Gravel Driveway Repair in Kensington, NH

KENSINGTON - Alnoba, a unique destination for art and nature lovers, has opened its ticketing for 2022 events

Long a hidden gem of the Seacoast, the secret of Alnoba has started to come out — that hidden in the forests of Kensington is a 600-acre oasis of natural beauty dotted with sculptures by some of the most renowned artists working today.

The Alnoba property is closed to the public, as the property is a working leadership development center and meeting space, but those hoping to experience its artistic treasures can do so through Alnoba’s scheduled tours and events.

The 2022 events season kicked off officially on Feb.1, and features a full slate of art tours, nature walks, meditation walks and yoga classes throughout the year. And just as in 2021, every penny of the proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to support Sawyer Park, a cherished public recreation area in Kensington.

“Last year, we donated over $30,000 to the park thanks to our guests,” said Sandra Fogwell, who manages Alnoba’s programming. “We’re hoping to double that in 2022.”

Alnoba’s guided outdoor art tours offer visitors an opportunity to touch and explore pieces by internationally famed artists such as Andy Goldsworthy, Pablo Atchugarry and Jaume Plensa. Run your fingers over the lobster rope coils of Orly Genger’s "Going Going Gone" or get lost in the willow-branch maze of Patrick Dougherty’s "Wildwood."

A special series of tours led by New Hampshire sculptor Joseph Gray, also kicking off in February, will grant visitors the opportunity to hear about Alnoba's art firsthand from one of the artists who helped to create it. Gray has more pieces scattered across Alnoba’s landscape than any other artist, and peppers his tours with insights and anecdotes that illuminate his creative process.

Those looking to mix their art with an exploration of Alnoba's beautiful landscape can book one of the Outdoor & Unplugged nature walks, while others seeking a more contemplative and introspective experience will love the Contemplative Meditation Walks, guided by Manny Muros, author of "The Mind Overlay."

In addition to its regular event series, Alnoba also plays host to unique special events around both leadership and the arts.

This year will see Manchester-based dance troupe Ballet Misha return to Alnoba on Friday, May 13, this time for an evening event inside Alnoba's AIA NH award-winning building. Improvisational ballet will meld with independent film and an exploration of Alnoba's indoor art in this special collaborative experience.

Earlier in the season, Alnoba will host a set of intimate writing workshops with bestseller author Adrea Peters, aimed at both aspiring writers and those looking to improve their personal storytelling.

"Alnoba is a very special place that invites all of us to forge a deeper connection with the natural world. We were founded to support and inspire the daring nonprofit leaders taking on the biggest fights for a better world, but are excited to create these opportunities for others across the region to experience this unique and introspective hidden gem on the Seacoast," said Fogwell.

Those interested in seeing a full schedule of Alnoba’s upcoming events can browse and book tickets at Alnoba.org/Events.

KENSINGTON — Karen Parker Feld of the Crows' Feat Community Farm admits that some vegetables are a hard sell, but adds that it depends on how they're cooked.

"We'll have people coming to the Farmers’ Table dinners and they'll tell me, 'I don't like beets.' Then they leave the tent saying, 'Those beets were delicious!'" she said.

Feld, her husband Peter Freeman, and a corps of young farmers are looking at agriculture in a new but old way at their cooperative farm in Kensington. The farm offers a farm stand, a Farm Share program, Farmers' Table dinners and summer concerts.

On a warm afternoon, Feld, Elizabeth Haskett, who also doubles as a chef, and Sean Merryman, who manages the produce operation, took a break from farm chores to sit on the patio of Feld's 1744 house and chat about the passions that drive them.

Feld has a background in institutional investment, commuting to Boston for several years and then starting her own business in her Kensington barn. But the call of the land was too strong, and last year she realized, "I need to start a farm."

Feld and her husband had been growing produce for about four years and wanted to share food that was healthy and affordable. They gave 90 percent of their 2020 crop to the St. Vincent De Paul Food Pantry in Exeter, and at the end of the season, "My heart was breaking," Feld recalled. "I wanted to do more."

She was 57 at the time, Freeman 62, and they knew they couldn't do it alone.

She looked at expanding the farm like an investment portfolio, Feld explained, and the cooperative was born.

"We needed a variety of different farm activities,” she said. “If one area has a bad year, the other elements can bail them out. And we can all learn from each other."

Cultivating a community together

Feld found most of her farmers for the cooperative through a website, the New England Farmers Finder.

Each member is covered by the Crows' Feat "umbrella," Feld added, but they also run their own business. But they benefit from cooperative marketing, bulk buying, and the simple fact of not being alone, according to Feld.

Some of their "specialties" also overlap, so members can take an occasional vacation and have their work covered, she said.

Though the members have different specialties, they all came to Kensington with similar goals: to practice sustainable and regenerative agriculture. Feld explained, "We want to nurture the earth, increase its fertility, nurture our farmers."

Haskett said, "We try not to bring any input from outside."

Haskett manages the livestock and said that the animals eat food grown on Crows' Feat Farm, and their manure is turned into compost which in turn enriches the flower and vegetable beds for the following year.

"It's a closed-loop ecosystem," Haskett said.

They also avoid tilling the soil, Merryman added. "In regenerative agriculture, we leave the soil alone as much as possible. The soil tends to regenerate itself."

"Healthy soil," Haskett said, "is where it starts."

Feld is a student of permaculture, or "permanent agriculture," the concept that the soil is its own ecosystem. "You need to think about what you can give to it, not what you can get from it," she said.

Farm stand, dinners and concerts

The farm now has a farm stand, open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and a Farm Share program similar to a Community Supported Agriculture.

Merryman was hesitant to start a program his first year, but Linh Aven, a biologist and chef exploring the culinary possibilities of edible perennials at the farm, convinced him to "start small" and he did.

The Farm Share has a basic enrollment costing $200, with the week's choice of produce, and add-ons such as eggs, goat cheese and fresh flowers for an extra charge.

The farm also hosts Farmers' Table dinners, conceived and cooked by Haskett and Aven. The events draw 25 to 30 people per meal for an al fresco five-course dinner and a chance to chat with the farmers. The dinner began as a birthday party for Feld's daughter Lisa.

"That was my dream, farm-to-table dinners," Haskett said. The first one was held in conjunction with one of the community concerts, and it just grew. "Lisa's birthday ended up having very little to do with it," Feld recalled.

"She did get a cake," Haskett said with a smile.

The concerts at the farm grew out of a vacation planned by Feld and Freeman, thrown off the track by the COVID-19 pandemic. They decided instead to use the money to fund concerts with local musicians. This summer they offered two types of concerts: "lawn concerts" performed from the tent on the field and accommodating up to 150 people, and smaller "patio concerts" catering to 40 people. The farm absorbs the cost of putting on the concerts, and any donations go directly to the musicians.

Feld explained the name of the enterprise this way: "It's a feat to have accomplished this - and I've always liked crows."

The Crows' Feat team forages for food already on the property, and they had a recent success with cherries harvested from a couple of black cherry trees. Feld dreamily recalled a black cherry meringue tart Aven whipped up for them.

"It was insane," Merryman said.

Crows' Feat Farm is located at 178 and 180 Drinkwater Road, Kensington. The Farm Stand is open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. To sign up for the Farm Share, e-mail karen@crowsfeatfarm.org. To register for a Farmers' Table dinner, e-mail elizabeth@crowsfeatfarm.org. The Aug. 28 and Sept. 18 dinners are sold out, but at press time there was room in the Sept. 11 and Sept. 25 sessions.

EXETER — Joe Pace created Isaiah Moss, one of the protagonists in his literary fiction “Moss,” way before the novel’s storyline. He didn’t create Isaiah for a story, but rather, a story around Isaiah.

“The original stuff was probably more than five years old,” he said, referring to the character sketch of Isaiah Moss. “I wanted to write about a Salinger-Hemingway-type figure in there… being like a grump and pushing back modernity in all its ways and then the more I did, it felt just very flat. It felt like I was telling a linear kind of story.”

Published in 2021, “Moss” was recently named winner of the 2023 NH Literary Awards, receiving top honors in the fiction category. The novel, which was Pace’s first work of literary fiction, also received a gold star from the Military Writers Society of America this past September.

After letting the character Isaiah Moss “marinate” in his drawer for five years, Pace began developing a storyline for the character, working out of his then-lake home in New Durham and getting inspiration from his surroundings.

“During the pandemic of all time, it was the summer of 2021,” he recalled when he first started working on the novel. “I just sat down and in about the span of three months the book came together.”

“Moss” tells the story of Oscar Kendall, the illegitimate son of Isaiah Moss, one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.

When his father dies, Oscar inherits his lakefront writing cabin in New Hampshire, where he finds his father's typewriter, a full liquor cabinet, and an “unpublished manuscript of such genius that it could launch Oscar's career if he claims it as his own.”

As Oscar wrestles with what to do, he meets the women in Isaiah's life and begins to learn the depths of his father's secrets and the costs that come with unresolved trauma and romantic delusion.

“Moss” is Pace’s third novel, but first in the literary fiction genre. The previous two, “Lost Harvest” in 2015 and “Minotaur” in 2012 were both science fiction novels. Inspired by his favorite writer, John Irving, Pace said he’d always wanted to write in the literary genre.

“A buddy of mine that I write with said, ‘You know the best parts of your science fiction isn’t your science fiction. It’s your character… you should actually try your hand at literary or contemporary fiction,’” he recalled. “Once I started down that road, I felt like I found my stride and my voice as a writer.”

Joe Pace on writing ‘Moss’

In a previous interview with Seacoastonline, Pace clarified that “Moss” wasn’t an autobiography, saying that he “had a good father” and “have good sons,” contrary to the storyline of the novel. However, he said most of his characters are “quasi-autobiographical.”

“Half my characters, half the (things) that happened to them is that I take me and turn them 33 degrees and there it is,” he said.

“Moss” features two leading male characters, Isaiah Moss and Oscar Kendall, and several leading female characters. Pace said having the latter was a challenge he put upon himself.

“As a writer, it felt like I was at a time in my own career that I needed to explore female perspectives,” he said. “I’m doing it through a male gaze, through a male perspective, but that’s how I see the world too.”

When writing, Pace said that he would have to get into character, having a different mindset for each and even writing about them on different days. It’s like “shifting gears from first to fifth,” he said.

“I'm just like, ‘Okay, today is gonna be a day when Oscar is going to be his whiny, petulant, complaining self or today is the day I’m gonna drink half a bottle of bourbon, I’m gonna be this old guy who has something to say about (everything),’” he said.

From selectmen chair to award-winning novelist

Pace, who’s been writing since he was 3, grew up in Stratham and went through the SAU 16 school system. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1997 with a degree in political science, and Seattle University in 2017 with a master’s in public administration.

Before serving as chair of the Kensington Select Board, Pace was an Exeter selectman for nine years. He has experiences in banking, criminal justice research and teaching, but writing seems to be his calling, having “30 different projects” going on right now.

“Moss” was the first novel that Pace submitted for an award. He said a guy who was a former book reviewer from the Boston Globe told him to apply for “attention” and brand building. He said he did not expect to win the award for first place.

“When we were named the finalist, I was thrilled. I was like, ‘Oh, that’s very cool to be one of the three finalists in this category because it was with very legitimate books,’” he said. “When they opened the envelope the other night and we won, my wife will tell you, it's one of the very, very few times where I’ve been speechless.”