When we think of mushrooms and the southern Mexico point out of Oaxaca, the very first point which traditionally arrives to thoughts is María Sabina, Huautla de Jiménez and hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. But slowly and gradually that is all altering as a end result of the groundbreaking work 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 (far more generally known as the Sierra Norte, the state’s primary ecotourism location), Mico-lógica’s mission is threefold: to teach each Mexicans and site visitors to the country in the minimal-expense cultivation of a variety of mushroom species to educate about the medicinal, dietary and environmental (sustainable) worth of mushrooms and to perform ongoing investigation concerning ideal climatic areas and the variety of substrata for mushroom tradition.
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 go after my fascination in mushrooms would seem like a prolonged way to vacation,” Mathieu discussed in a modern job interview in Oaxaca. “But there really wasn’t a lot of an opportunity to carry out scientific studies and develop a company in Western Europe,” he continues, “considering that reverence for mushrooms had been all but entirely eradicated by The Church in excess of the program of centuries and I realized that Mexico nonetheless maintains a respect and appreciation for the medicinal and nutritional benefit of hongos. Mexico is much from mycophobic.”
Huautla de Jiménez is much more than a five hour push from the closest metropolitan middle. Appropriately, Mathieu eventually realized that being in Huautla, even though keeping an historic attract and being in a geographic area conducive to operating with mushrooms, would hinder his attempts to expand a company and cultivate common interest in finding out about fungi. Mathieu became cognizant of the burgeoning popularity of Oaxaca’s ecotourism communities of the Sierra Norte, and indeed the Feria Regional de Hongos Silvestres (regional wild mushroom competition), held yearly in Cuahimoloyas.
Mathieu fulfilled Josefina Jiménez at the summertime weekend mushroom occasion. Jiménez experienced moved to Oaxaca from hometown Mexico Town in 2002. The two shared related interests Jiménez experienced examined agronomy, and for shut to a 10 years experienced 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 coastline of Chiapas. Mathieu and Jiménez turned company, and then existence associates in Benito Juárez.
Mathieu and Jiménez are concentrating on three mushroom species in their hands-on seminars oyster (seta), shitake and reishi. Their 1-working 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 honest bit about the medicinal makes use of of mushrooms, so much more time is necessary,” suggests Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it’s predominantly [but not completely] a course on cultivation.”
Although education seminars are now only presented in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and Jiménez prepare to broaden operations to incorporate the two the central valleys and coastal regions of Oaxaca. The object is to have a network of producers expanding different mushrooms which are optimally suited for cultivation primarily based on the specific microclimate. There are about 70 sub-species of oyster mushrooms, and hence as a species, the adaptability of the oyster mushroom to diverse climatic regions is outstanding. “The oyster can be developed in a multitude of distinct substrata, and which is what we’re experimenting with correct now,” he elucidates. The oyster mushroom can prosper when developed on merchandise which would or else be squander, this kind of as discard from cultivating beans, sugar cane, agave (which includes the fibrous waste developed in mezcal distillation), peas, the typical river reed identified as carriso, sawdust, and the checklist goes on. Agricultural squander which might in any other case be still left to rot or be burned, every with adverse environmental implications, can sort substrata for mushroom cultivation. It ought to be famous, even though trite, that mushroom cultivation is a extremely sustainable, environmentally friendly industry. More than the past numerous a long time Mexico has in fact been at the fore in many areas of sustainable industry.
Mathieu exemplifies how mushrooms can provide an arguably even increased environmental very good:
“They can keep up to thirty thousand times their mass, obtaining implications for inhibiting erosion. They have been utilised to clear up oil spills through absorption and hence are an important automobile for habitat restoration. Study has been completed with mushrooms in the struggle against carpenter ant destruction it is been proposed that the use of fungi has the possible to fully revamp the pesticide market in an environmentally friendly way. There are actually hundreds of other eco-pleasant applications for mushroom use, and in each case the mushroom stays an edible by-item. Take a look at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, six Approaches Mushrooms Can Preserve The World.”
Mathieu and Jiménez can frequently be discovered promoting their goods on weekends in the natural and organic markets in Oaxaca. They’re both much more than satisfied to go over the dietary benefit of their products which selection from normally their new mushrooms, but also as preserves, marinated with possibly chipotle and nopal or jalapeño and cauliflower. The mushroom’s vitamin B12 cannot be located in fruits or greens, and accordingly a diet which involves fungi is incredibly important for vegetarians who can not get B12, most typically contained in meats. Mushrooms can easily be a substitute for meats, with the gain that they are not loaded with antibiotics and hormones typically identified in industrially processed meat products.
Mico-lógica also market teas and extracts made from various mushroom species, every formulated as possibly a dietary health supplement, or for their medicinal qualities. Whilst neither Mathieu nor Jiménez has the pharmacological background to prescribe mycological treatment method for critical illnesses, Mathieu’s own research points to the medicinal use of mushrooms courting from pre-background, to the current. He notes homes of mushrooms which can help to restore the immune method, and thus the use of fungi as a complement in the therapy of most cancers and AIDS, and their utility in controlling diabetic issues and treating high cholesterol.
” One up mushroom bar ought to all be embracing the organic generation of mushrooms,” Mathieu concludes. “It is so straightforward, it involves a small funds investment decision, and it gives important benefits, the two for these ingesting hongos for dietary and medicinal reasons, and for the producers, even modest scale. Mico-lógica also sells dried mushrooms. But most of the dried mushrooms bought in Mexico are imported from China, and are not natural. It is a true disgrace on several amounts.”
Mexico and mushrooms have arrive a lengthy way since the era of Oaxaca’s María Sabina. With the continued efforts of Mathieu, Jiménez and Mico-lógica, it ought to not be prolonged before the globe understands and embraces the magic of mushrooms inside of a much broader context.