Alvin Starkman, M.A., J.D.

When we think of mushrooms and the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, the first thing which traditionally comes to mind 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 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 moved to Mexico, and in fact to Huautla de Jiménez, in 2005. “Yes, coming all the way to Mexico from France to pursue my interest in mushrooms seems like a long way to travel,” Mathieu explained in a recent interview in Oaxaca. “But there really wasn’t much of an opportunity to conduct studies and grow a business in Western Europe,” he continues, “since reverence for mushrooms had been all but completely eradicated by The Church over the course of centuries; and I learned that Mexico still maintains a respect and appreciation for the medicinal and nutritional value of hongos. Mexico is far from mycophobic.”

Huautla de Jiménez is more than a five hour drive from the closest metropolitan center. Accordingly, Mathieu eventually realized that staying in Huautla, while holding an historic allure and being in a geographic region conducive to working with mushrooms, would hinder his efforts to grow a business and cultivate widespread interest in learning about fungi.  Mathieu became cognizant of the burgeoning reputation 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.  The two shared similar interests; Jiménez had studied agronomy, and for close to a decade had been working 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 a lesser extent shitake, we’re also teaching a fair bit about the medicinal uses of mushrooms, so more time is required,” says Mathieu, “and with oyster mushrooms it’s predominantly [but not exclusively] a course on cultivation.”

While training seminars are now only given in Benito Juárez, Mathieu and Jiménez plan to expand operations to include both the central valleys and coastal regions of Oaxaca.  The object is to have a network of producers growing different mushrooms which are optimally suited for cultivation based on the particular microclimate. There are 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 can be grown in a multitude of different substrata, and that’s what we’re experimenting with right now,” he elucidates. The oyster mushroom can thrive when grown on products which would otherwise be waste, such as discard from cultivating beans, sugar cane, agave (including the fibrous waste produced in mezcal distillation), peas, the common river reed known as 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 form substrata for mushroom cultivation. It should be noted, though trite, that mushroom cultivation is a highly sustainable, green industry. Over the past several years Mexico has in fact been at the fore in many areas of sustainable industry.

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

“They can hold up to thirty thousand times their mass, having implications for inhibiting erosion. They’ve been used to clean up oil spills through absorption and thus are an important vehicle for habitat restoration.  Research has been done with mushrooms in the battle against carpenter ant destruction; it’s been suggested that the use of fungi has the potential to completely revamp the pesticide industry in an environmentally friendly way. There are literally hundreds of other eco-friendly applications for mushroom use, and in each case the mushroom remains an edible by-product. Take 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 more than happy to discuss the nutritional value of their products which range from naturally their fresh mushrooms, but also 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 important for vegetarians who cannot get B12, most often contained in meats.  Mushrooms can easily be a substitute for meats, with the advantage that they are not loaded 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 either a 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 use of mushrooms dating from pre-history, to the present.  He notes properties of mushrooms which can help to restore the immune system, and thus the use of fungi as a complement in the treatment of cancer and AIDS, and their utility in controlling diabetes and treating high cholesterol.

“We should all be embracing the organic production of mushrooms,” Mathieu concludes.  “It’s so easy, it involves a minimal capital investment, and it provides significant rewards, both for those ingesting hongos for nutritional and medicinal reasons, and for the producers, even small scale. Mico-lógica also sells dried mushrooms. Yet most of the dried mushrooms sold in Mexico are imported from China, and are not organic.  It’s a real shame on numerous levels.”

Mexico and mushrooms have come a long way since the era of Oaxaca’s María Sabina. With the continued efforts of Mathieu, Jiménez and Mico-lógica, it should not be long before the world understands and embraces the magic of mushrooms within a much broader context.

Mico-lógica

http://micologica.mex.tl

[email protected]

Alvin Starkman traveled to Huatula de Jiménez to experience the magic of mushrooms in the 1960s.  A former Toronto litigation lawyer, Alvin now lives in Oaxaca where he takes couples and families to sights in and around Oaxaca’s central valleys, works with documentary film companies, and writes about life and cultural traditions in the region.  With over 230 articles about Oaxaca to his credit, Alvin is a paid contributing writer for Mexico Today, a program for Marca País – Imagen de México. Alvin and his wife Arlene operate Casa Machaya Oaxaca Bed & Breakfast (http://www.casamachaya.com). 

 

Alvin Starkman, M.A., J.D.

Since 2006, when I began writing about international travel advisories cautioning against travel to Mexico, and to a lesser extent about Mexican drug cartels, violence appears to have escalated. My major concern was not, however, for the safety of those considering vacationing in Mexico, but rather about the misinformation being fed to the public. Sensationalistic, misleading and inaccurate reporting relating to violence and drug related deaths in isolated areas of Mexico was unfairly influencing prospective travelers to any part of Mexico; and blinding them to what was happening in their own back yards.

It’s the violence outside of Mexico which seems to be on the rise (not to discount the casualties in President Calderón’s war against drugs and the cartels, and the gravity of matters in and around certain Mexican cities), yet the Mexico fear-mongering continues at a fervent pitch.

A major daily newspaper’s online version included these eight, separate headlines (including dropdown articles) on November 6, 2011:

“Two dead in stabbing:  police seeking suspects”

“Man arrested after woman and 2 children plunge from balcony”

“Man found guilty in shooting death of 17-year-old”

“Man found shot in [suburban] backyard”

“Man dead after train, vehicle collide”

“Woman survives fall over bluffs”

“His wounds left little chance for survival”

“Accused in city hall stabbing appears in court”

These stories appeared not in a Mexico City newspaper, not in a Mexican city noted for violence where the Sinaloa cartel maintains a presence, and not in Oaxaca, which contrary to the belief of many has been virtually incident-free in terms of harm or violence towards tourists – of course there is the odd incident, as in any other city of comparable size.  The foregoing headlines appeared in The Toronto Star.

I wrote about The Toronto Star four years ago, noting five stories with headlines indicating violence – violence in that Canadian city, not in a Mexican metropolis (http://oaxacadream.com/articles/tourist21.html). I subsequently updated the article, looking at online versions of the newspaper for two dates in 2009, with headlines reflecting three violent crimes for each date.  And then finally in 2010 in one edition of the same newspaper I noted seven headlines centering upon violent incidents in the Greater Toronto Area.

And here we are, as 2011 closes out, if not with an escalation of violent crimes being perpetrated in Toronto, then little if any reduction in the incidents of violence (at least reported).  Yet in Cuidad Juárez, often identified as a hotbed of drug wars and violence given its location right on the U.S. border, homicide rates dropped 68.6% from October 2010, to May 2011 (Mexico’s ministry of public security).

Thankfully the travel advisories relating to drug wars and violence in Mexico are now, finally, more location specific than previously. But the naysayers keep coming out of the woodwork, trying to paint all of Mexico with one broad stroke of the brush.  The fact is that the majority (70%) of homicides during 2010 were committed in seven of Mexico’s 31 states. Oaxaca, for example, has not been overtaken by the Sinaloa cartel, or any Mexican or other drug cartel. Expats and Mexican nationals alike continue to move to Oaxaca.

If I didn’t feel as safe or safer living in Oaxaca now, as I did spending most of my live in Toronto, I would have high-tailed it to back to the land of hockey and Northern Lights in the wake of Oaxaca’s 2006 civil unrest.  Even those few months did not result in a wholesale exodus of Mexicans or expats out of fear.

I won’t repeat the names of the cities to which I would dare not venture (though one Mexican city has already been noted), or even the stretches of highway accessing those cities.  They do exist.  Surely even President Calderón would not recommend that tourists visit certain areas in Mexico at this point in time because of drugs and violence.

The following cities each bear witness to incidents of violence, drug-related deaths, and even the odd tourist casualty from time to time:   New York, Montreal, Paris, Rome, Toronto, Chicago, London, Sydney, LA, and the list goes on. 

The following Mexican cities, and tens of others like them, are essentially as safe if not safer than the foregoing international centers of cultural and commerce:  San Miguel de Allende, Cancun and the  Riviera Maya, Puerto Vallarta, Huatulco, Oaxaca, Mérida, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Puerto Escondido, Mexico City, Puebla, Ajijic, Lake Chapala, etc, etc, etc.

The main tourist destinations for U.S. and Canadian citizens are geographically far removed from the very specific areas that have of late been significantly affected by crime in Mexico, primarily along the U.S. - Mexico border. For example, the distance between the border and Puerto Vallarta is over 800 miles. It’s almost the same distance between Oaxaca and Nuevo Laredo (the Mexican city bordering Laredo, Texas).  And the more southern Mexican tourist destinations are even further away from the U.S. border and Mexican cities noted for violence and drug wars. The distance between Cancun and Ciudad Juárez is about the same as between New York and Miami.

Take a look at your own big – city newspaper, and then ask if Mexican and other international journalists should caution prospective tourists about drug gangs and violence in your hometown.  Should the Mexican government begin issuing travel advisories against vacationing in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Daytona Beach, because of murders in South Miami? What about shunning travel to Chicago and other major American and Canadian cities because of drug trafficking and violence in and near public housing developments?

Statistics of homicides per 100,000 per capita in the 20 most densely populated cities in the Americas, recently published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, indicate that you’re more likely to be a victim of homicide in Detroit, Washington and Chicago, than in Mexico City.  Mexico City ranks about the same as Houston, with Philadelphia, Miami and San Francisco ranking close behind.  It’s time to rethink unfounded fears and do your own research before outright discounting travel to a Mexico tourist destination.

Alvin Starkman is a paid contributing writer for Mexico Today, a program for Marca País – Imagen de México. Mr. Starkman is under a contractual obligation to write in a factual, truthful and verifiable manner within the context of stating reasoned opinion. All opinions are entirely of Mr. Starkman. Mr. Starkman has written over 230 articles about life and cultural traditions in Oaxaca, including essays about the 2006 Oaxaca civil unrest, and Mexican legal reform.

Alvin Starkman, M.A., J.D.

Rosario Maza’s beer store in the Oaxacan suburb of San Felipe del Agua has been operating for less than four months.  The astute businesswoman is already preparing to open up another, this time downtown. Maza, a descendent of the famed Mexican Margarita Maza, wife of Mexico’s first indigenous president Benito Juárez, says that the time had come for Oaxaca, known more for production of mezcal and gastronomic excellence than beer consumption, to have its first beer store. Hence she opened Bier Stube, restricted to craft brews, otherwise known as beer produced in microbreweries.

Maza had been an event planner arranging for the needs of Oaxacans preparing to throw all manner of fiesta; weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, 15 años, and whatever other rite of passage came her way.  But she was also the representative of the Mexican beer Cucapá. 

“My customers liked Cucapá, and while the brewery has always produced a variety of beers, they began to ask for other artisanal beers, brews that weren’t available in Oaxaca, or at least not on a consistent basis,” she explains. “Then it just clicked,” she continues, “I knew that the time was right, and that I could supply a broad range of artisanal beer week in and week out, both domestic and international brands [with a view to avoiding definitions and the controversy surrounding the issue, I employ the terms craft, artisanal (most commonly used in Mexico) small batch and independent, interchangeably, cognizant of the politics regarding terminology].”

Indeed the problem in Oaxaca until now has been consistency.  You can buy a modest diversity of craft beers in Sam’s Club, but once the shipment is sold out, you don’t know when that particular beer will next appear on the shelves.  And supermarket chain Soriana has always had difficulty with keeping even staples in stock.

Although craft beer in Mexico is nothing new, at least in this part of the country the beer drinking public needs a helping hand in learning about the different independent brews, and pairing. Maza consults with a beer sommelier on a regular basis, and attends beer festivals out of state, mainly in Mexico City and Guadalajara.  In addition she’s an avid reader of anything related to cerveza. 

Maza spends a lot of time with her customers, educating and advising them, imparting them with the knowledge she’s gained over the years.  Her buyers are still learning and honing their palates. Hence she tends to still be selling mainly single bottles, on average three or four bottles of small batch beer per customer, instead of cases. “But gradually they’re learning,” she beams, “and they’re coming back for cases of their favorite artisanal brews much more often now. I sell a lot of the German beer Paulaner Salvator by the case lot.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” Maza cautions,” Oaxacans do know about different flavors and other nuances, body, and so on. Having mezcal connoisseurs amongst my customer base has actually helped.  It’s now simply a matter of training their palates in an alternate direction, extending their appreciation to beyond simply being able to discern between the different commercial beer products. Once I’ve accomplished that, more will start to return to buy their preferred artisanal brews by the case.”

Of the approximately 100 different beers in Bier Stube, German brews are the biggest seller, followed by Belgian beers and then Mexican. Maza actually carries between 13 and 15 Mexican brands of craft beer.  They’re made by independent breweries in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Mexicali, Tijuana, Querétaro, and yes even Oaxaca.  Other countries represented on the shelves include England, Czech Republic, Holland, Denmark, Poland, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, France, Scotland, Argentina and Cuba.  Some of her beers have won international awards, such as Delirium Tremens.

Small batch brews range from stout and porter, to pale ale, lagers, wheat beers, pilsener and others.  Bier Stube carries beers fermented with apple, banana, cherry, raspberry, coconut, coffee bean tequila barrel, and even a mandarin peel / star anise / cilantro fermentation. Pricing is anywhere from 28 pesos a bottle for the German Bitburger, to 90 pesos for a St. Peter’s Honey Porter. Maza is always prepared to order cases of beer not on her shelves. “I know far from everything about artisanal beer and all the products available on the marketplace, so getting in something special from an artisanal brewery for a customer helps me to learn as well.”

Restaurants in Oaxaca have also jumped on the beer bandwagon.  Popular bistro – style eatery La Biznaga carries some of Maza’s products, even though the restaurant continues to buy from Sam’s and other stores – Maza tries to shelve beers not otherwise available in the city.  La Biznaga carries about 45 different types of beer, roughly 35 of which are produced in microbreweries.  Competitor restaurant La Jícara, another Maza client, also stocks both commercial and craft beers. When the restaurant holds special events it makes available upwards of 100 different beers, depending on the request of the particular patron. Downtown Oaxaca restaurant La Olla has held beer tasting evenings, most recently with representatives of Mexican microbrewery Tempus supplying the beer, and the restaurant providing appetizers for pairing.

Maza laments that it won’t be long before someone else opens a beer store in Oaxaca. That was part of her motivation for jumping ahead with a second brew outlet.  “But I don’t worry about it too much,” she assures, “since I just have to keep my customers happy and stay ahead of the game when it comes to marketing and promotion. The more artisanal beers are accepted in Oaxaca, either purchased from me or someone else, the more it helps all of us,” she rationalizes. “After my second opening I’ll begin working on opening a bar which specializes in artisanal beer.”

Beer is a long way off from displacing mezcal as the alcoholic beverage of choice in Oaxaca.  Clearly craft beer will never become as popular with the locals as mezcal, or even commercial Mexican beer brands.  But a burgeoning Oaxaca craft beer market providing the diversity of small batch brews we’re now beginning to see, does give both visitors to and residents of Oaxaca more ways than before to both enhance even the most exceptional Oaxacan culinary experience, and sit back and imbibe with friends.

Bier Stube: Avenida de las Etnias 113, San Felipe del Agua, Oaxaca

T:   (951) 520-0548

W:  http://www.bierstube.com.mx

Alvin Starkman is a mezcal and pulque aficionado, living full time in Oaxaca. He takes visiting couples & families up into Oaxaca’s mountains to sample and learn about mezcal and pulque, as well as to more traditional tourist sights.  Alvin is finally beginning to gain an appreciation for Mexican craft beers. Alvin is a paid contributing writer for Mexico Today, a program for Marca País – Imagen de México.  He operates Casa Machaya Oaxaca Bed & Breakfast (http://www.casamachaya.com) with his wife Arlene, and Oaxaca Culinary Tours (http://oaxacaculinarytours.com) with Chef Pilar Cabrera.