Making room for mushrooms

Many foreigners have visited Mexico for its mushrooms.  (Our friend and landlord, José Manuel, says he met John Lennon and George Harrison during one of their trips to Oaxaca.)  Although we did not plan anything around mushrooms, last week we had a mushroom experience too.  Unlike many of the Mexican mushroom trips you hear about, ours was kosher.  Literally.

Last Wednesday afternoon we took a three-hour bus ride to Tehuacan, a small city in the state of Puebla.  We went to visit the friends we met during our first week in Oaxaca.  (See here.)  The scenery from the bus was spectacular.  Unlike the pine-covered mountains that surround Oaxaca, the mountains on the way to Puebla are covered with cacti.

Our friends live in a beautiful, art-filled house, where we were treated like royalty. 

Some of us were treated more like royalty than others.

With a trampoline by the pool, who needs a diving board?  (Noah, there was an adult by the pool at all times.)

On our second night in Tehuacan, Natalie and I went to a bar with our hosts and some of their friends.  We drank, talked, drank, ate, drank, danced, drank, talked some more, and drank until the wee hours of the morning.  The next day, none of the adults felt like taking a hike in the desert, which was our original plan.  Instead – and this is where we get to the mushrooms – we took two of the friends from the previous evening up on an offer to visit their organic mushroom farm.  We had a wonderful time.

Dressed for maximum funghi protection.

Natalie, surrounded by mushrooms.

Max and his friend.  Up to no good?

Helen and her friend, chasing the boys.

The brand is Bio Premium.  While available in the United States, most are sold in Mexico.   In addition to being organic, the mushrooms are certified kosher.

Coincidentally, next month the production manager is going to visit a mushroom farm in Watsonville, California, where Natalie's family has a farm.  --Harrison