Introduction
For most of its history, Prince Edward County was not a tourist destination. It was a working landscape built around canning factories, fruit orchards, and agriculture. Today, it’s home to wineries, boutique hotels, and farm-to-table restaurants drawing visitors from Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, the northeastern United States, and increasingly some international travellers as well.
As someone who lives and spends a lot of time in downtown Toronto, a very relaxing experience for me is spending time in any place with no high-rise condo buildings, no traffic, and no noise. It’s one reason why Salt Spring Island in British Columbia is one of my favourite places in Canada to visit, and I try to make an annual pilgrimage there. But this time around, I decided to visit somewhere not too far from Toronto.
One of the reviews I read about this place described it as the Hamptons of Canada. I have not yet been to the Hamptons in New York, so I cannot confirm nor deny that assertion. I decided to spend the weekend in Prince Edward County to see for myself.
Prince Edward County — or the County, as it’s fondly called — is about two hours east of Toronto. The County itself is made up of three main towns: Wellington, Bloomfield, and Picton. Picton is the administrative centre of the County and has the most urban feel, with lots of restaurants, shops, and services. Bloomfield is perhaps the best illustration of how the County reinvented itself; many of the old buildings that once served an agricultural economy now house galleries, studios, cafes, and independent businesses. Wellington has a more relaxed village atmosphere, and is probably the part that most resembles what people picture when they hear “Hamptons of Canada.”
PEC Before Tourism: The Agrarian Identity
What the County was, and why it stayed quiet for so long, starts with barley. In the 1800s, Bloomfield was a hotspot for growing barley, which was in much demand for the United States’ brewing industry. When demand for barley fell, farmers turned to growing vegetables, primarily peas and tomatoes, as well as fruits like apples, strawberries, and pumpkins, which were also canned in the area, resulting in a boom in the canning industry across the County. Picton and the surrounding area became home to a significant food processing and canning economy that employed a large portion of the local population. In 1902, the County produced a third of Canada’s canned fruits and vegetables. When that industry declined with the introduction of conglomerate owners and sophisticated farm equipment, the County was left with depressed land prices, underused heritage buildings, and a shrinking economic base. For years afterward, the County remained relatively quiet.
Not too long after, artists, craftspeople, and entrepreneurs started moving in, attracted by inexpensive property, historic buildings, and a slower pace of life. So, long before Prince Edward County became known for wineries and boutique hotels, it was becoming a creative community.
The rise of wineries and cideries in Prince Edward County began in the mid-1990s and exploded into a booming tourism industry during the 2000s, after pioneers recognized the region’s unique limestone-rich soils. In 2000, Waupoos Estates opened as the first winery in the County. In 2003, the Grape Growers of Ontario designated PEC as an official wine-growing region, and in 2007, the region was officially named a Designated Viticultural Area (DVA). But for years after that, PEC remained largely under the radar, visited mainly by cottagers with long connections to the area and people with family roots there.
PEC Today
Over the past decade, Prince Edward County has evolved from a largely regional destination into one of Ontario’s most sought-after weekend getaways. Together, the wineries, artists, restaurants, and natural attractions began creating something larger than any one industry, and a tourism economy started to emerge around these experiences.
Culinary and Farm-to-Table Economy
The County has a thriving restaurant scene, largely as a result of its history. It has often been called the gastronomic capital of Ontario. Driving between the major towns, you’ll pass by several working farms, and at a time when many people are craving food without chemicals or additives, the farm-to-table experience here has been a major draw.
Wineries, Cideries, and Sandbanks as Primary Draws
Wineries and cideries have been among the most important drivers of the County’s growing popularity. The limestone-rich soil and Lake Ontario microclimate created a terroir that attracted winemakers to the area, and today more than 40 wineries operate across the county. About a 30-minute drive from Wellington, there’s Sandbanks Provincial Park, home to one of the largest freshwater sandbar and dune systems in the world, and one of the original reasons people were visiting PEC years ago.
Arts, Galleries, Studios, Vintage and Handcraft Stores
The creative and artisan economy in PEC largely predates the tourist wave. Artists and creatives came to the County in the years before peak tourism, drawn by affordable space, quiet, and a landscape that had something to offer creatively. Walking along Main Street in Picton, Wellington, or Bloomfield, you’ll find endless options of independently owned galleries, antique shops, and vintage stores.
Reflections
What makes Prince Edward County interesting is that it didn’t reinvent itself around a single industry. Instead, it built what economists sometimes call a creative economy: agriculture remained, artists arrived, wineries followed, and restaurants, hotels, and tourism businesses grew around them. PEC has a genuine agricultural and artistic identity that predates the tourism wave, and it’s still able to maintain that identity even with its increasing popularity.
When a place starts getting a lot of tourist attention, it’s common to see the locals push back, because the very reasons that made the place worth visiting start to get eroded. Prince Edward County has been able to transform itself without completely abandoning what made it distinctive in the first place. Maybe the next chapter of the County’s story will be about preserving what made people fall in love with it in the first place. It makes me curious what the story of the County will be in the next five or ten years. What will become of the agricultural roots, the creative community, and the physical landscape?
