Mico-Logica Alters Our Perception of the Magic of Mushrooms in Oaxaca, Mexico
Whenever we think of mushrooms and also the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, the first factor which usually will come to mind is María Sabina, Huautla de jimenez and Hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms. But slowly that’s all changing as a result of the groundbreaking work of Josefina Jimenez 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 known as the Sierra Norte, the state’s main ecotourism region), Mico-lógica’s mission is threefold: to train both Mexicans and visitors to the country in the low-cost cultivation of a variety of 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 relocated to Mexico, and actually to Huautla de Jimenez, in 2005. “Yes, approaching all of the solution to Mexico from France to pursue the interest of mine in mushrooms seems like a considerable way to travel,” Mathieu explained in a recent interview in Oaxaca. “But there truly was not much of a chance to carry out studies as well as raise a small business in Western Europe,” he continues, “since reverence for mushrooms were definitely all but completely eradicated by The Church throughout centuries; as well as I found that Mexico nevertheless maintains a respect and appreciation for the medicinal and nutritional value of hongos. Mexico is significantly from mycophobic.”
Huautla de Jimenez is much more than a five hour drive from probably the closest metropolitan center. Accordingly, Mathieu eventually realized that keeping in Huautla, while holding an historic allure and being in a geographic region favorable to dealing with mushrooms, would hinder his attempts to raise a business & cultivate widespread interest in learning about fungi. Mathieu became cognizant of the burgeoning popularity of Oaxaca’s ecotourism communities of the Sierra Norte, and in fact the Feria Regional de Hongos Silvestres (regional wild mushroom festival), held yearly in Cuahimoloyas.
Mathieu met Josefina Jimenez in the summertime weekend mushroom event. Jimenez had relocated to Oaxaca from hometown Mexico City in 2002. The two shared very similar interests; Jimenez had studied agronomy, as well as for close to a decade had been working with sustainable agriculture plans in outlying farming communities in the Huasteca Potosina region of San Luis Potosí, the mountains of Guerrero and the coast of Chiapas. Jimenez and Mathieu became company, and then life partners in Benito Juárez.
Mathieu and Jimenez are concentrating on 3 mushroom species in their hands-on seminars; oyster (seta), shitake and reishi. The one-day workshops of theirs are for oyster mushrooms, as well as two-day clinics because of the latter two species of fungus. “With reishi, also to a lesser extent shitake, we are additionally teaching a fair share about the medicinal uses of mushrooms, hence more hours is required,” says Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it’s predominantly [but not exclusively] a training course on cultivation.”
While training courses are now only given in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and Jimenez method to expand operations to include both the central valleys and coastal areas of Oaxaca. The object is having a network of producers growing different mushrooms which are optimally intended for cultivation according to the particular microclimate. Right now there are aproximatelly seventy sub-species of oyster mushrooms, and therefore as a species, the adaptability of the oyster mushroom to different climatic regions is remarkable. “The oyster could be grown in a wide range of various substrata, so that is what we are tinkering with Best mushroom for anxiety, https://www.bainbridgereview.com, now,” he elucidates. The oyster mushroom is able to thrive when cultivated on products which would otherwise be waste, for example discard from cultivating beans, sugar cane, agave (including the fibrous squandering produced in mezcal distillation), peas, the popular river reed referred to as carriso, sawdust, as well as the list goes on. Farming waste that might usually remain to go rotten or perhaps be burned, each with adverse ecological implications, can form substrata for mushroom cultivation. It should be noted, nevertheless, trite, which mushroom cultivation is a highly sustainable, green business. In the last several years Mexico has actually been at the fore in so many aspects of sustainable industry.
Mathieu exemplifies how mushrooms are able to serve an arguably greater environmental good: