Weekends with Yankee

NARRATOR: This week on Weekends With Yankee, Richard traverses the Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail, making stops at a glamping getaway, a wildlife refuge, and a brewery.

People have seen parts of New Hampshire that they never saw before.

NARRATOR: Amy meets entrepreneurs enhancing the food scene on Cape Cod.

She visits the Lighthouse Keeper's Pantry to make jam and goes to the Pheasant for a wine tasting.

You see customers year after year, we see their kids grow up, which is very sweet.

NARRATOR: Finally, we explore the town of Lubec, Maine, its natural beauty, and the fascinating mix of people who call it home.

It's just stunning, and there's water everywhere you look.

NARRATOR: So come along with us for a once-in-a-lifetime journey through New England as you've never experienced it before, a true insider's guide from the editors of Yankee magazine.

Join explorer and adventurer Richard Wiese and Yankee senior food editor Amy Traverso for behind-the-scenes access to the unique attractions that define this region.

It's the ultimate travel guide from the people who know it best.

Weekends With Yankee.

Major funding provided by... Massachusetts is home to a lot of firsts.

The first public park in America.

The first fried clams.

The first university in America.

The first basketball game.

What's first for you?

Grady-White, crafting offshore sport fishing boats for over 60 years.

The Barn Yard, builders of timber-framed barns and garages.

And by American Cruise Lines, exploring the historic shores of New England.

(latch turns) WIESE: Good morning.

I'm in Gorham, New Hampshire, which is in the heart of the White Mountains.

I'm starting my day in a yurt-- I'm at Hub North-- and I'm about to go on an epic bike trail across New Hampshire.

NARRATOR: The Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail is a storied 83-mile bike ride across the Granite State, but Richard begins his trip at an unusual campground in Gorham.

Hub North is my idea of a unique tourist accommodation.

Kind of a cool place to stay, start your adventure.

WIESE: Describe the interior of a yurt, because most people may have heard of it.

The yurts are very comfortable.

So, it has propane heat and tons of blankets.

We have a lot of families.

We have a lot of just adventurous, outdoorsy-type people, day and night, and see what glamping is all about.

WIESE: What are some of the activities that they can do?

We have 26 miles of single track that you can ride right from here on a mountain bike, and trailheads for all the hiking in the White Mountains are super-close.

WIESE: I'm going to go on the Cross New Hampshire Trail.

Any advice?

> Yeah, just keep an open mind and enjoy the scenery, and have a great ride, yeah.

WIESE: I think that's a metaphor for life.

NARRATOR: Richard heads out to meet the founder of the trail, Marianne Borowski, at a nearby trailhead.

WIESE: Good morning, Marianne.

Hey, good morning.

It's good to see you.

WIESE: How are you?

Great-- it's good to meet you.

WIESE: Oh, I'm so psyched to be on this trail.

All right, I can't wait to show it to you.

> WIESE: All right, well, let's get your bike and let's head-- we got a lot of miles to go.

Oh, I love that basket you have on there.

(chuckles): Holds all the lunch and snacks and everything.

WIESE: All right.

NARRATOR: The Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail cuts alongside rivers, drops into small towns, and spans a mix of country lanes, town streets, logging routes, and several miles of covered rail trails.

> WIESE: How did the Cross New Hampshire Trail come into being?

Well, I really, really like traveling by bicycle.

I spend my entire vacation budget every year with my bicycle, traveling somewhere, across some state somewhere, enjoying the trails, enjoying the roads.

And I, I just thought New Hampshire kind of needed something like that.

I, I actually copied the idea from the Cross Vermont Trail.

This is actually quite a famous bridge.

I call it an "uncovered covered bridge."

All the wooden supports for this bridge are boxed in behind this wood as protection.

There's no roof on it, like a regular covered bridge.

> WIESE: Right-- you know, it adds a little texture to the trail.

And this is the only one of its kind that's left.

It's still working to transport people, whether on, you know, bikes, or snowmobiles, or walking, just like it did over 100 years ago, where it used to transport trains full of lumber and tourists.

> WIESE: All right, so I guess we'll transport ourselves back onto the trail.

Okay, here we go.

Let the bridge do its work here for us.

The surveyors and engineers who put this together graded the trail a nice, fairly easy grade, and that works great for all of us.

Whether you're a little kid or an older person, you can manage to ride a bike on these rail trails.

WIESE: And typically, it's how many days to, to do the whole thing?

A lot of people do it in three days, two nights out.

NARRATOR: The trail is breathtaking, and you never know who you might meet.

Michael Prange is a volunteer with the Friends of the Presidential Rail Trail, and he helps with trail maintenance, along with his unusual friends.

WIESE: Coming to New Hampshire, the last thing I thought I would see is a llama.

This is Nikki.

WIESE: Hello.

Ooh.

There you go.

Nikki.

WIESE: It's all right to pet her?

Yes, right down low on the neck.

They're a little shy around their face.

WIESE: So, llamas out on the trail.

I mean, the obvious question is, what the heck are you doing?

So, actually, llamas are the perfect trail animal.

If you take horses on the trail, they have, you know, horseshoes, hard feet, and they can actually churn up the, the footbed of the trail.

Llamas have padded feet, like a dog.

Nikki's actually an original Inca breed llama.

And in high Andes Mountains, those trails are all footpaths.

They didn't have wheeled vehicles.

And so, llamas were the pickup trucks of the Andes.

WIESE: So, what are, what are the reactions you get from people out on the trail?

Everybody's their best friend.

WIESE: Yeah, I mean... (laughing) WIESE: I mean, seriously, who does not love a llama?

Wow, Marianne, you didn't tell me about this, you were... You held this information back from me.

It's amazing what you can meet on a trip.

WIESE: Ah, this was a surprise from you.

People, llamas, horses, dogs, bears, moose.

> WIESE: Okay, I know you have other surprises for me.

So, all right, onward and upward.

All right, here we go.

NARRATOR: Richard and Marianne ride onwards to the Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge.

The diverse habitat, including wetlands, ponds, and forests, make it a sanctuary for birds and bird-watchers.

Meet David Govatski, volunteer and ornithologist.

WIESE: I feel like I'm on a movie set here.

(chuckles) WIESE: This is gorgeous.

It is, it's, I mean, it's one of the crown jewels of, of the White Mountain region.

WIESE: I mean, just from the looks of it, there must be a ton of birds out here.

Yeah, we've had over 160 species seen so far, just this year.

WIESE: You know, I always feel so fortunate to know that areas like this have been preserved.

Well, public access is just so important.

The type of trail that we have here, I mean, it's usable even for people in wheelchairs, and strollers.

We get a lot of strollers out here.

A lot of bicyclists, ever since Marianne... WIESE: That Marianne!

(chuckles): Yeah, I know.

WIESE: This is just gorgeous-- I'm so appreciative to know that these kind of places exist.

Come back again.

WIESE: Yeah, Marianne, thank you for... And bring Marianne, too.

WIESE: Everybody-- of course, bring Marianne.

(chuckles) WIESE: What's the part of this trail, or the idea, that makes you most proud?

(chuckles): Oh, I guess a lot of different things.

One is, I think people have seen parts of New Hampshire that they never saw before, and that makes me feel good, that they get out there and have a really good day exploring.

I guess that's maybe why I put the word "adventure" in the route, because, you know, there's adventures in seeing places you've never been before.

It's okay, it's so worth it.

You know, you hop, hop off the bike, walk a few bits, and, and then hop back on again.

And you have that, that feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day.

(laughs) NARRATOR: The Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail was an exhilarating way to see the natural beauty, grand landscapes, and all manner of trail enthusiasts while on two wheels.

What better way to end the day than with a toast at Schilling Beer in Littleton?

WIESE: Cheers-- thank you for a wonderful day.

Well, you're welcome-- we had a great day out there.

WIESE: Mmm.

Look at this pizza.

Let's dig in.

WIESE: Come on.

Okay.

WIESE: Bon apptit.

Bon apptit.

TRAVERSO: It's a beautiful day and I'm in one of my favorite places in the world, Cape Cod.

Now, Cape Cod used to be a place you went to despite the food.

That has totally changed.

There's a vibrant food scene here, thanks to a group of young entrepreneurs.

And I'm going to be meeting one of them, my friend Kelly O'Connell of the Lighthouse Keeper's Pantry.

We're going to go pick beach plums, and then she's going to show me how she makes her beach plum jam.

Then we're going to meet her friends Adam and Erica Dunn at the Pheasant, where we're going to enjoy a delicious meal and talk about this burgeoning food scene.

Oh, it's so beautiful here.

And we're in the perfect car for Cape Cod.

That we are.

TRAVERSO: Thank you.

(laughs) My pleasure.

TRAVERSO: All right, I want to see your favorite spot.

Your secret spot.

All righty.

Here we go.

TRAVERSO: Dunes are so gorgeous.

They are.

TRAVERSO: I think I see our, our target up ahead.

Yes.

TRAVERSO: A lot.

This bush is perfectly ripe for picking.

TRAVERSO: Wow.

Oh, my gosh.

I got to try one.

(chuckles) TRAVERSO: Mmm.

Delicious, right?

TRAVERSO: They are.

The skin's quite tart.

They have a little bit of that tannic quality that commercial plums wouldn't have.

Yeah.

TRAVERSO: But, when you cook them down with some sugar and some stuff, they're so good Yes.

TRAVERSO: All right.

So, we're basically looking for the dark ones, right?

You can, at this point, really pick them all.

TRAVERSO: Really?

Because they're so ripe, and plump, and juicy, that they're perfect for jelly making.

And some of the ones that aren't quite ripe are great, because they have a lot of natural pectin in that state.

TRAVERSO: Oh.

So, that helps the jelly form.

> TRAVERSO: In the height of the season, how much are you picking these berries?

So, I try to get out here every single day, and I spend at least an hour, and if I get a good bush like this, I can pick about 20 pounds in that hour.

TRAVERSO: Wow-- well, do you feel like we have a decent amount for a batch?

Yeah, we, we have enough to make some jelly.

TRAVERSO: Oh, okay, cool.

Great.

Can I show you a great view before we leave?

TRAVERSO: Oh, my gosh, of course.

Oh, wow.

Oh, it's so beautiful here.

Isn't it?

The lighthouse on Sandy Neck Beach is really what inspired our brand, Lighthouse Keeper's.

I grew up taking my boat to this beach to enjoy the sun.

TRAVERSO: Wow.

And I always thought about how the lighthouse keeper would've lived his life.

This is a peninsula that is really hard to access from town.

So, the lighthouse keeper would've needed to provision the home there with lots of things to get through the winter.

And I thought jam making from the wild blueberries, and the beach plums, and the cranberry bogs that are naturally on the beach could have served as a hobby for him to make jelly to provision his pantry for the winter.

NARRATOR: Amy and Kelly head to the Lighthouse Keeper's Pantry in Yarmouth to prepare a batch of beach plum jam.

First thing we want to do is make sure that these berries are nice and clean.

I'm going to rinse off any type of sand or bugs that we may have picked up on the beach.

TRAVERSO: Okay.

(igniter clicking) (burner lights) So, we're going to let these boil for about 20 minutes or so, get nice and hot, just to release all the juices.

TRAVERSO: Oh, okay.

And then we'll strain the juices out, and discard the skins and the seeds.

One thing that's really important to our jams is lemons.

Who doesn't love lemon?

NARRATOR: While the beach plums cook, Kelly mixes four cups of sugar, one cup of Merlot, and two teaspoons of cinnamon.

All right, should we check on those berries?

TRAVERSO: Yes.

All right.

TRAVERSO: Pretty!

Already nice and juicy.

See how their skins are splitting?

That's how you know they're really nice and ripe.

So, and before we put it on the stove, we want to give it a nice stir, just to make sure that this sugar isn't sitting on the bottom of the pan too much.

TRAVERSO: It's just beautiful.

I'm real, I'm just mesmerized.

(laughing): I'm in love with the jelly.

(sniffs): And it smells so good.

It does, it does.

And we're going to cook this for about 35 minutes, and get it to a nice boil.

Let it cool a bit, and then we can start jarring.

TRAVERSO: Beautiful.

You have sort of your special custom jars, but you can use any... You can use any jars.

TRAVERSO: Yeah, any jars.

Yeah.

As long as you have the right lids that can seal tightly... TRAVERSO: Yes.

...then any jar is just fine.

TRAVERSO: So, after you fill your jars, you would then put these through a hot water bath... Mm-hmm.

TRAVERSO: ...which you can, those instructions are all over the internet.

(laughs): Yeah.

TRAVERSO: We're going to skip that step because you have some jam that you've already made.

Yes, I made a fresh batch of jelly for you yesterday, so it's nice and cool, and ready to enjoy in our caf downstairs.

I originally am from Yarmouth Port, and then, after I finished high school, I moved to New York City to go to college.

TRAVERSO: Right.

And I started off my career working at Martha Stewart for a very long time, developing kitchen products, and then I eventually moved on to doing the same for the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond.

But when COVID happened, I came back to the cape to work from home, and that's when I started making jelly.

TRAVERSO: And it's very good jelly.

(laughing) (laughs): Thank you.

So, I actually started a roadside jam stand along historic Route 6A... TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.

...and that's where it all took off from.

I love the energy, the pace that's on the cape, and the change of the seasons, and the accessibility to the ocean, the accessibility to the beach.

Those are things that really warm my heart and make the cape the place that I want to spend my time.

TRAVERSO: So, I'm really excited to be here, in part because this is now the Pheasant.

It used to be called the Red Pheasant, and it was kind of the fancy place to come out to dinner when I was a kid and we would come to the cape.

Definitely a very formal, fine dining type of experience.

Very hushed and... TRAVERSO: Yes.

...and, you know, white tablecloths.

And it was, yeah, where people went for anniversaries and birthdays and things like that.

TRAVERSO: Right, and I, I remember that.

I remember, it was, like, a one time in my childhood thing, and it was a big, special occasion.

But it's a different vibe now.

Yeah, we wanted to create a restaurant that people, as they were walking out the door, they're thinking, "How quickly can we get back here?"

And a place that you didn't just think of as a special occasion restaurant.

TRAVERSO: Right.

Oftentimes, guests on their way out will make a reservation for their next time.

Which is the biggest compliment.

TRAVERSO: That's really cool.

So, you grew up coming here for years... Yeah.

TRAVERSO: ...but you didn't live here.

You, you moved here, right?

You chose to live here.

Once we came to Cape Cod in the summer, it was hard to imagine going anywhere else in the summer, and we really fell in love with the cape.

TRAVERSO: And where were you living back then?

In Brooklyn.

TRAVERSO: Oh, okay.

We found ourself coming to the cape all the time.

I had left my career in the music industry, and decided to open a restaurant, having never worked in a restaurant before, and that was a big...

I call it, I describe it as stepping off a cliff.

I think I had to drag Erica along a little bit, but... TRAVERSO: (laughs) But, uh... (coughs) I had a more traditional career path.

I was at New York mag, Maxim magazine, and then finished up at Architectural Digest.

TRAVERSO: Right.

So, always on the marketing teams, but I always kept a job at a restaurant: waiting tables, catering.

TRAVERSO: Huh.

I loved it.

I couldn't shake it.

TRAVERSO: Wow.

You knew what you were getting into.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, since I was a teenager, I was working at restaurants.

TRAVERSO: What would you say the greatest joy of doing this business on the cape?

The joy?

The customers.

You see customers year after year, when they're on their vacations.

TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.

So, we see their kids grow up... TRAVERSO: Mmm.

...which is very sweet.

And then we get to have this really intimate connection with the locals.

We'll do a wedding, and then the next year, they come back, and they have a baby.

One thing we were missing about New York is access to some of the best wine in the world.

And so, during COVID, we actually turned part of the dining room into what looked like a, a wine shop.

That became a really exciting part of our business.

TRAVERSO: And I know since then, you've hired a sommelier, Kim, who's... Yes.

TRAVERSO: ...superstar, also from New York.

I think I'm going to go meet her, I want to taste some of the stuff that you guys are talking about.

She picked out some great stuff.

I was working at Caf Boulud, part of the Dinex, Daniel Boulud Group.

TRAVERSO: Right.

Had worked as a sommelier at Daniel before that.

And yeah, finding out I was pregnant around the same time as moving was, like, a whole whirlwind.

TRAVERSO: Wow.

So we just changed everything and moved to the cape, so... (both laugh) TRAVERSO: I asked you to just pick a few things that you're excited about right now.

So, tell me about this one.

This is a sparkling wine from the United States.

TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.

So, it comes from Santa Barbara, Santa Rita Hills, in particular.

And so, this is just their second vintage, I believe, of doing sparkling wine from cooler-climate California.

You get a little more of that creaminess, matched with really nice, like, fresh, briny kind of character.

TRAVERSO: So fresh, yeah.

And also, like a green apple that's just, like, super-juicy, like a Granny Smith.

Just makes my mouth, like... (clicks tongue) It's a really nice, tart, yeah, good.

Yeah, it makes your mouth water and gets your appetite ready.

TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.

That's so good.

All right, so, yeah.

So, number two.

TRAVERSO: I know this label.

Yes.

TRAVERSO: La Garagista-- I love their wine.

I love their wines, too.

TRAVERSO: And Vermont, like, who knew they were getting... I know!

They're, like, an incubator for a lot of, like, new wave, more, like, winemakers in Vermont.

They originally had a restaurant, as you know, I'm sure.

TRAVERSO: Yes.

I loved that, yeah.

Yeah.

And so, they started making wines for the restaurant.

And then, now the wines are kind of their sole focus at La Garagista.

TRAVERSO: Oh, it's so floral.

And this is, yeah.

Oh, it's super-floral.

TRAVERSO: Yeah.

Yeah.

(both laughing) It's super-floral.

TRAVERSO: I'm not crazy.

(laughs) TRAVERSO: So, one thing that I understand about these wines is, you have to kind get over being snobby about only having those, like, old European varietals, right?

These are, like, some New World varietals that grow well in this climate.

Exactly.

TRAVERSO: And they're proving that you can make really good wines with them.

Totally.

TRAVERSO: Yeah.

Yes, absolutely.

This comes from Sylvain Bock.

He's located in the Ardche.

TRAVERSO: Wow.

So, everything that we have in the restaurant and in the wine shop are focusing on, you know, small production, independently owned winemakers, and they're looking to make wines that are really expressive of the place that they're working in.

So it's a grape that can be really rich and full, but this is a very, like, fresh expression of it.

TRAVERSO: Yeah.

It's like juice, but really, really sophisticated.

I mean, just that it has that freshness.

Yes, yes.

TRAVERSO: You know.

Like a little spice, and a little, like, an earthy, kind of, like, barn... A little bit of barnyard earthiness to it, yeah.

TRAVERSO: Well, you know, I stopped by the wine store, and you've always introduced me to something new and exciting.

And there's that critical mass that I think entrepreneurs and, you know, people create in a, in a town.

And then, that makes more people want to come and open businesses and more people want to live there, and it's just...

It's great to see that wheel turning.

Totally.

Like, you feed each other.

TRAVERSO: Yeah.

Like, literally a metaphor.

(both laughing) Cheers.

TRAVERSO: Guys, thank you for everything you do to make the cape even better than it already is.

Thank you.

NARRATOR: We head north to Maine's Bold Coast and the town of Lubec, a place surrounded by stunning parklands and full of outdoor adventure.

Such a wide variety of towns and trails.

It's just stunning, and there's water everywhere you look.

So, right now, we're on the Bold Coast.

It's a coined phrase, but it kind of fits in that it's rough, rocky.

Sometimes it's raging, sometimes it's all sparkly, sometimes it's fogged in.

It's just always changeable.

And there are so many different hiking opportunities in this area.

But this particular spot, from the Moose Cove access of Bog Brook Cove Preserve, is at the end of a handicapped-accessible trail.

And it's about 1,900 acres, so it's a big piece of land.

What I see often is little kids running, or parents with strollers, people with mobility challenges.

This is a great trail for them.

To come to a place where there's thousands and thousands of acres undeveloped, I think our souls need that.

(chuckles) We're here on Cobscook Bay, which is an interior bay on the Bold Coast.

It's composed of three large bays on the south side, and three or four on the north side.

And then, within each one of those bays are coves, and then within the coves are smaller coves.

So, you have an incredibly complex shoreline to explore and experience.

The Cobscook Shores park system opened its first park in 2020, and has since opened 19 more parks, with the mission of creating public access to the shores of the bay, a landscape which changes every six hours, and a dynamic ecosystem to explore.

If someone wants to have this experience for the first time, we certainly recommend coming with someone that knows the, the water.

I am a registered Maine guide in recreation and sea kayaking.

Grew up just in Robbinston, Maine.

Really challenging waters if we don't really know what we're doing.

But yet, they can make it really fun, as long as we learn the water, learn some navigation, and some paddling skills.

It may take a while to get here, but if what you're looking for is something that you haven't found at more traveled destinations, you'll likely find it here.

NARRATOR: On Moose Island, we visit the Tides Institute to learn about the artists that have come from across the world to find inspiration here.

When I was growing up, it was sort of in the last throes of the sardine industry, which had fueled so much of this economy.

The last 50-plus years have seen an enormous transition going on here.

There never really has been what you would call a cultural anchor institution in this part of the coast, and we felt that that was one of, one of the roles that we needed to play.

Anything from art, like paintings, to photographs, to sculpture, to furniture, to decorative arts, to buildings, and, you know, to, you know, Indigenous art and craft.

We bring in artists from all over the United States, from Canada, and from other parts of the world.

I'm a visual artist and social practitioner, which means I often engage communities to do projects that use a lot of different media, lettering, printmaking, public art, and so on.

So, just, like, getting used to a different pace of life and the sense of intimacy of the community here was really interesting and different.

NARRATOR: In downtown Lubec, photographer and inn owner Glenn Charles shares what he loves about this stunning coastal town.

Lubec offers, I think, a very unique place for families to come and have a more affordable vacation, get away from the crowds.

You can hop on a bicycle here and go out and just explore back roads, dirt trails, the easternmost point out at the lighthouse.

Just for people that want to cycle, it's relatively easy, it's not super-hilly out here.

We really have focused on creating more space for people, letting folks feel like they can just linger and enjoy this beautiful view.

That's really what we're trying to do: create a more unique experience than what you typically find in Down East Maine.

And, you know, as a photographer, there was a point in time where I made my living that way, and now I just get to have fun with it, which is, which is nice.

But Lubec, I always joke, you know, you have to work to take a bad picture.

It's just a beautiful palette for everybody, you know?

Whether it's stuff on the ocean that you're taking pictures of, the beaches, or the, the mystery of, of the, the woods and the trails, especially when the fog is in.

I mean, it's a really, really wonderful place to come take pictures.

There's no place else on the coast of Maine that has what we have.

NARRATOR: For exclusive videos, recipes, travel ideas, tips from the editors, and access to the Weekends With Yankee digital magazine, go to weekendswithyankee.com and follow us on social media, @yankeemagazine.

Yankee magazine, the inspiration for the television series, provides recipes, feature articles, and the best of New England from the people who know it best.

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Call 1-800-221-8154. Credit cards accepted.

Major funding provided by... Massachusetts is home to a lot of firsts.

The first public park in America.

The first fried clams.

The first university in America.

The first basketball game.

What's first for you?

Grady-White, crafting offshore sportfishing boats for over 60 years.

The Barn Yard, builders of timber-framed barns and garages.

And by American Cruise Lines, exploring the historic shores of New England.