After a few hard frosts, Nova Scotia’s blowout mushroom season is coming to a close. This year’s fall bloom had mycologists and foraging enthusiasts rejoicing as chanterelle, bolete, and webcap mushrooms emerged in higher numbers than usual following consistent rains this summer.
“This was a really good year,” says Keith Egger, professor emeritus at UNBC and president of the Nova Scotia Mycological Society. “The last time we had a mushroom season this good was 2023.”
The season began in late August, peaked in October, and is petering out as temperatures grow colder. “It’s mostly done. Although, this week I did find a few new ones popping up,” says Egger. Throughout the season, foragers would have found a range of species dotting the forest floors, logs, trees, and damp shady corners of Nova Scotia.
The flush comes after drought conditions last summer led to very few mushrooms blooming in the fall. “There were hardly any mushrooms at all last year and so this year I think people were noticing them a lot more,” says Egger.
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This year, consistent rain occurring roughly once a week throughout the summer created the perfect conditions for a robust bloom this fall. “The mushrooms themselves are more like fruit on a tree. They’re not the actual body of the fungus. The fungus is below ground, or in rotting wood, or sometimes attached to the roots of surrounding trees,” says Egger. “But for the body of that fungus to produce mushrooms, it needs to have a lot of moisture.”
Egger says mushroom seasons varied across the Atlantic provinces this fall. In New Brunswick, consistent rains fueled a similarly strong flush, while Newfoundland’s dry summer led to a less fruitful bloom.
After a successful fall, Egger is hopeful next year’s turnout will be just as strong. “I think everybody’s just pleased that it was such a good season,” he says. “And we’re looking forward to hopefully more like this.”
For those keen to forage their own mushrooms before the season ends, the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC recommends only picking species that you can identify with 100 per cent certainty, as some mushrooms have toxic lookalikes. The safest species to forage are black morel, yellow chanterelle, chicken of the woods, and edible puffballs, as they are the easiest to identify.
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