November 2017

Be Memorable this Holiday Season

Isn’t about time you perfected your signature dish? As we head into the holiday season, you’re bound to be committed to some potlucks or parties where a dessert will come in handy. Everyone wants to be the person who brings someone’s favorite dish or introduces a never-before-experienced flavor. Depending on the location of your festivities, the Naples Grape Pie could achieve either or both.

A Rich History

The stories behind Upstate New York’s regional delicacies fall on a spectrum from mystery to legend. Grape Pie is among those whose origins are well-known and verifiable, due in part to the fact that it’s a relatively new phenomenon. The Naples concord grape pie we know today is a product of the Twentieth Century, the result of a collaboration between a local restauranteur named Al Hodges and an enterprising baker named Irene Bouchard. It was first sold at the Redwood Restaurant and out of Mrs. Bouchard’s home, but today the grape pie is a cornerstone of the Naples Grape Festival, where an estimated twenty thousand are sold each year.

To Bake or Not to Bake?

If you clicked on this post because you’d love to add a made-from-scratch authentic grape pie to your baking repertoire, check out the recipes at Monica’s Pies, Home in the Finger Lakes, and Genius Kitchen. If you clicked through in reaction to sheer novelty but are all thumbs in the kitchen, you’re in luck, too. The easiest way to get a grape pie in Rochester is to buy one at Power’s Farm Market in Pittsford. If you’re able to muster up your own crust, just pick up a few jars of Monica’s grape pie filling. Whichever way you do it, you’ll be creating a delicious conversation piece.