When we feel of mushrooms and the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, the 1st thing which traditionally comes to mind is María Sabina, Huautla de Jiménez and hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. But gradually that’s all changing as a result of the groundbreaking operate of Josefina Jiménez and Johann Mathieu in mycology, via their enterprise, Mico-lógica.
Primarily based in the village of Benito Juárez, situated in Oaxaca’s Ixtlán district (much more usually recognized as the Sierra Norte, the state’s main ecotourism region), Mico-lógica’s mission is threefold: to train both Mexicans and visitors to the country in the low-expense cultivation of a selection of mushroom species to educate about the medicinal, nutritional and environmental (sustainable) worth of mushrooms and to conduct ongoing analysis relating to optimum climatic regions and the diversity of substrata for mushroom culture.
The French-born Mathieu moved to Mexico, and in fact to Huautla de Jiménez, in 2005. “Yes, coming all the way to Mexico from France to pursue my interest in mushrooms appears like a long way to travel,” Mathieu explained in a current interview in Oaxaca. “But there genuinely wasn’t substantially of an chance to conduct studies and develop a company in Western Europe,” he continues, “considering the fact that reverence for mushrooms had been all but entirely eradicated by The Church more than the course of centuries and I learned that Mexico nevertheless maintains a respect and appreciation for the medicinal and nutritional value of hongos. Mexico is far from mycophobic.”
Huautla de Jiménez is much more than a 5 hour drive from the closest metropolitan center. Accordingly, Mathieu eventually realized that staying in Huautla, while holding an historic allure and getting in a geographic area conducive to functioning with mushrooms, would hinder his efforts to grow a organization and cultivate widespread interest in mastering about fungi. Mathieu became cognizant of the burgeoning reputation of Oaxaca’s ecotourism communities of the Sierra Norte, and indeed the Feria Regional de Hongos Silvestres (regional wild mushroom festival), held annually in Cuahimoloyas.
Mathieu met Josefina Jiménez at the summertime weekend mushroom event. Jiménez had moved to Oaxaca from hometown Mexico City in 2002. The two shared related interests Jiménez had studied agronomy, and for close to a decade had been functioning with sustainable agriculture projects in rural farming communities in the Huasteca Potosina region of San Luis Potosí, the mountains of Guerrero and the coast of Chiapas. Mathieu and Jiménez became small business, and then life partners in Benito Juárez.
Mathieu and Jiménez are concentrating on three mushroom species in their hands-on seminars oyster (seta), shitake and reishi. Their 1-day workshops are for oyster mushrooms, and two-day clinics for the latter two species of fungus. “With reishi, and to a lesser extent shitake, we’re also teaching a fair bit about the medicinal makes use of of mushrooms, so extra time is expected,” says Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it really is predominantly [but not exclusively] a course on cultivation.”
When training seminars are now only provided in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and Jiménez strategy to expand operations to contain both the central valleys and coastal regions of Oaxaca. The object is to have a network of producers growing distinctive mushrooms which are optimally suited for cultivation based on the certain microclimate. There are about chang for sale -species of oyster mushrooms, and as a result as a species, the adaptability of the oyster mushroom to various climatic regions is exceptional. “The oyster can be grown in a multitude of distinctive substrata, and that is what we’re experimenting with suitable now,” he elucidates. The oyster mushroom can thrive when grown on products which would otherwise be waste, such as discard from cultivating beans, sugar cane, agave (like the fibrous waste developed in mezcal distillation), peas, the widespread river reed identified as carriso, sawdust, and the list goes on. Agricultural waste which might otherwise be left to rot or be burned, every single with adverse environmental implications, can kind substrata for mushroom cultivation. It should really be noted, although trite, that mushroom cultivation is a extremely sustainable, green industry. Over the previous various years Mexico has in fact been at the fore in quite a few areas of sustainable sector.
Mathieu exemplifies how mushrooms can serve an arguably even greater environmental very good:
“They can hold up to thirty thousand instances their mass, getting implications for inhibiting erosion. They’ve been utilized to clean up oil spills by way of absorption and hence are an critical car for habitat restoration. Analysis has been completed with mushrooms in the battle against carpenter ant destruction it really is been recommended that the use of fungi has the possible to entirely revamp the pesticide industry in an environmentally friendly way. There are actually hundreds of other eco-friendly applications for mushroom use, and in each and every case the mushroom remains an edible by-solution. Take a look at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, six Techniques Mushrooms Can Save The Globe.”
Mathieu and Jiménez can generally be located promoting their solutions on weekends in the organic markets in Oaxaca. They are each much more than delighted to go over the nutritional worth of their merchandise which variety from naturally their fresh mushrooms, but also as preserves, marinated with either chipotle and nopal or jalapeño and cauliflower. The mushroom’s vitamin B12 can’t be discovered in fruits or vegetables, and accordingly a diet regime which consists of fungi is very critical for vegetarians who can not get B12, most usually contained in meats. Mushrooms can simply be a substitute for meats, with the benefit that they are not loaded with antibiotics and hormones generally identified in industrially processed meat merchandise.