St. Thomas Canned Food Drive Nets More Than 17,000 Cans

DOVER—
St. Thomas Aquinas High School of Dover recently held a canned food drive with a school goal of collecting 10,000 cans. To some, this was a lofty goal, but not for the community of St. Thomas. It was a challenge -- and not only did the community step up to the plate, they hit a grand slam.
The school met and exceeded all expectations, collecting more than 17,000 cans in just two weeks. 

Homerooms were challenged to bring in as many cans as possible, with the group bringing in the most cans winning a special breakfast and bragging rights. The fact that this effort helps thousands of people in need is, of course, the biggest reason that students support this program so whole-heartedly, but a little friendly competition certainly makes it more interesting.
The top homeroom averaged 81 cans per person. 

The cans and other non-perishable food items were transported via the cars and vans of parent volunteers to area food banks. Led by Theology teacher Mr. Randy Wolter, the majority of the cans were delivered by a group of student volunteers to Lazarus House Ministries in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The students got busy unloading, sorting, and organizing the food items in the Lazarus House food pantry. They also worked with the Lazarus House staff to help cook and serve a meal to those who visited the shelter.
“I am still overwhelmed by the support that Lazarus House Ministries received. The students, parents and staff of St. Thomas Aquinas High School once again reflected a potent example of one community helping another,” said Ken Campbell, Food Coordinator for Lazarus House Ministries.
Since 1983, Lazarus House Ministries has helped the poor and homeless by providing hot meals, temporary shelter, job training, child care, emergency food, clothing, outreach and advocacy.
Making a difference speaks to the heart of the mission of St. Thomas Aquinas High School. The school would like to recognize the remarkable efforts of its students, teachers and families who helped make the food drive such a tremendous success.
Photo caption: St. Thomas students Faith Schwoerer ‘11, Nathan Cook ‘11, O’Shane Morgan ’12, and Jocelyn Winter ‘12 help serve food at Lazarus House In Lawrence, MA. (Courtesy photo)

Winter Farmers’ Market Season Opens

ROLLINSFORD—
You’ll thank your local farmers for a delicious holiday meal! Just in time to set your Thanksgiving table with local food, 50+ farmers and food producers will be offering their own farm-grown food on November 20 from 10am-2pm at Seacoast Eat Local’s 4th annual Holiday Farmers’ Market indoors at the Wentworth Greenhouses in Rollinsford. Wentworth Greenhouses is located at 141 Rollins Road, a mile past Red’s Shoe Barn of Dover.
A holiday cornucopia of locally grown foods! Area farmers and food producers will be selling everything you need for your holiday table, from cheese, wine, and apple cider, to pie pumpkins, apples, and cream for dessert. Potatoes, carrots, winter squash, onions, beets, leeks, broccoli, parsnips, turnips, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and salad greens will be in abundance, ensuring plenty of wholesome vegetables on your holiday table. There will be eggs, honey, and maple syrup, alongside special finds like sweet potatoes, wheat flour and dried chili peppers.
Farms are taking pre-orders for turkeys (see website for details). A wide variety of beef, pork, poultry and seafood will also be for sale. Dinner rolls, pre-baked pies from locally grown fruit, bread for stuffing, and a host of other foods will round out your shopping and your meal. Area food producers have pledged to a high standard of localism this year and will be offering ready to eat meals, soups and stews, jams and jellies that all contain locally grown ingredients.
Purchasing locally grown food directly from area growers helps ensure our farms stay in business - keeping open space and good food growing in the seacoast. You can find a full list of participating vendors and the products they will be selling at www.seacoasteatlocal.org
As sweet as pie, your own homemade pumpkin pie! Folks who make their pumpkin pie from scratch – from pumpkins – swear by the flavor, quality, and texture of the finished product. It’s an easy and worthwhile step to roast or steam your pumpkin. These folks also develop firm allegiances to particular pumpkins. The three most popular pie pumpkins, Long Island Cheese, Maine Long Pie Pumpkin, and Sugar Pie will all be for sale at the Holiday Market on November 20 at the Wentworth Greenhouses in Rollinsford.
The Long Island Cheese pumpkin, an heirloom variety, has pale bronze skin and a squat ribbed shape, resembling a giant wheel of cheese. They are very sweet with smooth, dense flesh that isn’t stringy, making for an exceptionally creamy, delicious pie.
The Maine Long Pie Pumpkin, also an heirloom variety and featured in Slow Food’s Renewing America’s Food Traditions project, is picked green and then ripens to orange. Because of their long, tubular shape, they are very easy to peel and prepare. The flavor is intensely pumpkin, the flesh stringless, and pies made from it are swooned over!
The Sugar Pie is the classic pie pumpkin, shaped just like a small orange pumpkin. They are thin skinned, sweet, with bright orange, dry flesh, a desired quality for firmly set pies. These pumpkins are widely available.
To prepare whole pumpkins for pies, you first need to cook them. Pumpkins can be either baked or steamed. To bake, cut the pumpkin in half or pieces, remove the seeds, cover with foil and bake at 375 for 1 1/2 hours or until tender when poked with a knife. Allow to cool, then scoop out flesh. To steam, peel pumpkin and cut into chunks, set aside seeds for roasting. Place in a saucepan with 1-2” of water. Steam over high heat until tender, about 25 minutes. Drain, allow to cool, then mash with a potato masher. Your pumpkin is now ready for your favorite pie recipe!
Share the harvest. As in year’s past, each Seacoast Eat Local winter farmers’ market will feature an area food pantry collecting donations of food. You are encouraged to purchase fresh foods to donate; pantries are seeing a sharp increase in demand for their services and those in need are also eager to eat wholesome foods. Potatoes, carrots, onions, salad greens – any product available for sale at the market would make a welcome donation. Farmers generously donate hundreds of pounds of foods at each market and the combined efforts of shoppers and farmers makes a significant positive impact in our community.
For more information, including a complete schedule of area Winter Farmers’ Markets, visit www.seacoasteatlocal.org.

Photo caption: Hackleboro Orchard Apples (Courtesy photo)

Mystery Author Rosemary Herbert to Speak at Dover Public Library

DOVER—
The Dover Public Library is pleased to host a visit from award-winning mystery editor and new mystery novelist Rosemary Herbert on Monday evening, November 15 at 7pm in the Library’s Lecture Hall.
Herbert is an Edgar-nominated editor-in-chief of “The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing,” co-editor with the late Tony Hillerman of “A New Omnibus of Crime,” and also worked for ten years as the book reviewer for the Boston Herald. But from the age of nine, when she read Nancy Drew novels under the covers with a flashlight, Rosemary wanted to become a mystery writer. With the publication of “Front Page Teaser: A Liz Higgins Mystery” (Down East Books, 2010), she has finally made her dream come true.
Her experience in the newsroom as well as her career in academic and public libraries were used to great advantage to create Liz Higgins, a gutsy reporter for Boston’s scrappy tabloid newspaper, the Beantown Banner. Liz rails at being assigned only light and community news stories that, at best, receive front-page teasers leading to articles buried deep in the newspaper. When a devoted mom goes missing from Liz’s community news beat, the reporter vows to discover the truth about the disappearance and nail front-page news in the process.
In a reading and book talk leavened with humor and entitled “From Nancy Drew to Dream-Come-True,” Rosemary will tell readers why her first novel is a love song to the news-reporting life, as well as a tribute to librarians. She will also reveal how Boston’s lively Irish music scene was useful to her as a mystery writer, and discuss the roles of romance and the holidays in mystery fiction. Rosemary is currently hard at work on the 2nd Liz Higgins Mystery.
Mystery readers will surely enjoy this “behind-the-scenes” explanation of how a mystery novel is researched, and how story lines are developed and connected. This program is free and all are welcome. For more information, call the Dover Public Library at 516-6050.
Photo caption: Mystery author Rosemary Herbert will speak at Dover Public Library on November 15. (Courtesy photo)