When we consider of mushrooms and the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, the 1st issue which traditionally comes to thoughts is María Sabina, Huautla de Jiménez and hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. But slowly that is all changing as a result of the groundbreaking operate of Josefina Jiménez and Johann Mathieu in mycology, by means of their company, Mico-lógica.
Primarily based in the village of Benito Juárez, located in Oaxaca’s Ixtlán district (far more frequently identified as the Sierra Norte, the state’s key ecotourism area), Mico-lógica’s mission is threefold: to train each Mexicans and visitors to the country in the low-price cultivation of a selection of mushroom species to educate about the medicinal, nutritional and environmental (sustainable) worth of mushrooms and to conduct ongoing investigation concerning 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 extended way to travel,” Mathieu explained in a recent interview in Oaxaca. “But there seriously wasn’t much of an opportunity to conduct research and develop a company in Western Europe,” he continues, “since reverence for mushrooms had been all but entirely eradicated by The Church more than the course of centuries and I learned that Mexico nonetheless 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 five hour drive from the closest metropolitan center. Accordingly, Mathieu eventually realized that staying in Huautla, while holding an historic allure and becoming in a geographic area conducive to operating with mushrooms, would hinder his efforts to grow a enterprise and cultivate widespread interest in finding out 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 comparable 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 enterprise, 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 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 uses of mushrooms, so a lot more time is needed,” says Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it is predominantly [but not exclusively] a course on cultivation.”
While training seminars are now only provided in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and Jiménez strategy to expand operations to include things like each 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 unique microclimate. There are about 70 sub-species of oyster mushrooms, and thus as a species, the adaptability of the oyster mushroom to unique climatic regions is remarkable. “The oyster can be grown in a multitude of distinct 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 (including the fibrous waste made in mezcal distillation), peas, the common river reed known as carriso, sawdust, and the list goes on. Agricultural waste which may well otherwise be left to rot or be burned, each with adverse environmental implications, can kind substrata for mushroom cultivation. It need to be noted, although trite, that mushroom cultivation is a hugely sustainable, green business. Over the past many years Mexico has in fact been at the fore in lots of areas of sustainable market.
Mathieu exemplifies how mushrooms can serve an arguably even greater environmental very good:
“They can hold up to thirty thousand instances their mass, having implications for inhibiting erosion. They’ve been utilised to clean up oil spills by way of absorption and thus are an important vehicle for habitat restoration. Analysis has been done with mushrooms in the battle against carpenter ant destruction it really is been recommended that the use of fungi has the possible to absolutely revamp the pesticide business in an environmentally friendly way. There are literally hundreds of other eco-friendly applications for mushroom use, and in each case the mushroom remains an edible by-item. Take a look at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, six Methods Mushrooms Can Save The Planet.”
Mathieu and Jiménez can generally be identified selling their merchandise on weekends in the organic markets in Oaxaca. They’re each additional than pleased 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. Mr Mushies cannot be found in fruits or vegetables, and accordingly a diet plan which incorporates fungi is really significant for vegetarians who can’t get B12, most generally contained in meats. Mushrooms can very easily be a substitute for meats, with the benefit that they are not loaded with antibiotics and hormones often discovered in industrially processed meat merchandise.
