The Finger Lakes region is known for its wines, but another massive commercial crop in the area is its apples.
If you're planning a trip to the area you may want to build in time for apple picking and tasting its hard ciders. Here are some of the possibilities:
Great Brook Farm, at 1640 State Route 444 in Victor, Ontario County, is formerly known as The Apple Farm. Pick apples and enjoy homemade donuts, pastries and cider. great-brook-farm.com.
Apples and Moore, 2750 Apple Lane in Watkins Glen, west of Seneca Lake, offers more than 20 apple varieties. It also sells homemade cider donuts, jams, jellies, apple butter and hard sparkling cider. applesandmoore.com.
Apple Barrel Orchards and Cidery, 2681 County House Road, Penn Yan, north of Keuka Lake,
offers u-pick apples and ferments its own hard cider. Its tasting room is inside a barn from 1896. applebarrelorchards.com.
Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards, 2708 Lords Hill Road in Lafayette, just south of Syracuse, offers apple picking. Its 1911 Tavern and Tasting Room serves its 1911 Established ciders on tap. beakandskiff.com.
The Finger Lakes Cider House, 4017 Hickok Road, Interlaken, west of Cayuga Lake, serves cider as well as local beer, wine and cocktails. It also offers more than 20 varieties of U-pick apples as well as flowers. fingerlakesciderhouse.com.
South Hill Cider, 550 Sandbank Road, Ithaca, near Buttermilk Falls State Park, offers farm-to-table food, guided tastings and drinks by the glass. It offers a wide variety of ciders including single-varietal ciders and pommeau.
Three Brothers Winery and Estates, at 623 Lerch Road, Geneva, just east of Seneca Lake, serves many flavors of its Bombshell Hard Ciders in its World War II-themed War Horse Brewing Co. The campus also offers wines, slushies, coffee and nonalcoholic Iron Heart craft sodas. 3brotherswinery.com.
Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards, 5712 Route 414, Hector, and Hazlitt Red Cat Cellars, 1 Lake Niagara Lane, Naples, offers its Cider Tree hard cider alongside its wines. hazlitt1852.com.
CK Cellars 2770 State Route 14 in Penn Yan (east side of Seneca Lake) and 489 Route 54 South in Penn Yan (west side of Seneca Lake) serves ciders from WortHog Cidery as well as wines and meads. ckcellars.wine.
Star Cider, 3365 New York Route 364 in Canandaigua, is a stone's throw from Constellation Brands-Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center. It features its own hard cider as well as some other local beverages; it also hosts live music. starcidery.com.
Treetops Cidery, 8842 E. Bluff Dr., Penn Yan, near Keuka Lake, offers its ciders in its tasting room. Find info on Facebook and Instagram.
Food and drink reporter Tracy Schuhmacher considers the Finger Lakes her happy place. Got a Finger Lakes cidery or U-pick apple operation to add to this list? Email tracys@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Where to go for apple picking, hard cider in the Finger Lakes
