When we believe of mushrooms and the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, the first thing which traditionally comes to thoughts is María Sabina, Huautla de Jiménez and hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. But slowly that is all altering as a result of the groundbreaking perform of Josefina Jiménez and Johann Mathieu in mycology, via their corporation, Mico-lógica.
Based in the village of Benito Juárez, positioned in Oaxaca’s Ixtlán district (additional usually known as the Sierra Norte, the state’s primary ecotourism area), Mico-lógica’s mission is threefold: to train each Mexicans and visitors to the nation in the low-price cultivation of a wide variety of mushroom species to educate about the medicinal, nutritional and environmental (sustainable) value 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 appears like a extended way to travel,” Mathieu explained in a recent interview in Oaxaca. “But there actually wasn’t much 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 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 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 at some point realized that staying in Huautla, although holding an historic allure and getting in a geographic area conducive to working with mushrooms, would hinder his efforts to develop a small business 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 occasion. 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 operating 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 business, 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 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 utilizes of mushrooms, so additional time is needed,” says Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it really is predominantly [but not exclusively] a course on cultivation.”
Though training seminars are now only given in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and Jiménez strategy to expand operations to include both the central valleys and coastal regions of Oaxaca. The object is to have a network of producers increasing different mushrooms which are optimally suited for cultivation primarily 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 various climatic regions is outstanding. “The oyster can be grown in a multitude of distinctive substrata, and that’s what we’re experimenting with suitable now,” he elucidates. The oyster mushroom can thrive when grown on merchandise which would otherwise be waste, such as discard from cultivating beans, sugar cane, agave (such as the fibrous waste created in mezcal distillation), peas, the typical river reed recognized as carriso, sawdust, and the list goes on. Agricultural waste which could otherwise be left to rot or be burned, every single with adverse environmental implications, can type substrata for mushroom cultivation. It should be noted, though trite, that mushroom cultivation is a hugely sustainable, green business. Over the past quite a few years Mexico has in fact been at the fore in several areas of sustainable business.
Mathieu exemplifies how mushrooms can serve an arguably even higher environmental fantastic:
“They can hold up to thirty thousand times their mass, having implications for inhibiting erosion. They’ve been applied to clean up oil spills through absorption and therefore are an critical car for habitat restoration. Analysis has been carried out 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 sector 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-solution. Take a appear at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, 6 Techniques Mushrooms Can Save The Globe.”
Mathieu and Jiménez can frequently be discovered selling their solutions on weekends in the organic markets in Oaxaca. They’re each far more than happy to go over the nutritional worth of their items which variety from naturally their fresh mushrooms, but also as preserves, marinated with either chipotle and nopal or jalapeño and cauliflower. One up mushroom chocolate bar cannot be located in fruits or vegetables, and accordingly a eating plan which contains fungi is extremely vital for vegetarians who cannot get B12, most normally contained in meats. Mushrooms can conveniently be a substitute for meats, with the benefit that they are not loaded with antibiotics and hormones generally located in industrially processed meat merchandise.