Welcome to LIFE AU LAIT and our account of the 'who’s who' and 'what’s what' of Prince Edward County.

I stopped here five years ago to write a travel story in the middle of a blustery February in 2014 and fell head over heels for the County, the island that would become my home a few years later. PEC was cultured and sophisticated, but not pretentious, the people were driven, but not at the expense of one another’s success—it was the model of what Richard Florida's creative class would look like entrenched and turned inwards on itself.

The wine was making a name for itself—and it's true, Prince Edward County hosts a remarkable terroir—but grapes aside, the County is fertile ground for a movement that's been a long time coming. 'It's the snowball of enormous spirit and a huge collaborative energy', local hotelier Alex Fida told me back then and it’s truer than ever today: there's something important happening here, and it's not about transplanted city folk following blogworthy dreams of hobby farming and hipster rusticism—there's an audible hum of minds and hands at work.

This beautiful place, with a lakefront that feels like the ocean, complete with waves and eternal views. This special soil that produces magnitudes of bounty in the hands of masters and novices alike, the delight of the latter echoing across Instagram. These crossroads where local wisdom and creative fervour meet—where the Drake Hotel and Dakota can establish outposts alongside kitchen takeovers by up-and-comers or chef-led food trucks. All this, set against magnificent gold and pink sunsets stretched out across an enormous sky.

The County is a place where anything is possible and this magazine exists to share a glimpse of what we’re all doing here, to guide visitors towards their best PEC experience, and to record for posterity the ever-evolving goings-on of a bunch of hyper-talented people who have been bred-by or drawn to the magical Prince Edward County. — LS

LIFE AU LAIT / MASTHEAD

Publisher & EIC • Lonelle Selbo
Features Editor • Kirstyn Mayers