Picton

Prince Edward County was settled in the 1780s by United Empire Loyalists who had left the new United States after the American Revolution, taking up land along the Bay of Quinte granted by the Crown. Two villages grew on opposite sides of Picton Bay, Hallowell Bridge and Picton, the second named, like the bay, after Sir Thomas Picton, the British general killed at Waterloo. They were incorporated as one town in 1837, and Picton became the county seat.

The 19th century made it a port and a farming centre, first for grain, especially barley, and later for fruit and vegetables. Canning followed: 75 canning factories operated in the County between 1882 and 1996, and at one time it supplied a third of all the canned produce in Canada. In the Second World War an airfield near Picton housed an RAF bombing and gunnery school; the Army trained there after the war, as Camp Picton from 1960, and the base closed in 1969.

Picton lost its separate municipal status in 1998, when all the County's townships and villages amalgamated into a single municipality, the County of Prince Edward, with its council in the Shire Hall in Picton. Over the following two decades the County reinvented itself as a wine and holiday destination, and Picton's Main Street, long a quiet rural high street, filled with restaurants, galleries and inns. The old airfield now houses businesses and hosts events, and housing costs and the pressure of summer visitors are much debated.

Picton's identity is Loyalist and rural at heart. Family names from the 1780s are still on mailboxes, the Loyalist Parkway runs through the town, and the County's history is told at Macaulay Heritage Park, a restored house and a museum in a converted church. Onto that has been grafted a newer culture of winemakers, chefs, artists and weekenders from Toronto and Ottawa, many of whom have moved here for good, and the two groups mix at the fair, the farmers' markets and the Regent Theatre, opened on Main Street in 1918 for vaudeville and films, which now hosts plays, musicals and art films; the County's jazz festival follows in August.

The arts are strong for a town of its size. The County has a studio and gallery tour, a juried art show and a summer music festival, and galleries and craft shops occupy former shops and barns in Picton and Bloomfield. Sport is small-town Ontario: minor hockey through the winter at the arena, sailing and fishing on the bay in summer, and cycling everywhere. The County's annual events follow the farm year — maple syrup in March, the fair in September, wine events in autumn.

Manners are informal and friendly, with a rural reserve: people wave from cars on back roads, chat in queues and expect visitors to drive slowly, respect farm gates and private shoreline. Before Loyalist settlement the area was home to the Mississauga, who left a burial ground on Waupoos Island, and the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory lies to the north, across the Bay of Quinte.

Picton is the largest community in Prince Edward County, which has about 25,700 people as a whole and many more in summer. The County is known for its large retirement community, and the shortage of homes for the young families and seasonal workers who keep the restaurants and wineries running is a pressing local issue. Short-term rentals, conversions of houses into inns and the rise in prices since the pandemic are argued over at council meetings and in the local paper.

Agriculture is still the base of the economy — dairy, grain, apples and now grapes — alongside tourism, which employs people in the inns, restaurants, wineries and shops from May to October, and a few larger employers: the cement plant and the port on Picton Bay, the hospital, the County offices and schools. Many residents commute to Belleville or work from home for employers in Toronto or Ottawa.

The day runs on a farm clock in winter and a visitor clock in summer. Main Street is busy from late morning, the harbour fills with boats, and the roads to Sandbanks jam on hot Saturdays. From November the town goes quiet, many businesses shorten their hours, and the County returns to itself: hockey, curling, church suppers and the long wait for maple season.

The County's cooking is built on what grows on it. Apples are a long-standing crop, and Waupoos and the eastern shore, the centre of the County's cider industry, sell them in autumn alongside local ciders. Black River Cheese near Milford makes local cheddar, mozzarella and speciality cheeses. Dairy, sweetcorn and other vegetables come from the same farms that once fed the canning factories, and the fair in September is where the County's bakers show off their pies and butter tarts, a classic Canadian pastry.

Wine is the newer story. The first commercial vinifera vineyard was planted in 1993, and the County now holds dozens of small wineries, mostly in Hillier in the west, where limestone and a cool climate suit Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Craft breweries, distilleries and cideries fill out the list, and tastings are the main activity for many visitors between beach days.

Picton itself eats along Main Street. Bakeries and cafés open early for cyclists, pubs serve fish and chips and burgers, and the restaurants that have opened since the 2000s cook farm-to-table menus of County lamb, lake fish, vegetables and cheese with local wine lists. Bloomfield and Wellington have their own bakeries and bistros, and the Saturday farmers' market in Wellington sells vegetables, honey, preserves and baking straight from the growers.