Bitehouse Fungi Dinner Party
This event was held over Thanksgiving weekend at the St. Ann’s Bay Church on the Cabot Trail in Victoria County. Due to a long summer of drought, the fungi was NOT popping. While originally planning to do as we have annually and hike for fungi, (which we ID and discuss), there was no trail available that had a reliable source of specimens to look at. It was just too dry.
At the last minute I did a pivot, and managed to hike enough of my known fungi locations just before the event in order to grab over 25 species for the tables.
We ended up having plenty of fungi to discuss and look at from both edible and inedible categories. Myself and another avid forager, Earlene Busch (former owner and chef of the Chanterelle Inn), talked about the specimens, how we cook some of them, where we find them, how to ID them - and of course, gave hard reminders not to eat anything unless you really know the ID of the mushroom.
Actually, the way this turned into an inside only event centered around a specimens table and a menu full of foraged surprises ended up transforming the plan for 2025. It allowed older people and people with mobility issues to have a chance to see almost 30 species of fungi and learn about them from an accessible room. This event is now booked for Saturday, October 4, 2025 and will be the same format. Unless we have another drought, the plan is to host a separate hike & ID event with Brendon Smith later in the month.
about the food
Chef Bryan Picard makes amazing food. These dishes were all inspired with fungi in mind and we got a BEAUTIFUL assortment of fresh cultivated shrooms from Porter River Farm & Forage. They supplied us for the previous year’s foraging dinner as well, where we learned how to cook & preserve fungi with Fiona Genevieve.
This was really more a fancy forager’s dinner, and we will be leaning into that for the menu in 2025.
Accompanying the fungi was also pickled spruce tips, pickled daisy capers, green alder pepper, dulse, juniper, sea parsley, rose petals and wood sorrel.
To drink we had some Lilac Vanilla Lemonade and hot apple cider freshly pressed in Margaree!
THE MENU
Chicken rillettes, maitake, juniper, pickled spruce, wild rice
Smoked mussels, preserved wild garlic aioli, dulce
Whole grain sunflower sourdough, bee pollen butter
Wood grilled tuna, daisy capers, horseradish, leeks, drizzled with sea parsley oil
Wild mushrooms, green gnocchi, wood sorrel, cream, green alder pepper (oysters, pioppinos, morels, chanterelles)
Cranberry granita, hazelnuts, honey soaked cake, wood sorrel, dried roses
prizes
Like every year, we had some dehydrated mushroom mix and a couple grow kits from Happy Caps - a local business in Nova Scotia.
This year we had Lion’s Mane and Oyster mushrooms - two of my favorite types to grow at home. Both dehydrate rather easily and re-constitute well when its time to use them in a dish.