For Chef Devon, inspiration often starts with understanding where an ingredient comes from. On a recent trip to Prince Edward Island, he had the opportunity to take that curiosity beyond the kitchen, spending several days learning from the farmers, aquaculture producers, foragers, and chefs who shape the island’s food culture.

From rope-grown mussels and oysters harvested beneath frozen waters to an expansive culinary farm and live-fire cooking, the trip offered a firsthand look at a food system deeply connected to its surroundings.

Chef Devon traveled to Prince Edward Island with his mom, beginning their trip at the Inn at Bay Fortune, the 75-acre property owned and operated by Chef Michael Smith.

Naturally, the trip started with food: their first PEI lobster rolls, finished with lovage.

But there was much more to explore beyond the plate. The Inn is home to an extensive culinary farm and surrounding forest where the team grows and forages ingredients used throughout its menus. Nearly 500 varieties of edible plants are grown on the property, alongside chickens and Berkshire pigs.

A tour shortly after arriving offered an introduction to just how closely the Inn’s kitchen is connected to the land around it.

The following morning began at Atlantic Aqua Farms, where Chef Devon learned about the process behind PEI’s rope-grown blue mussels.

The visit followed the mussels from their early stages through a roughly two-year growing cycle and eventual harvest. What stood out was the balance between hands-on aquaculture and modern technology.

Teams regularly tend to the mussel ropes and remove invasive species, while the processing facility incorporates AI-powered technology to help handle approximately 55,000 pounds of mussels each day.

It was a behind-the-scenes look at the amount of time, labor, and innovation involved before an ingredient ever reaches a restaurant kitchen.

Back at the Inn at Bay Fortune, Chef Devon experienced its FireWorks Feast, an evening centered around ingredients grown, raised, and foraged on Prince Edward Island.

The experience began outdoors with multiple live-fire food stations and a tour of the farm before moving into a multicourse prix fixe dinner.

The Inn employs both a full-time farmer and a full-time forager, allowing the culinary team to build its menus around what is growing and available around them. That relationship between the kitchen and its environment was woven throughout the entire experience—from what was cooked to how it was served.

The trip concluded back at the Inn at Bay Fortune, where Chef Devon toured the kitchens and fermentation lab and spent time with Chef Michael Smith and his team.

Throughout the trip, the same ideas continued to surface: know where your food comes from, work closely with the people who grow and raise it, preserve what the season gives you, and allow the surrounding environment to influence what ends up on the plate.

They’re ideas that feel particularly familiar at Eden.

With our own onsite greenhouse, relationships with Midwest farmers, and Chef Devon’s ongoing exploration of preservation and fermentation, the trip offered new perspective on principles already central to the way we cook.

From the farms to the ocean to the kitchens of Prince Edward Island, it was a chance to step outside of Eden, learn from another food community, and return to Chicago with plenty of inspiration for what comes next.