When we think of mushrooms and the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, the very first issue which traditionally comes to thoughts is María Sabina, Huautla de Jiménez and hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. But slowly that’s all altering as a result of the groundbreaking operate of Josefina Jiménez and Johann Mathieu in mycology, via their organization, Mico-lógica.
Primarily based in the village of Benito Juárez, located in Oaxaca’s Ixtlán district (much more commonly identified as the Sierra Norte, the state’s main ecotourism area), Mico-lógica’s mission is threefold: to train each Mexicans and visitors to the nation in the low-price cultivation of a selection of mushroom species to educate about the medicinal, nutritional and environmental (sustainable) value of mushrooms and to conduct ongoing study concerning optimum climatic regions and the diversity of substrata for mushroom culture.
The French-born Mathieu moved to Mexico, and in fact to Huautla de Jiménez, in 2005. “Yes, coming all the way to Mexico from France to pursue my interest in mushrooms appears like a extended way to travel,” Mathieu explained in a current interview in Oaxaca. “But there definitely wasn’t a great deal of an opportunity to conduct research and grow a business enterprise in Western Europe,” he continues, “because reverence for mushrooms had been all but fully eradicated by The Church more than 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 ultimately realized that staying in Huautla, even though holding an historic allure and getting in a geographic area conducive to working with mushrooms, would hinder his efforts to grow a business 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 indeed 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 related 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 business, and then life partners in Benito Juárez.
Mathieu and Jiménez are concentrating on 3 mushroom species in their hands-on seminars oyster (seta), shitake and reishi. Their 1-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 makes use of of mushrooms, so a lot more time is required,” says Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it is predominantly [but not exclusively] a course on cultivation.”
Although education seminars are now only offered in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and Jiménez program to expand operations to involve each 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 based on the specific microclimate. There are about 70 sub-species of oyster mushrooms, and as a result as a species, the adaptability of the oyster mushroom to distinctive climatic regions is remarkable. “The oyster can be grown in a multitude of different substrata, and that’s what we’re experimenting with right now,” he elucidates. The oyster mushroom can thrive when grown on products which would otherwise be waste, such as discard from cultivating beans, sugar cane, agave (such as the fibrous waste developed in mezcal distillation), peas, the popular river reed recognized as carriso, sawdust, and the list goes on. Agricultural waste which may possibly otherwise be left to rot or be burned, every with adverse environmental implications, can kind substrata for mushroom cultivation. It need to be noted, though trite, that mushroom cultivation is a very sustainable, green sector. More than the past several years Mexico has in truth been at the fore in lots of areas of sustainable market.
Mathieu exemplifies how mushrooms can serve an arguably even higher environmental excellent:
“They can hold up to thirty thousand times their mass, obtaining implications for inhibiting erosion. They’ve been applied to clean up oil spills by means of absorption and as a result are an critical car for habitat restoration. Research has been performed with mushrooms in the battle against carpenter ant destruction it’s been suggested that the use of fungi has the possible to absolutely revamp the pesticide business in an environmentally friendly way. There are actually hundreds of other eco-friendly applications for mushroom use, and in each case the mushroom remains an edible by-item. Take a appear at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, 6 Approaches Mushrooms Can Save The World.”
Psychedelic mushroom chocolate bars for sale and Jiménez can frequently be discovered promoting their products on weekends in the organic markets in Oaxaca. They are each a lot more than content to go over the nutritional worth of their solutions which range 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 which includes fungi is particularly significant for vegetarians who can not get B12, most frequently contained in meats. Mushrooms can quickly be a substitute for meats, with the benefit that they are not loaded with antibiotics and hormones frequently identified in industrially processed meat products.