Wine Country of New York- June 22

Today was one of those days when events just did not turn out as expected. When I first stepped outside I expected to grab a jacket. But it was not needed- first time that has happened since we left Florida! Our first stop was 30 Mile Lighthouse, turned out we could not tour inside as it is closed Mondays. Our next stop was the Winery of Marjim Manor. This winery is in a home built in 1834. At that time it was called Appleton Hall. Before we even started our wine tasting, the hostess announced that the home was haunted. She explained further that through the years seven people have died in the house- all of the deaths happened at 3PM on a Thursday afternoon. Well, one happened on a Wednesday, his body was found on Thursday. Their spirits are now roaming the house. Ghost hunters have visited the house once and saw some apparitions passing through the rooms. In 1933 the Sisters 0f St.Joseph bought the house and no further human deaths have occurred. I must say we were so enthralled with her story telling that we did not pay much attention to the wine we were sampling! We did buy a couple of bottles- one of which was called "Thursday Afternoon at 3:00". After a picnic lunch at Olcott Beach Carousel Park (the old carousel is now no longer there), we drove to Murphy Orchards. What we immediately saw once we drove into this farm was cherry trees full of ripening cherries. Also we noticed a large patch of rhubarb. We were informed by the owner that that was strawberry rhubarb, the best of all rhubarbs. Mrs.Murphy,the owner, was very gracious to us and took the time to explain the history of her barn; which is one of 25 charter facilities throughout the US to comprise the National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. One point which she stressed was that the Underground Railroad was not a series of tunnels, but just safe places for the slaves to stay before they went on to Canada. It was interesting touring this barn, seeing the very cobblestones the slaves walked on and the secret room below the barn where they hid. And I liked what Mrs.Murphy said: "we are extremely proud of this heritage and hope that given the same circumstances and the same choices,we would have acted the same way". I have posted here a picture of the winery and the barn. Now I have some rhubarb to cut up.