New Brunswick: Wet Weather Means Great Mushroom Season

The heavy rainfall this season throughout New Brunswick has resulted in a bumper mushroom crop but before you feast know what you eat.

The rain this Spring and Summer here in New Brunswick seemed almost endless much like last winter's snow. The only differences were it was warmer and you did not have to shovel it, you got to pump it out of the basement instead. But there was a pot of gold, well mushrooms at the end of all that rain. this year there is a bumper crop of wild mushrooms throughout the province. However, if you love the fungi be aware that the delicious may be difficult to distinguish from the deadly. "There's 5,000 or more mushrooms in New Brunswick, probably more. You really need an experienced collector along to keep you out of trouble," said Ken Harrison, a biologist with Natural Resources Canada. "We've had such high frequency rains for the last three weeks that nothing ever dries off, and as a result, with the high humidity, that's absolutely perfect growing conditions for mushrooms," Harrison said. Some restaurateurs are pleased with the bounty. In Dieppe, Chef Marcel Richard said he uses many local mushrooms at his restaurant Café Mosaïque. "Right now the woods are full of them," Richard said. I'm busy attempting to identify the 10 or so varieties I have found around the backyard.