photo: Back To The Roots

I can’t tell you how excited I was when I received this product for a review! A simple, eco-friendly way to grow fresh mushrooms in my kitchen in just a matter of days was right up my alley and a fantastic project for Mia, my almost three year old, to get into.

After discovering they could grow gourmet mushrooms from recycled coffee grounds during their time at UC Berkeley, founders Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez transformed their future as investment bankers to full time urban mushroom farmers. Don’t you love a story like that? Recently, they launched the Easy-to-Grow Mushroom Garden, a mushroom kit that lets anyone grow up to 1lb of delicious oyster mushrooms at home in as little as 10 days – all on recycled coffee grounds! In 2011, Back to the Roots is on pace to collect, divert & reuse 1 million lbs of coffee grounds from Peet’s Coffee & Tea, thus reducing waste in our landfills. Arora and Velez’ commitment to bring sustainable fresh food  to our table while still remaining eco-freindly is inspiring and a product to stand behind.

The Easy-to-Grow Mushroom Garden is simple to use and absolutely a no-hassle project that anyone can do! Once it arrived, Mia and I opened the box, created slits in the bag that contained the “soil” and soaked it in water overnight. We then placed it back in the cardboard box that it came in and then watched, spraying with water twice a day with the provided spray bottle. For the first couple of days we didn’t see anything and then one morning Mia screamed with delight when we saw the “baby” mushrooms start to grow. Soon after we had an outstanding crop of pearl oyster mushrooms! It was that simple and rewarding. The only problem I had was knowing when to harvest. If you wait too long the mushrooms will dry out; but not to worry, just place them in a bowl of water to rehydrate. Our favorite way to use them is to roast in a 400° oven with fingerling potatoes and a little olive oil and garlic.

I love this timelapse video that shows the growth cycle of the mushrooms.

Pros: healthy, easy, educational, environmentally friendly, and can be used for two harvests

Cons: (1) A little pricy compaired to what you pay for a pound of oyster mushrooms at the store but the experience is worth it. (2)Using good sense to know when to harvest! *note: sometimes good sense is absent in this house

Back To The Roots Easy-to-Grow Mushroom Garden is absolutely worth a try for chefs, home cooks, foodies and definitely children! Speaking of children, Back To The Roots has a wonderful Facebook campaign to support education for healthy and sustainable food. Whenever someone posts a picture of the kit they’ve grown on their facebook page, they’ll donate a free kit + sustainability curriculum to a school classroom of their choice! Love it!

I fully stand behind this and want you to give it a try. Thanks to Back To The Roots, use this code Mushrooms4me10 for a 10% discount. For more information or to purchase your own kit, visit http://www.bttrventures.com/.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received the product mentioned above for free for review purposes from Back To The Roots. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255