Tag Archives: fungi

San Miguel de Allende

Hongosto

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By Jane Bauer—

7 Fascinating Facts About Mushrooms

In August, the rains transform the forests surrounding San Miguel de Allende into one of nature’s greatest spectacles. Seemingly overnight, mushrooms emerge from the forest floor, tree trunks, fallen logs, and even old pinecones. The season is so closely associated with the month that many affectionately call it Hongosto—a blend of hongo (mushroom) and agosto. For just a few weeks, wild fungi become one of the stars of the season, appearing in markets, restaurant menus, and forest trails before disappearing almost as quickly as they arrived.

1. Mushrooms aren’t plants.
They’re not animals either. Mushrooms belong to their own biological kingdom: Fungi, more closely related to animals than to plants.

2. Most of the mushroom is hidden.
The part we eat is simply the fruiting body. The real organism is an underground network of microscopic threads called mycelium, which can stretch for kilometres beneath the forest.

3. Every mushroom has a different job.
Some recycle dead trees, turning fallen wood back into soil. Others live in partnership with tree roots, helping forests absorb water and nutrients. A few even grow on insects or other fungi.

4. They can appear overnight.
After the right combination of rain, humidity, and temperature, mushrooms can grow from invisible to fully formed in just 24–48 hours.

5. They’re nutritional powerhouses.
Many edible mushrooms are rich in B vitamins, selenium, potassium, antioxidants, and fibre, while being naturally low in calories. Some varieties are also being studied for their potential immune-supporting and anti-inflammatory properties.

6. Mexico is one of the world’s great mushroom countries.
Scientists have documented thousands of fungal species in Mexico, with hundreds considered edible. New species are still being discovered.

7. Forests couldn’t survive without fungi.
Without mushrooms and other fungi breaking down dead plants and recycling nutrients, forests would eventually become buried under layers of undecomposed leaves and wood.

Wild mushrooms can be purchased at Simbiosis in Mercado Sano, San Miguel de Allende.
http://www.simbiosisboutique.com

Huatulco

Las Nanacateras: The wild mushroom collectors

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By Julie Etra

Mushroom collection and consumption in Mexico go back thousands of years, predating the Spanish conquest. The Sierra Juárez de Oaxaca, the mountain range between the coast and the valley of Oaxaca, is known for its wild mushrooms, edible, hallucinogenic, and poisonous (the latter two can be somewhat synonymous). It is estimated that there are 250,000 species of mushrooms in Mexico. Produce markets here in the Bahías de Huatulco might lead you to believe Mexico has only introduced button, crimini, and portobello mushrooms (all different life stages of the same species, Agaricus bisporus), and occasionally other cultivated varieties, such as oyster mushrooms. But the many wild mushrooms found growing in temperate forested highlands are becoming more and more popular when seasonally available, particularly in urban areas, including the gourmet markets in Mexico City.

Otomi
In the State of Hidalgo, northeast of the state of Mexico, when conditions for growth are optimal during the rainy season, skilled, exclusively women, mushroom collectors known as nanacateras are busy. August is known as mushrooms month or hongosto (hongos = fungi, gosto short for agosto). The Otomi nanacateras (the Otomi are an indigenous group, with their own language, Otomi) apply their exceptional skills distinguishing the edible from the non-edible and teach the methods of both collection and preparation.

Elsewhere
Other well known nanacateras are also from Hidalgo, including the pueblo of Acaxochitlán. These women offer workshops on identification, methods of collection, and preparation. San Lorenzo Tlacoyucan, a rural area southeast of Mexico City in a region known as the Milpa Alta, located on the steep slopes of an extinct volcano just east of the state of Morelia, is also known for its climate, ideal for wild mushrooms.

Sierra Juárez de Oaxaca
We have passed through San Jose del Pacifico on our way to Oaxaca on numerous occasions and have seen signs posted for identification and collection workshops. We don’t know if these workshops are taught by nanacateras or other skilled collectors, but, like other snowbirds, we are never here during the optimum period, the rainy season.