When we consider of mushrooms and the southern Mexico point out of Oaxaca, the initial factor which usually arrives to mind is María Sabina, Huautla de Jiménez and hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. But slowly and gradually that is all shifting as a result of the groundbreaking function of Josefina Jiménez and Johann Mathieu in mycology, by means of their firm, Mico-lógica.
Based mostly in the village of Benito Juárez, situated in Oaxaca’s Ixtlán district (far more commonly acknowledged as the Sierra Norte, the state’s primary ecotourism area), Mico-lógica’s mission is threefold: to practice equally Mexicans and visitors to the region in the reduced-cost cultivation of a variety of mushroom species to educate about the medicinal, dietary and environmental (sustainable) value of mushrooms and to conduct ongoing research with regards to optimum climatic locations and the range of substrata for mushroom culture.
The French-born Mathieu moved to Mexico, and in reality to Huautla de Jiménez, in 2005. “Of course, coming all the way to Mexico from France to pursue my desire in mushrooms seems like a prolonged way to vacation,” Mathieu discussed in a current interview in Oaxaca. “But there truly wasn’t a lot of an prospect to perform reports and grow a company in Western Europe,” he continues, “considering that reverence for mushrooms experienced been all but fully eradicated by The Church above the training course of generations and I learned that Mexico still maintains a respect and appreciation for the medicinal and dietary worth of hongos. Mexico is far from mycophobic.”
Huautla de Jiménez is far more than a 5 hour travel from the closest metropolitan heart. Accordingly, Mathieu ultimately realized that staying in Huautla, even though keeping an historic attract and being in a geographic location conducive to doing work with mushrooms, would hinder his attempts to expand a company and cultivate common desire in finding out about fungi. Mathieu became cognizant of the burgeoning popularity of Oaxaca’s ecotourism communities of the Sierra Norte, and certainly the Feria Regional de Hongos Silvestres (regional wild mushroom festival), held yearly in Cuahimoloyas.
Mathieu achieved Josefina Jiménez at the summertime weekend mushroom event. Jiménez had moved to Oaxaca from hometown Mexico Metropolis in 2002. The two shared comparable passions Jiménez had analyzed agronomy, and for shut to a ten years experienced been operating with sustainable agriculture tasks in rural farming communities in the Huasteca Potosina region of San Luis Potosí, the mountains of Guerrero and the coastline of Chiapas. Mathieu and Jiménez grew to become organization, and then life partners in Benito Juárez.
Mathieu and Jiménez are concentrating on a few mushroom species in their hands-on seminars oyster (seta), shitake and reishi. Their a single-working day workshops are for oyster mushrooms, and two-working day clinics for the latter two species of fungus. “With reishi, and to a lesser extent shitake, we are also instructing a fair little bit about the medicinal makes use of of mushrooms, so far more time is essential,” says Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it truly is predominantly [but not solely] a course on cultivation.”
Whilst instruction seminars are now only provided in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and Jiménez program to expand operations to include each the central valleys and coastal areas of Oaxaca. The item is to have a community of producers expanding various mushrooms which are optimally suited for cultivation dependent 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 diverse climatic regions is remarkable. “The oyster can be grown in a multitude of diverse substrata, and which is what we’re experimenting with right now,” he elucidates. The oyster mushroom can thrive when developed on merchandise which would or else be squander, such as discard from cultivating beans, sugar cane, agave (which includes the fibrous squander made in mezcal distillation), peas, the common river reed identified as carriso, sawdust, and the checklist goes on. mushroom pipe which may possibly in any other case be still left to rot or be burned, every single with adverse environmental implications, can sort substrata for mushroom cultivation. It should be observed, however trite, that mushroom cultivation is a highly sustainable, environmentally friendly industry. Above the previous many a long time Mexico has in fact been at the fore in several areas of sustainable industry.
Mathieu exemplifies how mushrooms can provide an arguably even higher environmental great:
“They can maintain up to 30 thousand occasions their mass, possessing implications for inhibiting erosion. They have been utilised to clean up oil spills via absorption and therefore are an crucial car for habitat restoration. Study has been done with mushrooms in the fight in opposition to carpenter ant destruction it truly is been proposed that the use of fungi has the likely to completely revamp the pesticide industry in an environmentally friendly way. There are practically hundreds of other eco-friendly applications for mushroom use, and in every single circumstance the mushroom stays an edible by-item. Consider a appear at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, 6 Approaches Mushrooms Can Preserve The Planet.”
Mathieu and Jiménez can often be identified promoting their merchandise on weekends in the organic markets in Oaxaca. They are both more than pleased to examine the nutritional price of their merchandise which range from normally their refreshing mushrooms, but also as preserves, marinated with both chipotle and nopal or jalapeño and cauliflower. The mushroom’s vitamin B12 are not able to be located in fruits or veggies, and accordingly a diet regime which contains fungi is incredibly important for vegetarians who can not get B12, most frequently contained in meats. Mushrooms can very easily be a substitute for meats, with the advantage that they are not loaded with antibiotics and hormones usually identified in industrially processed meat products.
Mico-lógica also offer teas and extracts made from distinct mushroom species, each formulated as either a nutritional health supplement, or for their medicinal qualities. While neither Mathieu nor Jiménez has the pharmacological qualifications to prescribe mycological treatment for significant ailments, Mathieu’s own investigation points to the medicinal use of mushrooms courting from pre-heritage, to the existing. He notes homes of mushrooms which can assist to restore the immune system, and hence the use of fungi as a complement in the remedy of cancer and AIDS, and their utility in managing diabetic issues and dealing with large cholesterol.
“We need to all be embracing the natural creation of mushrooms,” Mathieu concludes. “It’s so simple, it entails a minimal capital expense, and it supplies significant rewards, both for individuals ingesting hongos for nutritional and medicinal motives, and for the producers, even modest scale. Mico-lógica also sells dried mushrooms. Nevertheless most of the dried mushrooms sold in Mexico are imported from China, and are not organic. It’s a genuine shame on many ranges.”
Mexico and mushrooms have arrive a long way since the era of Oaxaca’s María Sabina. With the ongoing endeavours of Mathieu, Jiménez and Mico-lógica, it should not be lengthy prior to the world understands and embraces the magic of mushrooms inside a much broader context.