the Finger Lakes is one of the most beautiful destinations in the whole
world I've been falling in love with this
place my entire life and it continues to surprise me today I'm going to show you
some places that are incredibly special to me so come on let's go explore my
name is Lynn Phillips I run a local blog called sriracha says it's all about
helping others fall in love with Rochester and the Finger Lakes area born
and raised in Rochester the Finger Lakes have always been kind of my second home
I came here as a child I got married in the Finger Lakes I have
so many memories hiking is one of the best reasons to visit the Finger Lakes
we're here at Grimes gun park in Naples New York we're gonna go on a fun
accessible hike together
the great thing about this hike is that it's so family friendly the terrain is
pretty flat and it's a pretty short hike but be sure to get your feet wet
the real reason you want to come - Grimes lens is because of these
waterfalls
long before the Finger Lakes start making wine they've been growing sweet
table grapes for so many years we're here at Monica's PI an institution
where they make the famous grape pie nice hi Monica
how are ya good how are you a CEO so I'm a huge fan of your great pies good I've
been coming here for years oh thank you I always tell all of my friends that you
can't visit the Finger Lakes without going to Monica's oh they look great pie
thank you and then it's nice would you like to see how we make them I would
love to okay let's go
now what makes your great pie different okay
this was my mother's idea great pies ordinarily are real hard to get down on
the bottom the cross and baked in the middle without the whole thing running
over in your oven cuz they're really juicy so she had the idea to make the
filling ready to eat and bake the crust so Monica tell me about how you started
making these pies well we had some grapes of our own and I found this shoot
I can make a pie I put a picnic table out there and we sold a lot of pies a
year here we are 37 years later so I baked the cross yep
and then we bake around then you make yep we make crumb top which is a crumbs
that we make here that's old some graham brown sugar butter and cinnamon go looks
so good
you know that is delicious good Thank You Monica for taking me through your
pie making I love visiting you in Naples and I can't wait to come back and visit
you again thank you if you're looking for the ultimate farming experience
there's no lack of options here in the Finger Lakes we decided to go off the
beaten path and visit hemlock Ridge Farm they specialize in everything from dairy
to livestock to even flowers so let's go check them out
hey Jesse hi good I love your farm it's absolutely beautiful tell me a little
bit about what you guys offer here what you grow the first thing we do primarily
is for a dairy farm certified organic and a few years ago I got the idea to
start a farm store to make our food a little more accessible to the public but
you have these incredible flowers over here that you specialize in - right this
is my favorite part it's like the produce we do because we all need to eat
this speaks to the soul yeah I would love to see where your garden is and
pick some flowers with you I'd love that - how did you get into the flower
business well really all my life I have grown flowers in my aunt taught me about
decorating and I'm just passionate about it gardening is my favorite thing and
arranging flowers is even more so here's the yellow that looks great with your
shirt making my own little bouquet over here I feel lucky that the Finger Lakes
is in my backyard and we have these farmers who care about the quality and
like a sustainability of their practices this area is very passionate about good
food and good quality and feeding families from the farm so we're thankful
to be a small part of that
the Finger Lakes are known for their world-class wines their Rieslings their
diverse team years their Pinot Noirs and we're here at the winery that sparked
the revolution dr. Constantine Franks
hey Megan how's it going in Ulan great to see you see you thanks for having us
absolutely will you tell us what's going on for this upcoming harvest we're about
four weeks out from harvest you can see these beautiful Chardonnay clusters here
so Megan your great-grandfather actually planted these vines right
he actually emigrated here from Ukraine he was a well-respected researcher and
scientist so it was thought to be far too cold for these very delicate
European varieties he was the first to say actually it's due to a pest and so
what he did was he grafted American root stock which is naturally resistant to
this pests joined it together with vanilla the European species and that
was really the key to his success bringing these premium varieties to the
region my great-grandfather was very giving with his knowledge the region has
really exploded with quality producers and why the Finger Lakes is seen as one
of the foremost wine producing regions in the US so what do you think is the
time for tasting I think it is let's go do it
so we have our dry Riesling to start Riesling makes up the majority of what
we produce so let's have a taste Cheers it's bright and it's impressed
briefing is so transparent that mine where it's grown so that really
contributes to a very mineral focus dial very citric very fresh a lot of great
wineries in this region are making different Reds but this is a unique
varietal that you guys have how do you pronounce this one this is called
separate it's actually an ancient variety from Georgia has a very strong
spice kind of character and still a nice elegant acidity so it's really our wines
very well with different types of food and this is our brute Rose a pinot noir
and also pinot meunier variety from champagne and it's actually grown just
below us here delicious mmm going into the fall I love a nice dry
rose a - isn't it exciting time to be here in the fall
absolutely breathtaking here especially this view because you see you know the
reds and the orange and the yellow colors melding it together well Megan
thank you so much for having us I loved exploring the vineyards with you and
tasting your wine it was an absolute pleasure please come back and visit us
soon
the reason why I love the Finger Lakes is because everything is at your whim
watching the fall foliage or exploring a new trail so breathtaking it's a really
special place to be in more recent years the Finger Lakes are really making a
name for themselves and starting to get the recognition that they deserve