Apples and Wine
We had a pretty good weekend, Saturday we got to go to a Designer Showcase at the new Midtown Condos. Let me start by saying that the condos are amazing. First of all, they don't look like dorms or apartments. The attention to detail is amazing and the floorplans make you feel like you are in a house, not in a huge building with hundreds of other people. The three bedroom unit had a breakfast nook, sunroom, 2 balconies, granite in the bathrooms, etc. We were awestruck.
Sunday was apple picking day. We headed out with my folks to Rinker Orchards, just past Jones' breakfast spot. Boy is that far away. Anyway, every year we go to Rinker because they have Nittany apples. Nittany apples are really crisp and not terribly sweet. I usually will only eat Granny Smith apples, but Nittany apples are so good, that I'm happy to take a break from the GS and eat them.
After apple picking we stopped at a vineyard... of course. The first was Deer Meadow. It was a depressing little place. Apparently their vineyards have gone way downhill and now they are just selling out their stock. Their Chardonnay was actually quite good, but the two reds were not too good at all.
On the way to the second vineyard we stopped at a huge farmer's market. They had tons of tasters, like apple cider donuts (AWESOME) and bread to dip into homemade jams, jellies and such. They also had a wine tasting area. What luck! The wines were from Peaks of Otter, which is known for fruit wines. They only make one grape wine and it has some apple in it. So, we tasted peach wines, stawberry wines, banana wines, and most other fruits you can think of. In all, we tasted 29 wines. Jason outdid us because he tasted a hot chili pepper cooking wine also.
After stumbling out of the farmer's market, we headed to Veramar. Jason and I have been there before, but this time we got a bottle and sat outside on their porch and enjoyed the afternoon.