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Just Desserts
The booth sits across from a fish truck, but most people navigating the 600 stalls of fresh produce, flowers, and wooden yard furniture at Syracuse's Regional Market ignore the fishy odor in favor of the nearby delectable goodies at May's Middle Eastern Pastries. The table displays a number of treats in different sizes, some covered with assorted nuts and others in chocolate. Owner May Morris, a small, bubbly Lebanese woman with curly, blond hair and glasses, stands beside the enticing fare with an inviting smile. Her mantra — "Life is too short, eat dessert first" — hangs on a sign in her stall, and it's a life philosophy she shares with most customers.
Her assortment includes baklava, a phyllo-dough pastry cut into little cubes. Baked with pistachios or walnuts, sugar, and honey, the sweet has a light, croissant-like texture. Tameralla, a glazed, date- or fig-filled pastry that looks like a bagel, serves as Morris' specialty. Her mother-in-law passed down the recipe to her, which she copyrighted to ensure sole ownership.
Morris bakes all the desserts in her DeWitt home. Other goodies include haresee, a cake-like treat with an almond topping; almond fingers, stick-shaped baklava topped with almonds; and frosting-topped custard phyllo. She sells her treats in half-dozen, dozen, 20-piece sampler sizes, and offers special orders at varying prices. One dozen pistachio baklava cost $13.99; one dozen haresee cost $10.99.
Morris developed her infatuation with baking as a child in Lebanon. She watched her sister and mother baking these pastries, started baking herself, and kept at it until she perfected her craft. She refuses to reveal her age but admits being in the United States for almost three decades. "It doesn't matter how old I am," she says. "What matters is that you'll love my pastries because I've been doing [it] for a long time."
She will, however, offer the number of years her stall has stood in the same spot: seven. Amid all the booths at the Regional Market, stopping at May's Middle Eastern Pastries is easy. Deciding between her sweets? Not so easy. Morris lays out samples for passers-by. If you aren't mindful, though, you’ll stand at her stall chatting away and noshing treat after treat. The best part is that she won't stop you.
Grape Expectations
The sparkling blue backdrop of Seneca Lake's western shore and the quaint Victorian Estate prompted National Geographic magazine to pronounce Four Chimneys Organic Winery "the most picturesque winery in the Finger Lakes." But the winery possesses more distinctions than just a lovely place to sip wine on a summer afternoon. In 1977, it became the first organic winery in the United States, committed to producing wines with no toxic or synthetic chemicals in the vineyard and the cellar.
Back then, winemaker Scott Smith and some friends decided to begin an organic winery. "Coming out of the late '60s and early '70s, everyone was asking, 'Hey, what’s going on here? What’s that natural approach to things?'" he says. "A lot of organic wine started up in Europe. Just people with a vision, people who like wine and who said, 'I think this is a better way of farming.' And it’s continuing to grow."
They vinified wine in a basement, made plenty of mistakes, and finally got it right, he says. In 1980, they opened the winery with 2,000 gallons of organic wine. Since then, they developed a range of techniques to maintain that status. Instead of using pesticides, they keep a healthy balance of beneficial and predator bugs, sometimes spreading ladybugs and lacewings. Rather than fungicides, they cultivate the plants' natural ability to fend off harmful fungi. To avoid chemical herbicides, they use laborious hand and tractor mulching and weeding. They also refuse to add any unnatural or synthetic sulfites, a chemical compound thought to trigger headaches in wine drinkers. Timothy Barr, professor of a popular wine appreciation course at Syracuse University, says he often recommends organic wine to those prone to wine-induced headaches. The lower number of unnatural sulfites is rumored to reduce the infamous red-wine hangover.
Even with the health benefits, wine makers and drinkers alike debate whether it is possible to make a fine wine without added chemicals to enhance the aging process. David G. Male, competition chairman of the 2007 Finger Lakes International Wine Competition, says that organically grown wines often taste better than more conventional ones; they just require more work for the makers. "Four Chimneys has two or three wines that are ranked highly among the wineries," Male says. "They do pretty well against other wines that both are and are not organic."
In fact, six of their 20 wines won medals at the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition. Their Raspberry Sunrise won the silver medal at the International Eastern Wine Competition. Despite the accolades, Smith downplays his achievements. "There’s so many different kinds of grapes and so many different winemaking styles, all you can be sure of is that you’re not getting conventional chemicals sprayed on your grapes."
The tasting room is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Visit their website for information on shipping orders and tasting room discounts. fourchimneysorganicwines.com
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