Purple Reign

I made several trips down to Naples,N.Y. while home.Naples sits just beyond the end of Canandaigua Lake and was always the far end of our stomping grounds back in the day.When we were holed up at a lake cottage it was the closest place for supplys.It is a beautiful little village and I have been going there since I was a wee lad.One of the big things in Naples is grapes and the Grape Festival which was a few weeks before I came.The Grape festival is big time now and even the fire hydrants in the village are now purple.Wine is made of course but the Naples thing I most enjoy is Grape Pies.Nowdays in fall Grape Pies are all over.It used to be you pulled up at a farm scattered around the main and back roads grabbed a pie and left your money in the box and those are still around but now there are folks really selling them big time.There's Monicas Pies made famous by the Food Network who has a whole cottage industry going with pies then there's the farm market south of the village that sells Suzies Pies my fave.There are signs with arrows pointing down side streets in the village for Cindy's Pies and the little lawn chair you see with Mom's Pies when you leave Bob's and Ruths restaurant now closed for the season that also sells grape pie and in the past grape ice-cream and shakes. Others are Laurie,Brenda, and the many farmhouses.I have yet to see a man's name in front of the pies being sold though there is one farm stand above Naples that carries the family name .There's Grape Bread,Grape Tarts though I'm surprised Widmer or one of the other Wineries hasn't tried making a premium Grape Soda.Then there are the Grape Vines themselves all around the area though the ones running down to the lake are vanishing fast as Canandaigua Lakefront property and other Finger Lakes lakefront is fast approaching Lake Tahoe prices.I may be biased but the Finger Lakes are very beautiful country any time of year but in fall I think they are most beautiful.Lots of backroads and the main roads are two lane.Rolling hills down to long blue lakes and lots of farms producing all kinds of good food.*This post covers some of the same blab as Cider and Grape Pie from October or Sept but I'm getting old and the memory goes.I had an uncle that could tell the same story several times during the course of a party and not recall telling it earlier.I'm going to reach that point at a much earlier age than he did.