When we assume of mushrooms and the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, the very first issue which traditionally comes to mind is María Sabina, Huautla de Jiménez and hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. But slowly that’s all changing as a outcome of the groundbreaking function of Josefina Jiménez and Johann Mathieu in mycology, through their business, Mico-lógica.
Primarily based in the village of Benito Juárez, situated in Oaxaca’s Ixtlán district (a lot more normally known as the Sierra Norte, the state’s key ecotourism area), Mico-lógica’s mission is threefold: to train both Mexicans and guests to the country in the low-price cultivation of a selection of mushroom species to educate about the medicinal, nutritional and environmental (sustainable) value of mushrooms and to conduct ongoing study with regards 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 actually wasn’t a great deal of an chance to conduct studies and develop a organization in Western Europe,” he continues, “considering the fact that reverence for mushrooms had been all but absolutely eradicated by The Church over the course of centuries and I discovered 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 extra than a 5 hour drive from the closest metropolitan center. Accordingly, Mathieu eventually realized that staying in Huautla, when holding an historic allure and becoming in a geographic area conducive to operating with mushrooms, would hinder his efforts to develop a company and cultivate widespread interest in learning about fungi. Mathieu became cognizant of the burgeoning reputation of Oaxaca’s ecotourism communities of the Sierra Norte, and certainly 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 operating 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 business enterprise, and then life partners in Benito Juárez.
magic mushrooms and Jiménez are concentrating on 3 mushroom species in their hands-on seminars oyster (seta), shitake and reishi. Their one particular-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 more time is required,” says Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it’s predominantly [but not exclusively] a course on cultivation.”
While training seminars are now only given in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and Jiménez program to expand operations to consist of each the central valleys and coastal regions of Oaxaca. The object is to have a network of producers developing distinctive mushrooms which are optimally suited for cultivation primarily based on the specific microclimate. There are about 70 sub-species of oyster mushrooms, and as a result as a species, the adaptability of the oyster mushroom to distinctive climatic regions is exceptional. “The oyster can be grown in a multitude of diverse substrata, and that’s what we’re experimenting with ideal now,” he elucidates. The oyster mushroom can thrive when grown on solutions which would otherwise be waste, such as discard from cultivating beans, sugar cane, agave (which includes the fibrous waste made in mezcal distillation), peas, the popular river reed recognized as carriso, sawdust, and the list goes on. Agricultural waste which may perhaps otherwise be left to rot or be burned, every single with adverse environmental implications, can type substrata for mushroom cultivation. It ought to be noted, even though trite, that mushroom cultivation is a hugely sustainable, green sector. More than the past numerous years Mexico has in fact been at the fore in a lot of locations of sustainable sector.
Mathieu exemplifies how mushrooms can serve an arguably even higher environmental excellent:
“They can hold up to thirty thousand occasions their mass, getting implications for inhibiting erosion. They’ve been used to clean up oil spills via absorption and hence are an vital automobile for habitat restoration. Research has been accomplished with mushrooms in the battle against carpenter ant destruction it really is been recommended that the use of fungi has the potential to totally revamp the pesticide industry in an environmentally friendly way. There are literally hundreds of other eco-friendly applications for mushroom use, and in every case the mushroom remains an edible by-solution. Take a appear at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, six Approaches Mushrooms Can Save The Planet.”
Mathieu and Jiménez can frequently be located selling their products on weekends in the organic markets in Oaxaca. They’re each additional than delighted to discuss the nutritional worth of their items which range from naturally their fresh mushrooms, but also as preserves, marinated with either chipotle and nopal or jalapeño and cauliflower. The mushroom’s vitamin B12 cannot be discovered in fruits or vegetables, and accordingly a eating plan which includes fungi is exceptionally important for vegetarians who cannot get B12, most typically contained in meats. Mushrooms can effortlessly be a substitute for meats, with the benefit that they are not loaded with antibiotics and hormones usually located in industrially processed meat merchandise.