When polka dot chocolate bar believe of mushrooms and the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, the initially factor 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 function of Josefina Jiménez and Johann Mathieu in mycology, by means of their business, Mico-lógica.
Based in the village of Benito Juárez, situated in Oaxaca’s Ixtlán district (much more typically identified as the Sierra Norte, the state’s key ecotourism region), Mico-lógica’s mission is threefold: to train both Mexicans and guests to the country in the low-expense cultivation of a wide variety of mushroom species to educate about the medicinal, nutritional and environmental (sustainable) worth of mushrooms and to conduct ongoing investigation relating to optimum climatic regions and the diversity of substrata for mushroom culture.
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 pursue my interest in mushrooms seems like a long way to travel,” Mathieu explained in a recent interview in Oaxaca. “But there really wasn’t substantially of an opportunity to conduct studies and grow a organization in Western Europe,” he continues, “considering the fact that reverence for mushrooms had been all but totally eradicated by The Church over the course of centuries and I discovered that Mexico nevertheless maintains a respect and appreciation for the medicinal and nutritional worth of hongos. Mexico is far from mycophobic.”
Huautla de Jiménez is extra than a five hour drive from the closest metropolitan center. Accordingly, Mathieu eventually realized that staying in Huautla, while holding an historic allure and getting in a geographic region conducive to operating with mushrooms, would hinder his efforts to develop a business enterprise and cultivate widespread interest in studying 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 similar 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 region 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 a single-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 far more time is needed,” says Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it is predominantly [but not exclusively] a course on cultivation.”
Although coaching seminars are now only provided 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 developing distinct mushrooms which are optimally suited for cultivation primarily based on the unique microclimate. There are about 70 sub-species of oyster mushrooms, and thus as a species, the adaptability of the oyster mushroom to distinct climatic regions is remarkable. “The oyster can be grown in a multitude of distinctive substrata, and that’s what we’re experimenting with correct now,” he elucidates. The oyster mushroom can thrive when grown on goods which would otherwise be waste, such as discard from cultivating beans, sugar cane, agave (which includes the fibrous waste made in mezcal distillation), peas, the prevalent river reed known as carriso, sawdust, and the list goes on. Agricultural waste which could otherwise be left to rot or be burned, each and every with adverse environmental implications, can form substrata for mushroom cultivation. It need to be noted, though trite, that mushroom cultivation is a hugely sustainable, green market. More than the past many years Mexico has in truth been at the fore in several places of sustainable industry.
Mathieu exemplifies how mushrooms can serve an arguably even greater environmental great:
“They can hold up to thirty thousand instances their mass, having implications for inhibiting erosion. They’ve been utilised to clean up oil spills by means of absorption and hence are an important automobile for habitat restoration. Analysis has been performed with mushrooms in the battle against carpenter ant destruction it’s been suggested that the use of fungi has the prospective to entirely revamp the pesticide sector 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-solution. Take a appear at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, six Strategies Mushrooms Can Save The Planet.”
Mathieu and Jiménez can normally be identified selling their goods on weekends in the organic markets in Oaxaca. They are each extra than satisfied to discuss the nutritional value of their solutions which variety 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’t be identified in fruits or vegetables, and accordingly a diet which includes fungi is exceptionally vital for vegetarians who cannot get B12, most usually contained in meats. Mushrooms can easily be a substitute for meats, with the benefit that they are not loaded with antibiotics and hormones typically identified in industrially processed meat solutions.
