If you’ve always wanted to know more about the King Hooper Mansion, now is the time to learn. The Marblehead Arts Association will have a talk on Tuesday, September 9th at 7pm in the Hooper Mansion’s third-floor ballroom gallery with historian and author Robert Booth Jr. The talk will be titled “The King and the Commoners: Robert Booth’s Mansion and its Owners Over the Years.” The new information relates to the mansion’s inception and to its early history.

There will be a reception immediately after the talk. Admission is free and with a suggested donation of $5 for members of the MAA and $10 for non-members.

Booth, who was raised in Marblehead and is a current resident, has authored the award-winning book “Death of an Empire: The Rise and Murderous Fall of Salem, America’s Richest City,” and the forthcoming book, “Mad for Glory.”

Don’t miss the Marblehead Farmers Market this Saturday, August 30th. It will start at 9 am and go until noon behind the Veterans Middle School. Some of the great things to look for include new produce: plums, apples, winter squash, corn, tomatoes, blueberries and more.

Craft vendors will also be selling their wares including the Le Bistro restaurant with Mediterranean food, Jan and John Cohen with note cards and calendars, Jennifer Hickman with candles, Robin Foudray with jewelry and Sally Marcy with arm warmers.

There will be performances by Teresa Coelho from Music Together of Marblehead, doing participatory children’s music.

The market will be held rain or shine though Nov. 22 so if you miss it, you’ll have another chances.

If you’ve never been to the Marblehead Light, then it’s high time that you learned a bit about your area’s history. The light house is on Marblehead Neck in Essex County and is a structure that replaced the original 1835 brick and wood tower in 1895. It is actually the only tower of its type in New England and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

As it explains on Wikipedia, “In August 1831, the townspeople of Marblehead requested that a lighthouse be built at the entrance to the harbour. Congress granted the wish and a 23 foot (7m) high tower was built in 1835 and commissioned on October 10, 1835.^[3] This tower had an array of ten whale oil burning lamps inside an octagonal lantern.

In 1857, the old lamp system was replaced by a sixth order Fresnel lens and reflectors. Despite the upgrade and work on the tower and associated keepers’ house, the tower itself was in a poor condition and by 1893 a new light was requested. The new light was completed in 1895 at a cost of $8,786, the cost being much reduced by using a skeletal frame rather than rebuilding the old tower.”

Learn more about the light tower and more about Marblehead history today.

The Marblehead Chamber of Commerce has all sorts of great activities for June. It’s worth getting involved and enjoying some of these programs. For more information, visit marbleheadchamber.org.

Saturday, June 14th: Town-Wide Sidewalk Sales

Join in the fun when Marblehead’s boutiques and eateries offer sales discounts and fun for everyone around. Participating stores include:  All Chic Boutique, Arnould Gallery, Bus Stop, C’Est La Vie, Chet’s Video & Candy Shoppe, Eos Designs Studio, Grace Oliver, home love, Liz Steinfeld Lingerie, Mahri, Marblehead Toy Shop, Marblehead Museum & Historical Society, Minus 10 Aesthetic Spa, Mud Puddle Toys, Pawsitively Marblehead, Pint Size and Up, Seaside Allure, Shubie’s, Spirit of ’76 Bookstore, Sweetwater Trading Company, Tory’s.

Saturday June 14^th: Book Launch Party

Get to 66 Washington Street for the Book Launch Party for Monique Ilona’s book “A Dual Path: Sacred Practices and Bodywork,” and for the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Dual Path Institute.

June 19^th: Multi-Chamber After Hours

Enjoy free food at Aikia Steakhouse at 443 Paradise Road as you join the Chamber for networking with the Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce and the Salem Chamber of Commerce

June 24^th: Marketing and Social Media

Get in the know as the National Grand Bank sponsors an event called “Marketing and Social Media — From Beginner to Expert” with guest speaker Rafe Hershfield.

If your child enjoys the dramatic arts, it’s time to look at the River’s Edge Arts Alliance. They are now accepting registration for the Summer Drama Workshop. This workshop will include four theater workshops that are for students entering first grade up until recent high school graduates.

Each workshop will have a culminating project of a performance at Hudson High School. Classes start on June 24 with a final performance on July 26th.

Check out the possibilities here and get started with your summer plans.

Every year, the Magic Hat Thrift Shop designates fund, based on their volunteer hours, to fund classroom programs for education at the Marblehead Public Schools. This spring, they are thrilled to announce that they are giving $50,000 in funding, their largest allocation to date, and that the total amount they’ve distributed to the six Marblehead public schools since they opened in 2006 is almost half a million dollars.

As Magic Hat board President Wendy Roworth said, “We are thrilled to be nearing the half-million-dollar mark in allocations to the Marblehead Public Schools and thank the community donors, volunteers and our customers for fueling our success! We look forward to a wonderful spring and summer shopping season as the Farmers Market reopens on Saturday, May 31.”

As Tara Kellner, the longtime volunteer PTO representative for the Bell School said, “The Magic Hat Thrift Shop gives parents a chance to contribute directly to their school but also creates an opportunity for parents of different schools to work side by side at the shop in support of the school community as a whole. We all benefit from the funds raised as the educational programs funded create a spiral effect of student enrichment across the schools and grades.”

Read the whole story here to see the amazing work that the Magic Hat Thrift Shop has done.

Perhaps this won’t be your go-to cookbook, but it sure would be a fun one to have. Plymouth food historian and archaeologist Paula Marcoux has created a cookbook called “Cooking with Fire” that shows the many possible ways you can cook with a flame.

As she said, “I’d like people to take a step back and see how much fun it can be cooking with wood and how much better the food tastes,” said Marcoux of Plymouth, .

While it’s a cookbook, it’s also a glimpse into history, as Marcoux offers ways to prepare a vast range of foods using historic techniques and materials. As she explains, “Cooking with wood will interest people with a little sense of adventure, an open mind and a willingness to take the time to enjoy what they’re doing.”

Editor of the magazine Edible South Shore, she subtitled this book “From Roasting on a Spit to Baking in a Tannur, Rediscovered Techniques and Recipes that Capture the Flavors of Wood-Fired Cooking.” The book includes 100 recipes and many gorgeous color photos.

As Marcoux, 53, explains, “There’s nobody who will do every crazy thing in this book, but I’m hoping there is something in the book to engage everybody.”

If this book doesn’t catch your eye, you can wait for the book that she is writing for the Plymouth Antiquarian Society about 19th century cooking.