My ultimate Finger Lakes destination Saturday was a remote cabin on a pond, in the wine country near Keuka Lake, where longtime friends spend summer weekends.
It’s a relaxing two-hour drive from Syracuse, a journey, mainly, along roads less traveled. There’s plenty to see, and we rarely go directly there – or home.
There’s so much to stop the car for!
Such as:
Grape sherbet! I couldn’t drive by this sign at Mr. Twistee’s, County Road 6 (Preemption Road), Geneva, twice in two days without pulling in to investigate.
We’ve sampled wine ice cream before, but not grape sherbet. It’s sweet, light and refreshing – and the color of pale lilacs, as you can see. That’s a SMALL cone, believe it or not ($3).
A new (to us) winery: Keuka Lake Vineyards, one of the newer wineries that surround Keuka Lake, specializes in dry, European-style estate wines. A $5 fee gets you tastings of about 10 wines.
KLV’s Rieslings were nice and the Vignoles was a pleasant change of pace. We also were impressed by the labor that went into this sign in the tasting room, made entirely from corks. The winery is on County Route 76, a couple miles north of the village of Hammondsport.
A market bursting with fresh produce: Some people are drawn to Naples for grape pie. I’m drawn to the picturesque village by Joseph’s Wayside Market, a large, open-air market and country store with an in-house bakery.
On Sunday, the place wore the perfume of ripe peaches and tables were laden with homegrown tomatoes, corn, raspberries, blueberries, beans and more. Check back for an upcoming post on Joseph’s.
A flower cart in the country: This cart on Route 245, a couple miles south of Routes 5 and 20, near Geneva, is like a dollar store for small bunches of fresh-cut flowers, like gladiolus, cosmos and Japenese lanterns.
Leave a dollar bill or two in the honor box and take home a fragrant reminder of your Finger Lakes travels.
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