BY Amanda | FILED UNDER: UPPER VALLEY | ON December 19, 2018 | TAGGED: food news, free, lebanon nh
Gardener’s Supply Co., which came to Lebanon earlier this year, is celebrating its ninth anniversary of 100 percent employee ownership with free pie for customers (the best way to celebrate, tbh).
The pie extravaganza also is an annual solstice tradition, according to Gardener’s Supply — the winter solstice is Friday, marking it as the shortest day of the year.
Get yer pie by visiting the company’s garden centers on Friday at in Lebanon.
BY Amanda | FILED UNDER: UPPER VALLEY | ON November 20, 2018 | TAGGED: consumer alert, food news
Romaine calm, everyone.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday warned U.S. consumers against eating romaine lettuce, which has been linked to a recent — and particularly serious — E. coli outbreak. As The Washington Post reported:
The CDC told consumers to throw away any romaine lettuce they may already have purchased. Restaurants should not serve it, stores should not sell it, and people should not buy it, no matter where or when the lettuce was grown. It doesn’t matter if it is chopped, whole head or part of a mix. All romaine should be avoided.
The CDC alert, issued just two days before Americans sit down for their Thanksgiving dinners, reported that 32 people in 11 states have become sick from eating contaminated romaine. Of those, 13 have been hospitalized, with one patient suffering from a form of kidney failure. The Public Health Agency of Canada has reported 18 people infected with the same strain of E. coli.
Tl;dr: Don’t eat lettuce, don’t buy lettuce and don’t hang on to any lettuce you already have until the CDC finds the source of the outbreak and declares it over. Also, be careful handling your turkey this Thanksgiving — there currently is a widespread salmonella outbreak linked to raw turkey.
BY Maggie | FILED UNDER: UPPER VALLEY | ON November 2, 2018 | TAGGED: food news, Phnom Penh Sandwich Station, polka dot, white river junction

The Polka Dot building in White River Junction, Vt., on May 8, 2018, is one of the properties owned by developer Mike Davidson’s Execusuite. (Valley News – Geoff Hansen) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
Via an email from property manager Tim Sidore:
Phnom Penh Sandwich Station and Execusuite, LLC are thrilled to announce the restaurant is ready to open this coming Monday, Nov. 5. Sarin Tin, the proprietor of Phnom Penh, looks forward to meeting the WRJ community. Located at the historic Polka Dot building, Phnom Penh will be open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Stop in and enjoy delicious Cambodian food and local craft beers.
Redeveloper/owner Mike Davidson said:
“It has been gratifying to see the collaboration between Sarin and our Execusuite manager Tim Sidore in the effort to restore this landmark. It was a lot of hard work, but they got it done! We are excited to see this corner add life to the downtown streetscape.”
Unfortunately I don’t have a more recent photo just yet (if you got one that we can use, sent it our way at
uvindex@vnews.com!) but here’s some video of the old sign coming down and the new sign going up in August:
BY Maggie | FILED UNDER: UPPER VALLEY | ON October 18, 2018 | TAGGED: food news, halloween, things to do

Emily Tevere, 18, of Enfield, left, takes a break to check her phone and Samantha Farrell, 17, of Canaan, middle, for a snack as Molly Meagher, 15, of Enfield, right, keeps up the zombie act for passing cars and trick-or-treaters on the Canaan, N.H. green Monday, October 31, 2016. The group of Mascoma Valley Regional High School classmates have been dressing up as zombies to pass out candy on the Canaan green every Halloween for the past four years. (Valley News – James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
Mark your calendars.
The Upper Valley’s got plenty going on when it comes to ghosts, goblins and the like in the coming weeks. Click here for an events roundup by the Valley News’ events experts, including Calendar editor Liz Sauchelli, assistant editor Eleanor Kohlsaat and Entertainment Highlights writer David Corriveau.
And start flexing your candy-distribution arm.
If you’re wondering what to buy, the website CandyStore.com has shared some data about where it sells the most Halloween candies in the United States, broken down by state and brand.
So to be clear, this is not the most popular candies in each state; just which candies are sold the most by this particular distributor in each state in the two months leading up to Halloween.
Here’s the 2017 numbers:
|
And here’s those stats for 2018:
|
New Hampshire |
New Hampshire |
1. Snickers (63,876 lbs) |
1. Starburst (67,939 lbs) |
2. Starburst (62,486 lbs) |
2. M&Ms (61,343 lbs) |
3. Salt Water Taffy (25,978 lbs) |
3. Snickers (25,049 lbs) |
Vermont |
Vermont |
1. Milky Way (29,387 lbs) |
1. Milky Way (31,822 lbs) |
2. M&M’s (27,811 lbs) |
2. Skittles (26,056 lbs) |
3. Skittles (17,662 lbs) |
3. M&Ms (15,344 lbs) |
Via Candystore.com:
BY Maggie | FILED UNDER: UPPER VALLEY | ON September 11, 2018 | TAGGED: canoe club, dartmouth college, food news, hanover nh, tuck school of business
The Valley News broke the story last night. Click here to read today’s full story.