When we expect of mushrooms and the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, the very first thing which usually concerns head is María Sabina, Huautla de Jiménez and hallucinogenic "magic" mushrooms. But slowly but surely which is all switching on account of the groundbreaking work of Josefina Jiménez and Johann Mathieu in mycology, through their company, Mico-lógica.

Located in the village of Benito Juárez, located in Oaxaca's Ixtlán district (more frequently generally known as the Sierra Norte, the condition's main ecotourism area), Mico-lógica's mission is threefold: to prepare both Mexicans and people towards the state while in the low-Value cultivation of a variety of mushroom species; to educate with regard to the medicinal, nutritional and environmental (sustainable) value of mushrooms; and to conduct ongoing study with regards to the best possible climatic locations as well as the range of substrata for mushroom society.

The French-born Mathieu moved to Mexico, and actually to Huautla de Jiménez, in 2005. "Of course, coming all of the method to Mexico from France to go after my interest in mushrooms looks like a good distance to vacation," Mathieu stated in a new job interview in Oaxaca. "But there genuinely was not Considerably of a possibility to conduct research and mature a business in Western Europe," he carries on, "since reverence for mushrooms had been all but wholly eradicated with the Church over the study course of centuries; And that i discovered that Mexico nevertheless maintains a respect and appreciation with the medicinal and nutritional value of hongos. Mexico is much from mycophobic."

Huautla de Jiménez is more than a 5 hour generate within the closest metropolitan center. Accordingly, Mathieu inevitably understood that remaining in Huautla, when Keeping an historic attract and staying in a geographic area conducive to working with mushrooms, would hinder his initiatives to expand a company and cultivate popular interest in Finding out about fungi. Mathieu turned cognizant of the burgeoning track record of Oaxaca's ecotourism communities with the Sierra Norte, and without a doubt the Feria Regional de Hongos Silvestres (regional wild mushroom Pageant), held each year in Cuahimoloyas.

Mathieu achieved Josefina Jiménez within the summertime weekend mushroom party. Jiménez experienced moved to Oaxaca from hometown Mexico Town in 2002. The two shared related passions; Jiménez experienced analyzed agronomy, and for near to a decade had been working with sustainable agriculture tasks in rural farming communities inside the Huasteca Potosina area of San Luis Potosí, the mountains of Guerrero along with the coast of Chiapas. Mathieu and Jiménez became enterprise, then existence companions in Benito Juárez.

Mathieu and Jiménez are concentrating on three mushroom species in their arms-on seminars; oyster (seta), shitake and reishi. Their a person-working day workshops are for oyster mushrooms, and two-day clinics for the latter two species of fungus. "With reishi, also to a lesser extent shitake, we are also instructing a fair bit with regards to the medicinal works by using of mushrooms, so additional time is needed," says Mathieu, "and with oyster mushrooms it's predominantly [although not exclusively] a program on cultivation."

Though schooling seminars are actually only provided in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and Jiménez plan to extend operations to incorporate both equally the central valleys and coastal regions of Oaxaca. The thing is to possess a network of producers escalating unique mushrooms which can be optimally fitted to cultivation determined by the particular microclimate. You will discover about 70 sub-species of oyster mushrooms, and thus for a species, the adaptability in the oyster mushroom to different climatic areas is remarkable. "The Buy Golden Teacher Mushroom oyster might be developed within a large number of various substrata, and That is what we are experimenting with at this time," he elucidates. The oyster mushroom can prosper when developed on goods which would if not be waste, including discard from cultivating beans, sugar cane, agave (including the fibrous squander created in mezcal distillation), peas, the prevalent river reed referred to as carriso, sawdust, along with the record goes on. Agricultural squander which may in any other case be still left to rot or be burned, Each individual with adverse environmental implications, can type substrata for mushroom cultivation. It should be famous, while trite, that mushroom cultivation is a extremely sustainable, eco-friendly sector. In the last quite a few years Mexico has actually been on the fore in many regions of sustainable sector.

Mathieu exemplifies how mushrooms can serve an arguably even better environmental very good:

"They will delay to thirty thousand situations their mass, possessing implications for inhibiting erosion. They have been applied to scrub up oil spills by way of absorption and therefore are a vital motor vehicle for habitat restoration. Investigation has become completed with mushrooms inside the battle versus carpenter ant destruction; it has been proposed that the use of fungi has the potential to completely revamp the pesticide marketplace in an environmentally friendly way. There are actually basically countless other eco-pleasant applications for mushroom use, As well as in Each and every circumstance the mushroom stays an edible by-item. Take a look at the Paul Stamets YouTube lecture, six Methods Mushrooms Can Help you save The globe."

Mathieu and Jiménez can frequently be identified promoting their products and solutions on weekends inside the natural and organic markets in Oaxaca. They are each in excess of satisfied to debate the nutritional value of their solutions which range from Obviously their new mushrooms, and also as preserves, marinated with possibly chipotle and nopal or jalapeño and cauliflower. The mushroom's vitamin B12 cannot be present in fruits or veggies, and appropriately a diet plan which includes fungi is incredibly vital for vegetarians who can not get B12, most frequently contained in meats. Mushrooms can easily certainly be a substitute for meats, Using the benefit that they're not loaded with antibiotics and hormones normally found in industrially processed meat goods.

Mico-lógica also market teas and extracts constructed from different mushroom species, Every formulated as either a nutritional dietary supplement, or for his or her medicinal Homes. Whilst neither Mathieu nor Jiménez has the pharmacological history to prescribe mycological treatment method for significant ailments, Mathieu's own exploration details to the medicinal usage of mushrooms relationship from pre-record, into the existing. He notes Houses of mushrooms which could support to restore the immune program, and thus using fungi for a enhance inside the remedy of cancer and AIDS, as well as their utility in controlling diabetes and managing substantial cholesterol.

"We should all be embracing the organic creation of mushrooms," Mathieu concludes. "It truly is so easy, it will involve a small money investment decision, and it offers major rewards, both of those for the people ingesting hongos for nutritional and medicinal causes, and for the producers, even compact scale. Mico-lógica also sells dried mushrooms. Nevertheless a lot of the dried mushrooms bought in Mexico are imported from China, and therefore are not organic. It is a authentic shame on various degrees."