When we think about mushrooms as well as the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, the first thing which commonly comes to mind is María Sabina, Huautla de Jiménez and hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. However gradually that’s all changing as a result of the revolutionary work of Josefina Jiménez as well as Johann Mathieu in mycology, through their business, Mico-lógica.

Based in the town of Benito Juárez, situated in Oaxaca’s Ixtlán district (even more generally called the Sierra Norte, the state’s main ecotourism area), Mico-lógica’s goal is threefold: to educate both Mexicans and also site visitors to the nation in the low-cost cultivation of a selection of mushroom species; to enlighten regarding the medical, nutritional as well as ecological (lasting) value of mushrooms; and to conduct recurring study regarding optimum weather areas as well as the variety of substrata for mushroom culture.

The French-born Mathieu relocated to Mexico, and also actually to Huautla de Jiménez, in 2005. “Yes, coming all the way to Mexico from France to seek my interest in mushrooms looks like a long way to travel,” Mathieu clarified in a current meeting in Oaxaca. “But there actually had not been much of an opportunity to perform researches and also grow a company in Western Europe,” he proceeds, “since reverence for mushrooms had actually been all but entirely eradicated by The Church throughout centuries; and I discovered that Mexico still keeps a respect and also gratitude for the medical as well as nutritional worth of hongos. Mexico is much from mycophobic.”

Huautla de Jiménez is greater than a five hour drive from the closest metropolitan center. Appropriately, Mathieu at some point realized that remaining in Huautla, while holding a historical appeal and also being in a geographical area conducive to collaborating with mushrooms, would certainly hinder his efforts to expand a service as well as cultivate prevalent rate of interest in learning about fungis. Mathieu ended up being mindful of the blossoming reputation of Oaxaca’s ecotourism areas of the Sierra Norte, and also undoubtedly the Feria Regional de Hongos Silvestres (local wild mushroom celebration), held annually in Cuahimoloyas.

Mathieu met Josefina Jiménez at the summer season weekend break mushroom occasion. Jiménez had relocated to Oaxaca from home town Mexico City in 2002. Both shared comparable interests; Jiménez had researched agronomy, as well as for near to a years had actually been collaborating with sustainable farming projects in rural farming areas in the Huasteca Potosina region of San Luis Potosí, the hills of Guerrero as well as the shore of Chiapas. Mathieu and also Jiménez became service, and afterwards life partners in Benito Juárez.

Mathieu as well as Jiménez are focusing on three mushroom types in their hands-on seminars; oyster (seta), shitake as well as reishi. Their one-day workshops are for oyster mushrooms, and two-day centers for the latter two varieties of fungus. “With reishi, and to a lesser extent shitake, we’re additionally teaching a reasonable bit concerning the medical uses of mushrooms, so even more time is required,” states Mathieu, “as well as with oyster mushrooms it’s mostly [but not exclusively] a training course on growing.”

While training workshops are now only given medicinal mushroomsс in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and also Jiménez strategy to broaden procedures to include both the main valleys as well as coastal areas of Oaxaca. The item is to have a network of manufacturers expanding various mushrooms which are optimally matched for growing based on the particular microclimate. There are about 70 sub-species of oyster mushrooms, as well as hence as a types, the versatility of the oyster mushroom to various climatic areas is exceptional. “The oyster can be expanded in a wide variety of various substrata, which’s what we’re try out now,” he elucidates. The oyster mushroom can thrive when expanded on products which would certainly otherwise be waste, such as discard from cultivating beans, sugar walking cane, agave (including the coarse waste produced in mezcal purification), peas, the typical river reed known as carriso, sawdust, and also the listing goes on. Agricultural waste which may otherwise be entrusted to rot or be shed, each with damaging environmental ramifications, can form substrata for mushroom farming. It needs to be kept in mind, though commonplace, that mushroom farming is a highly lasting, green industry. Over the past several years Mexico has in truth been at the fore in many locations of sustainable industry.

Mathieu exhibits just how mushrooms can offer a perhaps also better ecological good:

” They can hold up to thirty thousand times their mass, having ramifications for preventing erosion. They’ve been used to clean up oil spills through absorption as well as hence are a vital lorry for environment reconstruction. Research study has been finished with mushrooms in the fight against carpenter ant destruction; it’s been recommended that using fungi has the possible to entirely revamp the chemical sector in an eco-friendly way. There are literally numerous other green applications for mushroom use, and in each case the mushroom stays an edible by-product. Have a look at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save The Globe.”

Mathieu and Jiménez can often be located marketing their products on weekends in the natural markets in Oaxaca. They’re both more than pleased to review the nutritional worth of their products which vary from naturally their fresh mushrooms, yet likewise as protects, marinated with either chipotle as well as nopal or jalapeño as well as cauliflower. The mushroom’s vitamin B12 can not be located in fruits or vegetables, and also accordingly a diet that includes fungis is incredibly vital for vegetarians that can not obtain B12, usually had in meats. Mushrooms can conveniently be an alternative to meats, with the advantage that they are not filled with antibiotics as well as hormones typically discovered in industrially refined meat products.