When we think of mushrooms and the southern Mexico point out of Oaxaca, the initial point which historically comes to thoughts is María Sabina, Huautla de Jiménez and hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. But slowly which is all altering as a outcome of the groundbreaking operate of Josefina Jiménez and Johann Mathieu in mycology, by way of their business, Mico-lógica.
Based in the village of Benito Juárez, positioned in Oaxaca’s Ixtlán district (more generally identified as the Sierra Norte, the state’s major ecotourism region), Mico-lógica’s mission is threefold: to practice both Mexicans and guests to the country in the low-cost cultivation of a assortment of mushroom species to educate about the medicinal, nutritional and environmental (sustainable) worth of mushrooms and to carry out ongoing study regarding the best possible climatic regions and the variety of substrata for mushroom lifestyle.
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 go after my curiosity in mushrooms appears like a prolonged way to travel,” Mathieu discussed in a recent job interview in Oaxaca. “But there genuinely wasn’t considerably of an prospect to perform studies and expand a business in Western Europe,” he proceeds, “given that reverence for mushrooms had been all but fully eradicated by The Church more than the program of centuries and I discovered that Mexico nonetheless maintains a respect and appreciation for the medicinal and dietary worth of hongos. Mexico is much from mycophobic.”
Huautla de Jiménez is more than a 5 hour push from the closest metropolitan centre. Appropriately, mushroom gummies or later recognized that staying in Huautla, even though holding an historic attract and becoming in a geographic area conducive to operating with mushrooms, would hinder his attempts to expand a business and cultivate popular fascination in understanding about fungi. Mathieu grew to become cognizant of the burgeoning status of Oaxaca’s ecotourism communities of the Sierra Norte, and indeed the Feria Regional de Hongos Silvestres (regional wild mushroom festival), held annually in Cuahimoloyas.
Mathieu satisfied Josefina Jiménez at the summertime weekend mushroom function. Jiménez had moved to Oaxaca from hometown Mexico City in 2002. The two shared related passions Jiménez had analyzed 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 lifestyle associates in Benito Juárez.
Mathieu and Jiménez are concentrating on 3 mushroom species in their arms-on seminars oyster (seta), shitake and reishi. Their a single-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 are also teaching a honest bit about the medicinal utilizes of mushrooms, so more time is needed,” says Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it really is predominantly [but not exclusively] a program on cultivation.”
Whilst training seminars are now only presented in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and Jiménez program to increase operations to consist of equally the central valleys and coastal areas of Oaxaca. The item is to have a network of producers increasing various mushrooms which are optimally suited for cultivation dependent on the particular microclimate. There are about 70 sub-species of oyster mushrooms, and thus as a species, the adaptability of the oyster mushroom to different climatic regions is impressive. “The oyster can be developed in a multitude of distinct substrata, and that’s what we are experimenting with right now,” he elucidates. The oyster mushroom can prosper when grown on goods which would otherwise be waste, this sort of as discard from cultivating beans, sugar cane, agave (like the fibrous waste created in mezcal distillation), peas, the common river reed recognized as carriso, sawdust, and the record goes on. Agricultural squander which may possibly otherwise be still left to rot or be burned, each with adverse environmental implications, can type substrata for mushroom cultivation. It should be famous, even though trite, that mushroom cultivation is a extremely sustainable, environmentally friendly business. More than the previous a number of a long time Mexico has in truth been at the fore in many areas of sustainable sector.
Mathieu exemplifies how mushrooms can provide an arguably even better environmental great:
“They can hold up to 30 thousand times their mass, possessing implications for inhibiting erosion. They have been utilized to clear up oil spills by means of absorption and as a result are an critical vehicle for habitat restoration. Investigation has been carried out with mushrooms in the battle against carpenter ant destruction it’s been suggested that the use of fungi has the prospective to fully revamp the pesticide business in an environmentally welcoming way. There are virtually hundreds of other eco-helpful apps for mushroom use, and in every case the mushroom remains an edible by-merchandise. Take a look at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, 6 Methods Mushrooms Can Help save The Globe.”
Mathieu and Jiménez can typically be found marketing their products on weekends in the organic markets in Oaxaca. They are equally more than pleased to examine the dietary benefit of their merchandise which assortment from normally their fresh mushrooms, but also as preserves, marinated with both chipotle and nopal or jalapeño and cauliflower. The mushroom’s vitamin B12 can’t be identified in fruits or veggies, and accordingly a diet regime which involves fungi is really important for vegetarians who are not able to get B12, most typically contained in meats. Mushrooms can effortlessly be a substitute for meats, with the edge that they are not loaded with antibiotics and hormones usually discovered in industrially processed meat items.
Mico-lógica also promote teas and extracts made from distinct mushroom species, each formulated as either a dietary supplement, or for their medicinal houses. Even though neither Mathieu nor Jiménez has the pharmacological history to prescribe mycological remedy for critical illnesses, Mathieu’s very own research details to the medicinal use of mushrooms relationship from pre-history, to the present. He notes houses of mushrooms which can support to restore the immune method, and hence the use of fungi as a enhance in the treatment of most cancers and AIDS, and their utility in managing diabetic issues and dealing with substantial cholesterol.
“We need to all be embracing the organic generation of mushrooms,” Mathieu concludes. “It truly is so straightforward, it entails a nominal capital investment decision, and it supplies substantial rewards, each for those ingesting hongos for nutritional and medicinal reasons, and for the producers, even tiny scale. Mico-lógica also sells dried mushrooms. Yet most of the dried mushrooms offered in Mexico are imported from China, and are not natural. It is a genuine disgrace on numerous levels.”
Mexico and mushrooms have come a extended way because the era of Oaxaca’s María Sabina. With the continued efforts of Mathieu, Jiménez and Mico-lógica, it ought to not be long before the world understands and embraces the magic of mushrooms inside a a lot broader context.