We didn’t have plans to go anywhere far for Labour Day weekend, so we just did some day trips. On Sunday, we headed down to the Niagara Escarpment to do some fruit picking, which actual is kind of a bad excuse to go wine touring again.

Well we didn’t intend to, but it’s hard to get away from all the wineries that showed up on in your path. We started first at Puddicombe Farms. They had pears (Bartlett and Bosch) for 40¢/lb, except that you had to pay a $2 admission per person. We ended up picking about 8 pounds worth, so in total that cost us $7.20. Their orchard was pretty small, in a way it seemed like the planted it just for pick-your-own. They was also a winery on-site (how fortunate) and we tried some fruity wines.

Next, it was lunch time. We drove along the wine route, and originally headed for Eastdell (since I knew they served lunch from research on the previous trip). But there was a 1.5 hour wait for a package brunch! We drove around a bit more and ended up at Angels Gate winery.

They have a nice patio overlooking their vines and with a direct view to Lake Ontario. It was a clear day, so we were able to see the Toronto skyline in the far distance. Their menu consisted of a selection of two-person plates, we tried the Québec plate and a few flutes.

After lunch, we continued with our fruit picking expedition. The next stop was Cherry Ave Farms. This was a real pick-your-own-fruit operation, and things were a bit more expensive ($1/lb). I guess it would be fun for kids since you had to take a ride on a tractor to the orchard you were picking. They had pears and plums, but since we already picked pears, we went for the plums (and some nectarines out of season). We ended up with about 9 pounds of plums/nectarines and some free apricots.

Our last destination was to pick raspberries, but when we got to the farm, it was deserted. And the raspberries looked a bit sketchy anyways, so we headed home. But along the way, we stopped at No. 99 Estate Winery. We tried some ice wine, but really I just wanted to visit there because it’s name after Wayne Gretzky!

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: hockey, wine