See Aaron Neville
When: Saturday, Oct. 15, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Flying Monkey Movie House & Performance Center, 39 Main St., Plymouth
Tickets: $55 and up at flyingmonkeynh.com
Across The Pond
Across The Pond
UK Based Folk Singer Plays New Hampshire
Written by Michael Whitthaus (mwitthaus@hippopress.com)
Photos: Courtesy Photo
Sarah McQuaid jumped into the music business in 1997, recording a disc of traditional Irish songs, then got out almost as quickly. After raising a family and growing weary of her day job, she got back in 10 years later. Encouraged by her experience leading a guitar workshop, McQuaid made a rootsy return album. To put it mildly, the landscape had changed, the era of big record deals giving way to iTunes. Though fraught with challenges, the shift suited McQuaid fine.
Many artist she knew likened getting signed to indentured servitude.
"They thought they were onto a brilliant thing, then either got dropped after one successful record, or stuck in development," she said in a recent interview. "It's a long hard climb, but I'm making a profit [and] that's better than scrambling to be the goose that lays the golden egg. At a grassroots level, there's always hope; all it takes is one nice break."
Her luck seemed to improve with the release last year of Walking Into White, a disc resplendent with insightful lyricism, driven by McQuaid's uniquely tuned guitar-playing and a singing voice that's a measure of Beth Orton brushed with Judy Collins.
A chance meeting with photographer Phil Nicholis led to McQuaid's visage appearing alongside those of Amy Winehouse, Joe Strummer and Lemmy Kilmister in Nicholis's Legends of Rock exhibition, and a world-class CD booklet. The stars seemed aligned, as the album made many Top 10 folk lists and a gushy Huffington Post story. Live shows were a different story, though, as she struggled to fill seats. A year in, the record is moving beyond the ripples of critics’ raves, and McQuaid's current tour hints at a turning point.
"It feels like it’s finally percolated through a little bit," she said. "I've had a couple of sold-out shows, and I'm seeing better turnouts at concerts. ... That's really heartening."
Of course, this isn't Beyonce success — McQuaid's gentle sound is a farm-to-table serving to the musical gourmand, and her biggest crowd might top 100 in an opera house. But speaking prior to a house concert in Colorado, she was excited the show had a waiting list.
"I don't think I had anything like that last year," she said, "but it's still not quite at the point that I want it to be."
McQuaid performs Friday, Oct. 21, at Red & Shorty's, a guitar-festooned listening room in Dover that's a favorite haunt for visiting folkies. It will be her second visit. The show caps a week-long New England swing and a coast-to-coast tour that began early September in Texas. Following a final show in Woods Hole, Mass., on Oct. 23, she'll do a month of shows around her current home base in western England, then settle into building a follow-up to Walking Into White. McQuaid hinted that potential studio players may turn it into a dream project.
"I have a musician that I don't want to yet name because we're not making it until next May," she said. "I don't want to jinx it by saying too much, but I have been a longtime hero worshiper of this musician."
Apart from a smattering of gigs, next year will be about recording. "We decided it would be good to take a year off of touring so I could really focus," McQuaid said.
She's already writing material, including an instrumental piece written for a friend's wedding. Her preference is for writing more than she needs and paring it down, a process that served her well on the last album. "I felt like I wound up with an album where all the songs fitted and flowed together very nicely," she said. "So I would like to do that again."
McQuaid reports that her muse took a strange turn of late.
"Without sounding too morbid, death has been running through, but in a good way," she said with a chuckle. "Death and decomposition, thinking about how all of those words relate to music as well [as] how notes decay is all whirling around in my head."
Teaching and writing books on guitar-playing helps McQuid continue as a musician.
"I don't make enough to pay taxes yet, but I am making a tiny profit," she said. "At the end of the day, I just have to keep making the best music I can possibly make
and giving the strongest performances I'm capable of. ... If I stay at the level I'm at, it's OK, I will have had a career. But it would be nice to break through to a slightly further level."
See Sarah McQuaid
When: Friday, Oct. 21, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Red & Shorty’s, 4 Paul St., Dover
Tickets: $20 at elysiumarts.com/folkclub