When we think of mushrooms and the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, the initially point which traditionally comes to mind is María Sabina, Huautla de Jiménez and hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. But slowly that is all changing as a result of the groundbreaking perform of Josefina Jiménez and Johann Mathieu in mycology, through their company, Mico-lógica.
Based in the village of Benito Juárez, positioned in Oaxaca’s Ixtlán district (far more generally identified as the Sierra Norte, the state’s most important ecotourism area), Mico-lógica’s mission is threefold: to train each Mexicans and guests to the nation in the low-cost cultivation of a wide variety of mushroom species to educate about the medicinal, nutritional and environmental (sustainable) value of mushrooms and to conduct ongoing analysis concerning optimum climatic regions and the diversity of substrata for mushroom culture.
The French-born Mathieu moved to Mexico, and in truth to Huautla de Jiménez, in 2005. “Yes, coming all the way to Mexico from France to pursue my interest in mushrooms seems like a extended way to travel,” Mathieu explained in a recent interview in Oaxaca. “But there definitely wasn’t a lot of an chance to conduct research and grow a organization in Western Europe,” he continues, “considering that reverence for mushrooms had been all but totally eradicated by The Church more than the course of centuries and I discovered that Mexico nonetheless maintains a respect and appreciation for the medicinal and nutritional worth of hongos. Mexico is far from mycophobic.”
Huautla de Jiménez is far more than a 5 hour drive from the closest metropolitan center. Accordingly, Mathieu sooner or later realized that staying in Huautla, although holding an historic allure and becoming in a geographic region conducive to working with mushrooms, would hinder his efforts to develop a company and cultivate widespread interest in understanding 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 occasion. 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 area of San Luis Potosí, the mountains of Guerrero and the coast of Chiapas. Mathieu and Jiménez became company, and then life partners in Benito Juárez.
Mathieu and Jiménez are concentrating on 3 mushroom species in their hands-on seminars oyster (seta), shitake and reishi. Their one-day workshops are for oyster mushrooms, and two-day clinics for the latter two species of fungus. “With polkadot shrooms , and to a lesser extent shitake, we’re also teaching a fair bit about the medicinal uses of mushrooms, so much more time is expected,” says Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it is predominantly [but not exclusively] a course on cultivation.”
When education seminars are now only offered in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and Jiménez program to expand operations to consist of both the central valleys and coastal regions of Oaxaca. The object is to have a network of producers developing diverse mushrooms which are optimally suited for cultivation based on the particular microclimate. There are about 70 sub-species of oyster mushrooms, and hence as a species, the adaptability of the oyster mushroom to distinct climatic regions is exceptional. “The oyster can be grown in a multitude of diverse substrata, and that is what we’re experimenting with proper now,” he elucidates. The oyster mushroom can thrive when grown on goods which would otherwise be waste, such as discard from cultivating beans, sugar cane, agave (including the fibrous waste developed in mezcal distillation), peas, the prevalent river reed identified as carriso, sawdust, and the list goes on. Agricultural waste which might otherwise be left to rot or be burned, each and every with adverse environmental implications, can type substrata for mushroom cultivation. It really should be noted, even though trite, that mushroom cultivation is a highly sustainable, green business. Over the past numerous years Mexico has in fact been at the fore in a lot of places of sustainable industry.
Mathieu exemplifies how mushrooms can serve an arguably even greater environmental excellent:
“They can hold up to thirty thousand occasions their mass, obtaining implications for inhibiting erosion. They’ve been used to clean up oil spills via absorption and thus are an essential vehicle for habitat restoration. Investigation has been performed with mushrooms in the battle against carpenter ant destruction it’s been recommended that the use of fungi has the potential to entirely revamp the pesticide sector 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-item. Take a appear at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, six Methods Mushrooms Can Save The Planet.”
Mathieu and Jiménez can usually be identified promoting their solutions on weekends in the organic markets in Oaxaca. They are each extra than content to talk about 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 cannot be identified in fruits or vegetables, and accordingly a diet which contains fungi is exceptionally crucial for vegetarians who can not get B12, most generally contained in meats. Mushrooms can conveniently be a substitute for meats, with the advantage that they are not loaded with antibiotics and hormones usually found in industrially processed meat products.