A month of champignons

EDINBURG, Texas- September marks the beginning of many different things, such as the beginning of fall and National Hispanice Heritage month. However, another important and often forgotten fact is that September is also National Mushroom Month.

For as long as civilization has existed, mushrooms have been rendered as a healing organism. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics depict mushrooms as spiritual and a plant of immortality. The Egyptians, although almost 4,000 years prior to modern mushroom studies, were right about certain aspects of mushrooms. Today it is a well researched fact that a wide variety of mushrooms have healing properties. In fact, the origins of mushroom month stem from the need for more research into these organisms. In the year 1990, George H.W. Bush, the president of the United States at the time, signed the Mushroom Promotion, Research & Consumer Information Act of 1990, which kickstarted the national holiday.

Here in the Rio Grande Valley, mushrooms play an important role in many people’s lives. For example, One Up Mushroom Products is a small business located in Mission, Texas. Stemming from an interest in mycology, Ramiro Villareal began a business in mushroom growing. Now Co-Founder & CMO of One Up Mushrooms Products, Andres Aguirre said “Ramiro…started just basically growing mushrooms out of a personal interest.” Aguirre said, “What we do is we grow the particularly interesting [culinary mushrooms] for local chefs.” One Up Mushroom Products, however, doesn’t only focus on the culinary aspect of mushrooms. 

The company is currently conducting several research projects. 

Aguirre said, “We [are trying] to identify the particular local mushrooms [that pair well] with local plant species.” 

Andres explained that One Up Mushroom Products is very interested in specific medicinal strains of fungi. 

He said, “There’s many studies out there showing that incorporating mushrooms into the diet produces incredible health benefits.”

One Up Mushroom Products uses a well-known method of growing their mushrooms where they inoculate the mushroom spores into a substrate, from which the mushrooms grow out of. Once these mushrooms grow, a waste material is left behind. 

Dr. Racelis, Director of UTRGV Agroecology and Resilient Food Systems program said, “in that substrate … the other part of the fungi that you don’t see [is there]…the network of…[roots]” which he later explained is called mycelium. 

Additionally, the agroecology program works closely with One Up Mushroom Products as they repurpose this waste product to use for composting when working with other crops. 

Co-founder of One Up Mushrooms Products Andres Aguirre said, “What we would consider … the end of our process to them is actually … the beginning of a composting process.”

Fungi have a variety of benefits both for our ecosystems along with direct health benefits to humans. It is important to recognize the incredible part that mushrooms play in our day-to-day life, something that often goes unnoticed. 

“The different organisms that you would find in a healthy agroecosystem are all important, and fungi are one of them,” said Dr. Racelis.