Last Thursday, we left Sackets Harbor and travelled south and west around Lake Ontario, through apple and peach orchards,
until we reached Junius Ponds Cabins and Campground.
It’s a really nice campground just north of Geneva, NY, which puts us in a pretty centrally-located homebase for exploring the Finger Lakes.
Geneva is a cute little college town (home to Hobart and William Smith College), at the north end of Seneca Lake, the largest and deepest of the Finger Lakes.
After our arrival, our first order of business was to pick up some fresh vegetables (I still had a pretty empty refrigerator after our trip into Canada!), and then to make a list of things we wanted to do in the area. I’ve been reading through the blogs of various other RVers who have been here and putting together our list!
The real bonus was that I was able to pick up a basket of my favorite fruit – concord grapes!
We picked these up at a roadside stand, along with a mini version of a grape pie – something we had been hearing about, but weren’t sure we were going to like!
As you drive around the Finger Lakes, you can’t help but notice all the grapes growing on the hillsides surrounding the lakes.
Most of them are wine grapes, and there are hundreds of vineyards and wineries surrounding each of the lakes.
We’ve visited a few wineries while we’ve been here, and picked up a couple of bottles of wine to take south with us.
Grapes are a big deal here . . . and there’s even a Grape Festival coming up this weekend in the town of Naples.
We visited Naples last Friday and it was pretty quiet, but today we drove through again and the place was hopping – everybody is getting ready for the festival to start tomorrow!
and Tom was able to get his full-sized grape pie! We haven't dug into it yet, but it looks good!
They were working hard – getting ready for the festival weekend! Lots of pies packed in boxes and loaded into the truck,
and even more waiting to get packed up after they cooled off!
Our destination for the afternoon was Jerome’s U-pick farm.
They’re celebrating the 200 year anniversary as a family farm this year, and their 50th year as a U-pick operation!
It’s a beautiful farm!
There were multiple varieties of grapes available for picking, and when we asked how to know what to pick, they said, “Just try them, and pick the ones that you like!”
They even had purple wagons for pulling your boxes around!
My favorite is still the traditional concord,
but there were some others that were really good, too!
and eating!
Tom’s favorites – Canadice!
We had so much fun picking grapes . . . we got a little carried away and ended up with 17 pounds! All those grapes for just $6.80!! Amazing!
Oh, but they are so good!!
The farm is getting ready for the big festival weekend, too . . . they have plenty of grapes ready to sell!
That was a fun experience . . . our first time picking our own grapes! I am definitely in grape heaven!
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