Back to the Roots was founded by Alejandro Velez & Nikhil Arora during their last semester at UC Berkeley in 2009. Two months away from graduation, and heading into the corporate world of investment banking & consulting, they came across the idea during a class lecture of being able to potentially grow gourmet mushrooms entirely on recycled coffee grounds. Inspired by the idea of turning waste into wages & fresh, local food, they experimented in Alex's fraternity kitchen, ultimately growing one test bucket of tasty oyster mushrooms on recycled coffee grounds. With that one bucket, some initial interest from Whole Foods & Chez Panisse and a $5,000 grant from the UC Berkeley Chancellor for social innovation, they decided to forget the corporate route, and instead, become full-time urban mushroom farmers!
 
Inspired by the idea of producing local, fresh food from what was an urban waste stream, Back to the Roots has since grown to create the Grow-Your-Own Mushroom Garden which lets anyone, across the country, grow their own gourmet mushrooms at home as well!

Connect with us:

• On our Homepage
• On Facebook
• On Twitter

The Back to the Roots grow-at-home mushroom kit lets you grow up to 1 1/2 lbs of gourmet, tasty oyster mushrooms in as little as 10 days...right from the box!

Features

• Up to 1 1/2 lbs per crop (pearl oyster mushrooms)
• Multiple crops (at least 2, though some have got up to 4!)
• Grow your first crop in as little as 10 days!
• Just 3 Easy Steps - Open, Mist, and Harvest (spray mister included).
• All indoors - just set on a kitchen window sill and mist twice a day (mister included)
• The soil inside is 100% recycled coffee grounds - safe & sustainable
• 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

OUR NEW PROGRAM: Post a picture with your kit fully grown on our facebook page and we'll send you a free replacement bag or donate a kit to an elementary classroom of your choice to support youth sustainability education! Join the Movement!

Contest ended on Saturday, August 13, 2011.