CANDOR, N.Y. - Rita Kellogg is a tiny slip of a woman, probably no more than 100 pounds soaking wet. But she packs a powerful punch into the goat cheese she and her family handcraft at Side Hill Acres Dairy Goat Farm in this tiny village in New York's Finger Lakes region.

The farm's rosemary-garlic-flavored goat cheese log was a blue-ribbon winner at the New York State Fair three years ago. In fact, most of Kellogg's cheeses, including goat milk cheddar and plain and flavored fetas, have won gold medals since she got started in 1994.

Kellogg has an easy explanation for the farm's success, and why a growing number of tourists are seeking it out for culinary tours. Like many of the other cheeseries that will strut their stuff Saturday during the Finger Lakes Artisanal Cheese Open House, she uses milk only from her herd of 135 goats. The farm processes its ingredients by hand; her mother, Bertha Miller, for instance, flips and salts every log that slides out of a long, narrow mold after setting for 16 hours.

"And we hand-ladle all our cheeses for the creamy texture," Kellogg says.

Taking a cheesemaking tour is just one more reason to head here this time of year. The Finger Lakes region is known for its spectacular fall colors, and this year the leaves should be at their brightest and boldest for the open house.

The area is also popular with wine enthusiasts, thanks to the four organized wine trails linking more than 100 wineries.

New York has long been famous for its sharp cheddar cheeses, and now other types of artisan cheeses, such as those produced at Side Hill Acres, are also making a name for themselves.

Formed in 2003, New York's Farmstead & Artisan Cheese Makers Guild numbers almost 30 members. Most are more than eager to show you how cheese is made - some demonstrations are scheduled, others are on the fly - with tours of their barns, milk parlors, and aging caves.

Many of these small cheesemakers are in the northeastern part of the state, not far from the Vermont line. This year's second annual tour, however, will celebrate the work of eight cheesemaking operations clustered around Seneca and Cayuga Lakes in west-central New York. The grape-harvesting season will also be in full swing, with local wineries offering tastings for as little as $1.

Or as coordinator Monika Ross of the Tompkins County Cooperative Extension puts it, "Grab yourself a loaf of bread and you can have yourself a picnic," with the area's legendary tableau of gold, deep scarlet, and orange leaves as your backdrop.

The farms' offerings are as delicious as they are unique. Joining Side Hill Acres on the free, self-guided tour (you'll need to drive) are Finger Lakes Farmstead Cheese Co. in Mecklenburg, where former reporter Nancy Taber Richards crafts aged Gouda-style cheeses on the 700-acre farm her paternal grandfather started in 1919, and Sunset View Creamery in Odessa, home to a tasty selection of cheddars, cheddar curds, and Monterey Jacks that Carmella and Ron Hoffman make in a 290-gallon vat imported from Holland.

In nearby King Ferry, Finger Lakes Dexter Creamery will tout its farmstead kefir cheese, cultured with living kefir grains and handcrafted with raw milk from grass-fed Irish Dexter cows.

"It's an opportunity to get out and see the farm," Ross says of the open house. That, and sample a little cheese in the process.

Since Seneca and Cayuga Lakes each stretch more than 40 miles, you might want to schedule your cheese tour over at least two days. I spent my first night at the southern tip of Cayuga Lake, in Ithaca - a funky college town populated with old hippies, young hipsters, and robed Tibetan Buddhist monks (on Aurora Street, the Namgyal Monastery Institute of Buddhist Studies is the North American Seat of the Personal Monastery of His Holiness the Dalai Lama). I found an immediate warm welcome at the William Henry Miller Inn, an elegant bed-and-breakfast graced with American chestnut woodwork and stained glass, in the city's East Hill Historic District.

My second night's stay, near Watkins Glen at Sunset on Seneca, a waterfront B&B on the southern shores of Seneca Lake, also was delightful. Its large dock was a perfect spot for watching the sun set over the water.

When retreating Ice Age glaciers formed the Finger Lakes - so named because that's exactly what they look like - more than a million years ago, they cut deep gorges with raging waterfalls. Ithaca boasts more than 150 falls within 10 miles. Taughannock Falls, north of the city on Route 89, is worth the 20-minute hike on the gorge trail. (It's 33 feet higher than Niagara Falls.)

Almost as pretty are the series of six falls that tumble 400 feet through Cascadilla Gorge, just a few blocks from Ithaca Commons, the city's signature two-block pedestrian mall. Even in heels, it was worth negotiating the rocky, wooded path before dinner for a glimpse of this giant "staircase" of falling water.

Had it been the weekend, I would have hit the open-air Ithaca Farmers Market at Steamboat Landing on my way out of Ithaca (more than 100 vendors sell everything from agricultural produce to ethnic foods and local crafts). Instead, I settled for the mini midweek market at Dewitt Park. Then it was on to my first stop of the day: Finger Lakes Farmstead Cheese Co. in Mecklenburg, where I found Nancy Richards wiping and turning 300 eight-pound wheels of the raw-milk Gouda-style cheese she learned to make from a Swiss cheesemaker.

It takes time, and upper-body strength, to wash and move all those rounds. But it's necessary, Richards says, to encourage the bacteria on her distinctive Red and Bier Meck cheese to grow and impart a tangy flavor. Her Schuyler (traditional Dutch-type cheese) gets a sponge-on coating that dries into a waxlike skin.

Sold at upscale and specialty stores, co-ops, and farmers markets, artisan cheeses - defined as those made by hand using traditional methods and recipes - are all about quality ingredients and painstaking attention to detail. The milk comes from the producer's herd or flock of cows, sheep, or goats (known as "farmstead") or fresh from a local dairy, and the batches are small to allow for hands-on attention.