We are so excited to announce our new mushroom foraging trips in Oaxaca this summer 2024! We are lucky to be working with local mycologists as well as hongeros-community members with a vast knowledge of local mushrooms and traditional cooks who we will learn all about the mushrooms of the region with. Join us for our inaugural group trip to the Sierra Sur for a weekend of immersing ourselves in the beautiful landscape of the high altitude pine forests where wild mushrooms flourish during the summer months. We´ll get to know the landscape and forage for mushrooms (in past years we´ve found over 200 varieties) with the experts and also learn from a local family the traditional uses of mushrooms in traditional medicine and cuisine of the region.
Itinerary: 4 days, 3 nights 2024 dates: Thurs-Sun, July 25-28//Sept 8-11
Groups: 4 minimum, 8 maximum Cost per person: $950 USD/17,000 MXN
Activities planned:
Talks by a local mycologist teaching us about the local mushrooms of the region and Oaxaca and their uses
A guided walk in the high altitude (2440 m/8000 ft above sea level) pine forests of the region where we will collect different kinds of mushrooms with the mycologist and local guide from the community
Create an identification table to learn about the varieties of mushrooms we collect, their scientific classifications, and their uses
A cooking class with a cocinera tradicional learning local dishes like amarillo or tamales that use edible mushrooms
The chance to learn how to make traditional mountain bread in a wood fired oven
Group meals featuring edible mushrooms of the region
Traditional mezcal tasting
Temezcal
Includes:
Personalized guide and translation (English/Spanish)
Comfortable transportation round trip from Oaxaca City (3 hours each way)
Cost of all programmed activities over the course of the trip
10 meals (most featuring edible mushrooms)
3 night stay at Puesta del Sol cabins (double occupancy) (or equivalent), in San José del Pacifico
Drinking water and light snacks
Donation to local elementary school for much needed school supplies
There is no denying that Oaxaca has earned a reputation for its outstanding food, often being referred to as Mexico’s culinary mecca. In no small part, this is due to the three m’s, pillars of Oaxacan gastronomy: mole, maíz, and mezcal.
In Oaxaca, a tortilla can take the shape of a blanda, a tlayuda, a tostada, a memela…you get the idea. Corn is the foundation of all Mesoamerican civilizations, with almost 60 species native to Mexico. As such, its varieties, uses, and preparations are nearly endless. Most of those interested in food come to Oaxaca for one thing: mole, unaware that there are hundreds of moles found in Mexico, many of them hailing from Oaxaca. But what exactly is a mole? A chocolate-chile sauce? Most moles do not have chocolate. A chile sauce then? Not exactly. And what’s the difference between a salsa and a mole? And let’s not forget about mezcal. This agave spirit, often simply described as “tequila’s smoky cousin,” not only has an incredibly rich and politically charged history, but it is also extremely complex, both in its production and flavor, and it’s not necessarily always smoky.
Co-lead by James Beard Award winning chef Iliana de la Vega of Mexican Culinary Traditions and Andrea Hagan of Mezcouting this immersive food trip is geared towards those who want to learn in depth about heirloom corn and its uses in Oaxacan gastronomy, what a mole truly is and both tasting and learning how to make them, and gaining a more profound understanding of mezcal. During our one-week trip, we will focus on nixtamalization and corn grinding-techniques, cooking with regional varieties of heirloom corn. We will also visit a traditional mezcal farm far from the city to understand the spirit’s history, process, and its relation to the region’s food system. Lastly, we will learn how to make at least three different Oaxacan moles, taste more than eight different kinds, including the famous seven, and expand upon our understanding of the word.
Itinerary: 7 days, 6 nights 2024 dates: Fri-Thurs Sept 13-19
Groups: 6 minimum, 14 maximum Price per person: $4,500 per person
Includes:
All meals with group (breakfast, lunch & dinner each day)
Accommodation for 7 days/6 nights at a boutique hotel in downtown Oaxaca
All ground transportation, including airport transfers
All activities proposed on the itinerary
Some of the activities planned:
Mole cooking session with Mexican Culinary Traditions and El Naranjo, James Beard Award winning chef Iliana de la Vega
Maíz intensive in Teotitlán del Valle
Mezcal intensive with Mezcouting´s Andrea Hagan
Cheesemaking demonstration
This trip can only be booked through our partners, Mexican Culinary Traditions.
The economic and cultural hub of the Sierra Sur, the Miahuatlán area is a biodiversity hotspot. It boasts an immense variety of mezcal producing agaves endemic to the area, resulting in some of the most complex and rare mezcales in all of Mexico. The region's cuisine creates a perfect complement to its traditional drink resulting in regional specialities like shobatá, chichilo, or barbacoa de chivo, or goat roasted in an earth oven. Barbacoa de chivo might as well be the official party food of December in the southern mountains of Oaxaca. Goat or lamb barbacoa is served to a crowd of anywhere from 15 to 1,000 guests in celebration of an end-of-year baptism, wedding, or quinceañera. During this experience we will immerse ourselves in the culture of mezcal country, preparing a traditional earth oven barbacoa with a maestro mezcalero and his family.
We will leave Oaxaca City and head to Miahuatlán where we will begin the preparations for the barbacoa: prepping the oven, chopping vegetables for the consome, and nixtamalizing dried corn for freshly made tortillas. On Day 2 we will rise early to learn how to butcher the goat and begin the day-long earth oven roast. While the oven is doing its job we will make consomé and handmade heirloom corn tortillas as well as learn about and sample traditional mezcal made on site. We recommend scheduling the experience on Monday and Tuesday so that we can incorporate a trip to the regional market where small farmers and vendors come in from surrounding areas once a week to sell and buy goods. Here we'll find everything from tamales, organic vegetables, up to 7 types of bananas, chiles native to the region, hand woven straw mats, pottery, to rain tarps and bamboo baskets.
Itinerary: 3 days, 2 nights 2024 dates: Sat-Mon Sept 28-30, Dec 7-9
Groups: 4 minimum, 8 maximum 2025 dates: Sat-Mon Jan 25-27
Price per person: $760 USD/13,700 MXN
Includes:
Personalized guide and translation (Spanish/English)
Comfortable transportation round trip from Oaxaca city (2 hours each way)
7 meals
Two nights stay: 2 nights accommodations at Rancho Los Nahuales (double occupancy)
Drinking water and light snacks
Donation to future community youth center
Activities planned:
Two days of traditional cooking classes, including learning how to butcher a goat with a maestro mezcalero, how to make your own barbacoa oven, the nixtmalization of heirloom corn, and how to make tortillas by hand
Visit to 2 traditional mezcal palenques where will learn about the history in the region and production from a mezcal producing family
Tasting of traditional mezcal at the palenques. A chance to buy mezcal directly from the producer (price not included), our help packing in for travel
Traditional medicine and healing are used throughout rural Oaxacan communities to treat anything from the common cold to more grave conditions like a susto, in which it’s believed that your soul leaves your body due to a frightening experience. As little as 15 years ago western medicine was not accessible in many rural areas of Oaxaca. As our hosts in Teotitlán explain, everyone ́s grandmother became their de facto doctor. When a child had a dry cough or a wet cough your grandmother knew which tea was appropriate to prepare and when a child had a fever they needed to be rubbed in mezcal and wrapped in blankets to sweat it out. Although there is now a health clinic in the community, many families still rely on the traditional methods for curing headaches, stress, and bad dreams. A combination of traditional massage, spiritual cleansing, herbs in teas or applied topically, as well as steam baths (temezcal) are used regularly in the community in combination with western medicine. During this workshop we will learn about the use of traditional medicine in the community with the first women´s cooperative of Teotitlán, as well as experience a limpia, Zapotec massage, and temezcal.
Itinerary: 4 days, 3 nights 2024 dates: Thurs-Sun, Nov 23-26
Groups: 4 minimum, 8 maximum 2025 dates: Thurs-Sun, Jan 9-12
Cost per person: $850 USD/15,300MXN
Activities planned:
Hands-on class with the Vida Nueva women's cooperative learning about the plants of the region used in spiritual healing, traditional medicine, and natural dyes
Learn about and participate in a limpia, Zapotec massage, and temezcal
Hike to a sacred mountain in the community lead by cooperative members
Beeswax candles workshop, learning about the candles made in the community for different spiritual and religious ceremonies
Group meals made using heirloom corn and local herbs from the region prepared by cocineras tradicionales
A traditional mezcal tasting of our family´s small batch local mezcals, learning about mezcal´s role in traditional healing in Oaxaca
Includes:
Personalized guide and translation (English/Spanish)
Comfortable transportation round trip from Oaxaca City (40 min each way)
Cost of all programmed activities over the course of the trip
9 meals
Tasting of traditional mezcal from local producers
3 night stay at La Cúpula hotel (double occupancy) (or accommodations of equivalent quality) in Teotitlán
Drinking water and light snacks
Temezcal (traditional steam bath), limpia, and Zapotec massage
Donation to women´s cooperative annual community service project