goodthingsmagazine.comLUXURY ESCAPES107T
here’s an entire rockpool in my lap – and
it’s edible. Clams, periwinkles, blue
mussels and a giant lobster claw swim in
a steaming broth of wine, splashed with
jewel-like edible flowers. Welcome to a
very special Maritime shore broil.
In a thicket in the woods, bristling out
over the Bay of Fundy, I’m among a privileged
circle of food and nature enthusiasts who’ve
descended from all over Canada for Dining
On The Ocean Floor, an exclusive event run
by local restaurant Flying Apron, enabled by
the ebb and flow of the world’s highest tides.
The bay is a UNESCO biosphere reserve,
voted in 2014 as one of North America’s
seven natural wonders. It funnels 160 billion
tonnes of water between the provinces of
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick from the
North Atlantic Ocean – more water than all
the freshwater rivers in the world combined.
As the bay gets narrower, there’s nowhere
for all that water to go but up.
Here in Burntcoat Head Park, a slick of
green algae on the layer cake of coastal rocks
marks high tides of up to 15 metres – the
height of a five-storey building. At low tide,
the water is sucked out so ferociously and far
that it’s possible to walk (and set up one long
white-linen table) on the ocean floor. This
dinner is at the mercy of the tides, and can
only take place four times a year. It is one
of the crowning glories of an unsung food
scene that revolves around the bay.
When the tide recedes, the whipped-
mousse seabed le behind is a rockpooler’s
dream – studded with periwinkles and
seaweed, harbouring richly-populated tidal
pools. ‘This is my playground – we can find
anything out here,’ enthuses environmental
science and biology student Emily as she
leads us on a tour of the ocean floor. The Bay
of Fundy supports a tremendous amount
of marine life, and lobster is so abundant, it
was once considered a staple for the poor.
The next day, I head to the fishing
community of Hall’s Harbour along a bucolic
road through the Annapolis Valley, NovaCANADA’S
SEAFARING SOUL
Lorna Parkes discovers Canada’s mighty
Bay of Fundy, where marine ecosystems
and a unique environment give life to a
surprising local-centric food sceneMain image: Courtesy of New Brunswick TourismCanada_MATTV2CANADA ZP.indd 107 04/04/2017 16:17