When we consider of mushrooms and the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, the 1st thing which traditionally comes to thoughts is María Sabina, Huautla de Jiménez and hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. But gradually that is all altering as a result of the groundbreaking perform of Josefina Jiménez and Johann Mathieu in mycology, by means of their company, Mico-lógica.
Primarily based in the village of Benito Juárez, situated in Oaxaca’s Ixtlán district (far more generally identified as the Sierra Norte, the state’s primary ecotourism region), Mico-lógica’s mission is threefold: to train both Mexicans and visitors 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 research regarding optimum climatic regions and the diversity of substrata for mushroom culture.
The French-born Mathieu moved to Mexico, and in reality to Huautla de Jiménez, in 2005. “Yes, coming all the way to Mexico from France to pursue my interest in mushrooms seems like a extended way to travel,” Mathieu explained in a current interview in Oaxaca. “But there truly wasn’t a lot of an chance to conduct research and develop a business enterprise in Western Europe,” he continues, “since reverence for mushrooms had been all but entirely eradicated by The Church more than the course of centuries and I discovered that Mexico still maintains a respect and appreciation for the medicinal and nutritional value of hongos. Mexico is far from mycophobic.”
Huautla de Jiménez is additional than a 5 hour drive from the closest metropolitan center. Accordingly, Mathieu eventually realized that staying in Huautla, even though 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 understanding 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 occasion. Jiménez had moved to Oaxaca from hometown Mexico City in 2002. The two shared equivalent interests Jiménez had studied agronomy, and for close to a decade had been functioning 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 business enterprise, 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 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’re also teaching a fair bit about the medicinal uses of mushrooms, so extra time is essential,” says Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it is predominantly [but not exclusively] a course on cultivation.”
While education seminars are now only offered in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and Jiménez program to expand operations to contain both the central valleys and coastal regions of Oaxaca. The object is to have a network of producers expanding unique 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 various climatic regions is remarkable. “The oyster can be grown in a multitude of distinctive substrata, and that’s what we’re experimenting with appropriate now,” he elucidates. The oyster mushroom can thrive when grown on solutions which would otherwise be waste, such as discard from cultivating beans, sugar cane, agave (including the fibrous waste produced in mezcal distillation), peas, the frequent river reed identified as carriso, sawdust, and the list goes on. Agricultural waste which may otherwise be 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, green business. Over the past a number of years Mexico has in truth been at the fore in a lot of areas of sustainable business.
Mathieu exemplifies how mushrooms can serve an arguably even higher environmental excellent:
“They can hold up to thirty thousand times their mass, possessing implications for inhibiting erosion. They’ve been utilized to clean up oil spills through absorption and as a result are an critical car for habitat restoration. mushroom spores uk has been completed with mushrooms in the battle against carpenter ant destruction it’s been suggested that the use of fungi has the potential to absolutely revamp the pesticide market in an environmentally friendly way. There are literally hundreds of other eco-friendly applications for mushroom use, and in each case the mushroom remains an edible by-solution. Take a look at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, six Ways Mushrooms Can Save The World.”
Mathieu and Jiménez can often be identified promoting their goods on weekends in the organic markets in Oaxaca. They’re both far more than satisfied to go over the nutritional value of their items 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 not be identified in fruits or vegetables, and accordingly a diet plan which contains fungi is exceptionally significant for vegetarians who can’t get B12, most often contained in meats. Mushrooms can effortlessly be a substitute for meats, with the benefit that they are not loaded with antibiotics and hormones generally found in industrially processed meat items.