Marjoleine Timmer

Mushrooms out of the box

Grow-at-home kit

Sustainable is delicious! This company re-uses coffee grounds to produce do-it-yourself mushroom grow kits and in the meantime helps sustain urban schools and community gardens!

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Infograph Back to the Roots - Made by elefint designs .

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!

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Mushroom Kit - Grow-at-home mushroom kit made by Back to the Roots


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!

Their vision is to create a movement, to constantly inspire and innovate, and their mission is to create unique, enjoyable, and sustainable products for customers.

TEDX talk by the founders of Back to the Roots

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