When we feel of mushrooms and the southern Mexico point out of Oaxaca, the 1st factor which usually arrives to thoughts is María Sabina, Huautla de Jiménez and hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. But little by little which is all changing as a outcome of the groundbreaking perform of Josefina Jiménez and Johann Mathieu in mycology, by way of their firm, Mico-lógica.
Based in the village of Benito Juárez, found in Oaxaca’s Ixtlán district (much more generally acknowledged as the Sierra Norte, the state’s principal ecotourism region), Mico-lógica’s mission is threefold: to train both Mexicans and guests to the nation in the reduced-price cultivation of a assortment of mushroom species to educate about the medicinal, dietary and environmental (sustainable) benefit of mushrooms and to perform ongoing study regarding ideal climatic regions and the range of substrata for mushroom culture.
The French-born Mathieu moved to Mexico, and in truth to Huautla de Jiménez, in 2005. “Indeed, coming all the way to Mexico from France to pursue my interest in mushrooms seems like a prolonged way to journey,” Mathieu defined in a modern interview in Oaxaca. “But there genuinely was not considerably of an prospect to carry out reports and expand a company in Western Europe,” he continues, “because reverence for mushrooms had been all but fully eradicated by The Church more than the system of generations and I uncovered that Mexico nevertheless maintains a regard and appreciation for the medicinal and nutritional benefit of hongos. Mexico is significantly from mycophobic.”
Huautla de Jiménez is a lot more than a five hour drive from the closest metropolitan heart. Accordingly, Mathieu at some point recognized that keeping in Huautla, while holding an historic attract and becoming in a geographic location conducive to operating with mushrooms, would hinder his initiatives to develop a business and cultivate common interest in understanding about fungi. Mathieu grew to become 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 pageant), held every year in Cuahimoloyas.
Mathieu achieved Josefina Jiménez at the summertime weekend mushroom event. Jiménez experienced moved to Oaxaca from hometown Mexico Metropolis in 2002. The two shared similar passions Jiménez experienced studied agronomy, and for near to a ten years experienced been doing work with sustainable agriculture assignments in rural farming communities in the Huasteca Potosina location of San Luis Potosí, the mountains of Guerrero and the coastline of Chiapas. b+ mushrooms and Jiménez turned enterprise, and then lifestyle partners in Benito Juárez.
Mathieu and Jiménez are concentrating on 3 mushroom species in their fingers-on seminars oyster (seta), shitake and reishi. Their one particular-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 training a honest little bit about the medicinal utilizes of mushrooms, so much more time is needed,” suggests Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it’s predominantly [but not completely] a training course on cultivation.”
Although coaching seminars are now only offered in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and Jiménez prepare to expand functions to incorporate each the central valleys and coastal locations of Oaxaca. The object is to have a community of producers developing various mushrooms which are optimally suited for cultivation based on the distinct microclimate. There are about 70 sub-species of oyster mushrooms, and hence as a species, the adaptability of the oyster mushroom to diverse climatic areas is impressive. “The oyster can be developed in a multitude of various substrata, and that is what we’re experimenting with proper now,” he elucidates. The oyster mushroom can thrive when developed on merchandise which would normally be waste, this kind of as discard from cultivating beans, sugar cane, agave (which includes the fibrous squander made in mezcal distillation), peas, the common river reed known as carriso, sawdust, and the checklist goes on. Agricultural waste which may possibly normally be left to rot or be burned, each with adverse environmental implications, can kind substrata for mushroom cultivation. It need to be mentioned, though trite, that mushroom cultivation is a extremely sustainable, green business. In excess of the earlier many several years Mexico has in truth been at the fore in many locations of sustainable business.
Mathieu exemplifies how mushrooms can serve an arguably even increased environmental great:
“They can hold up to thirty thousand moments their mass, obtaining implications for inhibiting erosion. They’ve been used to clean up oil spills by means of absorption and therefore are an crucial motor vehicle for habitat restoration. Study has been carried out with mushrooms in the fight in opposition to carpenter ant destruction it’s been suggested that the use of fungi has the potential to totally revamp the pesticide business in an environmentally friendly way. There are actually hundreds of other eco-helpful apps for mushroom use, and in each and every circumstance the mushroom remains an edible by-merchandise. Just take a appear at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, six Approaches Mushrooms Can Conserve The Globe.”
Mathieu and Jiménez can usually be located promoting their products on weekends in the organic markets in Oaxaca. They’re both a lot more than happy to examine the dietary price of their goods which selection from in a natural way their fresh mushrooms, but also as preserves, marinated with either chipotle and nopal or jalapeño and cauliflower. The mushroom’s vitamin B12 are not able to be found in fruits or vegetables, and accordingly a diet regime which contains fungi is really critical for vegetarians who are not able to 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 frequently located in industrially processed meat items.
Mico-lógica also market teas and extracts created from distinct mushroom species, each and every formulated as possibly a dietary complement, or for their medicinal qualities. While neither Mathieu nor Jiménez has the pharmacological qualifications to prescribe mycological treatment method for severe illnesses, Mathieu’s possess analysis factors to the medicinal use of mushrooms relationship from pre-background, to the existing. He notes properties of mushrooms which can support to restore the immune system, and as a result the use of fungi as a enhance in the therapy of cancer and AIDS, and their utility in controlling diabetic issues and treating higher cholesterol.
“We should all be embracing the organic manufacturing of mushrooms,” Mathieu concludes. “It really is so effortless, it involves a minimum cash investment, and it offers significant rewards, the two for those ingesting hongos for nutritional and medicinal reasons, and for the producers, even little scale. Mico-lógica also sells dried mushrooms. But most of the dried mushrooms marketed in Mexico are imported from China, and are not organic. It is a true shame on numerous ranges.”