When we think about mushrooms and the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, the first point which traditionally comes to mind is María Sabina, Huautla de Jiménez as well as hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. But slowly that’s all altering as an outcome of the groundbreaking work of Josefina Jiménez and Johann Mathieu in mycology, with their business, Mico-lógica.

Based in the village of Benito Juárez, located in Oaxaca’s Ixtlán area (even more generally called the Sierra Norte, the state’s major ecotourism area), Mico-lógica’s mission is threefold: to train both Mexicans and visitors to the country in the inexpensive cultivation of a range of mushroom species; to enlighten about the medicinal, nutritional and environmental (sustainable) worth of mushrooms; and also to perform continuous study concerning optimum weather regions and also the diversity of substrata for mushroom society.

The French-born Mathieu transferred to Mexico, and also actually to Huautla de Jiménez, in 2005. “Yes, coming right to Mexico from France to pursue my passion in mushrooms appears like a lengthy method to travel,” Mathieu clarified in a current interview in Oaxaca. “However there truly had not been much of a possibility to conduct studies as well as grow a service in Western Europe,” he continues, “considering that respect for mushrooms had been all but entirely eliminated by The Church over the course of centuries; as well as I learned that Mexico still maintains a regard and appreciation for the medical and dietary value of hongos. Mexico is much from mycophobic.”

Huautla de Jiménez is more than a 5 hour drive from the closest urbane center. As necessary, Mathieu at some point understood that remaining in Huautla, while holding a historical attraction as well as being in a geographic area conducive to working with mushrooms, would prevent his efforts to grow a business and cultivate widespread interest in finding out about fungis. Mathieu became observant of the burgeoning credibility of Oaxaca’s ecotourism neighborhoods of the Sierra Norte, as well as certainly the Feria Regional de Hongos Silvestres (local wild mushroom celebration), held every year in Cuahimoloyas.

Mathieu met Josefina Jiménez at the summer weekend mushroom event. Jiménez had moved to Oaxaca from home town Mexico City in 2002. Both shared similar rate of interests; Jiménez had actually examined agronomy, and for near a years had actually been dealing with sustainable farming projects in country farming neighborhoods in the Huasteca Potosina region of San Luis Potosí, the hills of Guerrero and the coastline of Chiapas. Mathieu and also Jiménez became organization, and after that life partners in Benito Juárez.

Mathieu and Jiménez are focusing on three mushroom species in their hands-on workshops; oyster (seta), shitake as well as reishi. Their one-day workshops are for oyster mushrooms, as well as two-day clinics for the last two varieties of fungi. “With reishi, as well as to a lesser extent shitake, we’re also teaching a fair bit concerning the medicinal uses mushrooms, so more time is called for,” states Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it’s mostly [but not exclusively] a program on cultivation.”

While training seminars are now just given adaptogenic mushrooms up Benito Juárez, Mathieu as well as Jiménez strategy to expand procedures to include both the central valleys as well as seaside areas of Oaxaca. The object is to have a network of producers expanding various mushrooms which are efficiently suited for growing based on the certain microclimate. There are about 70 sub-species of oyster mushrooms, and also hence as a types, the flexibility of the oyster mushroom to different weather areas is amazing. “The oyster can be expanded in a plethora of various substrata, which’s what we’re explore today,” he illuminates. The oyster mushroom can grow when expanded on products which would otherwise be waste, such as throw out from growing beans, sugar walking stick, agave (including the fibrous waste produced in mezcal distillation), peas, the usual river reed referred to as carriso, sawdust, and the listing goes on. Agricultural waste which may otherwise be entrusted to rot or be burned, each with unfavorable environmental ramifications, can develop substrata for mushroom farming. It should be kept in mind, though commonplace, that mushroom farming is a highly lasting, eco-friendly industry. Over the previous a number of years Mexico has actually in reality gone to the fore in lots of areas of sustainable industry.

Mathieu exemplifies exactly how mushrooms can serve a perhaps also better environmental good:

” They can hold up to thirty thousand times their mass, having ramifications for preventing disintegration. They have actually been utilized to tidy up oil spills via absorption as well as hence are an essential lorry for environment restoration. Study has actually been done with mushrooms in the battle versus woodworker ant damage; it’s been recommended that the use of fungi has the prospective to entirely spruce up the chemical industry in an eco-friendly way. There are essentially numerous various other eco-friendly applications for mushroom usage, and in each situation the mushroom continues to be an edible spin-off. Take a look at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save The Globe.”

Mathieu as well as Jiménez can commonly be found marketing their products on weekend breaks in the organic markets in Oaxaca. They’re both more than pleased to discuss the nutritional worth of their products which range from normally their fresh mushrooms, yet likewise as preserves, marinated with either chipotle and also nopal or jalapeño and also cauliflower. The mushroom’s vitamin B12 can not be found in fruits or vegetables, as well as accordingly a diet which includes fungis is exceptionally crucial for vegetarians that can not obtain B12, most often contained in meats. Mushrooms can conveniently be an alternative to meats, with the advantage that they are not loaded with antibiotics as well as hormones usually located in industrially refined meat items.