When we believe of mushrooms and the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, the very first point which historically will come to brain is María Sabina, Huautla de Jiménez and hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. But slowly and gradually which is all shifting as a consequence of the groundbreaking perform of Josefina Jiménez and Johann Mathieu in mycology, by means of their organization, Mico-lógica.
Dependent in the village of Benito Juárez, situated in Oaxaca’s Ixtlán district (more frequently recognized as the Sierra Norte, the state’s major ecotourism location), Mico-lógica’s mission is threefold: to practice equally Mexicans and guests to the region in the reduced-value cultivation of a assortment of mushroom species to teach about the medicinal, nutritional and environmental (sustainable) value of mushrooms and to carry out ongoing investigation with regards to the best possible climatic regions and the diversity of substrata for mushroom tradition.
The French-born Mathieu moved to Mexico, and in fact to Huautla de Jiménez, in 2005. “Sure, coming all the way to Mexico from France to pursue my desire in mushrooms would seem like a long way to travel,” Mathieu explained in a latest job interview in Oaxaca. “But there truly was not considerably of an chance to conduct research and develop a enterprise in Western Europe,” he continues, “given that reverence for mushrooms experienced been all but totally eradicated by The Church above the system of centuries and I learned that Mexico nevertheless maintains a regard and appreciation for the medicinal and nutritional value of hongos. Mexico is far from mycophobic.”
Huautla de Jiménez is more than a 5 hour push from the closest metropolitan middle. Accordingly, Mathieu at some point recognized that keeping in Huautla, even though keeping an historic allure and becoming in a geographic location conducive to working with mushrooms, would hinder his efforts to grow a company and cultivate prevalent desire in learning about fungi. Mathieu grew to become cognizant of the burgeoning status of Oaxaca’s ecotourism communities of the Sierra Norte, and certainly the Feria Regional de Hongos Silvestres (regional wild mushroom festival), held every year in Cuahimoloyas.
Mathieu achieved Josefina Jiménez at the summertime weekend mushroom celebration. Jiménez experienced moved to Oaxaca from hometown Mexico City in 2002. The two shared related pursuits Jiménez experienced researched agronomy, and for near to a decade had been functioning with sustainable agriculture assignments 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 existence associates in Benito Juárez.
Mathieu and Jiménez are concentrating on a few 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 reishi, and to a lesser extent shitake, we are also teaching a fair bit about the medicinal uses of mushrooms, so a lot more time is essential,” states Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it really is predominantly [but not completely] a training course on cultivation.”
Even though instruction seminars are now only offered in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and Jiménez program to increase functions to include the two the central valleys and coastal regions of Oaxaca. The object is to have a community of producers increasing diverse mushrooms which are optimally suited for cultivation primarily based on the specific microclimate. There are about 70 sub-species of oyster mushrooms, and thus as a species, the adaptability of the oyster mushroom to different climatic locations is remarkable. “The oyster can be grown in a multitude of different substrata, and that is what we are experimenting with right now,” he elucidates. The oyster mushroom can prosper when developed on merchandise which would otherwise be squander, such as discard from cultivating beans, sugar cane, agave (such as the fibrous waste produced in mezcal distillation), peas, the common river reed acknowledged as carriso, sawdust, and the checklist goes on. Agricultural squander which may possibly in any other case be still left to rot or be burned, each and every with adverse environmental implications, can kind substrata for mushroom cultivation. It must be noted, although trite, that mushroom cultivation is a hugely sustainable, eco-friendly market. More than the past many several years Mexico has in truth been at the fore in many locations of sustainable business.
Mathieu exemplifies how mushrooms can provide an arguably even better environmental great:
“They can hold up to 30 thousand moments their mass, possessing implications for inhibiting erosion. They’ve been used to clean up oil spills through absorption and therefore are an important motor vehicle for habitat restoration. Analysis has been carried out with mushrooms in the battle in opposition to carpenter ant destruction it’s been suggested that the use of fungi has the prospective to totally revamp the pesticide business in an environmentally helpful way. There are practically hundreds of other eco-helpful purposes for mushroom use, and in every single circumstance the mushroom stays an edible by-solution. Just take a look at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, 6 Approaches Mushrooms Can Save The Planet.”
Mathieu and Jiménez can frequently be located promoting their products on weekends in the natural and organic markets in Oaxaca. They’re each much more than content to talk about the nutritional price of their merchandise which selection from naturally their fresh mushrooms, but also as preserves, marinated with both chipotle and nopal or jalapeño and cauliflower. The mushroom’s vitamin B12 can not be identified in fruits or vegetables, and appropriately a diet regime which contains 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 benefit that they are not loaded with antibiotics and hormones typically discovered in industrially processed meat goods.
Mico-lógica also sell teas and extracts made from various mushroom species, every formulated as both a nutritional dietary supplement, or for their medicinal properties. While neither Mathieu nor Jiménez has the pharmacological qualifications to prescribe mycological remedy for critical ailments, Mathieu’s possess study points to the medicinal use of mushrooms courting from pre-background, to the existing. one up mushroom bar notes houses of mushrooms which can aid to restore the immune technique, and hence the use of fungi as a complement in the remedy of most cancers and AIDS, and their utility in managing diabetes and dealing with higher cholesterol.
“We must all be embracing the natural manufacturing of mushrooms,” Mathieu concludes. “It is so effortless, it requires a small funds investment decision, and it gives important rewards, equally for these ingesting hongos for nutritional and medicinal causes, and for the producers, even little scale. Mico-lógica also sells dried mushrooms. Nevertheless most of the dried mushrooms offered in Mexico are imported from China, and are not natural. It truly is a genuine shame on many stages.”
Mexico and mushrooms have come a prolonged way since the period of Oaxaca’s María Sabina. With the ongoing initiatives of Mathieu, Jiménez and Mico-lógica, it ought to not be long before the globe understands and embraces the magic of mushrooms in a significantly broader context.