Mico-Logica Changes Much of our Comprehension belonging to the Miracles in Mushrooms on Oaxaca, South america
Once we consider mushrooms and the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, the very first thing which traditionally comes in your thoughts is María Sabina, Huautla de Jiménez and hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. But slowly that’s all changing as a result of the groundbreaking work of Josefina Jiménez and Johann Mathieu in mycology, through their company, Mico-lógica.
Based in the village of Benito Juárez, located in Oaxaca’s Ixtlán district (more commonly called the Sierra Norte, the state’s main ecotourism region), Mico-lógica’s mission is threefold: to coach both Mexicans and visitors to the united states in the low-cost cultivation of many different mushroom species; to educate about the medicinal, nutritional and environmental (sustainable) value 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 fact to Huautla de Jiménez, in 2005. “Yes, coming all the best way to Mexico from France to pursue my fascination with mushrooms may seem like a considerable ways traveling,” Mathieu explained in a recent interview in Oaxaca. “But there really wasn’t much of a way to conduct studies and grow a company in Western Europe,” he continues, “since reverence for mushrooms have been all but completely eradicated by The Church on the course of centuries; and I found that Mexico still maintains a respect and appreciation for the medicinal and nutritional value of hongos. Mexico is definately not mycophobic.”
Huautla de Jiménez is greater than a five hour drive from the closest metropolitan center. Accordingly, Mathieu eventually seen that remaining in Huautla, while holding an historic allure and being in a geographic region conducive to working together with mushrooms, would hinder his efforts to develop a company and cultivate widespread fascination with studying fungi. mushroom Mathieu became cognizant of the burgeoning trustworthiness 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. Both shared similar interests; Jiménez had studied agronomy, and for near a decade have been working together 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 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 an inferior extent shitake, we’re also teaching a good bit about the medicinal uses of mushrooms, so more hours is required,” says Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it’s predominantly [but not exclusively] a class on cultivation.”
While training seminars are actually only given in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and Jiménez plan to expand operations to add both the central valleys and coastal regions of Oaxaca. The object is to have a network of producers growing different mushrooms which are optimally fitted to cultivation based on the particular microclimate. You can find about 70 sub-species of oyster mushrooms, and thus as a species, the adaptability of the oyster mushroom to different climatic regions is remarkable. “The oyster may be grown in numerous different substrata, and that’s what we’re tinkering with right now,” he elucidates. The oyster mushroom can thrive when grown on products which may otherwise be waste, such as for example discard from cultivating beans, sugar cane, agave (including the fibrous waste manufactured in mezcal distillation), peas, the common river reed called carriso, sawdust, and the list goes on. Agricultural waste which may otherwise be left to rot or be burned, each with adverse environmental implications, can develop substrata for mushroom cultivation. It should be noted, though trite, that mushroom cultivation is a very sustainable, green industry. In the last several years Mexico has in fact been at the fore in several areas of sustainable industry.
Mathieu exemplifies how mushrooms can serve an arguably sustained environmental good:
“They could hold as much as thirty thousand times their mass, having implications for inhibiting erosion. They’ve been used to completely clean up oil spills through absorption and thus are an important vehicle for habitat restoration. Research has been finished with mushrooms in the battle against carpenter ant destruction; it’s been suggested that the utilization of fungi has the potential to completely revamp the pesticide industry in a eco-friendly way. You can find literally a huge selection of other eco-friendly applications for mushroom use, and in each case the mushroom remains an edible by-product. Have a look at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save The World.”
Mathieu and Jiménez can often be found selling their products on weekends in the organic markets in Oaxaca. They’re both a lot more than happy to go over the nutritional value of these products which vary from naturally their fresh mushrooms, but in addition as preserves, marinated with either chipotle and nopal or jalapeño and cauliflower. The mushroom’s vitamin B12 cannot be found in fruits or vegetables, and accordingly a diet which includes fungi is extremely very important to vegetarians who cannot get B12, most often within meats. Mushrooms can very quickly be a substitute for meats, with the benefit that they’re not laden up with antibiotics and hormones often found in industrially processed meat products.
Mico-lógica also sell teas and extracts made from different mushroom species, each formulated as the nutritional supplement, or for their medicinal properties. While neither Mathieu nor Jiménez has the pharmacological background to prescribe mycological treatment for serious ailments, Mathieu’s own research points to the medicinal utilization of mushrooms dating from pre-history, to the present. He notes properties of mushrooms which can help restore the immune system, and thus the utilization of fungi as a complement in the treatment of cancer and AIDS, and their utility in controlling diabetes and treating high cholesterol.