When we assume of mushrooms and the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, the initially issue which traditionally comes to thoughts is María Sabina, Huautla de Jiménez and hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. But slowly that’s all changing as a result of the groundbreaking operate of Josefina Jiménez and Johann Mathieu in mycology, via their firm, Mico-lógica.
Primarily based in the village of Benito Juárez, situated in Oaxaca’s Ixtlán district (additional normally identified as the Sierra Norte, the state’s principal ecotourism area), Mico-lógica’s mission is threefold: to train both Mexicans and visitors to the nation in the low-expense cultivation of a range of mushroom species to educate about the medicinal, nutritional and environmental (sustainable) worth of mushrooms and to conduct ongoing research concerning optimum climatic regions and the diversity of substrata for mushroom culture.
The French-born Mathieu moved to Mexico, and in reality to Huautla de Jiménez, in 2005. “Yes, coming all the way to Mexico from France to pursue my interest in mushrooms seems like a lengthy way to travel,” Mathieu explained in a current interview in Oaxaca. “But there genuinely wasn’t substantially of an opportunity to conduct studies and develop a enterprise 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.”
Mr Mushies de Jiménez is much more than a five hour drive from the closest metropolitan center. Accordingly, Mathieu ultimately realized that staying in Huautla, when holding an historic allure and being in a geographic area conducive to functioning with mushrooms, would hinder his efforts to develop a company 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 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 equivalent interests Jiménez had studied agronomy, and for close to a decade had been working 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 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 more time is needed,” says Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it’s predominantly [but not exclusively] a course on cultivation.”
When education seminars are now only offered in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and Jiménez plan to expand operations to include things like both the central valleys and coastal regions of Oaxaca. The object is to have a network of producers developing unique mushrooms which are optimally suited for cultivation based on the distinct microclimate. There are about 70 sub-species of oyster mushrooms, and hence as a species, the adaptability of the oyster mushroom to unique climatic regions is outstanding. “The oyster can be grown in a multitude of distinct substrata, and that is what we’re experimenting with ideal 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 (such as the fibrous waste developed in mezcal distillation), peas, the prevalent river reed identified as carriso, sawdust, and the list goes on. Agricultural waste which may otherwise be left to rot or be burned, every single with adverse environmental implications, can form substrata for mushroom cultivation. It ought to be noted, though trite, that mushroom cultivation is a hugely sustainable, green sector. More than the previous many years Mexico has in truth been at the fore in a lot of areas of sustainable sector.
Mathieu exemplifies how mushrooms can serve an arguably even higher environmental fantastic:
“They can hold up to thirty thousand times their mass, getting implications for inhibiting erosion. They’ve been applied to clean up oil spills by way of absorption and as a result are an critical automobile for habitat restoration. Analysis has been accomplished with mushrooms in the battle against carpenter ant destruction it’s been suggested that the use of fungi has the possible to completely revamp the pesticide business in an environmentally friendly way. There are literally hundreds of other eco-friendly applications for mushroom use, and in each and every case the mushroom remains an edible by-item. Take a appear at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save The Planet.”
Mathieu and Jiménez can frequently be identified selling their goods on weekends in the organic markets in Oaxaca. They’re each additional than satisfied to go over the nutritional value of their solutions 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 can not be discovered in fruits or vegetables, and accordingly a eating plan which consists of fungi is extremely important for vegetarians who cannot get B12, most frequently contained in meats. Mushrooms can simply be a substitute for meats, with the advantage that they are not loaded with antibiotics and hormones normally located in industrially processed meat merchandise.
